IT consulting firm, SWC Technology Partners premieres another exciting episode of Silicon City! Silicon City is a bi-weekly web show focusing on the startup community in Chicago. This episode shows a unique view of the Chicago startup ecosystem. Watch this week’s episode featuring Peter Liu, Associate at New World Ventures.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zb5nrcEwoI]
On this week’s episode of Silicon City, host Elliott Baretz, Vice President of Business Development and head of Digital Design Services at SWC discusses the Chicago ecosystem with Peter Liu. Peter is an Associate at New World Ventures, an investment firm that works with entrepreneurs to build leading information technology companies. New World Ventures is growing and currently has offices located in Chicago and Los Angeles.
“The Chicago market has really matured in the last couple years,” says Peter. Chicago has developed a lot of great people, companies and places that have contributed to the success of so many startups. Another great location promoting and helping startups is 1871. “It has really become the technology town hall for startups,” stated Peter. With mentors, educators and venture capitalists all in the same building, who wouldn’t want to be located in 1871?
Peter also gave some great insight for what New World Ventures is looking for in their next deal. “I know this will sound like a broken record but it’s team, team, team…more often than not the team’s ability to execute is more important than the product itself. We are always evaluating the team whether it’s the initial meeting, the pitch, or in the boardroom. We’re seeing how you sell the companies, how you interact with your other co-founders and with your employees. It’s the team we believe is the real driver of a business. Other than that obviously we are looking for big innovative ideas that are creating a solution to problems that are out there in the market today,” said Peter. “In order to achieve success it is important to surround yourself with great people steering you in the right direction.”
Finally, Peter gave a word of advice for picking a venture capitalist. “We’re not investors at the end of the day, we are a partner,” he states. “You are in it for the long haul with a VC and need to make sure they can provide value to you in more sense than just their dollars. They should be able to help you open doors to customers, provide domain expertise or have access to entrepreneurs and folks who can really help you build your business.” To learn more about Peter Liu or New World Ventures head over to newworldvc.com or follow Peter on Twitter @Pdotliu.
Stay tuned for the next Silicon City airing on June 28. Don’t forget to subscribe to SWC TV, SWC’s YouTube channel to access all of our shows and be the first to receive the latest updates on SWC TV. If you are a Chicago area startup and would like to have your business featured on Silicon City, please call 630.572.0240 and ask for Sarah.
