crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Chicago, IL. As always, we’re excited about listing Chicago on our list of top cities for startups and entrepreneurs. Chicago stands alone, not just in the Midwest but in the United States, among the “biggest and baddest of startup cities” when it comes to profitability, according to PitchBook. And this status is well deserved.

United States 113

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 113

View from Seed

AUGUST 10, 2021

We first invested in co-founders Ben Forgan & Pat Wilbur in early 2015, when NextView led a $1.3M And early-stage VC investors have increasingly ventured beyond their backyards of SF, NYC, and Boston to more actively invest in (and in some cases relocate to) places like Miami, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and other cities.

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Chicago Cofounder Miami B2B 136

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2015

It is my privilege to work with the next generation’s best and brightest in the early stages of their careers. It’s also important, particularly in the early stages, to hire people who can remain committed to the company through the ups and downs that startups experience. Leadership vs. Authority.

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Entrepreneur Leadership Early Stage Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

The tech market is filled with many stories of early-stage funding. Our other big wins came from Chicago (Ulta & Envestnet), Baltimore (BillMeLater), New York (DealerTrack) & LA (TrueCar). It’s even more exciting when you can report an exit of a company that is a major win. ” Let me explain all three.

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Partner Las Vegas San Francisco Baltimore 285

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

John Vrionis is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners who focuses primarily on early stage enterprise and consumer technology investments. John holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago and a BA from Harvard University.

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Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

David Teten

MAY 9, 2012

HBSAANY is comprised of New York City tri-state area Harvard alumni who are venture capitalists and other accredited investors investing in early-stage, private companies around the United States. Entrepreneurs can apply through Marathon’s website at www.marathonfdn.org. domestic market.

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Venture Capital Programming Accredited Investor New York 154

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

As always, we’re excited about listing Chicago on our list of top cities for startups and entrepreneurs. Chicago stands alone among the “biggest and baddest of startup cities” when it comes to profitability, according to PitchBook. billion in funding last year, and Chicago is host to a multitude of promising start-ups.

United States 82

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 82

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

At this year’s FUND Conference in Chicago, Illinois, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. The Happenstance app shares geolocated and little-known mini-podcasts about Chicago! It’s also important to know that Chicago is just our starting point!

Chicago 147

Chicago Illinois New York City Cofounder 147

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

If you’re working with early-stage companies you need to be spending quality time with them which means you need to be nearby. I also learned about this amazing resource in Chicago called BuiltInChicago which I intend to use for my trip there in November. If you’re super hot / successful you can resist.

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Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

It looks like someone is actually pulling this together in a life science/healthcare co-working and collaboration space in Chicago called MATTER. This has been nearly a 4-year journey,” said Schonthal who prior to moving back to Chicago in 2011 had been working in healthcare venture capital in San Diego. It Takes a Village.

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San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 262

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2015

John Vrionis ( @jvrionis ) is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners who focuses primarily on early stage enterprise and consumer technology investments. John holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago and a BA from Harvard University.

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Convertible Security IP Technical Review Software Review 100

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 25, 2014

Early Stage Startups: The Biggest Killers | Forbes – crowdspring.co/1mtenKl. Chicago is the funniest city in the U.S. (we Foreign Startup Founders Face Unique Struggles To Break Funding Barrier | TechCrunch – crowdspring.co/1mJ9Pjd. How Corporations Can Innovate Like Startups | PandoDaily – crowdspring.co/REKKZX.

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

As always, we’re excited about listing Chicago on our list of top cities for startups and entrepreneurs. Chicago stands alone among the “biggest and baddest of startup cities” when it comes to profitability, according to PitchBook. billion in funding last year, and Chicago is host to a multitude of promising start-ups.

United States 48

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 48

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 12, 2011

The image above is from an outstanding collection of black and white photographs taken by Vivian Maier, a street photographer whose work was discovered at an auction in Chicago. VC’s apparently are increasingly nervous about early stage investments – [link]. Her fascinating story is in the Other section below.

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

Over my career as a serial entrepreneur I observed that since the late 1990s, no early-stage Silicon Valley investor had used business plans to screen investments. Chicago) through the Lean LaunchPad process. Early-stage investors don’t read business plans. Even those who asked for them never read them.

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Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

Early Stage. Historically we were near Beverly Hills in Los Angeles and throughout the 1990s and early 2000s this was fine since there was not strong locus in LA with some great deals in Pasadena, downtown, San Fernando Valley as well as on the Westside in Santa Monica. Transparent. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Jordan Los Angeles Technical Review 150

Jeff Hilimire

OCTOBER 8, 2014

We actually met taking some web development classes in Chicago. I was doing an early-stage startup in Chicago and Betsy was running a physical product development company in Charlotte that she’d recently sold. Both Betsy and I come from entrepreneurial backgrounds before starting TTS.

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Cofounder Charlotte Raleigh Atlanta 68

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2014

5 basic legal considerations for startups | Chicago Tribune – crowdspring.co/1na3gI5. 10 Top Financial Tips for Early-Stage Startups | StartupCollective – crowdspring.co/1qWvaC4. Before the Startup – crowdspring.co/1rGYDDQ. David vs. Goliath: Lean Startup Advantages | OpenView Blog – crowdspring.co/1x2JFtG.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Dan: It could work for anybody, but what we’re doing right now is we’re focusing on the music industry; because we’re actually running the premium fan site for the 70′ band Chicago right now, and they’re super happy with it so we decided to focus on musicians. Dan: They’re very happy so far.

