Hindsight

Saturday, June 28, 2014

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1871 providing a 'Bunker' for U.S. veterans

June 27, 2014, 1:16 p.m.

1871 expansion to include U.S. veteran-focused incubator

Marie Tillman from "Life Stories of Courage" (ASU Video Production / Vimeo)

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A military-veteran-focused incubator called Bunker is coming to 1871 as part of a 25,000-square-foot expansion opening in October, CEO Howard Tullman announced Friday. This marks the fourth specialty vertical in the tech hub, following Femtech, real estate incubator ElmSpring and an unnamed food-technology incubator.

Bunker’s CEO will be Todd Connor, formerly the executive director of military instruction at CPS and the co-founder of Flank 5 Academy, a professional-coaching “personal incubator,” which will move from Grind to 1871. Connor said the incubator will start with eight companies.

The new program will be supported by the Pat TillmanFoundation, which for 10 years has invested in educational scholarships for veterans and their spouses.

“Certainly an incubator like Bunker and the resources that are available at 1871 will help to ensure the success of these young leaders and the companies they’re attempting to grow,” said Marie Tillman, president and co-founder of the Pat Tillman Foundation.

PayPal's BattleHack comes to 1871 this weekend

John Lunn, PayPal senior director and Braintree developer relations (Kevin Abosch / PayPal photo)

PayPal will host its weekend-long hackathon, BattleHack, at 1871 on Saturday and Sunday. This is the program’s second year — and its first time in Chicago. The 280-ticket event is sold out, organizers said Friday at the offices of Braintree, which was acquired by PayPal parent eBay in 2013.

“We wanted to come to the home of Braintree,” said John Lunn, senior director of the developer network for PayPal and Braintree and leader of the BattleHack program. “There are great startups in Chicago. It’s a very fast-growing startup city, and we want to go where the startups are.”

Unlike other hackathons, BattleHack will not reward participants for their business plans, Lunn said. He described it as a “pure” hackathon that will focus on finding the best developer in the world. Throughout the year, PayPal will host BattleHacks in 14 global cities. Come November, the winning teams from each city will meet for a final battle royale at PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose, Calif. The winners will go home with $100,000 and an axe.

In early June, David Marcus abruptly left as PayPal CEO to head up Facebook Messenger. EBay CEO John Donahoe has stepped in as interim CEO and is looking for the right person to take over. Braintree CEO Bill Ready is “an option,” Dunn said.