You’ve probably heard the saying ‘What Got You Here Won’t Get You There’? It’s from a book by one of the most popular CEO coaches, Marshall Goldsmith who worked with Alan Mullaly (who helped revive Ford), Brian Miller of Herman Miller amongst many others and he also learned at the feet of the late great management thinker Peter Drucker. He knows his stuff and suggests that successful people (or city in this case) believe that because
I have succeeded -> I can succeed -> I will succeed -> I choose to succeed
It’s a great mindset to have but this belief system is also the most dangerous as it makes successful people resistant to change. Change, being the only constant, is what you need to accept to move to the next level. You and I probably don’t agree on much but I think we all can agree that for some reason Chicago tech has this inferiority complex about it’s position in global/US tech. You don’t hear officials in the leading tech hubs of the world going around trying to convince people their city is a tech hub; it’s known and accepted.
Yes there is a lot of momentum in Chicago. We claim
- More female founders in the Chicago ecosystem than any other
- Huge exits like Braintree and most recently Coyote Logistics
- The next wave of growth companies like Context Media, Avant, Geofeedia etc
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But how do we build an ecosystem flowing with startups that leapfrog into the global marketplace? What does Chicago need to make the next five years it’s best years? I suggest we start by calling on the ‘gatekeepers’ to hand over the keys. True, without some of the stalwarts of the ecosystem at the helm, Chicago would definitely not be where it is now in tech global standings.
But it’s time for a change in leadership in some of the anchor technology organizations in the city. When you’ve run an organization for 5-10 years or been part of the ecosystem for 15-20 and it feels like truly exponential improvements haven’t happened for a while the problem might just be you… It’s time for the gatekeepers to get back in the game through board or executive positions in later stage companies and shepherd these companies to success. Leave the day to day operations to the next guard. It’s baton passing time!
The cities that are fast rising up the ranks? They’ve handed over the keys of their incubators/accelerators to and invested in the next generation of founders and leaders. Sam Altman at YC in SF (showing even more ambition than Paul Graham before him), Joshua Bear at Capital Factory in Austin (more growth companies/sq ft than any other shared space) and the Thrive Capital crew in NY ($400M fund) are some examples of next generation leaders taking the reins in other cities and, with the support and mentorship of the former guard, charting new territories for the organizations they run.
Chicago has a chance to take a huge next step by leading the way in making the next generation of leaders the most diverse of any city in the world. It's happening - Nicole Yeary at WiSTEM, Phil Nevels at Nextgen Angels, Emile Cambry at 1647, Guy Turner at Hyde Park Venture Partners - but it needs to happen at scale or else we will stagnate and continue to carry around that inferiority complex.
Lest you think this is a personal plea for a position, it's not. I’ve moved to Austin (family reasons) and to a company at the cutting edge of machine learning and artificial intelligence so I’m not trying to replace Howard Tullman at 1871 ;). Chicago was good to me for 7+ years and so I care about the next phase of the city’s tech scene. So, whenever you’re in Austin hit me up but remember that I do think ‘what got you here will not get you there’.
Or more apt for Chicago’s situation 'The people who got you here will not get you there’.
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