Get to Know The Garage

The Garage’s reach is far and wide. We’ve met some extraordinary people, had dinner with established founders, and visited some of the most talked about offices in the country.

People We Know

Through alumni connections, field trips, and more, students at The Garage have been offered exciting opportunities for conversations with some of their favorite people, including:          

Mark Cuban, Founder of Broadcast.com; Investor on SharkTank

Candace Nelson, Founder & CEO of Sprinkles Cupcakes

Dinesh Moorjani, Co-founder of Tinder

Gwyneth Paltrow, Founder of goop

Katrina Lake, Co-founder and CEO of Stitch Fix

Bryan Leach, founder & CEO of iBotta

Ann Crady Weiss, Co-founder of HatchBaby

Chuck Ursini, co-founder of System1

Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO at SpaceX

Brian Chesky, Co-founder of Airbnb

Liz Giorgi, co-founder & CEO of soona

Anna Macsalka, founder of Zenimal

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Take a Closer Look

From meeting Brian Chesky, co-founder of Airbnb...

to hanging out court-side with Mark Cuban.

Stopping by the New York Stock Exchange to visit its President, Stacey Cunningham...

...and having lunch with Gwyneth Paltrow at goop in LA.

Family Dinner Guest Speakers

Every week during the academic year, The Garage holds Family Dinner for our Resident students. With an exclusive invite, students hear frank talks from accomplished founders and storytellers in an intimate and casual environment.     

Josh Earnest

White House Press Secretary for the Obama Administration, EVP at United Airlines

Elise Wetzel
Weinberg ’87 + Kellogg ’92

Co-founder of Blaze Pizza

Charles Adler

Co-founder of Kickstarter

Katrina Lake

Founder and CEO of Stitch Fix

Jake Nickell

Founder of Threadless

Steve Larosiliere

Founder of Stoked

Cayla Weisberg

Partner at InvestHER

Andy Friedman

Co-founder of SkinnyPop

Alex Niemczewski

Co-founder of BallotReady

Mike Golden

Co-founder of @properties

Matt Matros

Founder of Protein Bar and Limitless Coffee and Tea

Rahim Diallo

Co-founder of Ginjan Bros & Jawudi

Linxin Wen

Co-founder of Chowbus

Kate Solomon
Kellogg ’02

Founder of Babo Botanicals

Neal Sales-Griffin
SESP ’09

Co-founder of Codenow / Managing Director of Techstars Chicago & San Francisco

Raaja Nemani
WCAS ’04

Co-founder of Bucketfeet

Places We've Been

In addition to quarterly field trips to innovative Chicago-based offices, we’ve taken students on treks to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and New York City, where we’ve spent time with accomplished alumni. We’ve stopped by the Northwestern spaces in NYC and SF, and visited amazing places like the New York Stock Exchange and Uber’s headquarters.     

Amazon Headquarters - Seattle, WA

IDEO Offices - Chicago, IL

Dropped in at soona Headquarters - Denver, CO

Visiting SpaceX - Los Angeles, CA

Microsoft Headquarters - Redmond, WA

Stopping by at Coco Delivery - Los Angeles, CA

Other Places We've Been