Welcome to Issue #32 of the Driver’s Seat!

The Michigan Venture Club stopped by the Drive Chicago office to connect with a few of our founders / get a proper introduction to Chicago. 👇

I visited NYU’s Stern School of Business to share a few of my favorite trends about the Midwest. 👇

And this week I’m heading to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to host our fourth AI Meetup on Campus 👇

My friend Tony Coglianese and his team at CBRE released a market outlook report on recent insights about our innovation economy.

Chicago continues to maintain its status as one of the most economically diverse cities, both in terms of its various sectors and its workforce.

No one major industry takes up more than 14% of the overall economy.

This has been helpful in turning Chicago into the #1 most diverse largest metro city.

With interests in Chicago appearing to be evenly distributed across various sectors, we’ve seen recent growth in places like biotech and quantum computing.

These sectors hold the potential to become top industries in the future, further incentivizing top talent from other ecosystems to join Chicago's workforce.

Chicago is a major epicenter for talent.

Our city received the 2nd most job applications of any US city for “early talent” (students and recent grads) in 2022-2023.

Chicago is ranked 3rd in the country in colleges / universities within a 25-mile radius, with 148 schools.

When it comes to the Midwest, students from across our region chose to move to Chicago 80% of the time post-graduation.

Chicago's diverse economy provides a safeguard against significant downturns that cities reliant on one industry might face.

Our variety not only attracts companies / investors but also showcases Chicago’s adaptability to different business needs.

Given the surge in job applications / the abundance of universities in the area, we’re able to offer a continuous influx of talent supply for companies seeking fresh perspectives.

We have five companies in the Drive Chicago pre-seed program.

Below are asks from two of our companies. Feel free to reply directly to this email if you have a lead for us!

Brx.ai

Architect Health

The PayPal Mafia is a group of former PayPal employees that went on to develop multiple major companies, such as Tesla, LinkedIn, and YouTube, after PayPal's sale to eBay in 2002.

Fun fact: many of whom are UIUC graduates.

In 2014, the founding COO of PayPal and the founder of Craft Ventures, David Sacks, delivered a presentation on the attributes that contributed to the success of the PayPal Mafia.

“The crux of his thesis is that the PayPal Mafia innovated on distribution, not just product.

They leveraged viral, platform, and embed strategies to achieve explosive growth at PayPal and then took these strategies to their next companies.” 👇

I thought his insights were compelling, because it proves that taking a new product to market requires constant action / experimentation.

Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything.

Startups that stand idle will not succeed. It’s important to constantly be testing new strategies to enter the market until you ultimately find product market fit.

I had a chance to speak with David on my podcast, which you should check out for more of his gems.

The Polsky Tech Enablement Series

The Neurodiverse Startup Ecosystem Meet Up

Ethereum and NFTs Hangout

Software x HardTech Happy Hour

Innovating for a Cure: Breast Cancer Breakthroughs

Inside the Loop Bi-weekly Coffee

Testing Dataframe Workflow Systems

AI Conference

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram for even more Chicago startup news and photos of my favorite restaurants in the city.