This post originally appeared on Tech In Chicago. Visit Tech In Chicago to listen to more interviews with Chicago’s top startup founders and venture capitalists.
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Jeff Carter is a co-founder of Hyde Park Angels, one of the most active angel groups in the United States, and he is currently raising a VC fund, named West Loop Ventures. Before becoming an angel he was a trader for over 25 years and he continues to trade independently.
In This Episode You Will Learn:
- How Hyde Park Angels started?
- Why traders make for good angel investors?
- Why having pornographers and money launderers latching on to your product early is a great sign?
- Why it has been easier to find LPs for West Loop Ventures outside of Chicago?
- Why you have to be a great analyzer of people and not just ideas for seed investing?
- Why it's important to have a vision for the future as a seed investor?
- Why VCs can bet on ideas, but angels have to be on people?
- Why being coachable is so important for entrepreneurs?
- How an entrepreneur/investor relationship is like dating?
- Why he makes a point of blogging everyday?
- What we have to do to keep growing the Chicago tech scene?
Favorite Blogs:
- Streetwise Professor by Craig Pirrong
- AVC by Fred Wilson
- Feld's Thoughts by Brad Feld
- The Musings of The Big Red Car by Jeffrey Minch
Favorite Books:
- City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America by Donald Miller
- The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer
- Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer
- The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan by Carroll V. Glines
- High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
- Personnel Economics in Practice by Edward P. Lazear, Michael Gibbs
Selected Links From The Episode:
- Kenny Estes, VC at West Loop Ventures
- Vishal Verma, Co-Founder of Hyde Park Angels
- Steve Kaplan, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- Kathleen Swan, startup attorney
- Raman Chadha, Co-Founder of Junto Institute
- Irish Angels, Notre Dame inspired angel group
- Jason Kunesh, CEO of Public Good
- Dan Ratner, COO at Public Good
- Marc Halpin, CEO of Kapow Events
- Daniel McCormick, COO of Kapow Events
- Sam Rosen, Founder of Deskpass
- Jay Swoboda, CEO of Dabble
- Robert Rosenberg, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- Mark Tebbe, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- PJ Media, conservative news site
- Rick Santelli, Editor at CNBC
- Sean Chou, Founder of Catalytic
- Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision
- Dick Costello, former CEO of Twitter
- "The Nature of the Firm" (1937), an influential article by Ronald Coase
- Merton Miller, deceased Professor from University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- Bryan Johnson, Founder of Braintree and OS Fund
- Matt Maloney, Founder of Grub Hub
Listen to the episode on iTunes
About Tech In Chicago:
Tech In Chicago takes you inside the Chicago tech world. Each week Colin Keeley is joined by Chicago’s top founders and investors to talk about the amazing companies being built right here. If you want to learn more about Tech In Chicago, head to TechInChicago.co
