
Chicago startups to watch in 2015 - BuiltInLATech
http://www.builtinchicago.org/2015/02/04/50-chicago-startups-watch-2015
======
kevinmchugh
I appreciate BuiltInChicago as an effective way to promote knowledge about the
Chicago tech scene and I looked there the last couple times I was job-
searching, but this list is really uninspiring. Uber for [moving, dry-
cleaning, beauty needs], clones of better-known startups, clones of startups
that have already failed.

There should be more focus on what Chicago's uniquely good at, and what makes
us not just a worse-SF: [http://www.holovaty.com/writing/chicago-
bootstrapping/](http://www.holovaty.com/writing/chicago-bootstrapping/)

~~~
joezydeco
_There should be more focus on what Chicago 's uniquely good at_

Do you mean whining about how we deserve to be a tech/manufacturing hub but
we're not? Because we're pretty good at that.

~~~
tptacek
Judging from this comment, I'd guess that you, Adrian, and Kevin probably
_agree_ on Chicago's strengths and weaknesses.

(As a Chicago startup founder, I'll just add that I hope we _don 't_ become a
"tech hub". A diverse business community is one of our biggest strengths.)

~~~
stox
Chicago has been, and will continue to be, one of the largest tech hubs in the
world. We just are not as dominant as we used to be.

(speaking as a former Chicago startup founder)

~~~
tptacek
On what axis is Chicago competitive with SFBA or NYC as a "tech hub"? On the
obvious ones, like dollars of VC funding or number of tech employers, it
doesn't even look close.

~~~
joezydeco
IMO, Chicagoans like to lean on their prior history of being a technological
and manufacturing center.

You had some serious engineering here: Western Electric, Teletype, Bell
Labs/Lucent, Stewart-Warner, Illinois Tool Works, USRobotics, Admiral Radio,
Shure, Abbott Labs, Baxter, Rockola, Seeburg, Williams Electronics, Bally,
Zenith, and of course Motorola. Motorola alone seeded lots of other small
companies in the area.

~~~
illini123
We still have a lot of those companies here, the R&D has moved to the coasts
though.

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bruceb
From the list: Mac & Mia is an online, custom clothing boutique for kids with
soul & style. The company has a team of personal stylists that create looks
for newborns to kids up to six. To get started, you create a style profile for
your child and then, wait for the magic to happen. Once you decide to make the
purchase, Mac & Mia will send you a box full of clothing customized for your
child -- if your baby isn’t into the design, tread it right back for free.
[http://www.macandmia.com/](http://www.macandmia.com/)

Wow. Some people really do have too much time on their hands.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
Let's not be classist. There's probably a market for this. I live in a trendy
part of the city and boutiqe baby stores are a thing and have been a thing for
at least ten years now. This is just a personal shopper for those stores.

I don't see how this really is more ridiculous than owning a current gen 3D
printer or other expensive geek friendly frivolous toy. In fact, if you're
part of the wealthy crowd, what your kids look like affects your social
capital as so much of that is image based. If its creating jobs and
opportunity, I don't really care about these Gweneth Paltrow-like excesses.
Its just business.

~~~
untog
I don't understand how 'class' is involved here. It's "rich people who have
too much money will spend it on junk" \- which equally applies to geek
friendly frivolous toys.

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ForHackernews
It's super weird to me how preoccupied the tech industry is about geography.
Why does it matter where a company is? Why are VC firms so focused on a tiny
patch of land? Other than internet connectivity, there's no real reason why it
should be harder to start an internet company in Estonia than in Palo Alto,
but it self-evidently is.

Is this a market failure? Has anyone figured out how to build a fully
distributed company yet? How about "Built Online"?

~~~
hugs
The conventional wisdom is that, in general, VCs join the boards of the
companies they invest heavily in. Which means they'll have to travel to attend
a monthly board meeting. And it's easier to only invest in companies where
they don't have to travel too far to get to the monthly meetings. Of course, I
think it's a terrible excuse, but that partially explains things.

edit: Bryce Roberts at OATV is currently running an experiment that could
challenge that default VC mindset with Indie.vc:
[http://indie.vc/](http://indie.vc/)

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jjwiseman

      If you’re a recent startup founder, chances are you’ve taken a
      huge paycut. Well guess what - America was built on innovators
      like yourself and there are government assistance programs
      designed to help you while you sacrifice to grow your
      business. mRelief helps a user determine whether they qualify
      for Illinois government assistance programs like Food Stamps.
    

Wow.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
Chicagoan here. The amount of fraud in welfare here is astounding. I regularly
go to the grocery store and see people with nicer cars than me using their
link card to pay for "groceries." By groceries I mean high-end items like
lobster and steak, which they are clearly cashing out the card on and not
shopping for food like everyone else. I don't know how they qualify for this,
but imagine via some creative accounting that mRelief, I'm sure, is also
willing to share.

I don't think people outside of the city realize how bad things are here. The
corruption, handout mentality, patronage, politics, public sector unions, etc
are probably the worst in the nation and it only seems to be getting worse.
The various attempts to build a SV-like environment in Chicago will continue
to fail until this corruption is cleaned up. I don't see a lot of incentive to
invest in startups here, especially if we factor in our very high tax load and
the little public value we get from it.

~~~
jjwiseman
Welfare fraud is one of those things that people seem to think is rampant, and
politicians often encourage that idea, but when measured turns out to be
pretty infrequent.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_fraud#In_the_United_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_fraud#In_the_United_States)

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/12/20/255819681/the...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/12/20/255819681/the-
truth-behind-the-lies-of-the-original-welfare-queen)

[http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/01/08/3136631/lepage-w...](http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/01/08/3136631/lepage-
welfare/)

~~~
drzaiusapelord
None of your links are local to Chicago. Yes, diluted nationwide I'm sure its
an acceptable loss, but locally things are different. Politics are local and
dismissing my experience with nationwide links makes you look especially
disingenuous here. This is like saying Detroit is very safe to live in if you
look at nationwide crime stats.

The only thing local here is the Reagan welfare queen comment from almost 40
years ago, which is far from timely. Nor was I making that argument. I don't
think there are welfare queens of any type, but I do see, almost daily, casual
abuse of the system designed to help the poor. With little political
motivation to fix this broken system, if we consider the patronage from the
aldermen, there's actually disincentives to fix this system. Considering our
high tax rates, its a shame our leadership can't make this a priority.

~~~
jjwiseman
True, none of the links I posted were about the Chicago area. Do you have
data?

~~~
peterevans
I imagine if they had data, they wouldn't have trotted out tired gripes and
stereotypes in the first place...

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heitortsergent
Besides WeDeliver, there's two other startups from Techstars Chicago 2014 that
were really interesting: PackageZen
([http://packagezen.com/](http://packagezen.com/)) and Telnyx
([https://www.telnyx.com/](https://www.telnyx.com/))

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xasos
Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies.

Some of my favorite Chicago startups:

1\. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data

2\. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform

3\. Opternative - Online Eye Exams

4\. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer:
Currently work here)

5\. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

~~~
acabal
Basecamp may be cool, but it's hardly a startup--it's been around since like
2004.

~~~
hugs
To further prove your point, the company was actually started in 1999.

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petersouth
I like the concept of
[https://www.optionsaway.com](https://www.optionsaway.com) but everytime I try
to get a price quote it just says this flight is no longer available. Anybody
get it to work? I was trying to find out how much it costs for each time
period lock.

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atomical
Why isn't AvantCredit listed?

