Hey friends,

We’re back with Issue #5 of the Driver’s Seat.

Before we dive in, I wanna congratulate the University of Illinois for hosting an amazing Cozad New Venture Challenge!

Over 100 student-founded companies competed in the competition and the top six startups will be pitching at Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago this Wednesday.

Sign up here to attend virtually.

One more thing: on May 11th, I’m hosting an AI-Polooza at the Drive Chicago office 🤖 

At the bottom of this week's Driver's Seat, you’ll find additional info / a link to join our waitlist.

📍 Today’s Topics

1. Fuel Up Friday ⛽️

2. Chart of the Week 📊

3. Guess Who Visited Our Office 🏢 

4. Events Around the City 🗺

5. Navigating the Future of AI in Chicago 🤖

Have feedback? Just hit reply — I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s dive in! 🚙

⛽️ Fuel Up Friday

Shoutout to everyone that stopped by our first Fuel Up Friday at the Drive Chicago office!

Over 200 founders, builders, investors, and community leaders joined us on our new rooftop throughout the day to celebrate Chicago’s growing startup ecosystem.

Community building is a crucial step in the right direction for our startup scene as it creates a supportive ecosystem that fosters innovation, growth, and a sense of belonging.

Our tech industry is constantly evolving, and having a strong network of like-minded individuals can help us stay ahead of the curve.

Creating serendipity, or the occurrence of happy accidents, at our gatherings is especially important to me.

You never know who you might run into at one of our events. Maybe your next co-founder 😃 

Special shoutout to our friends at the Toronto Stock Exchange and Salvi Media for helping us put this gathering together.

We’ll have many more!

📈 Chart of the Week

According to data from PitchBook, Chicago was one of the fastest growing tech hubs for venture capital investments during the pandemic, with a 34% increase in funding, bringing the total investment to $2.35B.

Chicago came second after Miami for percentage growth in venture investment. The number of deals increased by 21%.

🏢 Guess Who Visited Our Office

🗺 Events Around the City

Cameras Off, Coffee Talks

• April 18th

• Hosted by 1871 and BLKtech Voices

• RSVP

Cozad New Venture Challenge

• April 19th (virtual)

• Hosted by University of Illinois

• RSVP

Fundamentals of Fintech & Insurtech

• April 20th

• Hosted by Gen Z VCs

• RSVP

Women Impact Tech Summit

• April 27th

• RSVP

🤖 Navigating the Future of AI in Chicago

​Chicago is the ideal city for AI innovators, and it's time to establish our presence as a hub for cutting-edge research and development.

Join us on May 11th for an exciting gathering focused on the future of AI. We'll have seminars, complimentary lunch, and networking with like-minded professionals.

Due to limited space, we encourage you to register now to secure your spot for this exclusive event. If all spots are taken, don't worry - you can still join the waitlist and we'll notify you if a spot becomes available.

Additionally, our event will be live-streamed, so you can still participate remotely if you can't attend in person.

You can register to join the waitlist for the event at lu.ma/driveai.

👋 See you next time!

Thanks for making it this far! 😎

Any feedback on how I can improve the Driver’s Seat would be greatly appreciated.

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

Also please share the Driver’s Seat with others 🚙