Innovation Ideas

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Over the last 15 years, the hyperlink has proven to be an incredibly disruptive tool.

On a website like Ancestry.com, a link on an online family tree can help an extended family member rediscover his/her genealogy and identity.  A link via a tweet on Twitter to a photo documenting political unrest in Libya or the Middle East can now create instant international reaction.  On AngelList, a link to a hot, new startup company can create an avalanche of investor and media buzz overnight.

The speed at which the interconnectedness of information has accelerated depends on one small device: the hyperlink. Increased connectivity works in person, too. TechWeek’s mission is to connect as many people, places and things within the span of one week.  We approach digital connectivity (social network links, media links, project management links, etc.) as a clear one-week mission statement.  We aim to give tech startups that foster connectivity instant access to an audience of TechWeek attendees in the pursuit of discovering and distributing “best practices” for an international ecosystem of connectivity. The philosophy of connectivity is larger than any one startup company and any one city.  TechWeek invites the world to join in that mission.

Just as StartupWeekend creates a micro-incubator of startups over a 3-day period, TechWeek will transform Chicago into an incubator of ideas, opportunities, partnerships and creative expression by enabling a critical mass of digital connectivity on dozens of online platforms.

Here are a few tools you can use to connect before, during and after TechWeek:

• Plancast is a social network where you can find TechWeek events, subscribe to your friends’ event feeds and publish your plans to your subscribers.

• Facebook enables TechWeek participants to communicate with the TechWeek team and receive updates by ‘liking’ the TechWeek page.

• Quora enables you to post and answer questions about TechWeek within a larger community of experts.

• Twitter tracks all TechWeek conversations that mention @thetechweek or the #techwk hashtag.

• SCHED* conference scheduling software will help you plan TechWeek Conference sessions and see which panels, talks and workshops your friends are attending.

• Linkedin lets you connect your digital resume and professional network to a larger TechWeek community of business leaders.

• Foursquare enables you to check into the venue where you are, see who else is there and visualize where all other TechWeek attendees are right now.

• Built In Chicago connects, educates and promotes the growing digital community in Chicago.

• DoubleDutch gives TechWeek attendees the ability to find speakers and check into sessions and events during TechWeek, all while holding mobile conversations with other attendees.

Big Question: Is Chicago witnessing the emergence of a new innovation ecosystem?

In less than 2 years, the Chicago technology and innovation ecosystem has seen an escalation of successful startup fundraising, growth and acquisitions.  Chicago’s business and technology leaders now discuss how this represents a “new ecosystem” of tech in the city.  I’ve had the benefit of participating in several conversations around this groundswell of activity in Chicago’s tech community ecosystem, support structures, incubators, networks and general ‘connectivity’ of Chicago startups, technology, and innovation. From our perception, the Chicago innovation ecosystem appeared- grew- and became aware of its impact on a global stage.

Question 1: Does the growth of Chicago innovation create a new ecosystem?

A counter-question would be: does the Chicago ecosystem of universities, corporations, civic leaders enable a new type of innovation? Chicago has, for decades, proved unique as a multi-dimensional capital of art, education, finance, corporate management, media, and entertainment. Chicago has one of the most diverse yet sustainable ecosystems of any major city.

Question 2: Does innovation produce ecosystems, or do ecosystems produce innovation?

In silicon valley you have proximity and connectivity of tech companies to other tech companies. The Oracle’s and Twilio’s are silicon valley tech companies that sell to other tech people. The silicon valley ecosystem is one-dimensional tech. You are surrounded by tech; and that becomes your only ecosystem. In other words, the innovation produced by silicon valley emerges from an incomplete ecosystem.

Idea 1: The proximity and complexity of an ecosystem directly influences the type of innovation created and distributed.

Chicago is an online options trading hub because of an existing ecosystem around finance. Chicago is an e-commerce hub because of of its history as a capital of traditional commerce. Chicago is an enterprise infrastructure hub because of the 31 Fortune 500s in our backyard. Technologies like thinkorswim, Groupon, GrubHub and Redbox appear in Chicago–and in no other city–because of our existing sustainable diverse ecosystem.

