Skip to main content

Chicago's Startup Ecosystem Gets A Boost

Personally, I think any growth-oriented hospital above a certain size and level of sophistication ought to be working on a business incubator strategy. Learn a few lessons from this recent "Crains Chicago Business" article featuring developments in the Chicago startup community.

Lesson #1: Money AND coaching go well together...
"Among those leading the charge are some Chicago heavyweights. A new incubator-slash-boot-camp called Excelerate offers up to $20,000 in funding to startups chosen for an intensive 10-week program to start this summer. It also offers access to a group of mentors that includes entrepreneurial icons like Howard Tullman, Michael Ferro and Genevieve Thiers. Excelerate is taking applications through March 18.

Also throwing their weight behind startup support are two of the city's most prolific and proficient technology entrepreneurs. Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky emerged from the dot-com boom-and-bust to build InnerWorkings, Echo Global Logistics and now Groupon. Flush with those successes, the pair has ponied up 10 million dollars to launch Lightbank, an incubator that could invest in as many as 10 companies a year. Lefkofsky and Keywell have ponied up 10 million dollars for the first round of Lightbank investments. Just as importantly, the companies they fund will get access to Keywell and Lefkofsky themselves, who promise to personally get down in the day-to-day muck with the entrepreneurs they back."
Closer to my southwest Michigan home, I'm working on an idea similar to this from Scalewell.

Lesson #2: it doesn't take LOTS of money to get going, and access to a network of supporters is another important form of currency...
"Scalewell is the brainchild of Andy Angelos, Sean Corbett and Ziad Hussain. They've recruited 42 trustees--entrepreneurs and business people who pledge a hundred dollars apiece toward thousand-dollar grants that Scalewell will award to the winners of quarterly business-plan competitions. The winners also get free office space in the Loop. But again, the most valuable prize is access to the trustees--an instant network of experienced supporters."
Lesson #3: watch the video...



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Michael Porter On Health Care Reform

Michael Porter, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, proposes "A Strategy For Health Care Reform - Toward A Value-Based System." His proposals are fundamental, lucid and right-on, meaning they're sure to be opposed by some parties to the debate, the so-called "Yes, but..." crowd. Most important, in my opinion, is this: "... electronic medical records will enable value improvement, but only if they support integrated care and outcome measurement. Simply automating current delivery practices will be a hugely expensive exercise in futility. Among our highest near-term priorities is to finalize and then continuously update health information technology (HIT) standards that include precise data definitions (for diagnoses and treatments, for example), an architecture for aggregating data for each patient over time and across providers, and protocols for seamless communication among systems. "Finally, consumers must become much mor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simplicity From Complexity

Health care planners typically juggle many different services and businesses, each with unique customers, competitors and prospects.  The complexity can be overwhelming.  So-called portfolio models for assessing industry attractiveness and competitive strength can be a good analytical jumping-off point, including the McKinsey-GE 9-box matrix . (Click on the "Launch Interactive" link.)
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Marketing Megatrends

Coming to a brand near you, from Adam Kleinberg at iMedia Connection, here are " 5 marketing megatrends you can't ignore ." Mass collaboration... Constant connectivity... Globalization... Pervasive distrust in big corporations... A global sense of urgency... #4 is, I think, under-appreciated in health care. Doctors and hospitals like to think of themselves as the last of the white hat-wearing good guys, and maybe they are. But trust is a funny thing - built over decades and lost overnight. Screw it up and watch the laser beam of populist rage move from Wall Street to Medical Avenue.
Post a Comment
Read more