Every year we invite hundreds of investors to meet with our portfolio companies in Chicago during our signature event: the Club M25 Summit!
Event season is in full swing for VCs, and at M25, that means the Club M25 Summit—our flagship event where we bring hundreds of investors to the Windy City to meet with our companies and network with each other. For founders, it’s an annual reunion and an opportunity to learn from each other, bond over the victories and challenges of founding a company, and to catch up with the M25 team. It is also one of the largest events for VCs in the Midwest, there’s nothing quite like the Club M25 Summit. We recap this year’s Summit below!
1:1 Meetings
The star of the Summit, meetings are the name of the game for the majority of the event. Every year we coordinate as many double opt-in meetings between our portfolio companies and investors + between investors and other investors. It’s prime networking time for investors and one of the most efficient ways to meet with M25 portcos that are raising their next rounds.
This year’s event was no exception. The 2023 Summit shattered previous records, and we were able to schedule around 1,100 meetings over the course of two days. Our very own Sam Cavender worked his spreadsheet wizardry to coordinate all of these meetings during the event.
Networking
While the Club M25 Summit features our Midwest-based portfolio companies, the even draws VCs from all regions of the US. The Midwest as a region is large and dispersed, and we aim to serve as the center of gravity for investors coming here, creating a virtual density where it’s easy to connect with the companies and investors here. In addition to the meetings held on both days, attendees enjoyed a happy hour where founders and investors met one another.
After the happy hour, we separated for a Founders Dinner and an Investors Dinner, allowing for more focused conversation and networking.
On day two, while investors were upstairs participating in more 1:1 meetings, founders were at the Founder Summit. We invited five Club M25 founders to share some some industry tips and tricks. We heard from SteadyMD’s Guy Friedman, Status’s Joe Vancena, Blumira’s Jim Simpson, Authenticx’s Amy Brown and athotel’s Konrad Waliszewski. All these presentations were followed by a founder roundtable.
Celebration
It wouldn’t be a Club M25 Summit without multiple after-parties. We celebrated the conclusion of another great Summit with ping pong and yard games at Punch Bowl Social and fan favorite Whirlyball Chicago. The mighty few capped the 2023 Summit like we always do…with a few competitive rounds of Killer Queen at the arcade.
This year’s Summit was our best yet, and we can’t wait to see the impact of our event play out over the upcoming months.
Special thanks to our 2023 Sponsors for making this all possible: Gunderson Dettmer, Customers Bank, Insperity, Pacific Western Bank and Deloitte. We couldn’t have done it without you!
