The eco system is alive and well.
I had the pleasure of listening to Peter Barris from NEA and Andrew Mason from Groupon speak to a packed house at Northwestern's Entrepreneurial Conference. This was not the first time I've heard them talk about Groupon or the "rocket ship" growth or about new and innovative things that his company is up to. But something was different about this conversation. One of the questions that Peter asked was "Do you feel responsible for helping drive innovation and new busineses to start up here and stay in Chicago any bypass moving to Silicon Valley?" That may not be exactly the way the questions was asked but you get the point! Andrew thought about it and first his answer seemed a little uncomfortable, almost humbled by the thought of it in front of a room full of Peers. He really was having a hard time with the answer because it seemed to have touched on something, as could it be true? Absolutely it is! Groupon has paved the way for us to continue to build something incredible in our City! They were both poised, welll spoken and made me proud.
He went on to describe how important his culture is and even how Groupon integrated an entire team into their customer service team from Second City, which was a genious move on his part.
After the talk, I felt compelled to go and speak to both Peter and Andrew. It was important for both of them to know how much they were both appreciated in the Chicago eco-system as without the success of Groupon, great places that I get work out of like 1871 would not have been possible. I don't care about the naysayers and if their position is defensible or not as heck they've created some unreal shareholder value, went public and have a market cap of $7.6B now! The point is to to thank them for their work, learn from them and be compelled to build something great Now!
We have some unreal talent and networks in this City between guys like Stuart Larkins, Kevin Willer, Matt Moog, Matt Maloney, Brian Spaly, Adam Koopersmith, Steve Collens, Lon Chow and JB Pritzker. The question is how are we as a City going to respond. Look @ all the Great Companies in Chicago that are getting their chance to build $B business because of their success!
1871 needs a Win now and Groupon and NEA have done all they can to pave the way! Now it's on us.
