Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited our FinTech meeting on Monday and shared several of Chicago’s competitive advantages that benefit both our VC community and FinTech industry.
Chicago is:
• #1 US city in corporate relocations 4 years in a row
• #1 US city in direct foreign investment 5 years in a row
• a top 5 global tech hub
• building the ‘Chicago Quantum Exchange’ with U of C, U of I, Fermi and Aragonne National Labs.
Chicago also has:
• most diverse US economy - no sector accounts for more than 14% of employment
• most Level 1 research centers in world within a 200 mile radius
• 10% of the country’s computer scientists graduates are educated in Illinois.
I especially liked how he closed. He said he considers himself a “great salesman because I have something great to sell and that’s the City of Chicago”.