What do Brad Feld, the managing director of the Foundry Group and co-founder of TechStars, Scott Case, the founding CTO of Priceline, Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL and Brad Keywell, co-founder of Groupon and Lightbank have in common?
Aside from being amazingly successful, they were all at 1871 last week.
The events of last week were exciting not just for us here at 1871, but for the entire city. Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) kicked off on the anniversary of the Chicago fire (October 8th, 141 years earlier) and with it, came an intellectual whirlwind of international thought leaders arriving in Chicago to speak of their varied passions and pursuits. We were honored to be a part of CIW by hosting a party following one of the Megatalks featuring Steve Case, Kara Swisher from All Thing D and Judith Rodin from the Rockefeller Foundation discussing Disruptive Innovation.
Earlier that day, we hosted Startup America’s Regional Summit with 130 entrepreneurial leaders from around the country. These folks, who spend their lives working to build a startup ecosystem in their respective communities, came together at 1871 to share ideas, learn from one another and collaborate. My favorite moment of the day was when Brad Feld said that when he comes to Chicago these days, he knows exactly where to go – to 1871 – because this is where the local startup community lives. He does not need to run around town trying to coordinate meetings and figuring out if he is missing out on something; everybody he wants to meet is already here at 1871. That was a pretty awesome and validating moment.
On October 10th, 141 years ago, this city stopped burning and the rebuilding process started. It was only appropriate that on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, we hosted the sold out session of CIW Lab here at 1871. It was so great to see 50+ people show up early in the morning to hear our story of aspiration to build a modern Chicago in the 21st century, and learn about the startup community here. It was also a great opportunity for us to reflect on what we’ve accomplished in the past five months. There are 350 members here who are building 190 companies; The Starter League is teaching 130 students how to code and design; Chuck Templeton is building eight new companies through Impact Engine and Troy and Sam helped launch ten companies through Excelerate just two months ago. Plus, we’ve hosted over 60 workshops and over 400 mentor meetings since we opened in May and have had almost 10,000 people come through the space attending numerous events and tours. All that in only 150 days! What will the next 150 days hold? I don’t know, but I hope like me, you are inspired by the potential of what this community can and is creating.
