Not at all true! The difference between the Chicago hacker scene and the San Francisco hacker scene is, you have to go out of your way to find the Chicago hacker scene, and you can't avoid the San Francisco hacker scene.
I've worked for two startups here, both successful, and know of plenty more. And of course, "Feedburner Feedburner Feedburner 37Signals".
Should there be a monthly meetup for people like us in Chicago? Absolutely. I set one up for security people (http://www.sockpuppet.org/chisec) and it's been pretty successful --- at least, if its spinoff (http://www.citysec.org) is to be believed. If 40 people will show up each month to swap drinks for infosec stories, surely more would show up to talk about Social Networking for Pets.
I've worked for two startups here, both successful, and know of plenty more. And of course, "Feedburner Feedburner Feedburner 37Signals".
Should there be a monthly meetup for people like us in Chicago? Absolutely. I set one up for security people (http://www.sockpuppet.org/chisec) and it's been pretty successful --- at least, if its spinoff (http://www.citysec.org) is to be believed. If 40 people will show up each month to swap drinks for infosec stories, surely more would show up to talk about Social Networking for Pets.