Starting Up: The Blog of Brenden Mulligan

Chicago Needs More Angel Investors

I WANT MORE CHICAGO ANGEL INVESTORS TO REGISTER FOR ANGELLIST

I spent yesterday at the MidVentures tech conference in one of the cities I consider home: Chicago. I lived in the windy city for seven years and absolutely love the city (minus its winters). In May, I moved out to the bay area and absolutely love it here too. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of amazing people already and get immersed in the startup eco-system that exists and finally have some better perspective on what’s missing in Chicago.

The Chicago entrepreneurial scene has seem some major strides in the past year:

• Its first real early stage fund, Lightbank, launched and is actively investing capital into small companies. I know one of its founders and I have no doubt that this fund will drive innovation and grow the startup culture in the city. 
• Chicago recently launched its first real startup incubator with Excelerate Labs. I was a mentor to some of the startups and am a huge supporter of what they are doing, as I detailed here.
• Chicago-based Groupon is the fastest growing company ever. Yes, EVER.
• Chicago-founded TechCocktail is becoming more of a national brand, even invading the meetup-crazed bay area with a very successful event.

Things are going well for Chicago. And they should be. But in my opinion, there is one huge missing piece that needs to change.

Chicago needs more angels.

There are plenty of entrepreneurs and early stage tech company employees who have done very very well for themselves. There are plenty of entrepreneurs who need the seed stage capital guidance.

What I’ve learned from being in San Francisco, is the magic of the area comes from successful entrepreneurs reinvesting their money, and more importantly their time and experience, back into the ecosystem. It’s a phenomenal culture if only for that one thing. Entrepreneurs succeed, and they immediately start reinvesting in the success of their community. 

The investments are never huge, but they get startups to launch. They get ideas validated. They keep the ecosystem going. It’s amazing. And Chicago needs it badly.

I know it’s a lofty goal, but here’s a first start. If you are an angel investor in Chicago, be easier to find. In SF, when a company gets funded, the angels are always part of the press release. It’s not as transparent in Chicago. So here’s my challenge:

If you are an angel investor:

RIGHT NOW, CLICK HERE AND LIST YOURSELF ON ANGELLIST. There are 190 angels registered in Silicon Valley and 8 in Chicago. Get your ass on there. If you’re listed, get your friends on there.

If you are an entrepreneur or VC:

Get people you know are angels to register on AngelList. Then tell everyone in the community to look there.

It’s a small start, but let’s make it a goal. Let’s get over 40 angels registered on AngelList by November.

Please help me, and the Chicago startup community, by trying to get this to happen!