Kevin Willer
Kevin is a Partner at Chicago Ventures and professional sports team investor.
After graduating from Boston College in 1996, where he managed newspaper delivery on campus for the Boston Globe & The New York Times, Kevin worked a summer at the A-Bar-A dude ranch in Encampment, Wyoming. Returning to Chicago, he started his career by joining tech manufacturer, U.S. Robotics, before heading back to the east coast to help build a portfolio company of leading technology incubator, CMGI. The dot.com bust forced a new path and in 2000 he joined a fledgling venture-backed search engine, co-founding the Chicago sales office of Google Inc. As the first “Kevin” to work for the company, he spent over a decade helping to build Google’s local presence to over 400 professionals and developed relationships across Chicago’s business and tech ecosystem while also earning his MBA from Chicago Booth in 2010.
In 2011, now Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sketched the idea for 1871 on a napkin and recruited Kevin to help make the idea a reality. As the first CEO of 1871, Kevin worked to establish Chicago’s innovation hub which became the #1 ranked private business incubator in the world. In 2013, Kevin joined Chicago Ventures as a Partner. Over the next decade, CV invested in leading Chicago companies SpotHero, G2, Project44, Cameo, and HealthJoy. In addition to his venture work, Kevin is the Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors of manufacturing and hardtech incubator, mHub.
Passionate around all sports, especially proper football, in 2020 Kevin and his family began investing in professional soccer teams in the U.S. and abroad including the Chicago Red Stars (NWSL), Leyton Orient Football Club (EFL1), OneKnoxville Sporting Club (USL1), Rhode Island Football Club (USLC) and AFC Toronto in the new Northern Super League (NSL). In 2022, he became Vice Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Red Stars, helping to lead the club through a challenging time and sales process to new ownership, led by Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts. Outside of soccer, in 2024 Kevin joined the Board of Directors of the Chicago Hounds of Major League Rugby and is a minority investor in TMRW Sports who launched TGL with Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy in early 2025.
Kevin is a proud husband to Victoria and father of 3 amazing children residing in Winnetka, IL. After attending Loyola Academy high school, he has strived to live the Ignatian motto of “Men and Women for Others” and serves on several non-profit boards including Loyola University Chicago, Endeavor Health (fka Northshore University Healthsystem), the Big Shoulders Fund, the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the US Soccer Development Council, the Chicago Fire Foundation, and the BC Tech & Entrepreneurship Alumni Council.