You're watching...
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center CEO Kevin Willer on how the workspace at “1871” helps technology entrepreneurs in Chicago launch their start-up...
Also in this playlist...
Auto-advance: ON
Auto-advance
This transcript is automatically generated
-- lines incubator for hopeful tech entrepreneurs is just opened in Chicago so what are these startups need to become the next FaceBook and Groupon.
Our next guest knows he's Kevin will learn the CEOs to have a plan entrepreneurial center and the -- and how much Chicago's new -- -- 1871.
Kevin thanks so much revealing that I know you have -- vast experience with -- from north before we get in the new center what are your what are they saying to these days what's the environment like to be -- -- nor.
You know 2008 in the -- the Great Recession was a great time for entrepreneurship to take off a lot of folks thought about.
You know being transfers that might not have before a lot of kids other jobs their parents losing jobs and you know they decided to be entrepreneurs instead are going down that.
Kind of corporate path.
So you know you really -- notch first of take hold across the country.
Especially digital entrepreneurs who are building on today's tech flat platforms like FaceBook into on those kinds of things.
OK so as CEO of Chicago land entrepreneurial center you the basically are at the Helm of this new center.
-- 1871.
Until -- not at.
So 1871 is -- 50000 square foot.
I start of senator for for digital starts to -- work so think about about 300 deaths throughout the senator's work.
I start -- are working on their businesses their code mean there are doing design they're they're doing business development partnerships.
We also have a lot of programming classes where they can learn.
How did you start up you know kind of finance or sort of law or social media and then we have an incubator inside of it as well program -- -- -- program.
Where you can go through -- -- get a lot of heavy mentor ship and then be introduced to investors the end so it kind of a one size fits all place that.
-- brings all the pieces of a great start of community together.
Yeah I love -- and I love that eighteen -- anyone of course after the great Chicago fire and all the we're building that was done.
Afterwards the engineers came not everybody came -- to -- the city.
Why -- Chicago I -- Chicago was recently voted that third worst day I'm sorry Illinois that the worst thing to do business in.
State and local taxes are almost at 10% why would -- -- would wanna -- Do business in Chicago.
You know the reality is.
We have two of the top five business schools in the world we have a top five computer science scores -- Champaign Urbana -- -- -- the University of -- We've IAT -- of the schools we have all the corporations here like Kraft and Boeing you just mentioned.
We have -- support from mayor Manuel on the mayor's office and from the state of Illinois.
And the startups here you know the so early stage that tax environment doesn't really bother because they're not making any money have a -- campaigning taxes.
What I worry about his later -- you know when they get really big and they girl alive you know -- Billick somewhere else but America look at California because that's a bad in bad shape -- You did you know I'm Emily tomorrow you did say though that sales people are coming out of Chicago we might again -- -- -- you know there and innovators in Silicon Valley.
The -- salespeople in Chicago.
Yeah yeah you're getting a lot of business people here coming out of the business schools.
That are great of the business development -- at the sales.
I'm you saw this in group by group -- really a marketing company based in technology has a lot of great sales and business development people there.
We know how to build sales companies here I think a lot better than any other place in the country so.
If we can if we -- complement it with technology that's really when we're gonna we're gonna take off.
Yeah -- is gonna get this tax rates down yeah.
I thank you so much for joining us -- ticket -- 1871.
Very cool thanks so much.
