It’s aliiiive!

Our Midwest startup community has grown from a handful of initial members to nearly 1,300 active contributors. In the past year alone, our regular get-togethers have gone from around 50 people to over 200 at every meetup, with spots consistently selling out—sometimes in less than 5 hours!

But the growth story isn’t really about Verge. It’s about the startups and people who have brought our vibrant community to life.

It’s all thanks to you—the founders who have pitched your startups, the engaged community that gives their attention and valuable feedback (both business and technical), the members who have stepped up to help lead the Verge team, and the founders of fast-growing businesses who support and sponsor our events.

Thank you so so much.

It’s true—we have some of the most brilliant entrepreneurs, gifted software developers, and technology-hip startup investors in America’s heartland.

And, yet, we have much to learn.

There will always be more to learn. There will always be more to do. We learn from our own tests and mistakes. We learn from others. And, as we share and collaborate, others learn from us.

I don’t mean to get all touchy-feely, mushy-gushy with you. What I’m getting at is that this sharing and collaboration is exactly why we launched the beta version of the Verge blog.  It’s another way for us to stay connected—between and during events.

I’m not gonna lie. When this whole Verge thing started to take off, we had no clue what we were doing.

Did we set out to build a 1,300-member startup community? Hell no!

It may have appeared to be pure magic, but there were a lot of people who helped shape what Verge has evolved into today. We just listened to feedback from our community and learned from others.

And we’re still figuring things out. So, we need your help.

As we plan out the next release of this site, let us know what you’d like to see on the final Verge web presence. What are some of your biggest pain points as you scale your startup?  What would be cool, fun, and useful?

Please share on the Quipol and in the comments below: