The Midwest Mentality

by
, posted

From “The Midwest Mentality”:

This is because along a pragmatic line of thinking, Twitter is an unsustainable business. Sure, Google and Facebook were unsustainable businesses at one point and are now massively profitable, but Chicagoans aren’t inclined to look at the theoretical. If you don’t have a clear path to profitablity, you aren’t going to be welcomed. This flies in the face of the Valley notion that if you receive enough funding and get enough runway, you can build an awesome product and worry about finances later.

As someone who grew up in the Valley and is now going to school in the Midwest, this feels true. Nobody I’ve met seems to want to build something just because it’s cool, which has its downsides (not as much cool) and its upsides (I wouldn’t have to admit that some business is near my house burning 41 million dollars in an enormous office).

The more time I spend in Michigan, the more I realize that it’s different in subtle ways (other than the fact that they say “pop” instead of “soda,” which is absolutely ridiculous).