A response to Joe Cahill’s column “The Fortune 500 vs. Generation Y,” Crain’s Chicago Business

Blog by Frank Muscarello, Founder MarkITx

Just over a year ago MarkITx was accepted into 1871 as one of the first 15 companies to become part of the community. To say that the journey from beginning to end has been remarkable seems to fall somewhat flat in expressing what I feel has been the true reward of our time here. We have accomplished so much in such a short period of time – an acceleration of our business that would not have been possible anywhere else. Without question, 1871 has been the conduit to building our networks and to our burgeoning success.

We entered 1871 without fully realizing what we were getting ourselves into. We leave knowing we have been a part of something game changing – both for our business and for Chicago.

At 1871 we were lucky enough to find our technical co-founder who made the decision to take the role without pay because he believed in the concept and because he thought that if things didn’t work out, he could find other cool startups to go work for at 1871. We continue our aggressive pursuit of top talent from the best engineers, operations, and business development who are excited about the opportunity to disrupt a huge market.

Plugging into the 1871 ecosystem also helped us raise a significant amount of capital for our seed round and we are generating interest from the top east and west coast firms who will be there to support our continued growth.

We have always looked at 1871 as an opportunity. Our commitments were high for our families and we knew we were going to try and capitalize on what was in front of us. This place doesn’t do the work for you but the rewards continue to grow the more energy you put into it.

It is bittersweet to become alumni of 1871 today, but it has truly been an honor to call this place home for the last year. We look forward to the next chapter in our business trajectory and in having the chance to give back to this community by becoming what we hope will be a success story that spawns innovation and creativity for other entrepreneurs here in Chicago.

Thank you to JB, Kevin and the entire CEC team for all of the support.