Meet the Startups from the Hannover Messe USA / GE Ventures Innovation Showcase (powered by Sente)8/29/2018 IMTS is the largest and longest running manufacturing technology trade show in the United States is held every other year at McCormick Place in Chicago. Co-located with IMTS is Hannover Messe USA - showcasing innovations in the factory of the future: robots, industrial energy systems, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industry 4.0 and related applications such as predictive maintenance, more efficient use of raw materials, faster time to market, and other trends in industrial manufacturing. In partnership with GE Ventures and Hannover Fairs USA, Sente is presenting six early-stage startups who are making an impact on the Factory of the Future. Come join us at the event at 1:00pm on Thursday, September 13 at the Solutions Theater where you will see these six startups, and get a chance to interact with them 1:1.
More information on the event is in the press release and you can register for Hannover Messe USA here In partnership with...
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At Sente, we have a global approach to scouting for innovative startups, and we've found a great partner, Hatcher+, that shares the same perspective. Together, we can apply our deep, analytical, data-driven approach to scouting for, preparing, and investing in top startups across the globe. Today, Sente Foundry and Hatcher+, a Singapore-based, data-driven venture firm, announce our formal partnership. The partnership will provide significant additional capital, resources, and connections to portfolio companies; Sente and Hatcher+ will support the most promising startups by co-investing into 10 accelerator programs over the next 3 years. “Partnering with Hatcher+ provides capital at a critical stage for the startups in our programs. It also brings Sente into Hatcher+’s next-generation platform, which uses AI and machine learning-based technologies to identify the growth potential of the early-stage opportunities. The platform helps predict the startups’ likelihood for success - which is extremely beneficial to our investor network,” said Serhat Cicekoglu, our founder. Founded in 2016, Hatcher+ is a next-generation, data-driven venture investment firm that recently announced the launch of H2, a USD $125M early stage investment vehicle. The Hatcher+ platform uses AI and machine learning-based technologies to identify early-stage opportunities in partnership with leading accelerators and investor groups, worldwide. For more information, please visit https://h2.hatcher.com .
 Connexion IoT on May 11 is Chicago's biggest Internet of Things event of 2018. This event will be a showcase for innovative IoT solutions from startups and industry leaders, combined with a full day of thought leadership on how IoT is impacting transportation, health care, cities and people. The "who's who" of IoT will be at the Chicago Connectory and 1871 that day. More info, and registration details, are here. As the exclusive international startup accelerator partner of 1871 and the Chicago Connectory, Sente is proud to be running the Connexion IoT Startup Pitch Contest, where the Midwest's hot new IoT startups will be showcasing their innovations at the Connectory all day and will have a chance to pitch at the 1871 auditorium at 3:30pm during Happy Hour. Here is who they are - come and meet them at the Connectory on May 11!
As we kick off the new year, Serhat, New Mobility Lab and I are all super excited to hit the ground running in Las Vegas with our first batch of Mobility startups at CES 2018. We first met these transportation technology rock stars in Week 1 of our New Mobility Program that kicked off in Paris in October, at Autonomy 2017. After an intense six weeks of work with the group (which included a boot camp, analyst support and mentoring sessions with the startups) we had the tough job of selecting the Top 5. These five will continue on with the program until October of this year - starting with a month here in the US. CES in Las Vegas, NAIAS/Automobili-D in Detroit, and with a US home at the Connectory in Chicago. Nationalities represented in this group will be Israeli, Dutch, Turkish, German, Indian, Ukrainian and Slovenian. If you want to meet some of the companies defining the future of mobility, connect with us or visit us at CES Eureka Park (booths 51557-51565) next week. You can find us in the CES mobile app by searching for "sente.link" or find us directly on the floor plan. __ Gerod, COO sente.link Here's our gang:
