Category: Entrepreneurship

Earliest of TechNexus collaborators, OK Labs has been acquired by General Dynamics

Steve Subar launched and grew Open Kernel Labs from within Chicago’s TechNexus incubator over the past five years, becoming only the second of what has now been more than 170 young companies to grow in the ecosystem. While growing at TechNexus, Steve led OK Labs to more than 50 employees, through millions of dollars in capital raises, and now to a successful exit to General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), a $32 billion aerospace and defense company.

At TechNexus we take pride in the success of the companies that collaborate in our incubator, but also companies that represent what the Chicago tech scene is all about – hard-nosed innovation and building scalable businesses.

OK Labs recognized the immense potential of mobile virtualization. Before the acquisition, OK Labs had deployed its software on more than 1.6 billion devices. Only a handful of other companies can say that, and OK Labs is the youngest to have reached that milestone.

This sort of innovation and alignment between new ventures and industry leading corporations is exactly the focus of TechNexus — and where much of our time has been directed. We are all proud of OK Labs evolution. Congratulations to Steve and the entire team at OK Labs! We look forward to supporting your transition as well as your future contributions to General Dynamics.

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Play nice together, kiddos

Nice Q&A with Jessica Stillman from GigaOM on TechNexus and curating collaboration between startups and leading corporations:

When you’re young, it’s natural to think of grown ups as party-spoiling bores. But wait a few years until you’re a fellow adult and that uncool elder brother or once sedate seeming older cousin suddenly becomes fascinating and fun loving. Adults generally aren’t stodgy to other adults.

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