Originally published in Crain’s Chicago Business
June 3, 2014
Chuck Templeton, until recently managing director of Impact Engine, Chicago’s accelerator program for for-profit social entrepreneurs, is moving his family to Costa Rica for a year beginning in August.
The venture capitalist, who founded San Francisco-based OpenTable Inc. and has been at the helm of Impact Engine for the last two years, will continue to be engaged with the accelerator, as its chairman, and other aspects of Chicago’s socially oriented startup community.
Mr. Templeton, 46, is heading to Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast with his wife, Julie, and two daughters, who will be 8 and 10 when they move. They all plan to learn Spanish and immerse themselves in the local culture, he says.
“We live in a comfortable bubble in Chicago and we want our girls to be globally conscious that there are other places that aren’t like Chicago,” he says. “It’s also in the same time zone, so I can still be plugged in.”
Mr. Templeton will continue his role as a hands-on “super-mentor” to entrepreneurs in the accelerator program, but will work with only one or two from Costa Rica. In the last year, he was a mentor for all eight teams in the 16-week boot camp.
Impact Engine has assembled a roster of a dozen super-mentors from the Chicago business community and some of them will be matched up with new startups in the next round of the accelerator program that begins in September, according to Mr. Templeton. They each will receive between one-third and one-half of a percent of Impact Engine’s equity stake in the startups. Applications for the next crop of startups closes June 22.
Mr. Templeton picked Costa Rica for more than its balmy weather and world-class surfing. The country is well-known for its eco-mindedness. “My passion is around climate change and Costa Rica has interesting models of integrating mitigation solutions into their economy,” he says. “There’s some progressive educational institutions doing good work there and I plan to connect with them and bring back some good ideas.”
Linda Darragh, co-founder and a board member of Impact Engine, isn’t worried about Mr. Templeton’s departure from day-to-day operations. “He creates the most value working directly with the companies and that’s where his time will be spent” with the accelerator while he’s out of the country, says Ms. Darragh, who also is executive director of the Levy Institute of Entrepreneurial Practice at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
A new leadership team has taken over this month, led by CEO Jessica Yagan Droste. Ms. Droste brings an expertise in operations from her corporate background as former director of sustainable supply for McDonald’s Corp.’s U.S. operations. Joining her as chief investment officer is Tasha Seitz, a partner at Chicago-based venture firm JK&B Capital. Ms. Seitz previously was a managing member of Impact Engine.
Mr. Templeton, who has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, intends to meet twice a week with Ms. Droste via Google hangout, email and phone. He’ll also schedule conference calls with one or two Impact Engine entrepreneurs he’ll mentor from afar. And Mr. Templeton will return to Chicago for special events, including Demo Day when graduates present their polished business plans to an audience filled with venture capitalists.
“Costa Rica isn’t that far away,” concludes Ms. Darragh. “If he had gone to New Zealand, we’d be in big trouble.”
In addition to Mr. Templeton, Impact Engines super-mentors are Mike Evans, Chris Gladwin, Matt Speigel, Sam Yagan, Thania Panapolous, Dennis Barsema, Steve Farsht, Troy Henikoff, Brian Lernihan, Greg Lernihan, Bob Montgomery and Peggy Eastwood.
– Judith Nemes
