Back when Brian and I created midVentures, we always intended on becoming an ‘incubator’ in one sense or another. Though we do have ownership stakes in 5+ of our peripheral startups, trading services for equity tends to ‘over-leverage’ our own time.

Alex Wilhelm, Jon Pasky, and Nikhil Sethi have done a great job watching the national tech incubator scene, and we all resonated on this article

http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/what-would-a-chicago-style-ycombinator-look-like/

What I find interesting about this article is the truth that we in Tech Chicago tend to forget- Chicago does not have the early stage capital, the tech media, or the web 2.0 jobs that other cities have. What we do have is corporations. Ironically, corporations might just be a startup’s future best friend.

Blue Cross recently put another $18m into Sandbox Industries’ seed stage tech startup fund. I see that as a shining example of how chicago corporations can benefit from our fledgling tech entrepreneurship scene. Web 2.0 talent stays in chicago, and big corps get to outsource (or crowd-source) their R&D to 24 year olds willing to work for $2-3k a month. Some of chicago’s lowest paying jobs might become a corporation’s highest long-term return on investment.

Two of my friends have came to me holding y-combinator applications for their own ideas. And Chicago cannot compete with Y-Combinator for social capital, technology resources, or entrepreneurial connections. But some startups just need a corporate partner or a corporate sponsor. The cost of one VP’s salary can fund 10 startups a year. Beyond Blue Cross, who else will take this initiative?