Now, nearly four years later, there’s a growing community of those formally managing Platform/Network/Community at early-stage VCs in Chicago, with peers in Alida at Hyde Park Angels, Kristi at Pritzker Group VC, and Devon at Origin Ventures, along with a handful of others focused more specifically on marketing/communications (like Maggie at Impact Engine, Jackson Troxel at Hyde Park Venture Partners, and Emily at Clean Energy Trust), or talent (like Brandon at Jump Capital). The concept of “VC value-add” has absolutely existed in variations at local firms well before the “Director of Platform” role was instituted: from Lightbank, which once launched a PR agency, and had recruiters on hand to help their companies hire; to Roniin, originally founded as a studio model before relaunching as Builders VC.