Chicago Tech Scene Gaining Momentum

The growth of Chicago's tech start-up scene is old news for some, but it's worth noting again.

Chicago More Viable for Tech Startups (NBC Chicago)

A Start-Up Ecosystem Forms in Chicago (Wall Street Journal)

Groupon could give rise to "Silicon Prairie" in Chicago (Marketplace.org)

Built in Chicago (Community of Tech oriented entrepreneurs)

The dramatic expansion of Groupon has obviously dominated the city's tech news recently, but Chicago has been churning out notable start-ups for years. CareerBuilder, Orbitz, Redbox, Cars.com, PeaPod, Threadless T-shirts, The Onion, GrubHub, MetroMix and Pitchfork are all centered here. Google has maintained one of its largest offices in River North since 2001. Facebook's sales office is also in Chicago. 1871, a much talked about incubator, opens soon in the old Merchandise Mart. According to Crain's the tech hub already has a number of important, long-term tenants.

After years of relative disconnection and lack of awareness, the city finally appears to be building a strong community of resources, venture capital and entrepreneurs. In many cases entrepreneurs that left Chicago for the Valley are now returning to take advantage of the city's relatively cheap space and growing talent base. Previously "lack of talent," i.e. computer science / engineering talent has been a complaint against Chicago. This, quite frankly, is ridiculous. The founders of Groupon, not to mention Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, are all University of Michigan alumni (Go Blue). The University of Illinois has long maintained one of the top computer science programs in the world. Chicago draws not only from Northwestern and the University of Chicago (two of the top universities in the world - easily comparable if not superior to Stanford and Berkeley), but also Notre Dame and some of the best public universities in the world (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue). The vast majority of the best educational institutions in the North America are located between Chicago and Boston. Chicago, and the Midwest in general, has never had a problem producing talent - it's had a problem keeping it.

Of course every city wants to think of itself as the next hot spot or "Silicon Valley," especially in a sluggish economy. Silicon Valley itself still dismisses growing scenes like Chicago as drops in the bucket compared to their dominance in the tech industry, but there's truly nothing to stop web-based / digital technology companies from spreading and/or relocating in the same footloose fashion as any other industry.

Chicago's tech scene is particularly interesting because most of the companies that start here are consumer/service oriented. Perhaps this represents a moment when "Tech" ceases to be its own industry and becomes more integrated into every day business practice. Aren't we already at the point where it's becoming difficult to distinguish between a tech company and an every-day business. Most of these start-ups are more oriented toward the average person than the technology itself. "Tech" (i.e. digital communication) is normal now. Many of these start-ups are simply figuring out ways to to utilize a tool for relatively standard business and consumer needs. The beauty of accessing Yelp, or GrubHub or Facebook on your iphone is the fact that the technology itself disappears. You're focused on what the device delivers, not how it works. It's not about technology, it about people.