Idea 2: We are not witnessing a “new innovation ecosystem” in Chicago.  Instead, the world is looking at Chicago as a hub of diverse ‘exogenous’ technologies because of its existing innovation ecosystem.

In theory, the Chicago innovation ecosystem is not new and is not immature. On the contrary, it is because the Chicago innovation ecosystem is established, sustainable, and unique in its diversity that Chicago is able to produce its own exogenous type of innovation. It just so happens that in the past 2 years, the world is recognizing the importance of Chicago-style innovation.

Some geographies such as Silicon Valley foster ‘endogenous’ innovation: using technology to innovate on top of existing technologies wherein technology itself is the ecosystem. Chicago is unique because of our ‘exogenous’ innovation: the points from which innovation emerges, is distributed and then impacts form an externally diverse ecosystem of universities, law firms, banks, Fortune 500s and community organizations.

Idea 3: Chicago is aware of itself as an ecosystem because the Chicago city-as-ecosystem is now recognized by the world as an ecosystem-as-incubator.

Most cities do not recognize themselves as innovation ecosystems because most cities do not produce innovation, due to the interconnected diversity of their ecosystems. That is why the world recognizes Chicago as a new type of innovation hub (external ‘exogenous’ diverse innovation) and most other major cities do not have that innovation identity.

Conclusion: It is not true to assume that a new Chicago innovation ecosystem has just emerged. On the contrary, the world is now recognizing Chicago as a producer of innovation because of an established, sustainable, diverse city-as-incubator ecosystem. Our national recognition itself has created the identity of an ecosystem, though that ecosystem has been embedded in the fabric of Chicago for decades.

This is a two part series on the Excelerate Labs application process.  Excelerate Labs is “an intensive summer accelerator for startups driven by proven entrepreneurs and investors. Led by world class entrepreneurs Sam Yagan (OKCupid, Sparknotes) and Troy Henikoff (SurePayroll), the program is unique in attracting dozens of mentors from around the country to work with the teams in direct 1-on-1 meetings.”

Ethan Austin, Co-founder of Chicago’s GiveForward – a startup that helps people, nonprofits and causes raise money for medical bills and various other reasons - gives his views on what it takes to do well with Excelerate.  GiveForward was one of the ten companies chosen for the inaugural class of Excelerate in 2010. Since then, they have raised $500,000 in funding, led by one of the investors they met last year at Excelerate.

Desiree Vargas-Wrigley, Co-founder of GiveForward, at Excelerate

by Ethan Austin

Thinking about applying to Excelerate Labs for summer 2011? My suggestion: stop thinking about it, and go do it. Like, right now.

Here are four tips based on our experience that can help you improve your chances.

(1) Highlight your traction – By the time we applied, we had already processed $1 million in donations on our site and had received a number of nice stories in the media. If you have any traction whatsoever, don’t be bashful about highlighting it in your application. Put it at the very top with gold stars around it. According to feedback we got from the director of Excelerate, the $1 million in processed donations was the number one reason we were accepted.

(2) Apply now! No really, apply like yesterday or last week. We applied on the first day applications opened last year and it gave us a leg up. The Excelerate folks are going to be sifting though something like 500 – 1000 applications this year. They are going to choose 10 companies. If you are application #857 your idea better be damn good.

(3) Network the hell out of it. After we applied, we looked at the list of Excelerate advisors. We asked anyone we knew on the list to write a letter of recommendation for us. We also went to the Excelerate pre-selection cocktail hours and made sure to schmooze with the folks running Excelerate. And then we followed up several times via email.

Super-bonus tip – everyone and their mother will be trying to suck up to the Excelerate directors. The directors are going to shake hands with a million people and they are NOT going to remember you, even if you do get a chance to meet them. Instead of going this route, introduce yourself to the intern who likely planned the event you’re attending. You’ll have more time to strike up a real conversation with her and she’ll be more likely to remember you when it comes time to making final selections.

(4) Get Lucky. Our company is a crowdfunding platform for out-of-pocket medical expenses. Coincidentally, right before we applied, the director of Excelerate had come across a situation where his wife’s colleague needed to raise money for medical expenses, so he immediately saw the need for our services. Moral of the story – no matter how awesome your company is, sometimes it really just comes down to being in the right place at the right time.

