Friday, June 24, 2016

Chicago's Startup Accelerators, Incubators & Co-Working Spaces

Posted By: George Deeb - 6/24/2016

Share

& Comment



I have previously written about Chicago's exploding startup ecosystem.  And, startup activity is organizing around certain startup accelerators, incubators, startup studios and shared offices in town. A few entrepreneurs asked me to compile a list of the key players in this space, so here you go.

Chicago Accelerators

Accelerators have a formal education curriculum and program.

Founder Institute

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses

Platform Venture

Sunshine Enterprise (for Woodlawn area companies)

Techstars

Chicago Incubators--Generalist

Incubators are lead by one organization, who co-locate many startups in one place.

Blue 1647

Catapult

1871

Seedary

TechNexus

Venture Shot

Chicago Incubators--Specific

These incubators have a specific focus for startups they work with.

Arts Incubator in Washington Park (art)

Bunker Labs (veteran run)

Chicago Connectory (Internet of Things)

Chicago Fashion Incubator (fashion at Macy's)

Cleveland Avenue (food & beverage)

Coalition Space (energy & social impact)

DMDII (manufacturing)

Fulton Street Collective (art)

Good Food (food)

Healthbox (health care)

IHCC (hispanic run)

Insight Accelerator Labs (healthcare)

Impact Engine (social impact)

Leap Innovations (education)

Lost Arts (makers)

Maker Lab (at Chicago Public Library

Matter (health care)

mHUB (manufactured products)

Panzanzee (social impact)

Propel (life sciences)

Reach (real estate from Natl. Assn. of Realtors) (real estate)

2112 (music/film/creative)

Windy City Harvest Farm (agriculture with Chicago Botanic Garden)

Chicago Incubators--University Related

These incubators are affiliated with startups at specific universities.

Chicago Innovation Exchange (U-Chicago)

Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (DePaul)

Innovate (UIC)

LUC @ 1871 (Loyola)

The Garage (Northwestern)

University Tech Park (IIT)

Chicago Incubators--Venture Fund Related

These incubators are run by venture funds who co-locate their portfolio companies

Lightbank

Moderne Ventures (real estate)

New Coast Ventures

Ringleader Ventures

Sandbox Industries

Chicago Startup Studios

Startup studios or venture labs, build startups for third party companies or themselves.

Digital Intent

Incisent Labs

Insight Studios

L Street Collaborative

Prota Ventures

Roniin

Startup Foundry

Wavetable Labs

Chicago Co-Working Spaces

Co-working spaces simply allow many startups to rent smaller spaces or cubicles, with shared services, at affordable rates.  But, it is typically only a real estate play.

Amata

Be Office

Carr Workplaces

coLab (in Evanston)

CoWorkers (in Wilmette)

Creative Coworking

Deskpass

Desklabs (in Lakeview)

Free Range Office (in Wicker Park)

Industrious

Inspire Business Center

Office Port

Onward Coworking

Platform Coworking (in Wicker Park and Ravenswood)

Regus

Serendipity Labs

Suite Spotte (in LaGrange)

The Study

The Warehouse (at Lightbank)

WeWork

Work Better (at Willis Tower)


These are everyone that I am aware of as of the date of this post.  I am sure there may be others I missed or that are in development.  So, let me know if I should add any others.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.


Red Rocket is a featured contributor on entrepreneurship for many trusted business sites:

Copyright 2011- Red Rocket Partners, LLC