Chicago has built an entrepreneurial ecosystem by borrowing from its heritage, and your city can also
I didn't end up in Chicago on purpose. I grew up on the East Coast and lived in New York for a few years. When my wife graduated from law school, we were ready to try new things. We chose Chicago after living here for a summer because of the high cost of living compared to the incredible opportunities of living, working and playing.

However, once we chose Chicago, I had to figure out what job I wanted to do, and I had absolutely no idea that I would start a food technology company. In hindsight, Chicago has always been one of the key factors in the success of my company, Farmer's Fridge-it is no coincidence.

Chicago is home to many successful food technology startups, including disruptors like Grubhub, which has accelerated online food ordering, meal package pioneer Home Chef, protein snacks RXBar (now part of Kellogg’s), and companies like Tovala and Emerging companies like Nature's Fynd.

Surrounded by so many food technology startups, it clearly shows that I have finally come to the right place. The city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has rooted Chicago as a food hub-I will explain how and why this is a boon for our company and others-and provide for founders and economic development officials in other communities A good roadmap, they seek to use their tradition to encourage innovation and to win in emerging industries supported by new technologies.

Production and distribution center
Although many Americans might think of avocado farms in California or restaurants in New York City, Chicago is located in the middle of the country's largest grain growing area and the country's geographic center, and is the core of the country's food production and distribution. Chicago has long been a national transportation hub, and it still is today: The six largest rail freight companies in the country operate terminals here, and it is the world's third-largest multimodal transport system. We can reach 30% of North American consumers in one day.

In short, Chicago has been in a good position from the beginning and has many of the largest consumer products companies. It is home to 1,500 food manufacturing companies and nearly 400 food companies have offices here, including Kraft Heinz, Oscar Mayer, MillerCoors and Conagra. Don’t forget, McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain, has also expanded from its headquarters in Windy City.

The fact that large-scale foods are booming in Chicago is not entirely news. What's really interesting is when we see a new generation of food technology companies that are thriving here. Why no other city or region can shake Chicago's crown? There must have been a try. Silicon Valley has quite a few food companies, and places like Boulder, Colorado are critical to innovation in the natural food industry. But nowhere else is our company so concentrated. Chicago's goal is not just pure geographical advantage.

Not that expensive
Food is a tangible and tangible thing. Compared with launching a service business, launching a company with physical products is more challenging in terms of cost and logistics. It requires manufacturing space, labor, and raw materials. In 2013 in Chicago (when I founded Farmer's Fridge), the cost of renting a table to work in a shared industrial kitchen was $15 per hour. In New York, a similar space for preparing meals charges $100 an hour. The low start-up cost is definitely one of the reasons why many food technology companies take root here.

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In addition to being cheaper, it's also easier to get started here. Infrastructure is readily available and is usually located in a central location. Chicago has the largest industrial real estate market in the United States, with more than 1.2 billion square feet of processing and manufacturing space. This is 50% more than the industrial space in Los Angeles and more than Dallas and Atlanta combined. With so many large food companies in Chicago, it is easy to find these spaces, attract suppliers and secure logistics partners. For our first manufacturing facility, we were able to rent space in West Loop, which used to be used by the food package and home delivery company Home Chef, less than half a mile from the Google headquarters and a brand new Nobu hotel. When we surpassed that space, we again followed in the footsteps of home cooks and moved into the next level of facilities where they had grown up recently.

Top talent
Just as important as the existing infrastructure is institutional knowledge. Chicago provided the support system needed to grow farmer refrigerators. As the food system in the U.S. undergoes another revolutionary change, the city has the infrastructure and a vital talent base needed to succeed. The rise of technology and the digitization of our lives have completely transformed the way we interact with the food we eat (think about ordering food from apps, software-supported smart ovens, or digital vending machines, not to mention advancements in manufacturing. technology). When you put technology on top of the solid industrial and logistics foundation that already exists in Chicago, it's clear that something special is taking shape here.

For this reason, it is not difficult to hire team members who have worked in the food, manufacturing or logistics fields to help grow your organization. Chicago is the place with the highest concentration of food scientists and food manufacturing workers in all major cities in the United States. I hired a quality and food safety director with a background in Kraft Heinz, and an operations director from Imperfect Foods. When you start to expand, Chicago is a city large enough to support a large number of technical talents. In fact, as the center of top engineering projects, the Midwest is cultivating more and more national skilled labor. The University of Michigan, the University of Illinois and Purdue University are among the best in the United States. Michigan is the state with the largest number of engineers per capita, and 7% of the workforce in Illinois is in the technology industry, which is equivalent to approximately 440,000 jobs. Of course, with so many large food companies headquartered here, Chicago is also home to talented professionals from all walks of life. My leadership team in Chicago has a background in Garrett Popcorn, Groupon, Trunk Club, and Feeding America.

Chicago as a gourmet city
Chicago's history as a gourmet city means that I have discovered that my fellow Chicagoans have refined taste buds and curious taste buds. We also have an indomitable desire for quality and value, and at the same time have a persistent pursuit of serious prices in the Midwest. In short, our history as a gastronomic capital means that we are used to the best, and Chicago’s top restaurant scene has influenced our menu offerings over the years. We worked with chefs such as Stephanie Izard, Brian Jupiter and Paul Kahan in our hometown and had the opportunity to source amazing ingredients. For many years, we have used bread from James Beard to make sandwiches, which was approved by Publican Quality Bread’s baker Greg Wade, and we still use Rick Bayless’s Frontera Foods corn flakes in our snacks. I know that I will not be satisfied with bad food, nor will many of my friends and neighbors.

If you plan to do something big, innovative, and use new technology in the food industry, I strongly recommend that you join us in the Midwest and use Chicago as your headquarters. If you are a founder, learn from the city of big shoulders by looking for entrepreneurial opportunities that embrace and leverage your hometown roots.