CHICAGO- About a year ago, Shiftgig, an online community for the service industry, lost a key employee because they were still located in suburban Countryside and the employee wanted to live in the city. “We were always going to move into the city but the immediate catalyst was losing that person,” says Eddie Lou, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer.

Last May, they joined the steady flow of high-tech firms, including Google, that have begun moving into downtown neighborhoods like River North to attract young workers who increasingly reject the suburban lifestyle. As reported previously in GlobeSt.com, Shiftgig joined Catapult Chicago, a new community of like-minded high-tech entrepreneurs housed in the offices of the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP at 321 N. Clark St. in River North. And like some of their peers that joined other business incubators like 1871 in the Merchandise Mart, Google's new home, Shiftgig has grown, attracted new talent and will soon break away from Catapult and seek out new downtown office space, most likely in River North.

“We are bursting out of our rooms,” Lou says. “We started out with ten people and now we have twenty-two.” Lou adds that he enjoys belonging to the community of smallish, high-tech start-ups that inhabit a floor in the Foley & Lardner space. The company, which helps bars, restaurants and hotels across the country hire the staff they need, works with about 2,600 businesses in the Chicago area alone. They have been able to share ideas, strategies and possible funding sources while socializing with their Catapult neighbors. “We have our own offices, but there are also after-hours events. This place is such a great location and has a great culture so we've been able to attract great people. In general we have a lot of Gen Y people and that demographic is more attracted to working in the city than in the suburbs.”

Catapult entrepreneurs have raised approximately $8 million from investors in the past eight months and Galen Mason, a Foley attorney and a co-founder of Catapult, says he expects them to raise about $20 million this year. And if, like Shiftgig, the dozens of start-ups that have settled at the downtown incubators can expand and “graduate” to their own offices, they could inject even more life into an already reviving commercial real estate market.

“I think Chicago is emerging as a digital leader and high-tech hub,” Lou says, pointing to the rise of Groupon, GrubHub and the migration of Google from the far suburbs. “I wouldn't say we're there yet, but I've seen a ton of movement in the last four years and it's all happening downtown.”

Instant Insights /

Catapult Chicago Helps Firm Step Up

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