S2E5: Building Chicago's Startup Community with Kevin Willer

from Ventures by the Lake · host Anthony Alepra & Mike Sundermeier

We sit down with Kevin Willer - the founding CEO of 1871, founding partner at Chicago Ventures, and a driving force in building Chicago’s startup community. Kevin shares stories from launching Google’s Chicago office in the early 2000s, to helping create 1871 as a hub for entrepreneurs, to investing in the city’s next generation of founders. We explore the evolution of Chicago’s tech scene, lessons from two decades of growth, and why the next wave of big bets - from hard tech to quantum computing - could define the city’s future.

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This episode was published on August 5, 2025.

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