3 Questions with the New Techstars Class: WeDeliver

Q&A with Daniela Bolzmann, CMO WeDeliver

It’s that time again! Last week, Techstars welcomed its Summer 2014 class into 1871’s downtown Chicago Merchandise Mart space. Over the course of a 90-day period, Techstars offers startups $118,000 in seed funding, intensive mentorship, and a vast network of mentors and alumni for 7-10% equity in each company. After an intensive application process, 10 startups, 6 of which are originally Chicago-based, made the Techstars roster. Let’s meet them!

1. If you had to describe your company in one sentence, what would you say?

WeDeliver connects local brick-and mortar businesses to their customers by providing same-day, on-demand delivery of goods, real-time tracking, and customer feedback using a curated fleet of independent drivers powered by algorithmic dispatching.

2. What led you to become a part of Techstars & 1871?

We met at 1871 through Startup Weekend events, and as a prize for winning first place at StartUp Weekend Chicago 2012, we were given 3 months office space at 1871. We worked from the Techstars office and applied that year for Techstars. We shared our journey of not getting into TechStars the first time here and recently shared the 5 things we did differently this time around to get accepted into TechStars.

3. What are 3 things that get you excited about working out of Chicago?

Starting in Chicago has been a smart strategic move for us. Chicago is truly an amazing city, with the unique ability to have both the intimacy of a small town, while still having all the “hustle & bustle”, density, and power players of a large metro area. The Chicago tech/startup scene is underrated when compared to the larger metro areas, which has allowed us to fly under the radar as we build, test, and iterate on our business model. This is rapidly changing due to organizations like 1871, TechStars Chicago, The Starter League, and people like Mayor Rahm Emanuel, JB Pritzker, and Troy Henikoff to name a few.

Read more about WeDeliver here.
Read more about Techstars Chicago here.