Hey Chicago, meet LongJump!

We’re excited to introduce LongJump to the world today. Simply put, we’ve creating a founder-led venture fund, designed to invest in both underrepresented founders & underrepresented ideas based in Chicago. And along with our capital, we want to provide community and connections to help these companies take the leap towards building a fast-growing, venture-scale business.

The six of us (Ablorde, Brian, Daniel, Garry, Kristen, and Tim) are all founders & operators who are actively building our own high-growth, venture-backed businesses. So we know first-hand what it takes to survive the startup journey. Fighting to stay alive, to build a team, to grow, and raise money all at the same time.

Most of the time as founders we have our heads down, working day and night to build our businesses. But when we take a moment, and look around at our community, we see great disparity and missed opportunity. Because while the passion, grit, and focus it takes to turn a business into something great is evenly distributed — it’s plainly obvious to us that capital and connections are not.

If startups exist to serve their customers, then wouldn’t you expect the population of founders to mirror the communities they live in? We certainly would, but that’s not what the data shows. According to Chicago Blend, of the 65 Chicago-based startups backed by Chicago-based venture capital funds, only 16 (or less than 25%) have a non-white founder, and only 15 (or 23%) have a female founder.

This limited data set confirms what most founders already know from personal experience: that there exists a deep bias towards certain races, genders, backgrounds, and communities — none of which have anything to do with the characteristics of being a successful founder. And we see this opportunity gap widening over time, creating a chasm that prevents many from starting companies and getting to the next level.

But in that disparity is also great opportunity. To invest, connect, and empower these founders to bring their ideas forward and show the world that their ideas and their communities are worth building for and worth investing in. That’s what we’re about.

When we started sharing our vision of what LongJump could be with other folks in our community, we heard resounding support. From all types of people, from all backgrounds. So many in the startup and technology world see this problem too and want to create change. And so we’re excited to share that we already have more than 100+ of Chicago’s best founders, operators, and investors joining us in this endeavor, and we’re just getting started. We’re ready to start bragging: the LongJump network is second to none.

So if you’re a founder reading this who’s just getting started, or you know someone like that, we’re here for you. We’re ready to fund big, overlooked ideas. You don’t need an introduction to talk to us, and you don’t need traction for us to invest. All you have to do is say hello.