 "The Fist, Detroit" - http://imgur.com/gallery/ue4BJ1a By Charlotte Waldmeir (@cwaldmeir), Content Strategy for sente.link, @sente_link If you’re involved in the startup world, chances are you’ve used the “e” word (“ecosystem”) at least once this morning. In the first few minutes of the podcast Masters Of Scale episode titled “And The Next Silicon Valley Is….” host and LinkedIn Founder, Reid Hoffman, breaks down the many interconnected components that make up the great barrier reef of innovation. “You need entrepreneurs, with ideas, yes. But you also need people who are skilled at every discipline needed at every company at every stage.” According to Hoffman, a cocktail of engineers, product managers, lawyers, marketers, recruiters, operational geniuses, media outlets, institutions, universities and VCs is what earned Silicon Valley its name. While cities around the world are attempting to become the “next Silicon Valley,” Hoffman proposes a different approach - ditch this pipe dream entirely. Instead let thousands of entrepreneurial hubs bloom around the world, like Endeavor’s Linda Rottenberg set out to do first in Latin America and now around the world. Promote high-impact entrepreneurship and innovation in each hub and do so by focusing attention on that city’s strengths...and its weaknesses. The reality for a re-emerging ecosystem like Detroit? It will never be a Silicon Valley. But in the same respect, for a booming techtopia like Silicon Valley, it will never be a gritty, home-grown Detroit. More so, no matter how hard Silicon Valley tries, it will never have the tenure or muscle mass Detroit packs in the sector of automobility, which makes the emerging mobility industry a low hanging fruit for the Motor City. A recent report created by Navigant Research shows how the 18 biggest companies in the race to develop self-driving cars rank based on a number of criteria like tech, go-to market strategy, production prowess, staying power, and sales, marketing and distribution. While Google’s Waymo, Uber and Tesla rank high in the technology sector of autonomous cars, Detroit’s Ford and General Motors (GM) lead the way overall. Why? They know a thing or two about mass production.  Source: Wired - "Detroit is Stomping Silicon Valley in the Self-Driving Car Race" “The technology is great, but unless you can build tens of thousands of cars and get people in those cars, it’s not really all that useful,” says Navigant’s Sam Abuelsamid. Ford and GM already have the bedrock of producing and selling cars so all they need is to invest in the right technologies. Companies like Tesla, on the other hand, have the technology but are being banned in States around the US (like Michigan) because they would rather adopt a direct-to-consumer car sales model (think Apple stores) which, according to legislation, would have a direct impact on car-dealership sales. Here, we see history repeat itself. The car was on the road years before Henry Ford invented the Model T. What put Detroit on the map was Ford’s implementation of the moving assembly line in car manufacturing that could produce an already existing technology to the masses. From that point on, cars were no longer an exclusive purchase like Elon’s Tesla is for many today. People could finally get their hands on the wheel. The same narrative holds true for Detroit today. Only this time around, the hands are coming off the wheel.  Ford Motor Company assembly line While things might be looking up for the city, Detroit needs to understand things could change fast. For example - the minute their competition joins forces with any other large-scale car manufacturer, Ford and GM’s autonomous efforts could become irrelevant. Now, more than ever, Detroit needs to pack a punch if it wants to keep itself in the ring. Planet M, Willow Run and the University of Michigan’s MCity are just a few of many testing sites and research facilities around the Detroit Metro Area and Ann Arbor that are solely focusing on connected vehicle technologies. Michigan’s state government is making a huge push to shift the state’s brand to be a “smart” motor city. "Michigan's signature industry is changing before our very eyes," says Sandy Baruah, CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber. "We're proud to be the center of the auto industry," said Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. "... But we need a plan for the future." Detroit must anticipate that as technology continues to advance, industry and law is subject to change with it. Apple is a great example of how a new technology disrupted the PC market and Telecom companies and challenged the law. In the same respect, Detroit cannot hide behind a law that protects itself from being outnumbered by Tesla. But whether the law changes in favor of Tesla or not, there are many other competitors world-wide that could, and according to Hoffman, have already risen to the top. China being a leading contender. To remain relevant, the city of Detroit needs to do what Hoffman proposed in the first place - ditch the pipe dream of becoming “the next Silicon Valley” and continue to bloom as a well-rounded entrepreneurial hub that is unique to Detroit.  