Chicago startups to watch in 2015 • Hacker News Board

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#41

Post by throwawaymaroon » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 12:58 AM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #11

bruceb wrote: post #3

From the list: Mac & Mia is an online, custom clothing boutique for kids with soul & style. The company has a team of personal stylists that create looks for newborns to kids up to six. To get started, you create a style profile for your child and then, wait for the magic to happen. Once you decide to make the purchase, Mac & Mia will send you a box full of clothing customized for your child -- if your baby isn’t int…

Let's not be classist. There's probably a market for this. I live in a trendy part of the city and boutiqe baby stores are a thing and have been a thing for at least ten years now. This is just a personal shopper for those stores. I don't see how this really is more ridiculous than owning a current gen 3D printer or other expensive geek friendly frivolous toy. In fact, if you're part of the wealthy crowd, what your k…

Using a PC approach to protect wealthy people from criticism. Humorous.

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#42

Post by tptacek » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 1:05 AM UTC

chrisduesing wrote: post #39

kevinmchugh wrote: post #6

I appreciate BuiltInChicago as an effective way to promote knowledge about the Chicago tech scene and I looked there the last couple times I was job-searching, but this list is really uninspiring. Uber for [moving, dry-cleaning, beauty needs], clones of better-known startups, clones of startups that have already failed. There should be more focus on what Chicago's uniquely good at, and what makes us not just a worse-…

Mercaris, data and trading for Organic agriculture, based out of 1871, founders are grads of Excelerate (now Techstars Chicago), recently closed a Series A, hiring/growing.

You're way more connected with the Chicago startup scene than I am. Do you think this list was representative? (I'm not challenging you; I genuinely don't know the answer).

Let's set up an HN meetup.

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#43

Post by urda » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 1:32 AM UTC

jjwiseman wrote: post #9

If you’re a recent startup founder, chances are you’ve taken a huge paycut. Well guess what - America was built on innovators like yourself and there are government assistance programs designed to help you while you sacrifice to grow your business. mRelief helps a user determine whether they qualify for Illinois government assistance programs like Food Stamps. Wow.

One of the many reasons that Chicago, and companies there, should not be taken seriously.

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#44

Post by peterevans » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 1:34 AM UTC

jjwiseman wrote: post #14

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of your links are local to Chicago. Yes, diluted nationwide I'm sure its an acceptable loss, but locally things are different. Politics are local and dismissing my experience with nationwide links makes you look especially disingenuous here. This is like saying Detroit is very safe to live in if you look at nationwide crime stats. The only thing local here is the Reagan welfare queen comment from almost 40 years…

True, none of the links I posted were about the Chicago area. Do you have data?

I imagine if they had data, they wouldn't have trotted out tired gripes and stereotypes in the first place...

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#45

Post by godzillabrennus » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 1:50 AM UTC

xasos wrote: post #24

Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies. Some of my favorite Chicago startups: 1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data 2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform 3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams 4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here) 5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

Http://StageBloc.com - http://SimpleRelevance.com http://visuhire.com - http://Bikespike.com - http://ventureconnects.com - http://knowledgehound.com

These are all startups coming together in Chicago. All are exciting.

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#46

Post by ahoog42 » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 4:10 AM UTC

xasos wrote: post #24

Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies. Some of my favorite Chicago startups: 1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data 2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform 3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams 4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here) 5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

We're Chicago-based startup [1] that helps secure mobile apps and devices and recently completed a 12.5m Series A.

If you're interested in mobile security, you can get an idea about our work in a recently vulnerability we helped Samsung patch impacting 200m+ devices. [2]

Over 50% of our company is remote and we're hiring 30+ people this year. If you're interested in mobile and/or security, would love to hear from you. [3]

[1] https://www.nowsecure.com/ [2] https://www.nowsecure.com/blog/2015/01/27/samsung-corrupdate... [3] https://www.nowsecure.com/careers/

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#47

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 4:23 AM UTC

kevando wrote: post #26

xasos wrote: post #24

Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies. Some of my favorite Chicago startups: 1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data 2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform 3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams 4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here) 5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

Some of those are on the list...

[deleted]

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#48

Post by xasos » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 4:27 AM UTC

godzillabrennus wrote: post #45

xasos wrote: post #24

Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies. Some of my favorite Chicago startups: 1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data 2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform 3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams 4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here) 5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

Http://StageBloc.com - http://SimpleRelevance.com http://visuhire.com - http://Bikespike.com - http://ventureconnects.com - http://knowledgehound.com These are all startups coming together in Chicago. All are exciting.

Maybe it's just me, but I see sooo many HR/Marketing/Finance startups in Chicago and they are all kinda boring to me because they are all approaching very similar problems.

Didn't know about Bikespike, looks cool!

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#49

Post by xasos » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 4:29 AM UTC

acabal wrote: post #30

xasos wrote: post #24

Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies. Some of my favorite Chicago startups: 1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data 2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform 3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams 4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here) 5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

Basecamp may be cool, but it's hardly a startup--it's been around since like 2004.

Mabye it's just the culture of the company, because the company still feels new tech (although it's old). I hesitated to put Braintree on here for the same reason (and because it was acq. by PayPal)

Re: Chicago startups to watch in 2015

#50

Post by bartc » Sat, Feb 07, 2015, 4:33 AM UTC

xasos wrote: post #24

Not a big fan of the list, as they left out some great companies. Some of my favorite Chicago startups: 1. TempoDB - Database for IOT and sensor data 2. 640 Labs - Precision agriculutre platform 3. Opternative - Online Eye Exams 4. ShipBob (YC S14) - Easy shipping for businesses and personal (Disclaimer: Currently work here) 5. Basecamp - Project Managment Software

Cleversafe - exabyte object storage system vendor