1871 held its latest quarterly Fintech Forum on September 29th, in partnership with Capco, to showcase Chicago’s strongest data and analytics experts and to help create engagement between 1871 startups and corporate partners in the fintech space. Here are four key takeaways on how to use reporting information to drive insights, automation, and a competitive advantage.

Marketing your startup in social media is something you should begin on day one —but there’s a right and wrong way to go about it. 1871 member and social media pro Carol Fowler, CEO and Co-Founder of TheSocReports, provides a checklist of steps to lay the foundation for growing your social audience.

Jim Holcomb, an Associate Security Consultant at Evolve Security, breaks down Mr. Robot's (surprisingly accurate!) portrayal of hacking in this three part series for the 1871 blog. Be warned, there's spoilers, and some crazy surprising information about real-life cybersecurity in here. 

1871 mentor and McEntee Law Group Managing Attorney Fiona McEntee shares the work her firm has done to support the potentially stalled International Entrepreneur Rule and what the startup community needs to do to support efforts to make sure it is not threatened. 

What are the key strategies that startup founders can follow in order to best establish their brand and to tell their story to the most important audiences in the right channels? In this guest blog, 1871 mentor and PR expert Kellee Johnson from Ballast Group gives us her take. 

On September 13, more than 300 human resources professionals and business leaders gathered at 1871 to witness disruption in motion. DisruptHR Chicago, a non-profit organization which aims to disrupt the human resources event industry and help reimagine the HR function, brought together some of the boldest and most imaginative minds to the stage for a rapid-fire, ignite-style evening of stimulating presentations that challenged the tired and outdated practices HR professionals face on a daily basis.

“The Open Internet exists today, and it is under attack.” That was the dire message Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, had for the audience of the Benton Foundation hosted event at 1871 on September 18.

Cate Costa is an 1871 mentor and entrepreneurship development professional with more than ten years of experience as an entrepreneur herself and coaching founders in a variety of industries. In this guest blog, Costa takes a hard look at changes that need to be made among entrepreneurship support organizations in order to better and more earnestly support minority and female founders.

The obstacles are always greater when you lack the funds to support your genius entrepreneurial idea. Victoria Elena Nones, Founder of Women in Comedy and 1871/IHCC Hispanic Technology Incubator alum, shares five key takeaways from her own entrepreneurial journey on how to maintain the right attitude when building a business on a shoestring.

Intimidated by a term sheet? Scratching your head on SAFE versus convertible notes? Don’t even know where to start when it comes to approaching an investor? It’s not uncommon for bootstrapped startups to be a little lost when it comes to the concept of asking for funding, but luckily, Hyde Park Angels is willing to share their wisdom.