2026 startups
🥇 LOOP
LOOP is the Gillette model applied to toothbrushes — a premium, personalized handle you keep forever, with replacement heads delivered to your door each season. It reduces plastic waste by 90% per user while making the most ordinary object in your bathroom feel like it was made for you.
🥈 Flywheel
Flywheel reduces the time it takes for humans to verify AI agents. We provide the tools to make it easier for subject matter experts to build high quality evaluations.
🥉 Authflow
Authflow is an AI tool that generates prior authorization forms for independent physician practices in 30 seconds. Doctors currently spend 35 minutes per request navigating insurance requirements — we eliminate that by letting staff paste a clinical note, select the payer, and get a completed, policy-compliant form instantly. Think TurboTax for prior authorization.
GovBuddy
GovBuddy is an end-to-end government contracting platform that guides women-owned, veteran-owned, and disadvantaged small businesses through discovery, certification, and RFP preparation — all in one place. By combining AI-powered opportunity matching with guided WOSB, 8(a), SDVOSB, and HUBZone certification support, it removes every barrier preventing qualified small businesses from claiming their share of $178B in annual federal set-aside contracts.
Ground Truth
Ground Truth is an environmental intelligence platform that turns fragmented contamination data across water, soil, air, and waste into actionable risk signals for insurers, municipalities, land buyers, and other decision-makers. We help institutions identify hidden exposure risk earlier, connect it to downstream health and financial impact, and act before those costs compound.
Nora
Nora is a maternal health platform that uses real-time monitoring data to identify high-risk pregnancies early, empowering care organizations to act before crises occur. By surfacing verified clinical insights, Nora replaces misinformation with clarity at the moments that matter most.
sidequest
sidequest is a free social experience app that brings people together- whether you're meeting strangers or deepening bonds with people you already know- by taking the planning, the awkwardness, and the predictability out of a night out. you show up- we handle the rest.
Aashrita Narayan
54 hours, one pitch. Still processing an incredible weekend at mHUB for the Chicago Startup Weekend! Last weekend was everything I hoped it would be. Going from a single idea to a full pitch deck in just over two days was one of the most intense and rewarding challenges I’ve taken on. Huge shoutout to my team Taruna Jagtiani MLS, SCYM, Mukul Ved, and Vaishnavi Naidu. More than just the pitch, this weekend was about meeting amazing people too. Special thanks to our mentors, Cara Bognar and Tadas Kunickas, for the candid guidance, and to John Hill and Umama Kibria for the invaluable insights on scaling a brand. It was an honor to present our work to a panel of judges I deeply respect: Arielle Johncox, Charlotte Trecartin, Sam Yagan, Troy Henikoff and Steven Jiang. Thank you for the feedback! And finally, a massive thank you to the organizers team and sponsors (Allan ⭐️ Sokol, Alexa Smith, Fiona Chen, Mayank Mehta, Future Founders, Techstars Startup Weekend, and mHUB) for creating a space where ideas can actually turn into reality !! 🌟
Anshul Dani
54 Hours. 27 Pitches. 3rd Place. 🏆 Sanjana and I walked into Techstars Chicago Startup Weekend with one mission: to fix the "hidden" bottleneck in American healthcare - Prior Authorization. It’s the manual, bureaucratic wall that forces 1 in 4 patients to abandon treatment because the paperwork takes too long. Friday: The Selection It started with 27 initial pitches. Sanjana took the stage, laid out the vision for Authflow, and we were honoured to be among the 8 ideas selected to build over the weekend. We rallied an incredible team - Shalyn, Surya, Monica, and Mehak - and went straight into the war room. Saturday: The Build Saturday was a blur of customer discovery and heavy technical lifting. Two sessions completely shifted my perspective: Martina Matthews’ workshop on "Vibe Coding" reframed how I approached our rapid prototyping. We didn’t just build a deck; we built a backend that could ingest a clinical note and spit out a completed auth form in under 30 seconds. Umama Kibria’s session on Social Media for Startups gave us the roadmap for how actually to tell this story to the world. Sunday: The Grilling Sanjana and I co-pitched the final product to a formidable