A place for the latest news on innovations and innovators throughout the Midwest.
At a campaign rally in Georgia on Monday, Newt Gingrich tore into President Obama’s plan to provide subsidies for electric vehicles. He also decided to take a swipe at the Chevy Volt.
“Here’s my point, folks,” Gingrich said. “You can’t put a gun-rack in a Volt.”
That turned out to be a falsehood that YouTube user jtmcdole couldn’t abide.
Here’s his video response:
Last week, we told you about The Edge Factor, a new online show about the amazing, creative and challenging world of modern manufacturing.
The goal of the show is to change the face of manufacturing, away from the dull and dirty image of the past to the high-tech version that exists in many factories today.
This Friday, we’re going to have a live web chat with Jeremy Bout, the host and creator of The Edge Factor. The chat will be at 1 p.m Eastern time here on the Changing Gears website.
We hope to ask Bout about his vision for the show, why he started the show in the first place, and where he goes from here. If you have questions, please join us. Or if you have ideas for how to change manufacturing’s image, join us.
In the meantime, if you want to find out more about The Edge Factor, you can check out episodes online by clicking here.
Built In Chicago
The non-profit group Built In Chicago analyzed data from 2011 and found that it was a big, big year for web-based startups in the city.
128 new companies launched last year, and the total amount of new capital raised by web-based companies in Chicago was up 431 percent. A hefty chunk of that increase came from Groupon. But even excluding the coupon giant, funding of Chicago’s web startups was up 75.8 percent.
UPDATE: Maria Katris, Executive Director of Built In Chicago, estimates in an email to us that the the 128 businesses launched last year created 700-1,000 jobs. And the digital sector as a whole is responsible for 25,000 – 30,000+ jobs for the Chicago area. Built In Chicago also looks at the top 50 digital companies in the Windy City and finds that they’ve created more than 11,500 jobs.
And there are signs that Chicagoans are preparing for some long-term growth in this area. We told you last month about 1871, a new 50,000 square foot startup tech center in Chicago. And companies from other parts of the country are starting to take notice of Chicago’s tech talent, particularly in the sales and marketing world.
Katris says she expects further growth in the coming years. She tells us:
In 2011, a new startup launched every third day. We predict you will see a new startup launching every other day in 2012, and every day in 2013.
Venture Capitalist, entrepreneur and blogger Brad Feld highlighted Chicago’s startup activity in a blog post yesterday.
Feld said what’s happening in Chicago “is a great example of what happens when entrepreneurs take a long term view to building their startup community.”
libraries.mit.edu
MIT's Building 20 was ugly, confusing and never meant to last. But over its 55-year history, the building was home to some of the most important innovations of the 20th century.
In an article published in the New Yorker last month, Jonah Lehrer wrote about the myth of brainstorming.
The myth is that the best way to foster new ideas is to let them spring forth in a group setting, without fear of judgment or criticism. Turns out, ideas, and the people behind them, need to be challenged and questioned.
And the space in which these ideas grow can play a huge role.
Deep into his piece, Lehrer tells the story of Building 20, a ramshackle space set up at MIT during World War II. The space was meant to be temporary. It was built from plywood and covered in asbestos shingles. But after the end of the war sent a flood of new students and researchers to MIT, the building stayed open out of sheer necessity. And, then Lehrer says, a curious thing happened:
Dustin Dwyer
Bing Goei came to the United States as a child. Now he runs a company with 60 employees and more than $5 million in annual revenue.
In many ways, the headquarters for Eastern Floral in Grand Rapids, Mich. is like a factory. It’s in an old building with brick walls. The floor is smooth, cold concrete. A noisy printer rattles off new orders.
But of course, it smells amazing in here. Designers stand at long wooden tables, primping and pruning flowers. Red tulips. White daisies. Yellow roses. And just about any other flower you can imagine.
Bing Goei, the owner, says this work is more like artistry.
“I think you have to be born with that.” he says. “I was not. I admit it.”
Goei says this with a laugh.
But he was born with something else that turned out to be its own asset. He was born with a foreign birth certificate. His parents were Chinese. He was born in Indonesia, then moved to the Netherlands. From there, they moved to Grand Rapids, like a lot of Dutch people before them. Except, they have a Chinese name.
