Chicago is known for its deep-dish pizza, the ’97 Bulls, and if you’re a startup enthusiast, being the home of Grubhub, Groupon, and Basecamp. Despite its distance from Silicon Valley, Chicago’s universities have been a catalyst for new venture growth in the past few decades, aided by two of the most renowned MBA programs in the world (Booth and Kellogg), as well as an active undergraduate entrepreneur community. As a junior at Northwestern, I thought it would be prudent to share a list of resources for aspiring undergraduate entrepreneurs and VCs on campus.
Northwestern invests a significant amount of time and resources into the budding entrepreneurship ecosystem here, but I’ve found that some of the resources can be hard to find if you’re not looking in the right places. Based on my experience over the past 3 years, here’s a list of everything brewing (literally) on campus.
Classes and Departments
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation – Farley serves as the academic hub for undergraduates looking for a structured curriculum to guide their ventures. The Farley Center offers a certificate and minor program for undergraduates and has a wide range of classes covering topics like Startup Accounting, Engineering Entrepreneurship, Product Management, Storytelling, and more. Critically, the Farley Center’s crown jewel is the NUVention program. NUVention is a series of interdisciplinary classes open to both undergrad and graduate students where teams explore the entirety of the innovation lifecycle by founding a business themselves. The NUVention series is split up by industry, and there are NUVention cohorts for Web + Media, Arts, Energy, Medical, and more. Each class is taught by a group of professors at the top of their respective fields and the curriculum is augmented by an exceptional group of advisors from the startup world (early employees and founders at Tinder, Tesla, Microsoft, etc.). Speaking of business acumen, many of Farley professors are industry veterans themselves, and the current faculty includes an ex-CEO of Quaker Oats, the current Managing Director at TechStars Chicago, and the founder of SAP Syclo.
INVO– INVO is Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office. Primarily focused on inventions that come out of research labs, INVO provides resources to navigate the disclosure process and patent applications. This department also partners with the on-campus incubator programs to provide guidance and funding for startup teams as well as industry connections. Startups that have leveraged INVO in the past include Narrative Science, NanoGraf, and Cyclopure.
Segal Design Institute– Segal is Northwestern’s Design Institute, offering a design engineering major, an undergraduate certificate, and 3 master’s programs (including a dual-degree with Kellogg). All engineering undergrads are required to take two “Design Thinking and Communication” classes during their freshman year. The Design Institute also offers a Bay Area Immersion Program for students to spend a quarter in San Francisco and explore design thinking at larger tech companies. Student organizations associated with Segal include Design for America (DFA), Northwestern Formula Racing, and the Northwestern Solar Car team.
Clubs and Organizations
EPIC– EPIC is Northwestern’s premier entrepreneurship umbrella organization, dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship on campus. EPIC has general membership programming, a 10-week long student-led incubator called Launch, and a trip to Silicon Valley during winter break. Launch has helped start over 25 companies at Northwestern.
ISBE– The Institute for Student Business Education (ISBE), is an undergrad-run umbrella organization for a few of the prominent business organizations on campus. While many of the divisions are pre-professional and reflect the traditional career path for many Northwestern students (investment banking, consulting, etc.), ARCH is ISBE’s entrepreneurship arm. A hybrid startup studio/ consulting firm, ARCH incubates products internally in addition to matching students to existing projects across campus. ISBE was co-founded by current TechStars Chicago Managing Director Neil Sales-Griffin.
Northwestern Student Holdings (NSH)– Student Holdings is an undergrad-run holdings company that manages a portfolio of independent businesses, including a custom apparel shop (InkTank), a tutoring service for local students (NU|Tutors), a dorm supply store (RezEssentials), and an on-demand laundry service (RezLaundry).
The Garage
The Garage is a “community and physical space” at Northwestern to help all students start and grow their businesses. Because of its relevance to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the plethora of programs tied to The Garage, I felt this warranted its own section. This space is ultimately what sold me on applying to Northwestern.
The Garage in Evanston- This is the core of The Garage’s operations. This space opened in June 2015 to help students build new ventures and explore entrepreneurship. This 11,000 sqft space includes a large classroom that doubles as a hall for guest speakers, a cafe, multiple conference rooms, an AR/VR and prototyping lab, and a section with desks for Resident startups and EIRs.