panel of judges: Arielle Johncox, Charlotte Trecartin, Sam Yagan, Steven Jiang, and Troy Henikoff. Being first on the roster meant getting grilled on our moat and GTM strategy while the room was still warming up. We defended the vision, survived the deliberation, and took home 3rd Place. A massive shoutout to the mentors who sat in the trenches with us: Kirill Polevoy, Komal Nagpure, and Sam Bidwell. Your feedback on Saturday is the reason we survived the Sunday Q&A. And to the organizers - Allan ⭐️ Sokol, Alexa Smith, Mayank Mehta, and Fiona Chen - thank you for building the arena. To Scott Issen and Future Founders for the constant trust in new builders. To mHUB for the space. We left with a signed copy of Slicing Pie by Mike Moyer, access to Balsamiq, and a lot of momentum. Authflow is just getting started. 🚀
👩⚖️ Arielle Johncox
It's an honor to be asked to give founders feedback. It's something else entirely to be the founder — building, pitching, and answering tough questions in 54 hours. I had the BEST time judging Chicago Startup Weekend last week, alongside Troy Henikoff, Sam Yagan, Steven Jiang, and Charlotte Trecartin. A few patterns stood out from the strongest teams: → They knew exactly who they were building for → They had a real plan to find PMF (and re-prove it) → They'd thought critically about unit economics → Their moat wasn't just "we use AI" — it was deep expertise in a specific industry with genuinely complex needs, or a new angle their audience could latch onto It was also great to feel Chicago tech getting vibrant again. I remember my first Tech Week back in 2016, and for a while that energy felt like it had faded. This weekend, it was back, full of ambitious founders (too many to name) and community builders like Scott Issen and Kirill Polevoy. Huge thank you to Allan ⭐️ Sokol and the organizing team Alexa Smith, Mayank Mehta, Liza Smirnitskaya, Mariel Mudrik, Nathan Goswick for dreaming this up and having me. And congratulations to the winning team LOOP / María Benítez de Lugo Casucci + crew. Honestly, I'd do this every weekend if I could.
🎓 Chrystal Price
What a weekend! I am catching up still on all the communications! Congratulations to every team that showed up for Chicago Startup Weekend and a huge round of applause for the Loop Team for taking first place: María Benítez de Lugo Casucci, Suchitra Rajkumar, Diego Vargas Reyes, Marco Hartono and Scott Tatro (you all are awesome and this is the first of many wins). Farah Adil and I couldn't be more proud of you. All the teams amazingly pitched an idea on Friday night not knowing exactly where it would go, and walked out Sunday with something real. That takes a particular kind of audacity and drive and I have a lot of respect for it. I was grateful for the opportunity to coach and support the teams this past weekend. I hope some of what we talked about landed. When you have a constraint of 54 hours, it's hard to know what to do first and my goal was to help keep you focused on your goal and making your positioning crystal clear. Here's what I keep coming back to: it really does only take one idea and 54 hours. Not a perfect idea. Not a fully formed business model. Just something worth exploring, a room full of people willing to build, and enough coffee and snacks! What comes out the other side is usually more than people expected when they walked in Friday, but more importantly what is developed is the ability to flex creativity, humility, courage, curiosity, sticktoitiveness and teamwork — all traits that are uniquely human. Builders, founders, developers, designers, or anyone who's been sitting on an idea — Startup Weekend is one of the best investments of a weekend you can make. The network alone is worth it. The reps of actually shipping something under pressure are worth even more. To: Fiona Chen, Allan ⭐️ Sokol, Alexa Smith, Mariel Mudrik, Mayank Mehta (and I know I am missing others, mea culpa) - thank you for putting on a spectacular program. I am honored to have been chosen to help. Two ways to keep the momentum going if you're in Chicago: - I host founder office hours at In Good Company Co. on the second Wednesday of every month. If you want to talk through what you're building — early stage, pre-idea, or anywhere in between — come find me. No agenda required. -And if you haven't been to 1 Million Cups Chicago, go. It's a free weekly gathering where entrepreneurs present what they're working on and get real feedback from the community. It's one of the better rooms in Chicago for this.
