The Chicago high tech community has a new venture capital incubator that’s aiming to help the Second City attract the next generation of technology success stories and venture capital jobs.
The “Plug and Play Tech Center” is looking for up to 100,000 square feet of space in downtown Chicago, and up to $100 million in VC funding to attract entrepreneurs from across the Midwest, according to a story in the Chicago Sun Times.
The project is being driven by Chris Sorenson, a Lake Forest, Illinois native who now lives in Silicon Valley. His partner is Saeed Amidi, who left his native Iran 31 years ago and became a successful entrepreneur and incubator guru in Silicon Valley. Sorenson directed strategy at Art.com before Getty Images bought it for $115 million in 1999.
Now, the two plan to model west-coast style venture investing for early-stage companies, helping them develop business plans, staff up their management, and introduce them to mentors and venture capital investors. “The idea is to import Silicon Valley venture capital and contacts to grow startups here,” Sorensen said.
Plug and Play offers cubicle rentals starting at $500 a month without any long-term lease. It also recruits Silicon Valley experts and investors to participate in seminars, a startup boot camp, business-plan pitch competitions and networking events for key entrepreneurial industries such as “clean” tech and cloud computing.
To date, Plug and Play houses 200 to 300 startups, and has incubated 500 companies since it opened its first site in 2006. Its efforts are particularly important given that small startup companies have accounted for nearly all of the job creation in the past 30 years, according to many studies.
“This country has so many startups — on average, 500,000 new firms are created each year,” said Dane Strangler, research manager for the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City-based private foundation that promotes education and entrepreneurship. “Small companies are necessary to provide services to large companies so that the big companies can create jobs.”
What’s your opinion? Can Silicon Valley-style venture capital and angel investing ramp up job creation and create new pockets of innovation in the Midwest and elsewhere? Add your comments below.
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