Gave a couple of lectures at the University of Illinois. Hit on a couple of themes. Where I see new pain points, and that they should stay in the Midwest and build their business.

1. Short Sweet With Some Meat

2. Who Am I?
• 1984 Graduate of the College of Business
• @pointsnfigures; pointsandfigures.com
• Was an Independent Commodity Trader, CME
Board
• Co-Founder of Hyde Park Angels in Chicago
• Funder, and connector
• Idea guy

3. PAIN POINTS
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What’s a Pain Point?
Can it be solved?
Future Pain Points (no more copycats)
Novel Pain Points
New Pain Points Caused by Innovation
Employment! (Set a goal to work for yourself)

4. Advice From Twitter and Facebook
• Avoid Wall Street (LaSalle St)-Better for Engineers to look somewhere else
@talentedblonde @reformedbroker
• Engineering is great training for Entrepreneurs@JLM73TX
• Find a great designer (especially mobile)@howardlindzon
• Move to Chicago!! @troyhenikoff @rahmemanuel @brucemontgomery
@jbpritzker
• Go work for a startup. Opens options for you. @aaronklein
• Test the boundaries of knowledge like Claude Shannon @warrenmurdoch
• Break stuff and make stuff @nileshtravedi
• What skills are in demand today? What matters? Use that answer to
evaluate companies as you search. @coreyferengul
• Build your network. Create your own opportunities. @johnkish
• The great tech problems aren’t sexy. They transform industry and change
the world. @fredhoch

5. Chicago, It’s an Innovative Town
• Startups are thriving in Chicago.

6. Broader Midwest Innovation
• St.
Louis, Minneapolis, Madison, Indianapolis, An
n Arbor.
• Great place to start a company
• On the QT-Stealth mode is easier
• Many customers and Fortune 1000 firms
• Easier to bootstrap (Cheaper)
• Future (Healthcare and B2B)

7. Chicago, Hub of Industry
• Rivers, rail, distributed power, modern retailing, modern
architecture, atomic age, electronic trading, Second City
• NOW Chicago is synonymous with TECH
• Orbitz, CDW, CareerBuilder all Chicago
• Groupon, fastest growing company EVER
• GrubHub-0 to HUGE in 8 years
• Cleversafe-providing some of the biggest storage devices in
the world
• Guaranteed Rate-billions in mortgages
• Braintree sold for $800 million in 7 years

8. Great Ecosystems are Entrepreneur
Lead
• There is support for entrepreneurs where
there wasn’t before
• You can build a business.
• There is talent, just have to find it (HINT: A lot
of it is toiling away at HFT firms)
• Great talent in marketing, sales, accounting

9. Infrastructure
• 1871, Technori, Catapult, Junto
Institute, Nextspace, TechStars, Impact Engine
• HydeParkAngels, Irish Angels, Harvard
Angels, West Suburban Angels, Cornerstone
Angels, Firestarters,
• Chicago Innovation
Mentors, iBio/Propel, Illinois Technology
Association (ITA)
• BuiltInChicago.org

10. Do You Want It?
• It’s here, it’s free, it’s easy to get.
• What are You afraid of?
• The time is now.

11. Time For a Beer (Microbeer Hopefully)
Q+A