* Ethan Austin is the Co-founder and current intra-office burrito eating champion at GiveForward, an Excelerate ’10 Company.

With the recent availability of the Verizon iPhone, AT&T, the routinely lampooned wireless service provider for the iPhone has made one concession to try to win the hearts and minds of its fed-up customers.

In an attempt to route what many are anticipating to be a mass customer defection, AT&T has started sending direct mail offers to its customers offering a free wireless service booster – the 3G MicroCell – if they continue to use the service. It’s not every customer that receives these free 3G MicroCells either. Only the “top 7.5 percent of 3G wireless customers identified as likely to experience poor in-building coverage at home or in small offices,” according to an article by Engadget. 

It was an outrage to many when AT&T made the MicroCell available to customers for “only” $199.99, prompting anger from many bloggers who questioned why customers would pay more to boost a service that was functioning so poorly in the first place.  It seemed an odd “solution” by AT&T for their oft-maligned inability to provide consistently good wireless service in major metropolitan areas.

Now, this letter tells customers they can get the “new” AT&T 3G MicroCell “at no charge.”  The letter says: “If you are not getting the signal you expect in your house, this may be the perfect solution for you; however, it is not intended for use in areas with strong wireless signal strength.”

It’s no wonder AT&T has suddenly started giving out this $200 “enhancement” for free. It estimated that as many as 1.4 million customers (according to a survey conducted by Credit Suisse in September 2010) might switch to Verizon in the next two weeks. Fed-up AT&T users are looking for ways to break their contract, but if they sign on with the 3G MicroCell, they will be agreeing to an additional one-year contract. Not so free after all.

AT&T should be scared. Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer for Verizon Wireless, announced that pre-order sales for the iPhone were record breaking. “In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history,” Mead says in a press release available to the General Public on the 10th of February. “And, when you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story.”

The terms of this “free” offer come with an additional caveat to the additonal year’s contract:  If you break your contract with AT&T in the next 12 months (read: switch to Verizon), you have to pay for the device and its “service” at a “prorated cost.”

Hopefully AT&T customers will see through this gambit and realize that there ain’t such a thing as a free MicroCell!

On Saturday, January 8th, a gunman in Arizona fired on a Federal judge, a Democratic Congresswoman, aides and many others. People are dead, others are seriously injured.
At this point, most of us have already heard of the event. But, how did you hear about it, how quickly, and more importantly, how accurately?

As far as the Twitterverse was concerned, @Rep_Giffords’ last tweet was “My 1st Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later.” National Public Radio (@NPR), BBC News (@BBCBreaking) and Reuters (@Reuters) all tweeted that she had died.

Much has been made of the ability and power of Twitter to spread the news of an event quickly, that it can make something known to a massive number of people in very short periods of time. A plane goes down. Someone tweets, it is retweeted, confirmed (or not confirmed), and then it explodes. It is fast, much faster than traditional news.

But when an event of the magnitude that we saw on Saturday occurs, it is interesting to see how Twitter becomes a marginal tool in the start and spread of the story.
Twitter’s role in emerging breaking news is slowly finding a few niches that are useful, but not exhaustive. More than likely, Twitter will eventually be a method of aggregating and disseminating news chunks, but will not itself be a valid news option.

I recently read this article by Darren Rovell, a sports enthusiast with 500,000 followers. One of the headlines of his article, “My 13 Golden Rules of Twitter” was ‘Don’t Trust Everything that is Tweeted.’  He continues to say, “If you are retweeting something that involves news, make sure the original tweet is from a reputable source.” But even the reputable sources get it wrong sometimes.

Twitter can be excellent for breaking the first nugget of a story, that initial happening that is of sizable importance – as long as what you are reading is accurate. It is way too easy to not check facts; rely too heavily on hearsay; and then make mistakes so large that you are declaring government figures dead before their actual demise.

Use Twitter, be there when something important happens, but just don’t catch yourself on the wrong end of a bad tweet.