🎓 Connor Cofoid
Techstars Chicago Startup Weekend - It was so much fun! You are all incredible! Saturday, I spent the afternoon at Chicago Startup Weekend where 40+ entrepreneurs came together to build a business in a weekend. Miss ChatGPT101 and I collabed on an AI workshop where she showcased the "MVP in an hour" tool - Lovable and I talked through my value proposition and customer discovery AI coaches. Then, I had the opportunity to bounce around and mentor teams as they were working through their business ideas and beginning to put their pitches together. Seeing all these motivated, curious, bright individuals all in one room working together is something special. (Go team Phone Case!) I got to listen to the great Umama Kibria talk about social media and content strategies for startups. It is always great having the chance to sit in on workshops from ecosystem leaders! The biggest of shoutouts to the organizing team of Allan ⭐️ Sokol, Alexa Smith, Gabriel V., Fiona Chen, Mayank Mehta, Mariel Mudrik, Liza Smirnitskaya and so many others helping make this event happen and creating a great environment to come together and lean into creativity and entrepreneurship! Also, mHUB you are amazing but you already know that!
Mir Mustafa Ali
54 hours. One project. Absolutely grateful. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in Techstars Chicago Startup Weekend 2026, powered by Future Founders (April 10–12) at mHUB which was one of the most formative experiences of my early career. Over 54 hours, our team conceptualized, developed, and pitched “GROUND TRUTH” entirely from the ground up. What made this experience truly remarkable was not just the product we built, but the people I built it with. I am incredibly grateful to my teammates Nicholas Hein, Nathan Held , Laura R. and Simon Botbol for their dedication, creativity, and resilience throughout the weekend. Collaborating with such driven individuals under pressure reminded me what is possible when the right people commit to a shared vision. A sincere thank you to the organizing team whose efforts made this event possible and helped me in every step of the way for 54 hrs: Allan ⭐️ Sokol , Alexa Smith , Fiona Chen , Mayank Mehta , Liza Smirnitskaya , Mariel Mudrik, Scott Issen and many others. The environment you curated was both challenging and deeply supportive that’s exactly what emerging founders need. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the judges, mentors, and speakers — Troy Henikoff, Sam Yagan, Charlotte Trecartin, Arielle Johncox, Steven Jiang, Umama Kibria , John Hill, Connor Cofoid, and Martina Matthews for their thoughtful feedback and candid guidance. Your perspectives shaped our thinking at critical moments and added real depth to the experience. Events like Chicago Startup Weekend are a testament to what the entrepreneurial community in this city continues to build. I leave with new skills, meaningful connections, and a renewed sense of purpose. Looking forward to what comes next.
Mukul Ved
54 hours. One idea. This past weekend I competed at Chicago Startup Weekend at mHUB, and walked out with a team, a pitch, and a whole new perspective on building. Huge thanks to my teammates Taruna Jagtiani MLS, SCYM , Aashrita Narayan, and Vaishnavi Naidu - building something from zero with you three in a single weekend was an incredible experience. We pushed each other, challenged assumptions, and came out stronger on the other side. Special thanks to our mentors Cara Bognar (Founder & CEO, Top Tier Lessons) and Tadas Kunickas (Founder, TAVO Sleep) for the sharp feedback, candid questions, and strategic guidance that shaped our direction at critical moments. Your time made a real difference. Shoutout to the guest speakers who shared real, applicable insight throughout the weekend - John Hill and Umama Kibria on social media and content strategy for startups. Having ecosystem leaders share their playbooks in real time was invaluable. Deep appreciation to our judges for the thoughtful evaluation and feedback: Arielle Johncox - CEO, Balsamiq Charlotte Trecartin - Founder & CEO, CharCharms & WallCandy Sam Yagan - Co-founder & Managing Partner, Corazon Capital Steven Jiang - Co-founder, Overture Games Troy Henikoff - Managing Director, MATH Venture Partners And an enormous thank you to the organizing team: Allan ⭐️ Sokol , Alexa Smith, Gabriel V., Fiona Chen, Mayank Mehta - along with Future Founders, Techstars Chicago Accelerator, and mHUB for making this happen. Walking in with an idea and walking out with a team, a pitch, and 40+ new friends in the Chicago startup ecosystem is exactly the kind of weekend I needed. Already thinking about what's next.
