Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting two special guests at the Drive office for our Friday Pit Crew Speaker Series.

Claude Cimeus, Director of Platform at P33 joined us, as well as Misha Sheth from Google Chicago.

Our Friday Pit Crew Speaker Series series provides a platform to friends of Drive to share their expertise while conducting a 30 minute seminar for the early-stage founder community in Chicago.

You can always find out about upcoming Pit Crew Seminars in the Driver’s Seat.

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We hosted our first all-day (12 hour) AI Hackathon at Drive this past Saturday to welcome in the start of TechChicago Week.

IT WAS LEGENDARY!

We had a total of 22 builders that participated and 10 projects were created.

Each of our teams was tasked with building an AI application for one of six sectors that we’re actively investing in at Drive: Music, Fintech, EdTech, Cyber Security, Healthcare, and Future of Work.

We partnered with our friends at Replit and Atomic Object to make this event possible.

Replit is a browser-based cloud development platform with built-in AI tools that works with just about any language and library you can think of.

I’m inviting YOU to help us select the champion of our hackathon.

Take a moment to explore the submitted projects listed here and cast your votes!

Each project has a 2 minute Loom video hyperlinked to its page. After watching, please grade each project from 0 to 5.

The winner will be publicly announce on Wednesday at 9am CDT!

I've been pretty fortunate to have had opportunities to work with, speak with, and look up to some highly successful founders.

Through my podcast alone, I've shared the mic with some of the greats like Steve Wozniak from Apple, Ev Williams from Twitter, and Andy Dunn from Bonobos.

I’m often thinking about the defining characteristics of the most successful founders, particularly the glimpses of these traits in early-stage founders during the pre-seed and seed stages.

Run-Through-Walls Mindset

We had a core-value at Cameo that was to “Run-Through-Walls”, which translated to the question of how do you create purpose from a challenge.

This mindset allows founders to persevere through difficult times and find creative solutions.

Obsessive Focus

While some may perceive obsession as negative, I believe that genuine obsession is closely linked to unwavering focus.

As a founder, the startup world can be full of distractions, making it essential to be singularly obsessed with one task at a time, exhibiting unwavering discipline.

Embrace Failure

Rather than fearing or avoiding failure, the best founders understand that failure is nothing but a learning opportunity towards growth.

Instead of being discouraged by setbacks, they embrace failure as a catalyst for innovation, resilience, and long-term achievement.

Natural Storyteller

The ability to effectively communicate your startup's mission and vision is a crucial trait for founders, as it helps attract investors, customers, and team members.

These founders can gauge any room and communicate their vision effectively.

Do The Work

The journey of building a multi-billion dollar company is undeniably challenging / demands a strong work ethic.

The best founders are constantly ready to work their asses off and put in the necessary effort to accomplish the tasks at hand. They’re also able to instill a sense of urgency within their teams, motivating them to push forward.

Know What You Don’t Know

Recognizing your own limitations and areas of weakness is difficult to do, but the best founders use this as an opportunity to seek out the resources they need or bring on team members that compliment their skills.

The key to this trait is self-awareness. The worst thing is not knowing what you don’t know.

Last week we covered well-known alumni at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that changed the world through their innovations.

In 1985, Peter Peterson founded Blackstone with $400,000 in seed capital. The firm is now worth over $112B. Peter graduated from UChicago in 1951.

Morningstar’s founder Joe Mansueto also attended UChicago, graduating in 1978. Joe began the wave of “tech meets finance” companies when he published the “Mutual Fund Sourcebook” out of his Chicago apartment, creating Morningstar.

Matt Maloney, the co-founder of Grubhub, attended the UChicago before launching his company in 2004. Today, Grubhub processes over 290,000 orders each day.

Braintree’s Bryan Johnson was a grad of UChicago in 2007. Bryan was a winner of the University’s New Venture Challenge, where he won $25,000. Less than 6 years later, his company was acquired by PayPal for $800M.

William Conway, Jr. created the Carlyle Group in 1987 after graduating from UChicago in 1974. Today, Carlyle Group is one of the world's largest PE firms with more than $54B under management

TechChicago Week Kickoff Party @ The Whale

Addressing the Racial Funding Gap

Founder Fest Chicago

Pre-Seed Between the Coasts

The Capital Summit

TechChicago Week Walk & Talk

Intern Rooftop Social

Showcase Your AI Product

Tech in the Big Leagues

Lakefront Lū’au

Chicago EdTech Social

Innovators Happy Hour

The Future of Work: Government, Emerging Workforce, and the Role of Applied Intelligence

TechChicago Week

Midwest House Underestimated Founders Brunch

Marketing to GenZ-ers

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