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Backstage Breakfast with EO Chicago & Special Guest, Kevin Willer
February 1 @ 8:00 am - 9:30 am
Join us for an exciting morning at the Valley Lo Club in Glenview, IL! Get ready to meet and mingle with the entrepreneurial community of EO Chicago, as well as our special guest, Kevin Willer. This in-person event promises to be a fantastic opportunity to network, gain insights, and learn from a businessman who has been making his mark on Chicago . Don’t miss out on this exclusive chance to connect with like-minded individuals and learn from a seasoned entrepreneur.
Attendees: This event is open to EO Members, Strategic Alliance Partners (SAPs), Accelerators and Chicagoland business owners that revenue $250k +. Feel free to bring another entrepreneur to join you. (Please register them).
About Kevin Willer:
Kevin is a Partner at Chicago Ventures and professional sports team investor.
After graduating from Boston College in 1996, where he managed newspaper delivery on campus for the Boston Globe & The New York Times, Kevin worked a summer at the A-Bar-A dude ranch in Encampment, Wyoming. Returning to Chicago, he started his career by joining tech manufacturer, U.S. Robotics, before heading back to the east coast to help build a portfolio company of leading technology incubator, CMGI. The dot.com bust forced a new path and in 2000 he joined a fledgling venture-backed search engine, co-founding the Chicago sales office of Google Inc. As the first “Kevin” to work for the company, he spent over a decade helping to build Google’s local presence to over 400 professionals and developed relationships across Chicago’s business and tech ecosystem while also earning his MBA from Chicago Booth in 2010.
In 2011, now Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sketched the idea for 1871 on a napkin and recruited Kevin to help make the idea a reality. As the first CEO of 1871, Kevin worked to establish Chicago’s innovation hub which became the #1 ranked private business incubator in the world. In 2013, Kevin joined Chicago Ventures as a Partner. Over the next decade, CV invested in leading Chicago companies SpotHero, G2, Project44, Cameo, and HealthJoy. In addition to his venture work, Kevin is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of manufacturing and hardtech incubator, mHub.
Passionate around all sports, especially proper football, in 2020 Kevin and his family began investing in professional soccer teams in the U.S. and abroad including the Chicago Red Stars (NWSL), Leyton Orient Football Club (EFL1), OneKnoxville Sporting Club (USL1), and Rhode Island Football Club (USLC). In 2022, he became Vice Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Red Stars, helping to lead the club through a challenging time and sales process to new ownership, led by Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts.
Kevin is a proud husband to Victoria and father of 3 amazing children residing in Winnetka, IL. After attending Loyola Academy high school, he has strived to live the Ignatian motto of “Men and Women for Others” and serves on several non-profit boards including Loyola University Chicago, Northshore University Healthsystem, the Big Shoulders Fund, the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and the US Soccer Development Council.
