It is not always obvious just how much work goes into putting on a three month program like TechStars Chicago. We started ramping up in January getting ready for applications to open February 1st and will finally slow down a…
Q. What do First Round Capital, Battery Ventures, SV Angel, Founder Collective, and countless other VC firms have in common? A. They have all invested in alums of Excelerate Labs in its three short years of existence and none of…
Chicago’s Excelerate Labs held its annual demo day on Wednesday, trotting out the 10 fledgling companies that underwent its intensive accelerator program this summer. At the end of that program come $50,000 grants investments from Chicago’s New World Ventures as…
The first month of Excelerate is “mentor dating month”- a chance for startups to meet as many mentors as possible with the goal of forming meaningful long term relationships. With only two weeks left in mentor dating month, we took…
During the first week of Excelerate, the alumni gather to share their sage words of wisdom to new companies. This year’s wisdom sharing was exceptional, with about twelve alumni from the last two classes sharing their successes and shortcomings frankly.…