Neal Sáles-Griffin, the well-known Chicago tech entrepreneur and former mayoral candidate, has jumped to the next chapter in his career—running startup accelerator Techstars Chicago.
Sáles-Griffin, who has long been a mentor and coach to startups in Techstars Chicago, is replacing Logan LaHive as the program’s managing director. LaHive announced he was leaving Techstars Chicago in January to launch a new startup.
Techstars, a global accelerator program for budding entrepreneurs to grow their startups, has been in Chicago since 2013. Techstars Chicago has incubated several local startups like SpotHero, Jiobit and LogicGate.
Sáles-Griffin, who grew up in Chicago neighborhoods Kenwood and Hyde Park, attended Northwestern University. After graduation, he worked at venture capital firms, taught himself to code and eventually launched Code Academy, which was later renamed The Starter League. The 12-week school that taught computer science and software writing was eventually sold to Fullstack Academy in 2016.
Sáles-Griffin is also the CEO of CodeNow, a nonprofit that teaches coding to low-income high school students, and an adjunct professor and faculty coach at Northwestern and the University of Chicago, respectively.
Sáles-Griffin said becoming Techstars Chicago’s new managing director was an idea sparked a few months ago when Troy Henikoff, the co-founder of Techstars Chicago, suggested Sáles-Griffin would be good for the role.
“It wasn’t until I connected with Troy—he and I grabbed dinner and we had a conversation about where Techstars was going and what it needed,” said Sáles-Griffin, who began his new role July 1. “And that conversation led to me taking an opportunity to pursue this role very seriously.”
Techstars Chicago, which has normally taken place during the summer and fall, is now running during the winter.
“If anything, being in the cold weather is going to harden [entrepreneurs] resolve to be effective at their work and to make sure they’re taking advantage of the Chicago community,” Sáles-Griffin joked.
Techstars is taking applications for its next class beginning July 22 and the program begins Jan. 27.
“I’m trying to find our superhero founders who can bring in the new wave and new era of innovation in Chicago,” Sáles-Griffin said.
Sáles-Griffin said part of his plan to change and improve Techstars Chicago is by giving startups in the program a refined set of skills around customer discovery, acquisition and sales pipelines. He said within the first month of the accelerator, participating startups will undergo intensive training on these topics.
He said he also wants to continue work that Henikoff and LaHive did when it comes to prioritizing accepting diverse candidates into Techstars Chicago. Across race, gender and socio-economic class, Sáles-Griffin said ensuring founders come from a variety of backgrounds is important.
“With my own perspective, as a born-and-raised South Side Chicagoan, I have access to a network, a series of resources, communities and have ties to local organizations that’s going to broaden that scope even more when it comes to how many people know about Techstars in Chicago and beyond, and how inclusive we can be in our selection and recruitment,” Sáles-Griffin said.
"my job is to make sure our founders are successful."
Another experience he’s bringing to Techstars Chicago is his mayoral campaign. Though he ran unsuccessfully, he integrated much of what he learned in the tech industry into his campaign by running it like a tech startup. He built and implemented software to make the process more efficient.
Now he plans to take what he learned on the campaign trail and incorporate it into his tech career and at Techstars Chicago. Having a better understanding of the city's civic endeavors, Sáles-Griffin said he wants to put a greater emphasis on how the city’s tech industry can be an asset to more Chicagoans.
“The biggest ‘ah-ha!’ moment for me as a candidate running for mayor in Chicago was realizing how many people are out there who want to engage in the technology community here,” he said.
And part of encouraging a better relationship between the city and tech sector can begin at Techstars Chicago, Sáles-Griffin said, adding that giving budding startups a place to learn, grow and flourish can create jobs for Chicagoans in the future.
“At the highest level, my job is to make sure our founders are successful,” Sáles-Griffin said. “And this carries into the larger vision of what Techstars is about globally, which is [being] the worldwide network to help entrepreneurs succeed.”