And like many of those immigrants before him, Goei worked hard. He started in the flower business in high school. Now, Eastern Floral has seven locations, about 60 year-round employees – twice that around Valentine’s Day – and the company has over $5 million in annual revenue.
Goei says being an immigrant, and being an entrepreneur, there’s a connection there.
Continue reading
If you’ve never heard of The Edge Factor, it’s probably because the TV show isn’t actually on the air – yet.
But the show has been going strong online for over a year now. Jeremy Bout is the executive producer, writer and host. Bout says he got the idea for the show after working as a programmer at a manufacturing plant.
In the pilot episode for The Edge Factor, Bout explains
What I find incredible is that manufacturing is the backbone of our economy. And I don’t think anybody really understands what that means. I think it’s time we changed that.
The Edge Factor is full of dramatic shots, cool graphics and fast music. But can a TV show make manufacturing cool?
Everyone who wanders through Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood sees the empty Esquire Theater and asks, “why don’t they do something with it?” Now, the 1938 movie palace is about to be reinvented — as a steakhouse.
Chicago's Esquire Theater
DelFrisco’s Restaurant Group plans to open a DelFrisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in the theater at 58 East Oak Street, a stone’s throw from North Michigan Avenue.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the steakhouse will have an entry on the first floor, and seating on the second and third floors, for a total of 23,000 square feet.
DelFrisco’s, based in Dallas, specializes in these monster steakhouses, with outlets in New York, Las Vegas and elsewhere. Continue reading
michiganawesome.myshopify.com
The Michigangster tee from Michigan Awesome
The story of the economic transformation in the Midwest is a story about new jobs, new industries and economic growth.
But it’s also a story about how we regain our swagger.
And part of regaining our swagger is reminding ourselves what we love about where we live. There are now countless official PR and advertising campaigns aimed at doing just that. But there’s also a growing movement of young entrepreneurs who want us to wear our local pride. Wear it like a shirt.
The explosion of new businesses selling custom-designed t-shirts is not a local thing. And the growth of the “t-shirt economy” has been going on for at least the last several years.
But here in the Midwest, selling t-shirts with a local message isn’t just a business plan. It’s a transformative idea. Whenever you see one of these shirts on the street, you’re seeing a person that’s invested in the survival, growth and reinvention of our region. At the very least, they’re willing to invest $15 in it.
And wherever you live in the Midwest, there’s a now a t-shirt to show your local pride. Here’s a list of some of the t-shirt companies we’ve found:
Ener1
An advanced battery made by EnerDel, a division of Ener1
The name Ener1 may not be familiar to you.
But the company does have some of your money.
Indiana-based Ener1 is one of the major players in the new advanced battery economy that we reported on back in October. Advanced battery manufacturing has received well over a billion dollars in federal, state and local investment. The biggest chunk for Ener1 came in the form of a $118.5 million grant as part of the Obama administration’s stimulus program (the company was called EnerDel at the time).
Not surprisingly, Ener1′s bankruptcy has led to some vigorous finger-pointing in Washington.
But what will the bankruptcy mean for the battery industry in the Midwest, and the jobs it created?
When you think of Austin, Texas, the first things that come to mind are probably food, music, and the South by Southwest festival. Perhaps you know it for its high technology focus. But now, Austin wants you to think of it as an automotive capital.
Austin wants to be thought of as an automotive capital
Isn’t Austin too deep in the heart of Texas? How can it compete with the Great Lakes, let alone other places in the South like Lexington, Ky, Nashville, Tenn., Jackson and Tupelo, Miss., that have already crafted their identities?
Austin’s tactic is to hone in on companies that are developing advanced technology, explains Adrianna Cruz, vice president of global corporate recruitment for the Austin Chamber of Commerce.
It’s using the Formula One race in November, which will be held in Austin, to draw attention to its bid to be included in the nation’s automotive centers. It’s the first F1 race in the U.S. since 2007, when the circuit came to Indianapolis.
“The auto industry is going through a change and a shift. There’s a focus on battery technology and making things cleaner and safer,” Cruz says. “If there’s a location to look at as we discuss how to do things differently – how do we make cars smarter, safer, better for environment – Austin wants to be on the leading edge of those discussions.” Continue reading
