3 ms·

I'm from Chicago suburbs, but worked in the city this summer. I agree 100% with Thiel. I'm trying _very_ hard to not have to work in the city when I graduate in

by _RPM 10y ago

I'm from Chicago suburbs, but worked in the city this summer. I agree 100% with Thiel. I'm trying _very_ hard to not have to work in the city when I graduate in December. I believe the passion just isn't here from the small sample of software engineers that I interacted with. I might be extremely naive to say that. I think evidence would support my theory such as there not being very many interesting startups in Chicago. Only a select few that I've heard of that I would want to work at. Chicago seems to be dominated by Finance.

toomuchtodo 10y ago
Startups are hobbies in Chicago. Leave or work remotely if you want to work for one. Source: I lived in Chicago most my life, and worked for two startups there. I now work for a Bay Area startup remotely.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  Sounds about like my life path. Agree that startup scene in Chicago isn't that awesome. I mean groupon back in the day realllly wanted to talk to me, but the business model wasn't so great. The cool tech that I found in Chicago was finance.. the finance scene was pretty cool... but maybe not the ideal industry to spend your life in.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    > The cool tech that I found in Chicago was finance.. the finance scene was pretty cool... but maybe not the ideal industry to spend your life in. Definitely. The cool fintech in Chicago (not traditional fintech mind you) were the HFT/prop trading shops. Tech skills needed, with I-banking work environment provided (think seedy sort of things transpiring).
    - brianwawok 10y ago
      Well CME was cool in a few teams (heya match engine team).
ejcx 10y ago
I experienced this in the DC area. Few people I met were motivated. Everyone has an easy paycheck from their government contracts. Sure, great, smart, motivated people are there but I found them to be rare. It's a comfy life, but if you have dreams bigger than being a project manager for a large defense contractor then it's not a great place to be.
davidcaseria 10y ago
While that may be true for some/most startups in Chicago, the startup I work for, M1 Finance, is definitely looking for people passionate about building a great product and company: https://www.m1finance.com/ https://www.m1finance.com/.

by _RPM 10y ago

toomuchtodo 10y ago

Startups are hobbies in Chicago. Leave or work remotely if you want to work for one. Source: I lived in Chicago most my life, and worked for two startups there. I now work for a Bay Area startup remotely.

brianwawok 10y ago
Sounds about like my life path. Agree that startup scene in Chicago isn't that awesome. I mean groupon back in the day realllly wanted to talk to me, but the business model wasn't so great. The cool tech that I found in Chicago was finance.. the finance scene was pretty cool... but maybe not the ideal industry to spend your life in.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  > The cool tech that I found in Chicago was finance.. the finance scene was pretty cool... but maybe not the ideal industry to spend your life in. Definitely. The cool fintech in Chicago (not traditional fintech mind you) were the HFT/prop trading shops. Tech skills needed, with I-banking work environment provided (think seedy sort of things transpiring).
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Well CME was cool in a few teams (heya match engine team).

ejcx 10y ago

I experienced this in the DC area. Few people I met were motivated. Everyone has an easy paycheck from their government contracts. Sure, great, smart, motivated people are there but I found them to be rare. It's a comfy life, but if you have dreams bigger than being a project manager for a large defense contractor then it's not a great place to be.

davidcaseria 10y ago

While that may be true for some/most startups in Chicago, the startup I work for, M1 Finance, is definitely looking for people passionate about building a great product and company: https://www.m1finance.com/ https://www.m1finance.com/.