NGK spark plug (type BP6ES). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
No news to longtime members of BiC, but there is a spark starting in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Yesterday, I spoke to my second class at DePaul. The students were engaged. They are thinking of companies they can build. Last year I spoke at Notre Dame and heard ideas for companies that I thought were promising. The students I spoke with are trying to build and launch them in between studying and following an undefeated football team. I am speaking at Notre Dame again in early November.
Northwestern's entrepreneurship program will be energized with my friend Linda Darragh up there. Wildcat Angels is becoming more organized under the leadership of Craig Bradley, and they are copying a lot of the HPA model. Look for big things in a few years out of Northwestern.
Notre Dame's Irish Angels has been re-vitalized. Andy McKenna had a lot to do with it. Gale Bowman is leading their group, and they meet in early November for their first organized affair. Notre Dame is trying to change the culture of the school to be more entrepreneurial. They will be a great addition to the ecosystem.
John Clarke has made great strides down at Illinois thanks to a grant from Al Goldstein. He and his partners at the Catapult Fund (not the Foley co-working space) are trying to seed entrepreneurs in the midwest. Clarke has created a great program within the U of I Business school.
Today, Karin O' Connor and I are speaking to a lunch at Illini Center downtown. 100 people have signed up to come. All alums of Illinois, and all presumably based here in the midwest. 100 people. Betcha a few years ago 20 wouldn't have signed up.
Last April, Kevin Willer, Raman Chadha and I did a lunch at the Union League Club in Chicago. 225 people came. We are happy to do a repeat performance at any club or large organization in town.
My friend Brendan Sullivan is re-locating an Irish financed tech start up to Chicago from Dallas. Brendan said there is a sales and marketing DNA ensconsced in Chicago that's hard to replicate.
Chicago and the midwest was built by risk taking entrepreneurs. If you read Don Miller's history of Chicago from 1830-1900, it's really incredible the amount of creativity and risk taking that went on here. The new age has arrived. We have the skills and the people. We have the know how.
So, there is something happening here. The signs are good. We need to stop cheerleading, and start leading. Once we do that, nothing can stop us.
Related articles- Push Yourself Everyday (liveforfriday.net)