Source: ITworld - "By the numbers: Detroit offers a bright future for technology professionals" Without a doubt, a lot has already changed for the city in the last 5 years. According to the 2017 Michigan Venture Capital Association Research Report, there was a 50% increase in the number of active venture-backed startups in Michigan. Additionally, the number of venture capital investment professionals living, working and investing in Michigan has increased by 41%. Out-of-state mobility startups like Spatial, HAAS Alert and Cargo are moving to Detroit and partnering with Ford to build out autonomous and connected car technologies. “The possibilities are endless when you combine the experience and influence of a storied company like Ford with the energy and innovation of these inspiring startups,” said Bill Coughlin, president and CEO of Ford Global Technologies. There has also been a 9.2% increase in Detroit’s population of millennials. Now, more than ever before, 20-29-year olds who graduated from college in Michigan are choosing to stay put to see the city grow and define automotive technology. On January 14, 2018 the biggests players in connected and autonomous vehicle research and technology will come to Detroit to take part in NAIAS’ Automobili-D. The week-long event will host more than 89,000 engineers along with the world’s top researchers, designers, industry leaders, suppliers, automakers, emerging mobility startups, and international media, including sente.link’s New Mobility Cohort. The city of Detroit will serve as the epicenter of the future of mobility innovations - a title it's used to.  The Chicago Connectory - Bosch’s IoT incubator (office location for 5 IoT startups) By the Sente.Link Team, @Sente_Link
Following up on our Business Wire Press Release regarding sente.link’s international accelerator program for IoT startups, we are excited to announce that we have chosen 5 winners out of the 11 startups that participated in the first phase of the IoT program in Istanbul. For the next 4 weeks, they will enter into Phase 2 of the IoT Accelerator Program where they will scale up in the US, via Chicago. The US portion of the program is an intense business development experience where these companies will test their commercial hypothesis in Sente’s “soft landing” spot in Chicago to get the market traction they need to take their business to the next level. Congratulations to the 5 winners below:
“We chose Chicago as the base for US entry because we understand that the startups need to get market traction with real customers before they can raise funding,” says sente.link COO, Gerod Carfantan. "Chicago is well suited to do that, since it has such a diverse industry base, is centrally located and has a friendly business environment.” For the next 4 weeks, until their demo day August 21, the 5 startups will set up shop in the largest innovative hub in North America, 1871 Chicago, as well as the Chicago Connectory - Bosch’s IoT incubator dedicated to IoT ventures. According to global IT Innovation lead at Bosch, Dennis Boecker, “We see IoT as the next big step that every company needs to take.” One of their initiatives - attracting even more IoT talent to the city. These 5 startups will be the first first wave of talent coming to the Connectory from overseas through the sente.link accelerator program. You can stay up to date on their experience by following sente.link on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  [Photo: lavendertime/iStock] By the Sente.Link Team, @Sente_Link What do Paris, Las Vegas and Detroit have in common? The future of mobility. Now imagine being an international startup in the sector of new mobility innovations and choosing a US market-entry accelerator program that does not include Silicon Valley. Would you role the dice? Below we map out Paris, Las Vegas and Detroit's impact on the new mobility world and why we (sente.link & New Mobility Lab) waged our bets to focus our up-and-coming accelerator program around these 3 cities. To get a full breakdown of the program, click here. Paris (Week 6) - Autonomy
Photo: rabbit75_ist/iStock
To kick off the New Mobility Program, a selected cohort of global startups will attend the first ever international summit on urban mobility, Autonomy. Founder, Ross Douglas, says he moved his family to Paris to start Autonomy because "Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s strong political will to transform mobility, and Paris is the world’s transport capital, with more transport-related companies than any other city." Fact: Paris is the most visited country in the world and more than 48,000 people die from air pollution a year in France. This raises a huge red flag not just in Paris, but all growing metropolises. Paris’ first female Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has already pledged to take more cars off the road and put more feet on the ground. And the French government, counting President Macron, sees a shift in sustainability as both holistically and economically beneficial to all. (Can someone please tweet this out to President Trump). Paris is the old yet secret door that shows young startups in this hot sector that new mobility is sustainable mobility. And according to Douglas, ‘Sustainable mobility’ must rank as the biggest revenue opportunity within sustainable cities.” Las Vegas (Week 7) - CES
