Wearble was the winner of the first-ever midVenturesLAUNCH competition. Photo by midVentures via Flickr.
This is a guest post written by Tom Chapman, director of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. In his role, Mr. Chapman works with new ventures, innovation programs, at large companies, service providers, innovation thought-leaders and community advocates.
MidVenturesLAUNCH took place in Chicago this past Monday and Tuesday, September 27-28. I was an attendee at this solid inaugural effort by Johnathan Pasky (Pasky IP Law LLC), Geoff Domoracki (midVentures Technology Partners) and Brian Mayer (midVentures Technology Partners).
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The conference proclaimed itself to be the “largest startup and innovation conference in the Midwest.” More than 30 companies had either a demo or launch at the conference including some interesting iterations on existing technologies – such as Hipmunk and MORExchange. Both companies provided a compelling alternative value proposition to existing large industry players in the travel industry and the online mortgage search industry.
Speakers included Scott A. Jones of ChaCha, a mobile search technology firm (left, photo by midVentues via Flickr), Steve Huffman formerly of Reddit and now of Hipmunk, and Brad Keywell of Groupon. In general, the speakers provided an overview of their own experiences and some interesting stories regarding their companies. What was striking was how into the features and technologies the speakers dwelled. In some other conferences, the speakers often proselytize a new venture view – but the speakers and panels at midVenturesLAUNCH focused primarily on their companies and what made them unique or profitable. For example, Jones spent a good portion of his presentation discussing how ChaCha had surpassed Google’s mobile search and why this was a valuable proposition based on text based search growth over time.
Lastly, it was notable that Chicago needs a Silicon Prairie News infusion. Consistently, panelists and speakers suggested that Chicago (where most of the attendees and presenting companies resided) was a technology backwater. The speakers noted the limited angel and venture investing community. The speakers noted the lack of mainstream press attention. Moreover, the speakers suggested that things were changing, but slowly. In particular, the last panel of the day “The 3 Stages of Not Being Silicon Valley” highlighted some key building blocks that Chicago has going for it – more than 20 world class institutions including both the University of Illinois (where the technologies for Mosaic and for PayPal were born) and the University of Chicago (where the technologies behind Amgen were first discovered and commercialized), excellent recent successes including 37signals and Groupon, and a quality of life that consistently attracted local kids back to their home town to start a family (and sometimes a company).
“The 3 Stages of Not Being Silicon Valley” panel at MidVentures Launch. Photo by midVentues via Flickr.
Overall, my Omaha perception has always been that some places have innate advantages built on the density of capital – both human and financial. However, my major takeaway from the conference was that Chicagoans generally do not always see these innate advantages or the other ones that an objective outsider sometimes notices upon visiting. Obviously, the scale of Chicago is simply different from that of Omaha or Des Moines or even Kansas City – but the organizing principles of ecosystem development – human capital, financial capital, deal flow/metrics/success, knowledgeable community and infrastructure – appear to be clearly meaningful to even very large communities. And while the innate advantages are there, it still requires a lot of hardwork and energy to organize efforts around these necessary functions. So, great work to the founders of midVenturesLAUNCH and good luck in year two.
(Photo of midVentures Launch audience by midVentures via Flickr.)
View photos from the event on Flickr, see: midVenturesLAUNCH and Paul Saini Weddings & Fashion Photography.
View videos from the event at ustream.tv/user/midVentures.
