The pool of self-directed investors has surged during the past few years. By some estimates, 20 million new retail investors have entered the market thanks to a combination of several factors —the rise of mobile trading apps and online communities, the gamification of investing, and COVID-19 lockdowns. Most of this new class of investors only […]
Chicago is a leader in food and agriculture innovation. From high-profile startups to the established industry leaders, the city is uniquely poised for continued innovation within the food ecosystem as demonstrated by the Chicago Venture Summit Future-of-Food event last week. To provide some background, Chicago’s food and beverage manufacturing industry is the nation’s largest, generating […]
From NFTs to token sales and memes, there is no shortage of hype around crypto. Beneath this noise, though, Chicago has been hard at work creating a premier crypto and Web3 ecosystem driven by purposeful public and private leadership. Building on the momentum of being recognized as one of the country’s leading innovation hubs last year, Chicago […]
I’ve previously written about Chicago’s rise as one of the top innovation hubs in the country. There is no doubt that Chicago’s success helps shine the spotlight on the strength of the Midwest, but innovation is not confined to the Windy City. It is emerging everywhere in the Midwest, so I wanted to zoom out a […]
HPA believes world-class organizations are built by giving people the resources and opportunities to be successful. Whether it’s our members, our partners, or our portfolio companies, HPA is committed to helping build a stronger Midwest entrepreneurial ecosystem by supporting people. In that same vein, we’re excited to announce the promotion of our two Associates, Bess […]
In the future, when we analyze moments in time when true innovation transformed an industry, we’ll remember an event that happened just a couple of weeks ago: Livongo’sIPO. By the end of its trading debut — which left the company valued at $3.4 billion — Livongo proved two things: that it’s possible to empower people to live healthier […]
The unicorns in Michigan demonstrate a fertile startup ecosystem with unlimited opportunities. A couple weeks ago, StockX became the state’s newest in a quickly-growing cohort of unicorns, which includes two other startups that also earned the elite status this year. In February, OneStream Software announced that it had not only become a unicorn but that it is profitable as well, an achievement […]
While startup and venture performance in the Bay Area is a valuable datapoint that provides meaningful insights into our industry, I recommend a different strategy for evaluating our respective ecosystems’ health. To get an actionable — not to mention less daunting — perspective of our performance, we must look beyond the Bay and across all […]
Today, Chicago’s newest food business accelerator, The Hatchery, will celebrate its grand opening. A non-profit incubator supported by companies like Conagra and Kellogg’s, The Hatchery will support entrepreneurs in growing successful food- and beverage-based businesses. The incubator’s launch marks the city’s newest development in a long history of food-based entrepreneurial support, the likes of which spans business development assistance, […]
In my most-recent Forbes article, I shared about 12 Chicago-based VCs that are behind hot startups both within our region, like G2 Crowd, and beyond, like SpaceX. These firms tend to get a lot of buzz and make national headlines, but they are far from being the only venture investors in Chicago that fuel entrepreneurs. There […]
