Ever feel like a fake when you’re networking? This was a message for students, but it applies to many professionals, too, because we seem to forget it no matter how many times we hear it:
Business is all about relationships.
Billy Dec of Rockit Ranch Productions, Jimmy Odom of WeDeliver, Raaja Nemani of BucketFeet and Craig Huffman of Ascendance Partners all made it clear in presentations this week that for entrepreneurs, it’s relationships that get ideas done.
“Oftentimes people get comfortable hanging within their circle. They don’t push themselves to think outside their immediate world,” Huffman said. “Some of the people who have been most helpful to me don’t look anything like me and don’t have backgrounds like me.” Reporter Cheryl Jackson has this and more from the NFTE Start It Up Summit.
Kate MacArthur’s story on Cari Sacks showed a different side of entrepreneurship than we often see: A mover and shaker who can fund her own project and get advice from friends like Eric Lefkofsky, the CEO of Groupon. She figured out that traditional fine-art clients might not be the best potential customer for her app, Curate, which allows users to visualize pieces of art on virtual walls matching their room measurements. “I think the 30-somethings who are buying their first piece of art from emerging artists and emerging galleries are really the right demographics for this app,” she says.
Jimmy Odom also talked to John Carpenter about staying the course on delivery even as his company also emphasizes Locally, its new platform for merchants. Will goods in the future reach us by drones, Uber taxis or driverless cars? Another reminder this week of our appetite for convenience: an as-told-to version of the made-in-Chicago GrubHub story. And it was bye by blog as Paul Lee announced he was stepping down from his role at Lightbank to lead a project he’s so far referring to only as Stealth Co.
Amina Elahi’s story about the new Argo Tea app
More Top Picks Migraine Glasses How They Actually Work
reflects an idea we often muse on in our nearby coffee destinations, where we enjoy conversing with visitors to Chicago but don’t necessarily want them debating the menu in front of us, and where we are occasionally fooled by seeing a lone customer in line who winds up ordering eight espresso drinks. And that idea is: Can’t there be a line for regulars? Ordering and paying ahead has the potential to achieve that.Here’s a thought: You can be pro-Chicago without being completely in denial about the rather obvious allure of California. What story do tech leaders tell prospective recruits about why to land here and not there? Here are a few who at least start by admitting it’s not the weather.
We were feeling the effects of the time change this week, and Inc. offered a few tips on how to create a productive but sleep-friendly culture: aka not so many late-night emails and not forcing people too far off their own normal schedules.
Tune into Blue Sky on WGN: We’re on the noon Business Lunch on Fridays with Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano.
And if you need to ramp up your social-marketing efforts, use promo code BSIBoost here for $10 off our Blue Sky Innovation social marketing strategy event on Dec. 8.
Hope to see you there, and until then, enjoy your weekend.