And here we’ve been so excited about all the progress the startup community has been making in Chicago and then I see this: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2013/07/per-capita-challengers-silicon-valley/6011/
We don’t even rank in the top 20 in Venture Capital Activity per 100,000 people. We lag behind the booming metropolis of Provo, UT and the tech hotbed of Madison, WI.
Now you might be tempted to say “well, yeah, but that’s per capita. And there are like 7 people in Provo, UT. It would only take a couple of small deals to get them into the top 20.”
That was my first reaction, too, but upon closer inspection, we see that sheer population size is not a deterrent to other major cities ranking in the top 20. San Jose and SF come in at 1 and 2 (not surprisingly), but there are a lot of people in SF. Furthermore, San Diego, Boston, LA, and even New York rank in the top 20. New York has A LOT of people. So the per capita argument doesn’t really hold.
So what does this tell us? I don’t know. Not much, really. To me, it’s just another indicator that the tech/startup scene here in Chicago is still in its infancy. We’ve made a TON of progress in the last couple of years, for sure, but we still have a ways to go. Let’s keep at it!
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Gint Rudis is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Chicago-based Spare to Sharewww.sparetoshare.com a collaborative consumption platform that provides for sharing, renting, and selling of items and other goods with closed, known networks. Prior to entrepreneuring, Gint worked in finance and management consulting. Gint holds a BS in engineering from Vanderbilt University and regularly regrets having graduated in 4 years.
