Kyle
It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago Silicon Valley based PandoDaily sent a reporter to Chicago and he came back suggesting that their startup scene was sleepy. Fast forward to February 2013 and we’ve been tracking the startup communities rapid growth here.
Earlier this month NBC’s Today Show reported some amazing facts about Chicago’s startup community:
More startups launched in 2012 than any previous year.
A new startup launched every 44 hours.
197 of those were digital startups.
59 companies raised more than a million dollars.
We’ve also made three different trips to Chicago this year as part of our “sneaker strapped startup road trip”. We attended a kick off event at Chicago’s huge 1871 incubator, Chicago TechWeek and the Startup America Regional Champions Summit. On each trip we got to spend more time with Chicago’s seasoned startups like Groupon and Belly and some of their community’s newest players like KlutchClub and SpotHero.
Chicago’s startup ecosystem even caught the eye of TechStars founder David Cohen and Foundry Group’s Brad Feld, who recently announced a merger with Excelerate Labs to form Techstars Chicago.
We are looking forward to what Chicago has in store for 2013. Chicago is my kind of startup town.
