I spent most of last week in New York exploring synergies between our two great cities.

For a while, I’ve seen an opportunity to create a stronger bridge of knowledge share / investment between Chicago and New York.

My aim is to introduce more NY investors to the potential investment prospects in the Midwest / to highlight to NYC entrepreneurs the advantages of considering Chicago's thriving ecosystem.

We’re already slowly beginning to see this play out.

The fifth company that will be joining the Drive Capital Chicago Pre-Seed Program is a team originally from New York, which will now be making Chicago their new home!

More to come on this soon, but overall the vision to transform Chicago into a tier one hub still remains.

This past Saturday and Sunday, we also hosted a two-day XR Hackathon at our office, where a solid group of builders were tasked with developing mixed reality projects.

Special thanks to GENESIS and Omnia for putting this together at our office!

We NEED more hackathons in Chicago. We’re making it happen TODAY.

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The Chicago Business Bulletin recently released a research report on our city’s innovation in manufacturing.

Our manufacturing industry is the second largest in the nation; has a $99B annual output; employs over 410,000 people, and houses over 12,000 companies.

Looking at all metro ecosystems in the US, we beat out places like New York, SF, and Philly.

Our main competitive advantage is our direct access to an ecosystem of suppliers / customers within the broader Midwest.

Fun fact: manufacturers in Chicago source nearly 50% of inputs in-region.

The first major catalyst for our history in manufacturing is tied to our railroad system in the 1850s, which gave Chicago manufacturers access to an abundance of raw materials.

By 1890, Chicago was the national center of manufacturing sub-sectors like meat production, lumber production, and furniture manufacturing.

By the early 20th century, Chicago earned the reputation of being a "manufacturing metropolis," a status championed by its factories and talented workforce.

Our state ranks 5th for innovation activities and 10th for advancements in R&D.

Chicago specifically is home to 24 innovation centers, 72 incubators and accelerators, 32 R&D labs, 3 R1 research universities, and 2 federal labs.

In essence, our state stands at the forefront of economic production, achieving impressive value addition per capita for every unit of productivity.

In the US, 10% of the regions house a staggering 75% of all robots.

The states leading in robotic usage in manufacturing are Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Upon analyzing data from 35,000 manufacturers, Axios reported that robots typically work alongside production workers rather than replacing them.

Contrary to the widely held belief that robots might phase out human jobs, the report highlights that robots are, in many cases, partners to production workers.

Instead of taking over tasks completely, they tend to enhance the productivity / efficiency of human workers by taking on repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on more complex aspects of production.

At first glance, this could be perceived as an overall positive sign, showing that the introduction of robots doesn't necessarily lead to job losses.

Yet, the report also shared that many of these robot-equipped companies typically offer lower wages to their human workers.

With that said, while robotics brings numerous advantages to the manufacturing sector, it also introduces challenges that need addressing to ensure a fair / equitable work environment for all.

It’s important we continue to have these conversations on our home field as technology continues to change the way we work.

Employees in the Midwest are returning to the office at a higher rate compared to the rest of the nation.

In the first half of the year, office occupancy in our region hit a weekly average peak of 60%, the top rate across the country.

A few factors are contributing to this pattern:

The Midwest is often known for its work ethics / communal values.

Our city’s best have a desire to connect with others and be part of a physical community.

In Chicago specifically, we’ve invested significantly in office spaces that help push further collaboration, which is a great incentive to getting employees to return to the office.

My good friend and well-known developer, Jeff Shapack, has shown this in action by designing each of his buildings in Fulton Market to support the future of work as we know it.

Many of his buildings feature unique amenities / offer activities for employees.

While virtual spaces have their advantages, I believe that real world interactions foster true creativity and solidify team connectivity in ways that digital platforms just can't replicate.

The essence of face-to-face discussions, random brainstorming sessions, and the serendipity of unplanned meetings often lead to breakthroughs that are hard to achieve remotely.

We’re hosting an AI Meetup at Drive Chicago next month with our friends at Mantium and Redis.

Make sure to sign up / learn more today!

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