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What Happens Next?

March 6th, 2009

The ice in chicago is beginning to thaw- and all us programmers, entrepreneurs, businessfolk, lawyers, accountants, and city-dwellers walk into the sunlight and ask ourselves- what happens next? We usually choose our next steps either based on what has or has not worked in the past; or on what we hope for in the future. So many of us cling to our revenue streams and business models for dear life- and others stay up late at night brainstorming the next innovation or application.

What happens next at midVentures? We are building a board of advisers as we combine client-based work with in-house application development; and what will some day be venture seed investment fund. Honestly – chicago needs some semblance of a seed-stage tech incubator community.

What happens next with new venture ideas? Web-based software such as t1track or remixgalaxy fill my days with project management while high velocity iPhone app ideas bounce off the walls. We are working on a web app that combines the models from salesforce, plaxo, and elance into a pretty interesting business collaboration tool. But I its not ready for the public eye.

Some of my friends are applying to business schools – such as Leon and Anna, best of luck to them. Others are exploring law school or graduate school. Such choices definitely assist with the glaring ‘what happens next’ question.

But as midVentures – we want your ideas about ‘what happens next’. We have some interesting client work and in-house venture ideas in the pipeline – but I would like you to tell me how midVentures can be more of a community and incubator.

Posted by Geoff Domoracki
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  • Josh

    Been pondering this a lot lately. Keep catching myself thinking that what comes next is “move to silicon valley area to find quality teams/partners for web ventures”, which really annoys me since I’m also convinced this could and should be possible HERE. What we need more of here in chicago is avenues to attempt to find partners for web business ideas (business partners such as co-founders with similar ideals, tech/creative partners who are interested in entrepreneurial endeavors, and funding partners if applicable). The idea of an incubator community is a great one, but here in the Midwest I’d venture to guess many don’t know where to start, or how the process should flow. I’m not sure what to do with the Think Tank model, but I understand what an incubator model is all about. What needs to happen next is to find ways to get people together sharing ideas and talking realistically about getting some of them off the ground while still remaining rooted in our day jobs (for as long as necessary). There needs to be an understanding of how an incubator community can help develop but not steal good ideas. There must be some clarification that anything is possible and that one doesn’t have to move out West to see the roadmap to success and make things happen.

  • Geoff Domoracki

    Hey Josh. I definitely agree that the biggest value-added that an ‘incubator model’ can add would be the network of potential partners. midVentures actually has a bustling community of ideas and idea people – what we need now is regular conversations about those ideas and opportunities so that interactions can turn into partnerships. If you have any idea on how to facilitate that on a larger scale – feel free to post ideas.

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