Techstars' Chicago program has a new leader.
Techstars Chicago announced Thursday that Logan LaHive, the founder and former CEO of Chicago startup Belly, has been named the accelerator's managing director. He takes over for Troy Henikoff, who co-founded the Chicago program in 2010 under the name Excelerate Labs. Henikoff is moving on to spend more energy at Chicago VC firm MATH Venture Partners, where he is a managing director. Henikoff "will remain deeply involved across the Techstars network going forward," a spokesperson said.
LaHive's new role comes three months after he stepped down as CEO of the customer loyalty platform he co-founded in 2011. Belly has raised around $25 million, including from high-profile investors like Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, and Chicago firm Lightbank.
Now, as the leader of one of the most prestigious tech accelerators in the city, LaHive said his strength of being "more founder than executive" will be a benefit to young startups in the program.
"I’m passionate about starting technology companies, and I get energy from working with founders and teams," LaHive said in a blog post. "I love getting my hands dirty solving problems. I still believe that I have at least one more 'founder' business card to print in my future - but, not right now."
LaHive added that as the managing director of Techstars he plans to "Invest in bad ideas. Non-consensus ideas," "Be insanely founder focused," and "Be inclusive, actively seeking diversity of teams and ideas."
"Our goal with each class will be to swing for grand slams," he continued. "We’ll never bunt. No swinging singles. We will be focused on finding companies that have an opportunity to dramatically advance their market or create an entirely new one."
Techstars Chicago is accepting applications now through April 9. The program has helped fund and support Chicago startups such as SpotHero, GiveForward and Infiniscene.
Prior to founding Belly, LaHive was the director of new business at RedBox.
Image via Techstars