Nishita Chintalapudi
54 hours ago i walked into chicago startup weekend at mHUB with an idea and a 60-second pitch. i walked out with the best team ever, 43 strangers who signed up for our waitlist, and a company i genuinely believe in. we built sidequest. the problem: making friends as an adult is genuinely hard. the infrastructure for real human connection is broken. our solution: sidequest is a free social experience app that brings people together- whether you're meeting strangers or deepening bonds with people you already know- by turning a night out into an unscripted adventure. you get a time and a place. that's your entire briefing. each stop reveals itself only after you've finished the last one. one stop is always something the whole group figures out together. you show up. we handle the rest. we didn't win. but we went out on Saturday and 43 strangers handed us their phone numbers and said they needed this. that felt like winning to me. none of this could have happened without the team: Ryan Helsing, who built our entire app in 54 hours, brought the technical vision to life, and brought incredible insights about building/running a business and technical feature refinement. Kalon DeLuna, whose network, experience, and hustle opened doors we didn't even know existed. Cynthia Aguilar Paredes, who owned our business strategy and kept us sharp under pressure. Abigail Hartzell, who brought unbelievable strategic thinking and a keen eye for detail that helped us refine and strengthen our ideas. and an enormous thank you to Mariel Mudrik and Nathan Goswick, the incredible founders of DePhi Media who followed our team all weekend and captured everything. you made us feel like we were building something worth documenting. because we are. thank you to Future Founders and the entire Chicago Startup Weekend team for creating a space where ideas like this get to exist. (especially Fiona Chen and Mayank Mehta for taking the time to help us with our market calculations, and Brylan Donaldson & Alexandria Alyse W. who were incredible mentors to us) lastly, i want to thank Troy Henikoff & Arielle Johncox for giving us some great advice about our pitch & what we should be considering/reworking as we continue on our journey. we're not done. we're just getting started. if sidequest sounds like something you've been waiting for- get on the list. 🎲 https://lnkd.in/gP4Gi-c5
Sanjana Waghray
We came in with an idea! We left with 3rd place at Techstars Chicago Startup Weekend 🏆 54 hours. 27 pitches. One problem most people have never heard of - but affects millions of patients every day. Prior authorization. Before a doctor can prescribe a specialty drug or perform surgery - they need written permission from the insurance company. It's manual, it's broken, and 1 in 4 patients abandon treatment because of the delays it causes. We built Authflow. Paste a clinical note, pick the insurance company - complete prior auth form in under 30 seconds. Friday night, I pitched to a room full of strangers. None of this started without Anshul Dani - the best co-founder I could have asked for. Thank you for betting on this idea with me from day one and building it into something real. What I didn't expect was finding exactly the right people walk up and say "I'm in." Monica Widjaja, Mehak Tukra, Surya teja Nulu, and Shalyn 'Shay' Barrios - you showed up with full energy through every long hour. I couldn't have asked for a better team. Saturday was a blur in the best way - workshops, mentor sessions, customer discovery, and more whiteboarding than I can count. But what pushed me most was the role I had to play. I've always lived deep in the technology - this time I had to zoom out too. Quick decisions, team alignment, go-to-market thinking, all while keeping the product running. This weekend showed me what leading end to end truly means. And a special thank you to Umama Kibria and Martina Matthews - for always believing and pushing me through. You two are a true inspiration. Sunday was the championship. Five judges. Seven teams. One shot.❗ To our mentors Komal Nagpure, Sam Bidwell, Chrystal Price and Kirill Polevoy - your feedback showed up directly in our final pitch. Thank you. To the judges - Arielle Johncox, Charlotte Trecartin, Sam Yagan, Steven Jiang, and Troy Henikoff - the feedback on scaling and go-to-market gave us real clarity. We're taking every note and building tirelessly. And to Allan ⭐️ Sokol, Alexa Smith, Mayank Mehta, Fiona Chen and Techstars Chicago Startup Weekend team - thank you for building a space where ideas like ours get a real shot. A quick shoutout to Slicing Pie and Mike Moyer for gifting and signing the book for us - can't wait to dig in and learn more about the entrepreneurship journey ahead. Authflow is just getting started. 🚀
Suchitra Rajkumar
This weekend, I had the opportunity to participate at Chicago Startup Weekend, hosted at mHUB! We spent the 54 hours building Loop: a system designed to close the loop on dental waste by ensuring every handle and head actually makes its way back into the manufacturing cycle, rather than a landfill. A million thank you's so much to María Benítez de Lugo Casucci for giving me the opportunity to work on a cause like this. I had fun building with my team, María Benítez de Lugo Casucci, Diego Vargas Reyes, Marco Hartono, and Scott Tatro. We won first place, yay! 🥇 There were so many things I learnt about building something from scratch this weekend, and thank you so much to our mentors Farah Adil and Chrystal Price for making that happen. Thank you so much to Scott Issen, Rachael Seno, Mayank Mehta, and Fiona Chen for their inputs throughout the idea and the event. Thank you to the judges for their inputs on the venture. I wish I could tag so many more people! The whole weekend was a blast. I also made so many friends, which is amazing! And last but not the least, endless gratitude towards Allan ⭐️ Sokol and Alexa Smith for creating the space for emerging entrepreneurs. Looking forward to participate again next year!