Photo Cred: The first self-driving big rig licensed to operate in the US
And nothing says ‘sustainable mobility’ like…Sin City? That’s right – after Paris, a a selected group will be chosen to participate in the US phase of the program to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 9-12. CES is the largest global gathering of innovation around the connected future of technology with over 170K attendees. It will host industry leaders and networking giants like Cisco. Recently, Cisco partnered up with the city of Las Vegas to create smart city solutions. By using smart city technologies or "sensor tech," Cisco will improve the city's environment, traffic, water, crown control, transit, lighting, waste management, security and parking. Learn more about the plan here. Cisco SVP of IoT and Applications Rowan Trollope also announced that the IT and networking giant will be pumping in funding for startups to run out of Vegas. As you might have already heard, Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, also invested funds ($350 million to be exact) into reinventing downtown Las Vegas, putting the deserted town on the map as more than a destination for the obvious (alien hunting). With the help of Hsieh, Vegas now stands out as one of two US cities that rose from the ashes because of the help of one private stakeholder. (The other US city - Detroit). Last, but not least - did you know the state of Nevada is a pioneer specifically in the field of autonomous technologies? In 2015, Gov. Brian Sandoval allowed the first operated self-driving trucks to navigate a public road in the US. While a driver still needs to be behind the wheel, the state of Nevada proves autonomy on the road can (and will) be done. Detroit (Week 8) - AutoMobili-D
Photo Cred: Forbes- Detroit: America's Newest Tech Hub
No surprise that Detroit's secret sauce (other than Coney Island chili) is auto-mobility. After Vegas, the cohort will head to Detroit, where they will attend AutoMobili-D, the North American International Auto Show's (NAIAS). During the four day event, tech startups disrupting the transportation industry from around the world will cover 5 key mobility areas: autonomous driving, connected car technologies, e-mobility, mobility services and urban mobility. (Sounds familiar...VCs Take Note: Here Are The 5 Core Themes in New Mobility). Plain and simple, Detroit knows cars. So it’s no wonder GM has already built the most self-driving cars than any other automaker in the industry. And they’re just revving up. the real work is taking place in and around Detroit, with special testing facilities like MCity (Ann Arbor), OU INC (Oakland Country), AND Tech Town (Downtown Detroit). “I heard there was a skyscraper sale going on in downtown Detroit. So I bought nine.” Famous words from Quicken Loans Founder, Daniel (Dan) Gilberts, Detroit’s leading investor with a net worth of six billion. Thanks to donors like Gilberts, the city is back on the map, making Detroit America's newest tech hub and the last stop in our New Mobility tour before heading to sente.link's HQ in Chicago to wrap up the 12 week program. Interested in learning more about the New Mobility Program? Click here or send us an email at info@sente.link.
 Gif credit: Flows. Modelling Mobility, A NET Lab project A few weeks ago, we introduced you to the Renz Brothers - “New Mobility” enthusiasts who have both IT and cars in their DNA. This week, we are taking a deeper dive into the sector of “New Mobility.” By doing so, we hope to illuminate the vast opportunity in this domain as well as why sente.link and New Mobility Lab have invested their time and capital to create an accelerator program for startups in the New Mobility space. Not too long ago, investments in the mobility sector were considered, well, “not interesting.” A lack of scalable business models, a highly regulated industry and limited interest from traditional OEMs and suppliers in open innovation and corporate venturing were among the laundry list of reasons why VCs focused their attention on other technologies. But the Renz Brothers always felt that they were part of something bigger. “Mobility and transportation is critical to our daily lives. Access to mobility means access to education, access to jobs and access to our social lives. At the same time we need to make mobility more sustainable. We believe technology can help change mobility and transportation for the better of humanity and the planet.”  Several major technologies that have empowered the transformation of the New Mobility sector include machine learning, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and blockchains (or distributed ledger technologies). To help give you a better idea into the scope of New Mobility, The Renz Brothers have broken this ecosystem into 5 core themes.
