(this post was originally posted on Pat’s new blog: www.coolerbythelake.com)
About a year ago, I sat in the inspiring offices of Gensler Architects in the old Carson Pirie Scott building— getting a sneak preview of the conceptual sketches of 1871 with 1871 Founder J.B. Pritzker, CEC CEO Kevin Willer and Built-in-Chicago Founder Matt Moog. As I marveled at the incredible design of what is now 1871, my hosts cautioned me that the real secret to making spaces like 1871 a success in other cities wasn’t the architecture or even the companies that officed there. Instead they shared that the key was to bring the rest of the community there through compelling programming.
J.B. said “For this to work, 1871 will need to consistently host compelling programming and that will only happen if we can get people to help us create that programming.” Inspired by the vision for 1871, I told J.B. I would do my best to play a part in making that happen and would work to create and sponsor some kind of compelling monthly programming for Chicago’s entrepreneurial community.
As an entrepreneur, I thought of my favorite fare and was immediately inspired by one of my favorites online: Chris Dixon’s Founder Stories on TechCrunch TV. Borrowing (with much respect) a great idea and lacking the copywriting skill to pen a unique name, I volunteered to create Chicago Founders’ Stories – a monthly live interview of great founders @ 1871 over pizza (Chicago style pizza was a great culinary and entrepreneurial innovation in the 1950s!) and the fuel of many great start ups - plenty of beer.
Over the past several months, Kevin Willer and the CEC team have been great partners in making this idea a reality. Chicago Founders’ Stories debuted at the end of 1871’s opening week to a sold out crowd. CEC Momentum Award winners and GrubHub founders, Matt Maloney and Mike Evans were fantastic as our first featured founders, sharing stories that made everyone—including me—a better entrepreneur. Chuck Templeton of OpenTable, Bryan Johnson of Braintree, Logan LaHive of Belly, and Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal of ContextMedia have continued this exciting new tradition, each sharing incredible insights into lessons learned and their journey. I am excited to have Siri Founder Dag Kittlaus kick off 2013 on February 12 @ 1871 (sign up at http://founderstorieswdag.eventbrite.com/#).
Since the events are selling out, we’ve been recording each session and posting them online for those who can’t make it. I’m amazed to see that each of these videos has received more than 1,000 views on Built-in-Chicago.
As we enter 2013 and the series continues to gain momentum, I realized I needed a place to host our growing video library so that they stay accessible as my Built-in-Chicago blog posts fade into the archives. At the same time I have had the privilege of hearing from entrepreneurs who want to continue our discussions from Founders’ Stories as well as get ideas on where they can learn more (fortunately I’ve been bookmarking my favorite posts from across the web). To solve for both, I have created “Cooler by the Lake” (www.coolerbythelake.com) – a blog and site to host the Chicago Founders’ Stories videos. I’ll try to post every Monday morning and share great ideas and resources that I have encountered. I hope people will share their thoughts, ideas and comments. Named after a classic Chicago phrase, I hope that Cooler by the Lake adds a little bit to our burgeoning startup community—a tenacious and hungry group that is indeed, cooler by the lake.
