Some excerpts from a talk by Adrian Holvaty on Jan 24, 2014 (from his transcript at “Why Chicago needs to stop playing by Silicon Valley’s rules“).
Chicago is great for bootstrappers. Let’s take advantage of that.
“Bootstrapping” has a few different connotations, but what I specifically mean is: small companies with a couple of people, likely developers, who take no outside investment money. They build products because they love the work, the craftsmanship, the pride in building and creating.
They want to make a good living, but, just as important, they want freedom — financial freedom, of course, but equally importantly freedom from people telling them what to do (bosses, investors, etc.).
They want to build solid, revenue-generating businesses without the need for an exit.
Read the whole thing, Holovaty offers some very good insights
Adrian Holvarty is the co-creator of the Django Web framework the and founder of EveryBlock. He is currently at work building Soundslice, which is “living sheet music.”
Some related blog posts:
- Chicago Is Not Going to be the Next Silicon Valley” BY CBI Insights
- Marketing Your Startup Hub by Evan Miller which suggested to Holovaty a tagline “Chicago: Be your own Boss.”
- “A founder appeals to Chicago to let go of Silicon Valley-sized dreams” by John Carpenter (@ScoopCarp) for the Chicago Tribune which opens:
“Adrian Holovaty says it’s time to rebrand the Chicago startup scene, focusing on passionate bootstrappers rather than small firms looking to get huge. Playing “the Silicon Valley game” isn’t going to get Chicago any closer to the kind of massive venture-capital dollars that flow through California, Holovaty told about 450 people gathered Thursday morning for the Chicago Entrepreneurial Center’s 2014 Startup Forecast.” - I wrote a three part series encouraging each region to play to local strengths in cultivating its own startup ecosystem: