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✍🏽 Welcome to Landon’s Loop: your go-to weekly read on Chicago’s innovation economy.
In this week’s newsletter: our state’s early internet roots, an important Illinois nuclear bill passes, Chicago ranks #3 in job growth, and top tech events happening this week in Chicago.
🔙 Highlights from Last Week
We had a great office visit with Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza (our state’s CFO). Susana met with each of our early founders, asked thoughtful questions, and showed a genuine eagerness to support their work. 👇🏽
I moderated a panel at Bernstein’s Chicago Innovation Conference, covering Chicago’s edge in AI and how to retain top technical talent in Illinois. Shoutout to Cameron Hughes and Sepora Badower for putting this on. 👇🏽
Remember that important nuclear bill I wrote about from two weeks ago? It just passed last week! HB3604, which gets rid of the size limit on Illinois nuclear plants, cleared 20-0. This puts us on a path to build net new large scale reactors to fuel the future of compute. 👇🏽
Our Head of Talent Annie met with our early founders to talk about everything from building a strong culture to crafting competitive comp packages in the Midwest. 👇🏽
🌐 The Internet Started in Illinois
When people talk about the origins of the internet, they usually point west to Silicon Valley. But the Midwest deserves far more credit than it gets.
Illinois wasn’t just an early adopter of the internet—it helped shape how we use it today.
ARPANET
While ARPANET (the predecessor to today’s internet) was first activated in California in 1969, Illinois quickly became one of its earliest nodes.
By September 1971, the University of Illinois was directly connected to the ARPANET backbone, making it one of the first places in the country to be online.
The Forgotten Compion Story
UIUC’s Center for Advanced Computation was among the first to join the ARPANET, installing an Interface Message Processor and quickly becoming one of the network’s most active users which demonstrated the power of distributed computing.
Behind that early connection was a pioneering team that, in 1977, spun out a company called Compion.
The team had built the software linking UIUC to the ARPANET, and their work laid early foundations for networked computing.
Compion’s technology was eventually acquired, and its members went on to help build companies like Qualcomm and Yahoo.
A forgotten chapter, but a key piece of internet history.
Mosiac Changed Everything
Our role in internet history didn’t stop at infrastructure.
In 1993, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, working at UIUC’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications, launched Mosaic—the first browser to combine text and images in a single window.
For the first time, the internet became visual and user-friendly.
Mosaic sparked the web revolution. It led directly to the formation of Netscape and opened the door to mainstream internet adoption. The browser interface we know today—scrolling, hyperlinks, embedded images—all traces back to that moment in Illinois.
Keeping Illinois Connected
Illinois didn’t stop at pioneering the internet.
In 1999, the state launched the Illinois Century Network (ICN)—a statewide broadband network connecting K-12 schools, colleges, libraries, and government agencies.
Managed by the Department of Innovation & Technology, the ICN remains one of the largest and most successful state networks in the country, delivering high-speed access to education, research, cloud services, and public resources for millions of residents.
📊 Chart of the Week
New data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Chicago ranks #3 in growth of employed residents from 2019 to 2025—tracking how many city residents have jobs, no matter where or what kind.
📆 Events Around the City
Run Your Sales on Autopilot
Increase the output of your sales team without buying more tools or hiring new SDRs. Onboard Agent Frank, Salesforge’s AI SDR, to fully automate prospecting, personalized outreach and booking meetings while your team focuses on closing deals. Get a personalised email from Agent Frank to see his work in action:
Responsible AI Forum
Monday
Retail Technology Conference 2025
Monday
VC Happy Hour
Wednesday
TechRise Season 5 Kickoff pitch competition
Wednesday
Wtech Chicago: AI Strategies for Tech Leaders
Wednesday
AND SOME FUTURE EVENTS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR:
Intercollegiate Demo Day
April 11
Hosted by Akylai and Drive Capital
Reach out if interested
Cofactor Healthcare Demo Day
April 28
Hosted by Cofactor and Drive Capital
👋 See you next week!
Always choose the left side of the plane when landing in Chicago.
— Landon (@landon20s)
11:35 PM • Mar 17, 2025
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (@UofIllinois) graduates more engineers than MIT, Stanford, and CalTech combined.
Retaining our talent should be a top priority.
— Landon (@landon20s)
3:24 PM • Mar 19, 2025
