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Not every great 1980s startup came out of a garage.

Some got started in a Chicago apartment.

In 1984, Joe Mansueto was a 27 year old stock analyst at Harris Associates.

One day, he decided to quit his job, buy a $15,000 computer, and start building a startup.

He called it Morningstar which was inspired by the final line of Thoreau’s Walden:

“The sun is but a morning star.”

In the early 1980s, quality information on mutual funds was nearly impossible to find.

So Mansueto began publishing a quarterly Mutual Fund Sourcebook, profiling about 400 funds, many based right here in Chicago.

He sold each copy for $125, mailed them out himself, and spent nights manually entering data.

A year later, Morningstar launched the now famous five star rating system, which gave investors a simple way to evaluate funds by risk and performance. The concept took off quickly becoming the gold standard for financial advisors and retail investors.

By 1990, Morningstar had 150 employees and a growing roster of institutional clients.

What started as a publishing operation evolved into a data business, structuring massive amounts of financial information and building the analytical tools.

Four decades later, Morningstar now operates in 40+ offices worldwide, with 11,000 employees, and covers 40,000 public companies, 5.2 million private firms, and 328,000 ETFs, serving 4.2 million investors and 425,000 financial advisors globally.

And with the introduction of their new AI assistant Mo, users can now even ask Mo questions directly and get concise answers in seconds.

Morningstar recently announced one of its most significant acquisitions yet: the $375M purchase of the University of Chicago’s Center for Research in Security Prices, which built the first comprehensive database of US stock market data.

Today, CRSP’s indexes hold more than $3T in fund assets and serve as the foundation for products from firms like Vanguard.

Both Morningstar and CRSP were born in Chicago and built on the same principle: that structured, transparent data can change how investors understand markets.

It’s a full circle moment for a company that started with one analyst, one computer, and a belief that better data could change investing forever.

For more Chicago tech history, check out www.landonsloop.com/t/chicago-history

Energy CX is the fastest-growing energy brokerage in the US.

They bring data, technology, and strategy to one of the most antiquated industries.

With nearly 2 billion square feet of real estate under management, they’re building the future of energy and they need engineers to help them get there.

Check out their careers page below:

Before you sign up for this week’s events (listed below), I want to flag two events happening at Drive Capital next week.

On Tuesday October 14th, we’re hosting our 21st AI Tinkerers Chicago meetup. Featuring our friends at Programmers Inc

And on Thursday October 17, we’ll be hosting a side event at our office as part of the Chicago Stablecoin Summit. It’s a great opportunity for founders, investors, and policymakers shaping the future of stablecoins to connect.

Chicago Data Happy Hour

AI in Healthcare: Innovation, Infrastructure & Human-Centered Trust

Building an MCP in Node.js & Using WebAssembly to Safely Run Unsafe Code

Bitwise Crypto Diligence Summit

VC / LP Gallery Series w Private Chef: II

Stripe meetup Chicago October 2025 (In Person)

Chicago Data & Databases Meetup

TechWalk Week | Chicago, 10/9

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram for even more Chicago startup news.