Hey friends,

We’re back with the 8th edition of the Driver's Seat!

If you find value in this publication, please share with your friends, whether they’re in Chicago or elsewhere.

Before we dive in, I wanna give a huge shoutout to my friends at World Business Chicago for hosting a successful Future of Food Summit with over 1,200 attendees and 150 featured startups.

And also a shoutout to my friends at 1871 for hosting a successful ChatGPT and AutoGPT Hackathon.

Excited to continue seeing Chicago position itself as an AI hub. Because why not!

Chicago is starting to heat up (literally and figuratively)

📍 Today’s Topics

1. Chart of the Week 📊

2. Gen Z VC Summit 💫

3. WFH Trends 📌

4. Events Around the City 🗺

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

Let’s dive in! 🚙

📊 Chart of the Week

Below is Chicago Blend's 2022 findings on founder diversity at VC-backed companies in Chicago.

Some of my thoughts:

Gender Diversity

• Chicago stands out as a leader in the U.S. for gender diversity among founding teams.

• 39% of venture-backed companies in the city has at least one founder who identifies as a woman, non-binary, or another gender.

• We surpass the national average of 28% for startups.

Racial Diversity

• 72.7% of VC-backed companies have at least one White founder.

• 26% have at least one Asian founder.

• 16.9% have at least one Hispanic or Latino founder.

• 14.3% have at least one Black or African American founder.

• 2.6% have founders who identify as two or more races.

Progression from 2020 to 2022

• The percentage of companies with at least one female founder rose from 31.37% to 39%, a 24% increase.

• Companies with at least one Hispanic founder jumped by 116%, from 7.84% to 16.90%.

• Those with at least one Black founder saw a 143% increase, from 5.88% to 14.30%.

• The percentage of companies with exclusively male founders decreased by 11%, from 68.63% to 61%.

While there’s still so much work to be done, it’s great to know that Chicago is a trailblazer in building an inclusive ecosystem for all.

💫 Gen Z VC Summit

Last October, a group young builders came together to organize the first Gen Z VC Future-of-Chicago Summit.

The event was a big hit. We had more than 600 investors and founders join us for the all day event.

We organized fireside chats and held a live pitch contest where online attendees could invest in companies on the spot.

Our pitch contest alone helped our founders get over $2M in potential investment interest.

This year, we’re going ever bigger for our Second Annual Gen Z VC Future-of-Chicago Summit!

It’s taking place on Friday June 9th. We’ll release the registration link soon.

But in the meantime, if you’re a founder that’s interested in participating in this year’s pitch competition / startup showcase in front of a live audience, please register here.

📌 WFH Trends

I’m not a one-glove-fits-all kinda guy, but in the world of startups, I’m open about my preference for teams that value IRL (in-real-life) collaboration vs remote work.

Even hybrid is a more suitable option to me than being fully remote.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman recently spoke on this where he said that the remote work experiment was “a mistake” and declared it be over.

Sam emphasized the value of face-to-face interaction, stating that "in-person collaboration contributes to dynamic work environments and thriving urban communities."

I agree with his take / have intentionally prioritized community building in my work to encourage in-person collaboration when possible.

When building a startup, you need to be ready to move fast and make changes quickly.

That’s what a startup is. Paul Graham has famously said:

It’s difficult to grow fast when remote.

You need to have a direct line of communication with your teammates in-person, which is difficult to do in a remote environment.

Plus, there are unexpected moments of creativity that happen when you run into coworkers in places like the break room—something you miss out on when working from home.

Sam, myself, and many others aren’t the only ones that feel that WFH in startups, if continued, could be a mistake.

Let’s take a look at what the data is telling us / where we are in the world of WFH:

Data from the University of Chicago shows how employers are increasingly implementing mandates for employees to return to the office.

The proportion of remote work, which currently stands at 28%, has been on a gradual decline.

For context, the percentage of remote work was less than 10% prior to the pandemic.

Gen Zs are actually leading the pack when it comes to demanding back-to-office.

MorningConsult's 2023 report reveals that nearly 90% of Gen Z employees prefer office work for productivity reasons, and that they’re the least likely age group to favor full remote work.

Additionally, the percentage of millennials working remotely has decreased from 29% to 23%, with a sharper drop among those earning $50k to $99k annually (from 30% to 21%).

WFH is still more common in major cities than in smaller cities / towns.

Chicago has had relatively lower percentages of WFH compared to other locations, but there’s still progress to be made in this area.

I’ll wrap this up similar to how I started.

I’m not here to say it needs to be one way or the other.

I’m strictly speaking from my own personal experiences / the time I’ve spent working with startups.

To drive innovation in Chicago, we must place a strong emphasis on fostering IRL collaboration within our startup community.

Just my thoughts! Let me know what you think.

🗺 Events Around the City

Best of the BioMidwest

• Hosted by SmartHealth and Sterling Bay

• Tuesday May 9

• RSVP

ScaleUp

• Hosted by 1871

• Wednesday May 10

• RSVP

Navigating the Future of AI

• Hosted by Drive Capital and friends

• Thursday May 11

• We are full for IRL attendance, but please respond directly to this email if you’re interested in attending virtually.

• We’ll have many more in the future 😎

Inside The Loop Bi-Weekly Coffee Meetup

• Hosted by the Inside the Loop Podcast

• Thursday May 11

• RSVP

Celebrating Women in Innovation

• Hosted by Wintrust

• Thursday May 11

• RSVP

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

👋 See you next time!

Thanks for making it this far! 😎

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