The Connected Vehicle shifts the focus away from optimizing the inner functions of the car and towards providing new services that enhance the brand experience. Examples include next generation user experiences around infotainment, but also services that make owning or using a car less of a hassle. Capabilities such as Over the Air updates introduced by Tesla enable remote maintenance, but also create new monetization models across the entire lifecycle beyond the initial purchase. On the other hand, connected vehicles also introduce significant cyber and data security risks. Connectivity will also transform how we access the vehicle and how we experience the interior. Next generation surfaces, displays and wireless sensors coupled with biometrical sensors and natural user interfaces (i.e. voice recognition, gesture control, etc) will open up new avenues to sense, anticipate and personalize driver and passenger needs. When will connected vehicles become a true digital assistant? Who will control and secure the data of the vehicle? And who will own the data in the first place? 2. Autonomous Vehicles The race towards autonomous driving is on. Both technology players as well as automotive OEMs, Tier 1’s and emerging players are investing heavily to make driverless vehicles a reality. As much as we have made significant progress towards automated driving and eventual driverless cars, a broad range of challenges still need to be resolved. How will driverless cars handle adverse weather conditions such as heavy rain, snow and light conditions? How can HAD (Highly Automated Driving) maps be updated in real-time at scale to reflect changes in road conditions, traffic lights etc.? How will driverless cars interact with humans, all the way from accessing robotic cars to the day-to-day user experience? And while autonomous vehicles will also be able to gather massive amounts of data about their environment and themselves, turning the data generated by robotic systems into sustainable business models remains a challenge. But no question - connected and autonomous vehicles will have a transformative impact on how we experience and consume mobility. 3. Mobility Services Chances are the phone you bring with you everywhere (even the bathroom) also has some sort of ride sharing app on it somewhere. Mobility Services such as ride hailing and car sharing challenge traditional ownership models and introduce the notion of ‘On Demand’ access to shared mobility. Delivering mobility services will introduce new requirements related to fleet management, pricing and related services that need to be delivered at scale across different cities and geographies. There is still plenty of opportunity to increase the utilization of largely underutilized assets. But is there an opportunity to create a true sharing economy without the need for intermediaries such as Uber and Lyft? 4. Electric Mobility It appears that Tesla (and the Dieselgate scandal) have helped to create a breakthrough for electric mobility. Major OEMs including Volvo, Daimler and others are redirecting R&D investments away from combustion engines and have made electric mobility a strategic priority. However, challenges remain to address current cost and range, but also manufacturability, serviceability and charging infrastructure issues. We also believe there is significant opportunity for step change around new battery technologies beyond lithium-ion battery systems. 5. Urban Mobility Many of the mobility and transportation issues we face are related to Urban Mobility. With the ongoing trends towards urbanization there is an increasing need to make smart use of existing infrastructure through smart traffic management and seamless multi-modal mobility, but also new vehicle concepts such as 2-wheelers, e-bikes etc. An increasing amount of traffic is related to the endless search for parking and delivery services resulting from the growth in eCommerce and food delivery services. Smart solutions including robotic systems – like airborne drones - are required to address these challenges. The US market, with its large metropolitan areas, provides a perfect environment to test, validate and scale such offerings. The opportunities to reinvent mobility are vast. Together, sente.link and new mobility lab, have the mission to help startups, corporations and investors take advantage of the opportunities that the transformation of the industry towards the New Mobility ecosystem presents.
