Photo by Heather Eidson
Brad Spirrison is the new corporate engagement lead at Discovery Partners Institute, part of the University of Illinois System.
Chicago in 2024 is positioned to become a global hub for several ascending industries including artificial intelligence, quantum, climate technology, and cannabis.
This is due in large part to the mindful coordination between industry, the public sector, the civic community, and leading higher education institutions. These core constituencies for economic development, however, did not always coordinate effectively with one another—and the results proved to be very costly.
What went wrong?
When I began my journalism and entrepreneurial career in Chicago 25 years ago, the city’s then -fledgling tech community was dejected due to the loss of a breakthrough application invented at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that would fundamentally change society.
The Mosaic web browser, developed in the early 1990s at the university’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), would eventually become commercialized in Silicon Valley as Netscape Communications Corporation. Netscape in the ensuing years introduced millions of mainstream users to a new medium called the Internet. The company’s initial public offering in 1995 generated billions of dollars in value and pioneered a “new economy” which eventually gave us the likes of Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
Why a team of young programmers at the NCSA, most notably Marc Andreessen, left Illinois for greener pastures in Silicon Valley became a prevailing topic of conversation among technology, business, academic, and public sector leaders over the next decade. Based on hundreds of conversations I had with leading stakeholders during that time—including several with then-venture capitalist J.B. Pritzker, the sentiment was that the Chicago and Illinois ecosystem did not have the vision, capacity, or funding infrastructure to recognize and capture value from world-changing technologies invented in our own backyard.
Building bridges in the Illinois tech community
Informed by this experience, my career over the course of the last quarter century has been devoted to building communities around ascending industries in Chicago and Illinois at large. My first company, ePrairie, embarked on a mission to catalyze technological development in Chicago through news reporting and industry insights, facilitating professional networking among stakeholders who shared the commitment to build Chicago into a world class technology and innovation hub. That company also managed initial publications for organizations including the Illinois Venture Capital Association and the Illinois Information Technology Association.
On the civic front, I became very involved with the Economic Club of Chicago and chaired the Technology and Innovation membership committee, aimed at interconnecting new industry founders and CEOs with leaders and investors across multiple sectors. As an advisor to the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, a division of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, I promoted the creation of the 1871 incubator, which became a launching pad for Chicago’s current generation of tech unicorns, including Cameo and SpotHero. More recently, I became an entrepreneur-in-residence with 1871.
After 20 years focused on digital innovation, five years ago I started the first daily news publication, Grown In, that reports on the Illinois cannabis industry. What became apparent in that role is that Chicago, where five of the ten largest cannabis companies in the country began their operations, has the potential to become the Silicon Valley of one of the fastest growing industries of the 21st century. Under the leadership of its inaugural director, Reggie Gaudino, DPI’s Cannabis Research Institute is headed for big things.
Fostering the next generation
Through ongoing conversations with Reggie, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, Renu Kulkarni, Karl Putz, and Christina Sansone, I recognized that DPI’s vision to be an engine of equitable economic development and a magnet for the most ambitious tech talent in the world aligns with my personal mission to contribute to Chicago’s rise as a global leader in fostering emerging industries and innovative companies.
I am humbled to work alongside so many passionate and talented change agents at DPI to make sure the world-class research conducted in the University of Illinois system is leveraged by industry—and that the next generation of transformative companies spawned at the university remain in Illinois.
Author: Brad Spirrison