Community excitement over 1871

We believed there was some demand in Chicago’s startup community for an incredible co-working space with dynamic programming – classes, events, office hours with experts – and the response shows that belief was right on.  Entrepreneurs from all corners of Chicago have reached out to the team or visited 1871.com to learn more about this ambitious project we announced Wednesday morning.  In addition, civic, corporate, and government leaders have been in touch to see how they can help make this an awesome place for startups.

The response to our initial blog post broke all kinds of records – over 4,000 views, 142 promotions, 61 comments on BuiltInChicago.org.  @1871Chicago already has 453 followers and 1871 has over 100 Likes on Facebook.

But the most important thing is that Chicago startups see this as a place to build their business in the early-stage and the evidence is seen in the applications.

1871 received 50 startup applications the first day we went live!

If you are a great startup or know of one – please apply today at 1871.com

We will have many announcements in the coming weeks around anchor tenants and programming partners plus events that 1871 will host.  We will also have a construction update soon.  Please subscribe to this blog for the latest and greatest and to follow our progress.

And finally, we’d like to say THANK YOU!  The overwhelmingly positive response from across Chicago’s startup community has been humbling and we look forward to working together to open 1871 in the Spring!