To learn more about the New Mobility program, click here.  Jochen Renz (left) & Alexander Renz (right) - Brothers and Founders of New Mobility Lab sente.link and New Mobility Lab have teamed up on an international accelerator program that is designed to take early-stage Mobility startups (primarily in Europe) to scale-up via a hands-on structured accelerator. This series of posts focuses on New Mobility innovations leading up to the program starting October 2017. The digital transformation of mobility and transportation is not only reshaping industries but creating opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors and corporations alike. But the origin of this transformation doesn’t start with a “Silicon” and end in a “Valley.” In fact, the future of mobility has its roots in the first place the car took its first spin - Europe. If you know cars (or at least a little), then you know the Old Continent is known for its automotive brands - Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, VW, Audi - the list goes on. But did you also know Europe is home to the some of the world’s largest transportation and logistic companies? Many of Europe’s cities boast a world class infrastructure and excellent public transportation. And through Europe’s world class universities, some of the most profound research on the topic of mobility and transportation is being produced. The education system of Europe produces great engineering talent and there are a range of interesting startups emerging especially around mobility and transportation. However, if compared to Silicon Valley or Israel, Europe still lacks the VC funding and a network of mentors who have successfully scaled startups. .  Breakdown of the October 2017 New Mobility Program schedule Because of this, sente.link decided to focus its 8th accelerator program on the domain of mobility. To help guide the future cohort of international startups through a robust set of trainings, tools and mentorship, we’ve teamed up with the New Mobility Lab, founded by the Renz brothers, Alexander and Jochen ‘Joe’ Renz. As native Germans but US residents, Joe and Alex have an international perspective and a global network across the US, Europe and Israel. What sets them apart, however, is more than stamps in their passport and names in a “contacts” list. Their vision is holistic. The Renz brothers understand the car as an important building block in the future of multi-modal mobility. However, they believe that much of disruptive innovation happens in the form of solutions around the car and in the broader mobility ecosystem. “We really think of the future of mobility as a System of Systems - a new ecosystem emerges that will transform mobility and transportation. New Mobility goes far beyond automotive, but touches retail, smart cities, telecommunications, banking and insurance.” Back in 2015, Alex and Jochen were part of the genesis that coined the term “New Mobility.” However, “back in those days” they had a lot of explaining to do. In a world where people are used to carrying their mobile phones wherever they go (even in the bathroom), the term “mobility” was associated with “mobile communications”. Today, “New Mobility” is one of the hottest areas of technology innovation and venture investment. When we met the Renz Brothers, their enthusiasm for the New Mobility was overwhelmingly refreshing. As we got to know them better, we learned why. Born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany - where the car was born in 1886 - Joe and Alex grew up expecting to work for Daimler, Porsche or Bosch. However, attracted by the opportunities in the software sector they ended up working for global software companies including SAP, Microsoft, CA and Infor. As Marc Andreessen likes to say, “Software eats the World” and it seems that the automotive sector is for lunch. In the software industry the Renz brothers have experienced several transformational shifts including the web, social and mobile, as well as the shift to cloud computing. Alex was part of the early days of the “Internet of Things” (IoT) and initiated SAP’s sponsorship of the MIT Auto-ID Center in 2001. It was this work that triggered his interest in autonomous systems. “Connected and autonomous vehicles are the ultimate IoT device,” says Joe Renz. “ And before long, vehicles will become their own economic agents and engage in the Machine-to-Machine economy. Our mission is to help startups, corporations and investors take advantage of the emerging opportunities.” Plain and simple. The Renz brothers have both IT and cars in their DNA. Their passion and experience become highly relevant as software transforms mobility and transportation. To learn more about the New Mobility program, please click here.  Chicago fire, October 1871 (Photo from Mashable) By the Sente.Link Team, @Sente_Link More and more of the international startups that go through Sente.Link’s accelerator programs are in the “smart cities” domain - essentially, domains where technologies and solutions connect citizens, their local government, urban infrastructure and industry. In a series of posts throughout the next few months, we will explore Smart City and IoT innovations around the world, with specific emphasis on Sente’s main hubs in Chicago, Helsinki and Istanbul. As uncovered in the last two posts on the Sente.Link blog, in order for a city to become “smart” it needs to enable two things - its platforms and its stakeholders. To wrap up our series on Smart City and IoT innovations around the world, we turn to the Chicago-based civic tech company, DataMade - a breathing example of “smart city solutions.