Beyond being born and raised in Chicago and spending many years on campuses in the Midwest (BA, MBA), I worked in the tech community during the Internet Bubble and love the Midwest’s continued growth. That said, the optimistic story in TechCrunch by Jonathan Shieber, seems to be a throwback to 15 years ago with the added focus on Case’s idea of the ‘rise of the rest.’ (BTW, we were the Silicon Prairie back then — Divine Interventures, May Report, Halo – Starbelly, etc)

As the most populous city in the region, it’s no surprise that Chicago is the fastest growing hub in “Silicorn Alley” in the development of its investment ecosystem. In the first eight months of 2014 Chicago saw $6 billion in exits through public offerings and sales, including the recent sales of TrunkClub to Nordstrom, and Apartments.com to CoStar Group.But beyond the windy city, startups are cropping up across the Midwest’s silicon plains.

There is some interesting data in the article and mentions of institutions such as 1871 and Lightbank which have helped build strong infrastructure. The article does not mention the rise of the U of C Entrepreneurship infrastructure and the companies that have gone through the campus (the topic of my dissertation) and relies on quotes from power brokers such as the Pritzker clan and abstract ideas from Andreessen (a product of the University of Illinois) to strengthen the rise of the Midwest argument before returning to the Case Rise of the Rest pitch.

The article is worth reading on a number of levels, but it is worth remembering that Chicago and the Midwest were working on this long before the coasts acknowledged the ‘rise of the rest.’