Welcome to the 16th issue of the Driver’s Seat 🚙

Thanks to everyone that joined us last week for the official Drive Chicago office opening.

The startup community in Chicago has been incredibly welcoming / collaborative since we announced our initiatives in the city.

It's great to see everyone supporting one another and working towards making Chicago the go-to place for top founders.

Let's continue the positive momentum and keep pushing this city forward.

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

Let’s dive in! 🚙 🚙 🚙

Startups that leverage their local ecosystems early into their journey will always have the upper advantage. This is called “building locally.”

Building a startup locally is like nurturing a seed in your backyard. You start small, cultivate strong roots within the community, and watch as your company grows into a flourishing tree.

At Drive, our pre-seed program emphasizes the importance of building locally in the early innings of a startup / we do it by connecting our founders with a dedicated GM in a specific city like Chicago.

My ultimate goal is to serve as the boots-on-the-ground resource for our founders, working closely with them to establish crucial connections / elevate their chances of success.

By combining hard work with a high level of involvement in the local community, we believe that success becomes inevitable.

Out of our five pre-seed startups in Chicago, three of them chose to relocate to our city after we invested because they also acknowledge the power of building locally.

The pitch we made to these companies, as well as all our portfolio companies, emphasized the immense power / advantages of building their startups’ foundation in a city like Chicago.

By showing our startups the power of Chicago early in their journeys, my hope is that they’ll be able to reinvest that energy back into our ecosystem once they reach a high level of success. I’ve referred to this in the past as the Future of Chicago Flywheel.

Once you start locally, you can grow globally.

Here are a few reasons why I believe more companies should start / build locally in Chicago:

Community Support and Strong Connections

Launching a startup locally allows you to tap into the power of community support.

Chicago has a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem that thrives on collaboration and connection.

By immersing yourself in our community, you can gain access to mentorship, guidance, and a network of like-minded individuals who are passionate about innovation.

At Drive Chicago, we frequently host co-working days, startup events, and meetups to help our founders forge meaningful relationships / find valuable support.

Access to First Customers and Users

One of the key advantages of building a startup locally is the ability to connect directly with your first customers and users.

You can engage with early adopters, gather invaluable feedback, and fine-tune your product or service based on their real-time input.

The proximity to your target market enables swift iterations, ensuring that your product resonates with your target user‘s needs and preferences.

Early Talent Pool

Chicago has a rich talent pool across various disciplines, from technology to design, marketing to finance.

Building your startup locally allows you to tap into our talent pool and find the right individuals who share your vision.

The proximity in this case makes the recruitment process more seamless, enabling face-to-face interactions and fostering a strong team culture from the very beginning.

UIUC has a vibrant history of entrepreneurship, consistently ranking among the top public universities for successful entrepreneurs.

The university is also renowned as one of the top 5 AI research institutions in the United States.

I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time visiting the University to witness its vibrant atmosphere IRL. The level of energy from both students and faculty at UIUC is truly infectious.

And it’s a tribute to the great entrepreneurs who have come from the university and went on to leave their mark in the entrepreneurial world.

Here are some notable startups and alumni from UIUC:

One of Tesla’s co-founders, Martin Eberhard, was a graduate of UIUC. He studied electrical engineering and computer engineering. Martin served as the CEO until 2008 and hired Tesla’s first employees Elon Musk, J.B. Straubel, and Ian Wright.

Advanced Micro Devices was founded by Jerry Sanders III, who graduated from the UIUC. He incorporated AMD with seven of his friends from Fairchild Semiconductor.

YouTube was founded by Jawed Karim, Steven Chen, and Chad Hurley in 2005. Jawed and Steven were graduates of UIUC. Imagine if YouTube was built in Chicago.

Yelp’s co-founders Russell Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman graduated from UIUC in 1998 and 1999.

The co-founders of PayPal, Max Levchin and Luke Nosek, graduated from UIUC in 1998.

Lastly, Oracle’s Larry Ellison attended UIUC in the 1960s. The other co-founder, Bob Miner, was also a UIUC graduate (degree in mathematics).

As of early June, the Chicago metro area surpassed the Houston area to become the top large metro city in terms of the percentage of people returning to the office on the peak day.

Chicagoans truly understand the significance of face-to-face interactions. We’re a sociable and personable city.

Great companies are built in-person, and we will continue to set an example for other cities to follow.

Before we dive into Chicago tech events for this upcoming week, I wanna make sure you know about the FOUR gatherings we’re organizing at the Drive Chicago office during TechChicago week:

International Conference on Web Services

1 Million Cups Meetup

Data Science Project Implementation by-Step Journey from Problem to Solution

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

Thanks for making it this far! 😎

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

Also please share the Driver’s Seat with others 🚙

#16