Did you go to the recent FUND conference? They did a great job of opening up the conference to 1871 entrepreneurs with comped tickets. Our product lead, Jimmie Bjorling, took advantage of the offer. The least we could do to thank them was to report back. Did you go? Comment below. If not, here’s the scoop.
The FUND Conference is a leadership conference meant to bring early stage investors together with growing companies. Three days, 40 speakers, and 100+ pitch-crazy companies all hoping to meet that special Angel, VC, Advisor, Corporate Venture champions, University Innovators, Private Equity, Policy Makers, and others who can help startups on the roller-coaster journey, and ideally, fast-track their funding.
Any real money in the room?
Afterall, it is the FUND Conference, right? Yes, there were several opportunities to mingle and even some built-in meet-ups in the side rooms to start the money slow-dance. However, here’s the reality check on Midwestern Math from what we heard at FUND and elsewhere. This isn’t meant to be negative. In fact, our Content Carnivores clients are VCs, Angel Networks, Investment Banks confirm. They reportedly look at between 200 and 500 companies each year to fund one (that’s right, 1) seed or early stage startup. And these are for investments that generally fall in the under $1M slot.
Can an event like FUND overcome those odds?
The bigger question is if Chicago can rise up and compete against New York and Silicon Valley. That’s the catch. If companies have to beat out 200 others to get a little gas in the tank, they’ll be spending a lot of time pitching instead of innovating. Of course, you can’t innovate at scale without working capital. We’ll revisit this in upcoming posts.
The energy level in the FUND Conference hall was stimulating, and seeing a few other 1871 companies is evidence that the tech community in CHI is expanding. Marc Biessy, from Evolve: Cyber Security Bootcamp (http://www.evolveacademy.io), was at the conference to see the company pitch, to network, and to see what the speakers and other entrepreneurs were presenting. He made lots of new connections and got to meet many interesting people in the startup world. Kristin Petersson was an exhibitor, and promoter of Gallerique (http://www.gallerique.com), a product that connects artists with potential buyers. She had good traffic at her table and many requests for company information, newsletter signups, and a few new connections that have been turning into more important relationships and potential business partners.
That’s our take-away: Connections are one of the most important components for startups. The FUND Conference succeeded in this respect, and we’re optimistic that some of these new relationships will lead to new investments.