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Cofounder Technical Review Chicago Technical Cofounder 199

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

Business Development for Early Stage Startups – [link]. Chicago Entrepreneurism: Four Ingredients To Help Your Business – And This City – Dominate – [link]. Small business and startup issues: net neutrality and H.R. 1 – [link]. 35 Gut Checks When Founding Your First Company – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

We have companies in Chicago, San Francisco (and elsewhere in Silicon Valley), Omaha, and New York. “As an early stage investor I focus on whether the founders can build something that delights 100s of millions of people” @bijan #BostonB2C — Andy Cook (@AndyGCook) July 21, 2015. At NextView, we invest across the US.

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Practical Advice for Raising Early Stage Venture Capital – [link]. Incubator 1871 Nurtures Chicago’s Growing Startup Scene – [link]. Staffing your startup? Pick the right kind of staffer – [link]. The Dangerous Seduction of the Lifetime Value (LTV) Formula – [link]. I’ll take a gigabit to go.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 31, 2017

Admittedly, many Omaha investors are still wary of early stage investments. The rising prominence of Omaha’s startup scene feels similar to the excited vibes coming out of Chicago five or ten years ago, when Chicago was on its way to becoming one of the premier destinations for venture capital.

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Omaha Nebraska Chicago Incubator 100

David Cohen

JULY 28, 2019

Brad Feld and I just released the Second Edition of our book, “Do More Faster” Originally published in 2010, we’ve updated the book to bring the lessons we’ve learned about accelerating early stage startups into even sharper focus. DMF2e on display at B&N in Chicago. Enjoy the book!

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Chicago Early Stage Programming Entrepreneur 54

David Teten

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Some people in Chicago were starting a company that rhymes with “coupon” at the time. Early stage startups are <5 yrs old. 5-10 years is typically the rampup stage. It started as a group of guys from Revolution Health, trying to get people to catalog books/CDs/records from their personal records.

America 144

America DC Startup Aggregator 144

Austin Startup

AUGUST 30, 2018

In 2017, Austin was the topped-ranked city by funding amount outside of the Western, Northeast and Chicago regions. That could set the stage for a concerning seed round trend. A tendency towards more money but less deals could be debilitating for early-stage companies. Last year, nearly $1.2

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Austin Early Stage San Francisco Later Stage 48

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2017

So read on and be inspired… At 30 Years of Age, Tianyi Joe Zhu, Chicago Entrepreneur, Named Amongst the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (PRWEB) JULY 12, 2017. Tianyi is also a co-founder of West Suburban Angels , a prominent angel investment group in the west suburbs of Chicago.

Illinois 79

Illinois Chicago Entrepreneur Cofounder 79

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

The companies I spoke to all agreed that the community there was extremely supportive, especially in the critical ulta-early-stage. Then, create an encouraging environment for early-stage companies. Provide early seed capital, and be the ones to make those introductions. And do your customer development.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 5, 2012

But Chicago-based startup MentorMob ( www.mentormob.com ) wants to change that – the free, community-based collaborative service aims to aggregate and organize the best online educational content on any topic, so it’s easier to find. MentorMob is bootstrapped and has 12 employees.

Illinois 165

Illinois Aggregator Chicago Widget 165

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

GRP’s biggest winners over the years have not only come from LA (Overture, CitySearch, TrueCar) but from Chicago (Envestnet, Ulta), Las Vegas (HDI), Baltimore (BillMeLater), New York (DealerTrack), London (LastMinute.com) and other locations. But luckily for his wife I don’t think he’ll be spending much extra time there.

Partner 360

Partner Las Vegas Los Angeles San Francisco 360

David Teten

APRIL 18, 2014

Going forward, VCAP will primarily focus on 25-35 of the most investment-ready early-stage women and minority owned companies (the “VCAP Fellows”). Lastly, the most investment-ready VCAP Fellows will also be introduced to early stage VCs (e.g., ff Venture Capital) for investment consideration.

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Los Angeles New York Miami Early Stage 114

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 11, 2015

As Scott Reeder of the Chicago Sun-Times proclaims that ride-hailing service Uber and the sharing economy are here to stay , leaders from industries across the spectrum are trying to decipher the secret to the company’s success. based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage enterprise software, e-commerce, and marketplaces.

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New York City Warrant Chicago Early Stage 100

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Yet their commonality lies in their acceptance of early stage investment risks and their passionate drive to help startups succeed. What one piece of advice would you give to people in the early stage space? So I would say to both an entrepreneur and early investor, let your genius free. Rumi Morales.

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Early Stage SEC Chicago Venture Capital 70

The Startup Magazine

JULY 16, 2018

Earlier this year at the FUND Conference in Austin, Texas, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. The Austin conference was the inaugural Texas event after several successful Chicago FUND Conference events.

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Startup Texas Angel Investor Mobile 77

The Next Web

JANUARY 23, 2014

You’re a permanent freelancer or an early stage entrepreneur and you don’t have an office to go to. In my own progression as an entrepreneur, I’ve gone through the above stages in that order and here’s my insight into how you should evaluate your own space: Working at home. Len Kendall is the founder of CentUp.

Chicago 164

Chicago Early Stage PR Cost 164

Version One Ventures

MAY 24, 2016

Yet, having a vibrant ecosystem to seed early stage startups is one thing. If you’re not in one of these major metropolises that Graham wrote about (say, Seattle, Toronto, Chicago, Boulder…), what’s your city’s collective drive? There’s still considerable debate on how possible it is to build big companies outside the Bay Area.

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Silicon Valley San Francisco Startup DC 113

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Well, it’s nice to say we have a kicker in Chicago now, isn’t it? But Dan being from Chicago, I knew I had to throw that in there. I think, you know, that’s where sometimes you might have like, let’s say for example, an e-newsletter, which could very well be sort of an early stage education piece.

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Search Technical Review Chicago Engineer 49