Chicago tech boom really on the way? (vs., move to)

[ChiGuy2.5]

I believe it says a lot about where they think our city is heading. I have thought Chicago is becoming more and more a technology center for a couple of years now. I know first hand that the e-commerce industry within Chicago is very strong.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

What do the local tech folks think about this?

New Enterprise Associates opens Chicago office - chicagotribune.com

It's good to see, and not that shocking really. The tech startup scene here is very hot. There are lots of good ideas floating around and there is a decent support infrastructure both financially but also in terms of mentor-ship. The biggest issue moving forward is going to be talented engineers. Or just engineers in general.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

What do the local tech folks think about this?

New Enterprise Associates opens Chicago office - chicagotribune.com

Honestly I think there are better opportunities in the region for the biotech / pharm / medical device firms like Abbott, Baxter, Medline and others.

Chicago attracts flaky poorly thought out "marketing driven" tech-ish type firms as opposed to the engineering heavy weights of the west coast -- 'Groupon Is A Disaster' - Business Insider

Thank you for your interest in Medline. | Medline Industries, Inc.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Honestly I think there are better opportunities in the region for the biotech / pharm / medical device firms like Abbott, Baxter, Medline and others.

Chicago attracts flaky poorly thought out "marketing driven" tech-ish type firms as opposed to the engineering heavy weights of the west coast -- 'Groupon Is A Disaster' - Business Insider

Thank you for your interest in Medline. | Medline Industries, Inc.

So NEA made a bad decision in your mind?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

So NEA made a bad decision in your mind?

In case you didn't take a look at today's (Friday Oct 19) stock movement on Google's earnings miss I would think that NEA can certainly make investments in firs that will respond to the healthcare needs of the globally aging population with a considerably different level of uncertainity....

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

What do the local tech folks think about this?

New Enterprise Associates opens Chicago office - chicagotribune.com

It's great news IMO. A big time VC firm has opened up offices here. What's not to love about that? That means they're committed to funding Chicago based companies and know there's room to grow their business. Why would they open up here if they didn't think they could do a lot of investing in local companies? They are not dumb people.

I think it will encourage more people in Chicago to start their own tech companies. You can only hope though, that a good percentage of them are actual good ideas and people aren't wasting their time and money trying to come up with either a proof of concept or a real product.

[marothisu]

The stock market: "Your company has been a leader for 50 years. You grew your company this quarter in many areas, but unfortunately you missed expectations in 10% of your company. I know the business is strong and you have $2 billion in cash, and it grew, but look at the expectations! Now your stock is down 5% even though you grew in most areas, and the areas that are most important to the current market and your company."

Back when I did financial research for a few years with some big researchers, they would have these angry conversations with me about "stupid investors." They kept iterating, over and over, how if all the dumb investors in the stock market weren't there, then things would be much better and much more realistic.



The NEA news is great news. They will be investing more in Chicago, and people here will be more apt to try and start a business as an established VC firm centered in Silicon Valley now has an office here. Again, we can only hope the ideas that come into fruition are good ones more times than not. I think someone with a great idea is going to weigh the options anyway, and having this office here will probably sway them more towards doing it than not.

[chet everett]

Investors, smart or dumb, is all a VC firm really is -- they are not like a bank that gives a company a loan based on the liklihood of that being repaid. When a VC firm makes an investment they are probably MORE critical of the start-ups timeline to profitability than a traditional retail stock investor becuase in most cases a VC firm is not going to have any shares of the firm to trade if things head down -- they'll just see their investment evaporate.

If the VC firms invest in firms in the medical devices sector there is a pretty good chance that cash flow alone will help make that investment pay off -- people have insurance that will pay for medical devices when needed.

The pathetic excuse for a business plan of too many tech firms goes more like this: "get a whole lot of buzz for our marketing driven web site, get thousand or millions of suckers to look at the web site, sign up lots of other suckers who want to waste their marketing dollars on the goofs looking at our web site, do an IPO, make ourselves rich, get out before it collapses"...

Originally Posted by marothisu

The stock market: "Your company has been a leader for 50 years. You grew your company this quarter in many areas, but unfortunately you missed expectations in 10% of your company. I know the business is strong and you have $2 billion in cash, and it grew, but look at the expectations! Now your stock is down 5% even though you grew in most areas, and the areas that are most important to the current market and your company."

Back when I did financial research for a few years with some big researchers, they would have these angry conversations with me about "stupid investors." They kept iterating, over and over, how if all the dumb investors in the stock market weren't there, then things would be much better and much more realistic.



The NEA news is great news. They will be investing more in Chicago, and people here will be more apt to try and start a business as an established VC firm centered in Silicon Valley now has an office here. Again, we can only hope the ideas that come into fruition are good ones more times than not. I think someone with a great idea is going to weigh the options anyway, and having this office here will probably sway them more towards doing it than not.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Investors, smart or dumb, is all a VC firm really is -- they are not like a bank that gives a company a loan based on the liklihood of that being repaid. When a VC firm makes an investment they are probably MORE critical of the start-ups timeline to profitability than a traditional retail stock investor becuase in most cases a VC firm is not going to have any shares of the firm to trade if things head down -- they'll just see their investment evaporate.

If the VC firms invest in firms in the medical devices sector there is a pretty good chance that cash flow alone will help make that investment pay off -- people have insurance that will pay for medical devices when needed.

The pathetic excuse for a business plan of too many tech firms goes more like this: "get a whole lot of buzz for our marketing driven web site, get thousand or millions of suckers to look at the web site, sign up lots of other suckers who want to waste their marketing dollars on the goofs looking at our web site, do an IPO, make ourselves rich, get out before it collapses"...

Somehow you manage to write longwinded discourse without saying much. So is this good for Chicago or not? Googles stock price aside.

[marothisu]

Only 30% of NEA invests in medical related companies. While I do think they will seek out some medical companies, they will hardly increase that percentage to be the more dominant one. They are here for the tech companies, not necessarily for the medical companies.