When you think about the best locations for startups your mind probably takes you out West, primarily to the San Francisco Bay Area. Places like Palo Alto, San Jose, and San Fran itself have been churning out some of the tech industry’s most successful startups for years now. Yes, when it comes to raising your startup business, West is probably still best, but there’s a city in the MIDwest whose startup community is growing faster than pretty much anywhere else. A city by the lake. A city with big shoulders. A windy city. That’s right, we’re talking about Chicago, IL.
You’ve probably heard of Groupon, a company that features exclusive deals to practically anything you’d ever want. Groupon began as a Chicago startup in 2008, and has since grown exponentially to be one of the most successful companies to come out of the city. It’s safe to say that Groupon has served as a model for the success that most of these companies hope to achieve. In a way, they embody the Chicago startup spirit.
Chicago’s startup scene is exploding. Right now there are so many starups looking to rent space in Chicago that the Tribune reported a space shortage in the River North area (in fact, I’m currently writing this blog from the office of a startup in River North). Startups have a habit of remaining as lean as possible for as long as possible, and one of the primary expenses is rent. That’s why a lot of startups are finding inventive ways to cut cost on the location of their office.
Chicago startup community, 1871, provides new businesses with inexpensive rental space and access to valuable resources for growth and development. They house a variety of startups in their 50,000 square foot space at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. The space serves as a kind of incubator for digital startups, several of which have grown successful enough to venture out on their own. This unique and innovative approach to business development not only gives young companies opportunities that they couldn’t find anywhere else, but it speaks to the feeling of community that startups in Chicago experience.
Built in Chicago is another awesome part of the Chicago startup world. It's basically a social network for Chicago startups and employees. It's a great tool for both local startup news, promotion, and collecting knowledge. Both companies and individual users can setup profiles, post blogs, post or browse through local job openings, and more. It's becoming a pillar of the Chicago startup community.
UrbanBound is a tech startup as well, and we’ve just experienced our first big break, receiving $5 million in VC funding. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of taking something from its infancy to this point, and we’re very proud to be a part of the Chicago startup community. We share an office with Homescout Realty and Hireology (a web app that helps companies organize and streamline their hiring process), though Hireology just moved to a different location in our building we still collaborate on a regular basis. Sharing an office with two other companies might not sound ideal to some people, but it actually has its share of benefits. It’s nice having people in your field from different companies around for advice, help, and collaboration. We all bounce ideas off of each other, and share information where we can. It’s kind of a micro-community within the larger Chicago startup world.
Thanks to its outstanding community, the Chicago startup scene is continuing to blossom. Top talent is not only staying in the area, but it’s coming from outside. Many top tier candidates are finding that they’d rather test the waters in Chicago than face the incredibly competitive market in the Bay Area. There are going to be a lot of great companies coming out of this city for a long time, and Chicago’s tech revolution is the primary factor for this. It’s a great time to be a startup in Chicago.
