O’Hare there!

Jenny Fielding
Aug 8, 2017 · 2 min read

Last week, we took the New York-based Techstars IoT class on an adventure to Chicago. It seemed that Chicago was an up and coming IoT city, however, this was a chance to see the city from the eyes of twelve IoT startups. Needless to say, Chicago did not disappoint. In four days, the startups met with the who’s who of IoT including corporates, investors, non-profits and even the City. 100+ meetings, 4 events, 3 pilots and 1 term sheet later and we are sold. Chicago is the place for IoT.

We kicked off the trip in the newly minted Connectory, a co-creation space between 1871 and Bosch to help nurture the future of IoT. For two days, founders went deep with dozens of mentors, all looking to partner with and support the next generation of IoT leaders. But the Connectory is not just a cool office space for Bosch employees to escape the corporate doldrums… but rather a place for internal and external ideas (even disruptive ones!) to take shape.

Next stop mHUB, an old Motorola factory transformed into a vibrant community supporting physical product development. mHUb provides startups with access to fabrication labs and a microfactory allowing them to take their product from idea, to prototype, to initial production run without leaving the building.

touring the factory floor at UI Labs

We ended the week at UI Labs, an impressive facility and platform where large corporations, universities, governments and startups are able to come together to test and demonstrate manufacturing technologies. And because UI labs is a nonprofit, it provides a neutral setting for friends and foes to experiment.

It’s clear that resources and talent in Chicago are plentiful for IoT startups, however, it’s still unclear whether venture capital has caught up. There are certainly many exceptional VC’s supporting the startup ecosystem, however, I heard several local entrepreneurs complain that early stage investors are too risk averse and revenue-focused, making fundraising difficult for early-stage IoT and frontier tech founders. In the long run, I’m confident that the opportunities these companies present will force investors to chase them.

Jenny Fielding

Written by

In search of awesome. MD @techstars investing in IoT and other stuff

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