About 1 year ago, a small group of folks from Chicago’s startup community started researching the possibility of an ambitious, dynamic, flexible, digital startup center.

Today, this vision is a reality.  Today, we officially launch 1871.

There have been so many folks involved with this effort – over 200 entrepreneurs plus a core team including Steve Collens, Matt Moog, Dan Lyne, Jack Keenan, Jim Plummer, Todd Heiser, Carlos Martinez, Ray Kennedy, Katy Ruscitti, Lina Chiu, Luke Galambos, the Jasculca Terman team, the Skender team, Suzanne and the ROI Ventures team, VSA Partners and JB Pritzker.  Special thanks to my CEC team – Una, Caity, Kim, Melissa, Heidi, Mike, and Chris – as well as our incredible CEC Board of Directors for their leadership. Thank you for all of your efforts in making this dream a reality.  We will make you proud.

To honor this day, I’d like to share 1871: By the Numbers

50,000 square feet of space

500-person capacity

65 companies already accepted

85 Code Academy students

10 Excelerate Labs companies

36 events and educational programs scheduled for the month of May

200 members of the digital community consulted on design

18+ miles of communications cabling

3,200+ linear feet of light fixtures

3,400 square feet of glass

143-foot-long glass whiteboard

5,000 carpet tiles

28 conference and phone rooms

63 lockers

1871—(1) catalyzing moment in Chicago history, when the most brilliant
engineers,
architects and inventors came together to build a new city; (2)
where Chicago’s brightest digital designers, engineers and entrepreneurs
are shaping new technologies, disrupting old business models
and
resetting the boundaries of what’s possible