“ To understand the vision behind DataMade, we need to rewind back a few thousand years, when storytelling predated data. Pretty much since humans started talking, they’ve been telling stories.The art of storytelling is embedded in the way we learn and is what lies at the center of DataMade’s mission. Since 2012, DataMade has been taking data and transforming it into compelling digital-prose so stakeholders like journalists, researchers, government and advocate organizations can develop solutions for their communities. The company’s advent came during a pivotal (and some would say, perfect) time in Chicago’s tech history. Let’s set the stage:  Mayor Rahm Emanuel at 1871 Chicago (photo cred: 1871 Chicago) It’s February, 2011 in Chicago. Barack Obama’s former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has taken the 44th seat as Mayor of Chicago after a 5 ½ term legacy of having Richard M. Daley in office. Emanuel announces his vision to make Chicago the “digital mecca” of the midwest and sets out with different stakeholders and organizations to attract more tech companies to the city. In 2012, there’s a tech boom in the city and the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC) opens its largest project yet, 1871 - a digital phoenix for the city, named after the great Chicago fire of 1871 that left the city in ashes.  1871 Chicago celebrates its 5 year birthday this year (photo cred: 1871 Chicago) Entrepreneurs catch wind of the space and a city of builders is re-born. During this time, the civic tech organization, Smart Chicago, invites Derek Eder (DataMade’s soon-to-be Founder) to work on a government project after his side-project Open City caught their attention. Derek sets up shop at 1871 as one of the first members, alongside the great minds behind companies like Package Zen, Purple Binder and Food Genius that now have name in the Chicago startup game. The explosion of interest in tech and open data in Chicago led to the creation of Derek’s digital love child, Chi Hack Night - a weekly evening event where citizens of Chicago come and build, share and learn about civic tech. After dedicating most of his time to his data-driven side-project, Derek made the leap every entrepreneur has to make. He quit his job and started DataMade as an LLC.  Chi Hack Night at Braintree (photo cred: Chi Hack Night) DataMade got to work in 2012 as one of the first platforms in Chicago to take raw data and build solutions. In fact, open data was such a hot topic at the time that when Tom Tolva, former CTO for the city of Chicago, showcased DataMade in his presentations as the example of open data solutions. “Strength came from independence to explore.” says Derek. “We would have been derailed if the climate wasn't the way it was at the time and I got to learn what worked and what didn't work.” It went without saying that the tech side was solid for DataMade. Their learning curve was on the political side. But in 2014, Derek and his team developed a partnership with various Chicago stakeholders that would give rise to a project that married technology with policy - The Large Lots Project. If you haven’t heard of it, here’s how it works: for one dollar, residents can use The Large Lots website created by DataMade to buy vacant land in their neighborhood and gain back greater control over their neighborhoods. Best part? The project relied on the input of the stakeholders who had actual “stake” in the community - the residents. During the 2014 Code for America Summit, Derek called this take-away, the “with, not for” model, a phrase popularized by civic tech expert, Laurenellen McCann. “We listened to what people were really wanting to have us solve and we built this application with them, not for them.”  Teamwork Englewood Founder, Demond Drummer, and DataMade Founder, Derek Eder, present at the 2014 Code for America Summit Teamwork Englewood Founder, Demond Drummer, continued the conversation from the same stage, “Innovation comes from the bottom up. --- The story of Large Lots is the story of a policy solution and a technology solution that is by the people and for the people.”
But you know what they say - it takes a village to build an open data solution. And thanks to Teamwork Englewood, Green Healthy Neighborhoods, DataMade and the support of LISC Chicago, Boeing Corporation and the Knight Foundation, a stronger Chicago was born. The Large Lots Project proves that when technology is enabled, policy can thrive. But the only way for technology to thrive is when the stakeholders that run the policy (i.e. the city government) are on board. So, what will it take to implement open data projects like DataMade into cities around the world? Derek says an openness to transparency. “I wouldn’t be here if open platforms didn’t exist.” Derek’s right. Technology and an open-mindset to share it is what allowed Chicago’s policy to scale. And without Chicago’s surge of interest in tech back in 2011, there’s a strong chance projects like Large Lots would have never existed and we’d still be telling stories, just without data. But as history shows, the city of Chicago improved once all its stakeholders leaned in and listened closer to what data was telling them. At this very moment, DataMade is developing products such as Chicago Councilmatic and Dedupe.io that will allow these solutions to be implemented around the world. However, regardless of how good the technology can be, the fact still remains - if your city wants to evolve, it needs to enable those who have stake in its future and be open to open data. A special thanks to Derek Eders and the DataMade Team for letting us tell your story. Follow DataMade here @DataMadeCo and the exclusive 1871 international accelerator, Sente.Link here @sente_link |
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