The Sardine Bar- The Sardine Bar is a satellite site of The Garage located near our Chicago campus. Primarily focused on the needs of Pritzker Law and Feinberg Medical students, this space is a converted Jazz bar. Startups at The Sardine Bar include Global Project Hope (founded by a former Northwestern undergrad and current Feinberg student) and Gearflow.
The Garage in SF- Attached to Northwestern’s San Francisco campus, The Garage in SF is a workspace for alums to gather and work on their startups. During winter quarter, Northwestern runs a “Bay Area Immersion Program” for current undergrads and a “San Francisco Winter Quarter” for Kellogg students.
The Residency Program- The Residency program accepts about 25-30 startup teams every quarter to become “core members” of the community. Garage Residents receive dedicated desks for their venture, 24/7 access to the space, an EIR mentor, and attend weekly Family Dinners.
The Tinkerer Program- The Tinkerer Program is for aspiring entrepreneurs in the ideation stage. Before applying to the Residency Program, startups must spend at least 1 quarter as Tinkerers.
VentureCat- VentureCat is Northwestern’s annual student startup competition. On-campus startups apply and are selected to pitch to win over $300,000 in non-dilutive prize money. Teams that are selected to pitch in the semifinals take part in a Semifinalist Prep Program that includes pitch coaching and individualized graphic design.
Little Joe Ventures Fellowship- The LJV Fellowship was founded in 2018 by NU alum Tony Owen, and selects 5 Northwestern sophomores each year who have shown a commitment and interest to entrepreneurship. This highly competitive fellowship includes stipends, mentorship, and multiple trips to startup hubs.
The Propel Program- Focused on female founders, “Propellers” receive exclusive access to networking events, dedicated mentors, and a $1000 stipend to work on their ventures. The Propel program is currently in its 3rd cohort.
X-Factor- Funded by Kellogg alum Tom Verghese, X-Factor is an experimental partnership between Northwestern psychology professors and The Garage, based on the theory of Transformational Leadership. The program is focused on developing student leaders through personalized assessments and clinical intervention.
NUseeds- NUSeeds is Northwestern’s $4M pre-seed/seed fund. Eligible startups need to have a lead investor in place for their current funding round and have previously participated in The Residency Program. NUSeeds check sizes range from $10,000- $100,000.
Wildfire Pre-Accelerator Program- The Wildfire Program is intended to launch student startups through a 10-week summer program. Beginning with problem-solution fit, the teams work through customer acquisition, growth, fundraising, and any day-to-day issues they face. Wildfire ends with a Demo Day, where $10,000 in non-dilutive prize money is awarded to the highest achieving startups.
Startups
PedalCell– PedalCell created CadenceX, a bicycle accessory that converts a rider’s motion into charge for their USB devices.
IFM– Intelligent Flying Machines (IFM) develops intelligent perception systems for digital logistics to improve efficiency and minimize operational errors.
BrewBike– BrewBike provides college students cold brew coffee in the most convenient way, every day. BrewBike, a former Resident startup at Northwestern, has expanded to UT-Austin, Texas State, and The University of Miami. The company recently raised a $2M seed round led by CEAS Investments.
DinDin– DinDin is changing the access to essential financial services in Brazil by facilitating financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked population through its B2B2C solutions.
LoudChat– LoudChat is a factory floor voice and video communication product to disrupt the radio market.
Zcruit– Zcruit is the maker of software that uses predictive analytics to assess how likely a football recruit is to commit to a university. Zcruit was acquired by Reigning Champs in 2017.
Lighthouse– Lighthouse is a learning platform that lets teachers make and share their own content while letting their students choose the topics they want to learn about.
*DealDock– DealDock is a SaaS platform to automate deal flow management and improve analytics for private equity firms.
*full disclosure: I am one of the co-founders and the current CEO of DealDock
Conclusion
The last three years at Northwestern have been amazing for my personal and academic growth. However, the most catalytic experiences I’ve had here are founding a startup at The Garage, growing our business, and meeting incredible entrepreneurs. As the ecosystem continues to grow, I hope this article provides a basis for further exploration. I encourage every aspiring founder to find a program that suits them and get involved.