Kickstarter-mania has officially come to the City of Chicago. World Business Chicago and the mayor’s office has announced Tuesday morning they plan to team up to form Seed Chicago, “Chicago’s first curated Kickstarter page which will use crowdfunding to grow businesses and create jobs in Chicago’s neighborhoods.”
So far, Seed Chicago has 11 projects stemming from various Chicagoland neighborhoods. The projects run the gamut from small businesses (like Englewood’s Altogether Lovely hair salon seeking to open a hair-braiding and maintenance training school) to community development projects (like Logan Square’s Architreasures creating art mosaics on Fullerton Avenue’s business corridor).
Naturally, if you’re reading this post and you’ve read this far you’re probably wondering: “How can I get in on this?” The great news is that you can, right here. There’s an official Seed Chicago submission form on World Business Chicago’s site, and you should note that “projects are chosen for their ability to catalyze reinvestment, grow small businesses and spur employment growth.”
Bear in mind, also, Seed Chicago is merely a curated selection of Kickstarter pages. The businesses featured will get the benefit of that extra spotlight, which shouldn’t be discounted because cutting through the Kickstarter clutter is tough to do. This should help, and thus help Chicago as well.
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City and an adjunct professor in DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media. (He also co-runs a blog behind the DePaul class, DIY Game Dev.) He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
