Grab the Wheel Chicago

This morning I read the following piece by Joe Cahill of Crain’s on Truck Club’s acquisition: http://fw.to/40giOHO. He couldn’t have been more clear or right: Chicago’s strength as a tech capital will be defined by deals like this one. Whether it’s Spothero and Parkwhiz in parking, Analyte Health in healthcare, GoHealth in insurance and even GroupOn in marketing and advertising – many of our successes are based on combining domain expertise with technical know-how. We must face the facts: The success of large consumer based products and services are not our strongest suit. Our challenge as a business community in reaching success? Recognize earlier where pieces of business have the opportunity to integrate. For example, what if Sears or Marshall Field’s bought Trunk Club? What if a large local financial institution bought Braintree? It would keep the center of gravity in Illinois. Moreover, if the Crain’s Top 100 largest corporations actively engaged with local entrepreneurs to drive the next 100 years of their business, Chicago’s economy would expand exponentially. We’re seeing this kind of success at TechNexus in this area already. Chicago has the capacity and opportunity to become the GLOBAL center of digital transformation for a dozen industries. Are we going to miss the boat or are we going to get behind and take the wheel?