Madison isn’t competing against Chicago.

That was one of the points keynote speaker Sam Yagan, co-founder of TechStars Chicago, made Monday night at the Wisconsin Startups Night event held at the Monona Terrace.

“Startup ecosystems are geographically broad,” Yagan, who also is the CEO of match.com, said to more than 400 attendees. “Madison is a big part of our ecosystem.”

Yagan cited the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington D.C. region as an example of another ecosystem.

Both he and a previous presenter, Sonic Foundry founder Monty Schmidt, agreed that besides money, mentorship is the most important thing to entrepreneurs. That’s something TechStars Chicago hopes to provide to startups in its ecosystem.

“We want deep relationships between people here (in Madison) and there (in Chicago),” Yagan said.

The event was co-hosted by Accelerate Madison, Foley & Lardner, LLP and Capital Entrepreneurs.