We partnered with World Business Chicago and the Mayor’s office last week to host the ThinkChicago Lollapalooza event at the Drive Chicago office!

Students from all our major universities were invited to visit our space / gain insights into our plans for Chicago.

They also had the opportunity to receive advice on how to become successful founders or investors.

I believe that Chicago, as a vital hub in the Midwest, has a special role to play in encouraging more students to become builders in order to propel our ecosystem to the next level.

By creating a strong early-stage innovation ecosystem, it can set in motion a flywheel effect, where once our early founders achieve significant late-stage success down the line, they’ll be inspired to give back / support the upcoming generations of entrepreneurs, creating a cycle of continuous growth and opportunity.

Make sure you’re subscribed to the Driver’s Seat 🚙 for the best information on Chicago's GROWING innovation economy 🙏

Let’s dive in! 🚙 🚙 🚙

Our state is at the forefront of driving innovation in supercomputing.

We currently host one of the most powerful supercomputers in the World in the Argonne Aurora.

Along with the Argonne Theta and Argonne Polaris, which are both actively running.

Most recently, we had the Blue Waters Supercomputer, which was also one of the most powerful but has since then decommissioned.

But how did we get here?

First off, what is a supercomputer?

A supercomputer is a high-performance computer system designed to perform complex calculations and process large amounts of data at incredibly high speeds.

Supercomputers typically consist of multiple processors or nodes working together in parallel to solve problems more efficiently than conventional computers.

Today, supercomputers are being used to push forward quantum tech and research.

The history of supercomputing in Illinois began in the late 1940s when a group of faculty at the University of Illinois attempted to build a computer capable of playing checkers.

The Argonne lab was our country’s first national laboratory, established in 1946.

In the early 1950s, the U.S. Army and the University of Illinois collaborated to fund the construction of two computers: ORDVAC and ILLIAC (Illinois Automated Computer).

ORDVAC, one of the fastest computers at the time, was completed in 1951, while ILLIAC, the first computer wholly owned by an educational institution, became operational in 1952.

ILLIAC was an impressive machine containing 2,800 vacuum tubes and weighed a staggering five tons.

The 1960s saw significant advancements in the field of supercomputing at Illinois. The development of ILLIAC II, a transistorized computer 100 times faster than its predecessor, marked a breakthrough into a new generation of machines.

Additionally, the Illinois research group initiated the ILLIAC III project, aimed at using computers to analyze high-energy particle events captured in bubble chamber photographs.

The 1980s were a pivotal period for supercomputing in Illinois.

The National Science Foundation established the Center for Supercomputing Research and Development (CSRD) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), making Illinois the only university campus with two supercomputing centers.

The state-of-the-art supercomputer "Cedar" was also constructed during this decade.

We’ve continued down the path of launching many more research hubs in Illinois (graphic below)

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is still at UIUC, leading in developing computer infrastructure for research.

The University of Chicago partnered with Argonne and has the Computation Institute (CI), focusing on research in computation, data science, and other scientific fields.

Let's keep making noise about our innovative efforts!

Martin Cooper is best known for inventing the mobile phone while working at Motorola. He graduated from IIT in 1950 and also went on to become the CEO of ArrayComm.

John Calamos, the founder of Calamos Asset Management, graduated from IIT in 1963. He went on to develop one of the largest asset managers firms in the world. His company currently manages $35B. John is currently on the IIT Board of Trustees.

Virgil Abloh, the founder of Off-White and recent Creative Director of Louis Vuitton graduated from IIT in 2006. He is considered one of the most influential and respected fashion designers of his generation.

Scientist Lina Nilsson co-founded Tekla Labs, which develops high quality, open-source lab equipment that scientists could build themselves.

Marvin Camras invented a way to produce high fidelity magnetic wire recordings which were used for training and misinforming the enemy during WWII. His inventions contributed to commercializing magnetic tape sound recording. He graduated from IIT in 1940.

Carta recently shared data on Pre-Seed SAFE funding / total val by industry during the first half of the year.

The average post $ valuation caps are listed on the X-axis and the $ invested at this stage are listed on the Y-axis.

The top five industries with the most funding at this stage were B2B SaaS, Healthtech, Fintech, Social Media, and Marketplaces.

The median valuation cap for companies at this stage was $8M, while the medium SAFE investment was a little over $450K (this was cumulative) On average , startups in this dataset are raising from 4-6 angels.

The Drive Pre-Seed Program:

If you’re an early founder, check out our website to learn more about the Drive Capital Pre-Seed Program. Startups receive $500K total between two SAFEs.

ONE QUICK THING TO PUT ON YOUR RADAR 🚨

Rivet, one of our pre-seed startups, recently got nominated for an Industry Disrupter Award at 1871's 2023 Momentum Awards (taking place on September 21st)

This award is presented to a company that has developed an innovative product or service that has significantly disrupted its industry.

Click this link to learn more about supporting / voting for Rivet!

NOW FOR THIS WEEK’S EVENTS:

Chi Hack Night

Chicago Open Source Data Infrastructure Meetup

DevOpsDays Chicago

Tech Talk: Web3 and Blockchain

Chicago Databricks Meetup

CTO Strategies for Early-Stage Startups at Drive Chicago

XR Hackathon

Reply directly to this email if you have a tech event you want featured in the Driver’s Seat!

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