Going International – Chicago’s Venture Funding Frontier

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1871 Says: Our partners at Sage are gearing up for their annual Sage Summit, the largest gathering of small and medium-sized business in the world. The 1871 community can attend Sage Summit at a special rate using code 1871PROMO here. Ahead of the event, Sage has contributed a guest blog to the 1871 site, highlighting Sage Summit speaker Daymond John’s entrepreneurial journey. Learn more below:

[Read more…] about Motivate your career with Daymond John, Star of ‘Shark Tank’

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We’re constantly rushing from one thing to the next. All of us, all of the time. The days are ever longer and the nights are even worse. I call it a life of “playing the entire game in overtime.” You might be kidding yourself and calling it masterful multi-tasking, but I’d say it’s mostly just a mess. We’re constantly trying to make time for everything and we’re discovering that not only is this an impossible dream, but we end up spending too much of our time on the urgent, rather than the important. We lose sight of what really matters in our lives and businesses. Our inboxes (calls, emails and especially texts) are driving us instead of the other way around. You’ll never get into the flow if you’re fighting non-stop fires all day long.

[Read more…] about Leaders Learn Best by Listening

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For the last year or two, it’s been fairly easy for the naysayers to continually predict the imminent demise of Facebook. The latest rants focus on the alleged slippage in the sharing by FB users of their “personal” news and details. For me, even if true, this falls somewhere between “who really cares anyway?” and “TMI” to begin with. There’s plenty of this kind of crap to go around and we should all actually be grateful to hear that the over-sharing is abating even if Kayne and the Kardashians are still killing us with just their shameless alliteration alone.

[Read more…] about Facebook’s Fabulous Future

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Thanks for coming to 1871, @futurefounders!

A photo posted by @1871chicago on

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I wanted to provide you with my thoughts on my first 30 days as an 1871 Mentor. Jim Dugan, J.B. Pritzker, and Ellen Rudnick were certainly right about the energy and enthusiasm of the entrepreneurs associated with 1871!

Thus far, I have conducted four days of office hours (18 total slots), met with 14 different companies with only one no-show. My discussion areas: 1) concisely presenting a company’s competitive advantage to capital providers; 2) how to divide equity among startup founders; and 3) the unique challenges women entrepreneurs face in raising capital appeared to have resonated with the entrepreneurs.

This week I was told that my ideas may have already had an impact with two entrepreneurs. One company, Starchup, met with a company that I had consulted with previously, to discuss my thought that their respective business models were complementary. After meeting, they are in the process of finalizing a deal that could substantially increase their respective revenues. A second company, SpaceHQ, utilized my suggestion to create a competitive sales force model to generate increased salesperson attention to SpaceHQ’s product. I was told that potential customers have embraced this idea enthusiastically.

Other Mentors, such as Maria Burud of Zanon Group, have been very helpful in introducing me to 1871 companies they have been mentoring where my expertise and experience could be a fit. I must compliment you on the 1871 staff, especially Rhonda and George, who have been generous with their time and have been very patient in answering my many questions.

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to be a part of this excellent business effort.

About the Author
Jerrold B. Carrington, President and COO, TurnerPatterson
Jerrold B. Carrington is President and COO of TurnerPatterson, LLC.where he oversees all operations and financial activities for TurnerPatterson. In addition to joining TurnerPatterson, Mr. Carrington is a co-founding general partner of INROADS Capital Partners, L.P., a $50 million private equity firm in the Chicago area that invests in middle to later stage companies, particularly those targeting the urban consumer. He is also the founder of Carrington Partners, LLC a financial advisory firm that specializes in providing private equity investment advice and counsel to middle market companies.

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Technology columnist Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times recently argued that the UBER model doesn’t translate very well and can’t be reliably  applied to the thousands of businesses that have rapidly appeared in virtually every industry claiming to be the “UBER” of whatever. He thinks these companies are being started and run by people who are either irrational or sadly deluded and that a massive shakeout looms. There’s one UBER and that’s UBER– end of story. He’s not entirely wrong, but his view is too simplistic.

[Read more…] about The Five Rules of Uber-ization

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1871 Says: Our partners at Sage are gearing up for their annual Sage Summit, the largest gathering of small and medium-sized business in the world. The 1871 community can attend Sage Summit at a special rate using code 1871PROMO here. Ahead of the event, Sage has contributed a guest blog to the 1871 site, highlighting keynote speaker Sir Richard Branson’s entrepreneurial journey. Learn more below:

[Read more…] about Sage Summit with Sir Richard Branson

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Both inside and outside of Turkey’s borders, people are noticing the opportunities that a fast-growing, developing market can churn out. At an international level, 500 Startups announced the creation of 500 Istanbul, a $15M micro-fund that will invest in more than 100 Turkish startups in the next several years. 500 Startups already invested in eight companies founded by Turkish entrepreneurs: Udemy, Socialwire, Parlakbirgelecek, Connected2.me, Boostable, Adphorus, Mobile Action, and Koding.

[Read more…] about Connecting Chicago and the Turkish startup ecosystem

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