Lofty Ventures is a growing community of Chicago’s most passionate founders building our city’s next generation of disruptive startups, and the angel investors who back them. Our founders and investors are all bounded by a common thread, amazing people with vision and purpose. We’re laser focused on finding the best founders in Chicago and giving them all the resources necessary to be successful entrepreneurs, dynamic business leaders and exceptional people. Lofty’s growing family of 140 founders leading 76 startups collaborate and support one another throughout their entrepreneurial journeys. Our strength is building community and fostering relationships with one another, the broader Chicago community and the global tech ecosystem. Lofty Angels is over 100 investors strong and growing. We provide educational programming and investment opportunities for accredited investors who want to excel at early-stage investing. We also enable Lofty founders to become angel investors earlier in their career to: 1) become more savvy founders by understanding how investors think, 2) build diversification & hedge their risk, and 3) gain investing experience/reps early so they can write first-checks right when they exit. Lofty Ventures is not a venture capital firm, and although we don’t manage other people’s money, we do maintain a syndicate for our angel community. We like to invest as early as possible and add value right away by introducing potential investors, customers, advisors, directors, and team members. We typically invest from first-check to seed and deploy $10k to $100k initially, with potential for $100k to $500k in follow-on investment via our syndicate. Our post-money valuation (or cap) sweet spot is $3M to $5M pre-money, we’re industry agnostic but look for Chicago-based, tech enabled businesses. Our founders are exemplified by the following: 1) are givers (in Adam Grant's "Give & Take" sense), 2) brilliant, 3) scrappy/gritty, and 4) have problem-founder-fit.
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Chicago, Illinois, US
Lofty Ventures reposted this
Had a blast yesterday at mHUB with Pat I., YJ Lin and the Dell Technologies For Startups team to wrap up P33 Chicago’s AWESOME 2nd annual TechChicago Week…thx for having me 🙏❤️👊 Heard some fantastic founders pitch, and hung out with great friends & awesome partners, including Luke Tanen from Chicago Innovation
Lofty Ventures reposted this
Chicago: The BLCK VC All White Boat Party is back! 🛥️ And we plan to do year three even bigger—this time in partnership with Verizon, Lofty Ventures, Ten To One Rum, and MAISON PERRIER. See you there?
We're heading to TechChicago Week! Come visit our booth and/or our Angel Investors' meetup on TechChicago Day (7/25) at 2pm CT. To register, visit: gotechchicago.com/week #TCW24 #TechChicagoWeek #TechChicago #TechChicagoWeek2024
We kicked off Lofty Week with our annual Summer Rooftop Party 😎 featuring musical artist Com Truise 🎧. This week could not have been possible without the support of our Lead Partners: Bank of America, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, and Verizon. Stay tuned for more pics and clips from the rest of the week... Photo credit: Shea Shawgo-Manley, Odarian D. Jordan
It was an honor to be invited to attend this year's Lofty Camp, where I joined other entrepreneurs and investors to share ideas, inspiration, and good times. Thanks, Christopher Deutsch for assembling an amazing group. Thanks also to Christian McKenzie 🇯🇲 and Lofty portfolio company, Off Map, for hosting us. #LoftyFamily #LoftyAngels
It's the last day of Lofty Camp! We went to Lake Arvesta Farms for lunch, a little cornhole, and to say our goodbyes. Our goal over the last few days was to facilitate building and growing connections and relationships within the Lofty community. We hope everyone had an amazing time! Also, we could not have done this without our Lead Partners: Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, Bank of America, and Verizon! THANK YOU! 🔥 #LoftyCamp
We closed out day 2 of Lofty Camp with: - Survivor-inspired challenges with "Survivor" winner Ethan Zohn - A nature hike 🌻 - Picking blueberries 🫐 - Making more s'mores 🍫 - Tacos in the woods 🌮 - A 'life hack' discussion - A fireside chat with Roseanna Ander, Founding Executive Director at University of Chicago Crime Lab Friday is our last day at Off Map. We will definitely be making the most of it! 🔥 #LoftyCamp
We are back at Off Map for our annual Lofty Camp 2024: Survivor Edition! Day 1 included an outdoor welcome dinner, s’mores, and playing a little catch 🥍. We’re looking forward to a full day of programming tomorrow (and also more s'mores). 🔥 #LoftyCamp
Lofty Ventures is honored to be an early investor in this incredible Chicago-based biotech startup Dimension Inx. This will truly be one of our city’s great success stories.
Bill Wickline, Edward McNamara and Lan Zhu, in our Life Sciences Group, recently worked with Dimension Inx on securing a $5,000,000 term loan. Dimension Inx is a regenerative therapeutics company designing, developing and manufacturing products that restore tissue and organ function. Dimension Inx’s materials-centric approach enables biofunctionality without compromising manufacturability.
Lofty Ventures reposted this
As part of our Lofty Ventures Roundtable series, last night we were honored to host Consul General of Israel, Yinam Cohen for a very topical discussion on global affairs & entrepreneurship. Key takeaway: investor 💰 ALWAYS seeks out top talent, whether here in Chicago or overseas.