SPONSORED BY
GLOBAL SPONSORS
Build
Build a startup from scratch in one weekend
Pitch
Pitch your startup to top industry mentors
Learn
Get feedback from experienced entrepreneurs
Validate
Test your idea with real users
Agenda
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
5:30pm - 6:30pm
📝
Registration + Networking Dinner
6:30pm - 6:45pm
🎤
Welcome Speech
6:45pm - 7:00pm
🎤
Speaker
7:00pm - 8:00pm
⚾️
Pitch your Idea!
8:00pm - 8:30pm
🗳️
Voting for Ideas
8:30pm - 9:00pm
🛠️
Team Planning & First Brainstorm
9:00pm - 11:00pm
💫
Work Time
11:00pm
🚪
Doors Lock
Organizers
Founder, President
@ CSW
Event
Director
President, CEO
@ Future Founders
Operations
Chair
Event
Chair
Marketing
Chair
Recruitment
Chair
Marketing
Chair
CEO,
Balsamiq
Founder + CEO,
CharCharms & WallCandy
Managing Director, Corazon Capital
Co-founder & COO,
Overture
Managing Director, MATH Venture Partners
Want to know more?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this event for me?
If you are interested in entrepreneurship, the answer is most likely yes! Whether you're an experienced entrepreneur or still new to the startup scene, you’ll find value in this opportunity to build a startup and network with fellow founder-minded folks. Our aim is to create a collaborative and inclusive space for sharing, learning, building, and having fun.
Does my residence need to be in Illinois to attend?
No! You are welcome to come from anywhere, as long as you are in-person in Chicago during the event.
Do I have to participate all three days?
Yes, participants are expected to attend all three days of the event to maximize your experience and minimize disruptions for your team. Please only register if you are available for the entire duration of the startup weekend.
Am I expected to work 54 hours?
No, but your team may choose to work late into the night to polish up your MVP or pitch presentation. The more effort you put into the startup weekend, the more you’ll get out–BUT our focus is on productivity, not exhaustion.
Do I have to pitch an idea to attend?
No, but pitching is encouraged! You can pitch something you’ve thought about in preparation for the event or anything that comes to you spontaneously during the initial pitch session. Pre-developed ideas with extensive planning are discouraged.
Can I pitch my existing business?
No. Chicago Startup Weekend is intended for ideation and building new businesses from scratch. Existing businesses will be disqualified.
How do I prepare?
In preparation for the event, we encourage you to come with a 60-second pitch in mind for a solution you are interested in building. You can also familiarize yourself with frameworks like Lean Canvas or BMC to help you plan and digital tools like Notion, Figma, and other tools listed in this startup toolkit, to assist you during the event. If you’re coming from out of town please be sure to secure your place to stay prior to the weekend. Contestants traveling in for the event will not be paired with others needing housing that weekend. Housing is not provided for the weekend. Most importantly, make sure to rest up so you can bring your full energy! All you’ll need during the weekend itself is a laptop, charger, an idea, and yourself!
What should be accomplished by Sunday?
By the end of the weekend, we expect teams to have validated their idea with real users, built a functional MVP, and developed a business model for future growth.
