4 ms·

Chicago has all that. But I wouldn't try to do a startup here - the angel/VC/legal/accounting support structure is atrocious.

tptacek 18y ago
Chicago's not a great place to get funding (we have JK&B and... nothing?), but no place is good for funding in '09. As for legal and accounting, I'm lost: why isn't Chicago the second best city in the country for access to lawyers and accountants?
- sachinag 18y ago
  There is a huge difference between startup lawyers and accountants and small business lawyers and accountants. The ones here are all the second and think they can do the first. Having worked at a VC firm where a deal almost fell apart due to legal oversight, this is a huge, huge hobbyhorse of mine.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Chicago is a crappy place to start a company if you're hitching your wagon to a VC deal. But VC is a crap shoot anyways. On the other hand, if you want to run a business, Chicago legal and accounting is a win.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
  - brandnewlow 18y ago
    Have you written about that anywhere? Would be interesting to read.
    - sachinag 18y ago
      via searchyc.com: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=244156 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=244156
      - tptacek 18y ago
        Your deal almost fell apart because it involved an LLC? You do an LLC because it has no overhead and pass-through taxes; an S-Corp to issue employee equity and keep pass-through taxes, and a C-corp when you have to. That's not idiotic advice. Although I've been through the funding process more than once, you really sound like you know it more than I do. But your take seems really biased towards term sheet negotiation. I'm not sure how relevant that is to most entrepreneurs.
        sachinag 18y ago
        No, it was a C-corp. (Again, we were a VC and needed the different classes of stock.) The example is that merely being a C-corp wasn't sufficient. Again, experienced startup lawyers would have alerted us to this. Mere corporate attorneys would not, and did not, contemplate the edge case I outlined. Look, if you're happy to bootstrap forever, Chicago's great. But if you even have an eye on VC at any point, GTFO and go to the coasts.
        tptacek 18y ago
        For the record, I agree, and Chicago was an issue when we talked to VC back in '05.
- gravitycop 18y ago
  Chicago's not a great place to get funding (we have JK&B and... nothing?) The Funded says: http://www.thefunded.com http://www.thefunded.com Prism Capital OCA Venture Partners William Blair Capital Partners Mesirow Financial Private Equity Baird Venture Partners SSM Ventures ARCH Venture Partners Adams Street Partners ARCH Development Partners Hyde Park Angels i2a Fund Apex Venture Partners Fusion Capital Partners Frontenac Company IllinoisVENTURES Merrrick Ventures Dunrath Capital
  - tptacek 18y ago
    A number of these are really small firms that don't lead on early stage tech investments.
    - gravitycop 18y ago
      OK. I didn't know. Thanks for the enlightenment.
brandnewlow 18y ago
Also, we should get rolling on a Chicago HN meetup.
- sachinag 18y ago
  You're the one with the readership, and you mentioned it, so I volunteer you, Brad. :)
  - brandnewlow 18y ago
    Ha. Well, I'm happy to oblige then. I just went to another weird local blogger meetup and it got me pining for something a bit more interesting.
zitterbewegung 18y ago
I am trying to get VC through my school (UIC) they have a competition where you can win 20k if you compete.
hugs 18y ago
Agreed about angel/vc, but not legal/accounting (Chicago is a legal and accounting hub!). To compensate for being in Chicago, you do have to be creative finding VCs and angels. I'm doing a startup here in Chicago anyway. But I compensate for the lack of Chi-VC by having 3 other co-founders who live in San Francisco, and making trips out to the West Coast about once a month. :-)
jdavid 18y ago
other funding sources in Chicago, are Mason Wells, and http://www.portageventures.com/ http://www.portageventures.com/ Follow http://techcocktail.com/ http://techcocktail.com/ if you want to see the tech vibe in ChiTown.

tptacek 18y ago

Chicago's not a great place to get funding (we have JK&B and... nothing?), but no place is good for funding in '09. As for legal and accounting, I'm lost: why isn't Chicago the second best city in the country for access to lawyers and accountants?

sachinag 18y ago
There is a huge difference between startup lawyers and accountants and small business lawyers and accountants. The ones here are all the second and think they can do the first. Having worked at a VC firm where a deal almost fell apart due to legal oversight, this is a huge, huge hobbyhorse of mine.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Chicago is a crappy place to start a company if you're hitching your wagon to a VC deal. But VC is a crap shoot anyways. On the other hand, if you want to run a business, Chicago legal and accounting is a win.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  Have you written about that anywhere? Would be interesting to read.
  - sachinag 18y ago
    via searchyc.com: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=244156 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=244156
    - tptacek 18y ago
      Your deal almost fell apart because it involved an LLC? You do an LLC because it has no overhead and pass-through taxes; an S-Corp to issue employee equity and keep pass-through taxes, and a C-corp when you have to. That's not idiotic advice. Although I've been through the funding process more than once, you really sound like you know it more than I do. But your take seems really biased towards term sheet negotiation. I'm not sure how relevant that is to most entrepreneurs.
      - sachinag 18y ago
        No, it was a C-corp. (Again, we were a VC and needed the different classes of stock.) The example is that merely being a C-corp wasn't sufficient. Again, experienced startup lawyers would have alerted us to this. Mere corporate attorneys would not, and did not, contemplate the edge case I outlined. Look, if you're happy to bootstrap forever, Chicago's great. But if you even have an eye on VC at any point, GTFO and go to the coasts.
        tptacek 18y ago
        For the record, I agree, and Chicago was an issue when we talked to VC back in '05.
gravitycop 18y ago
Chicago's not a great place to get funding (we have JK&B and... nothing?) The Funded says: http://www.thefunded.com http://www.thefunded.com Prism Capital OCA Venture Partners William Blair Capital Partners Mesirow Financial Private Equity Baird Venture Partners SSM Ventures ARCH Venture Partners Adams Street Partners ARCH Development Partners Hyde Park Angels i2a Fund Apex Venture Partners Fusion Capital Partners Frontenac Company IllinoisVENTURES Merrrick Ventures Dunrath Capital
- tptacek 18y ago
  A number of these are really small firms that don't lead on early stage tech investments.
  - gravitycop 18y ago
    OK. I didn't know. Thanks for the enlightenment.

brandnewlow 18y ago

Also, we should get rolling on a Chicago HN meetup.

sachinag 18y ago
You're the one with the readership, and you mentioned it, so I volunteer you, Brad. :)
- brandnewlow 18y ago
  Ha. Well, I'm happy to oblige then. I just went to another weird local blogger meetup and it got me pining for something a bit more interesting.

zitterbewegung 18y ago

I am trying to get VC through my school (UIC) they have a competition where you can win 20k if you compete.

hugs 18y ago

Agreed about angel/vc, but not legal/accounting (Chicago is a legal and accounting hub!). To compensate for being in Chicago, you do have to be creative finding VCs and angels. I'm doing a startup here in Chicago anyway. But I compensate for the lack of Chi-VC by having 3 other co-founders who live in San Francisco, and making trips out to the West Coast about once a month. :-)

jdavid 18y ago

other funding sources in Chicago, are Mason Wells, and http://www.portageventures.com/ http://www.portageventures.com/ Follow http://techcocktail.com/ http://techcocktail.com/ if you want to see the tech vibe in ChiTown.