Flying High in The Garage

How did Marc Gyongyosi know that it was time to find a new space for his tech startup? When his flying drones started to annoy his dormitory neighbors.

Fortunately for Gyongyosi (McCormick '17) — and his neighbors — The Garage welcomed him and his autonomous drone company, Intelligent Flying Machines (IFM), with open arms. Not only did the entrepreneurship and innovation hub give Gyongyosi the physical space to develop his drones in peace, it also offered the resources to turn his fledgling vision into a promising, award-winning company.

“The Garage was absolutely instrumental in helping build the company,” said Gyongyosi, who majored in computer science. “We had a wealth of essential resources at our disposal.”

IFM develops small, lightweight flying robots to perform data capture indoors, specifically tackling the warehouse inventory space. After becoming a Resident at The Garage, Gyongyosi and his team won top prizes at Northwestern’s VentureCat competition in 2017, the Rice Business Plan Competition and the University of Oregon’s New Venture Championship. 

Available to all Northwestern students, the 11,000 square-foot space features a lounge and café, glass-walled offices, soundproof phone booths, and formal and casual conference rooms, including the creativity-inspiring “beanbag cave.” The Garage also has a makerspace that houses prototyping tools, including 3D printers, woodworking equipment, an electronics workbench, and an augmented reality and virtual reality lab. 

“Beyond just the physical space is the community that it breeds,” said The Garage’s executive director Melissa Kaufman. “At all hours of the day, there are different people coming in here who are all united by the fact that they want to create and build something new.

This community is filled with supportive and knowledgeable members, including mentors, entrepreneurs-in-residence, and staff members, who are available to answer questions and offer guidance. The Garage also gives students access to professional services such as pitching coaches and patent lawyers, and it hosts “family dinners” to encourage networking with Northwestern alumni entrepreneurs who have launched successful startups of their own. 

For Gyongyosi, these human resources were invaluable and helped propel his startup to new heights. The Garage’s summer accelerator program, Wildfire, arranged five interns to work for IFM to boost its technical and business development workforce. It also connected Gyongyosi with Rich Padula (’84), a veteran enterprise software entrepreneur. The pair meets weekly to discuss all aspects of business development — from fundraising strategies to product management strategies. 

Since graduating in 2017, Marc has continued to take IFM to new and exciting heights. In addition to successful fundraising, IFM was named Chicago Startup of the Year at the Fourth Revolution Awards, and as one of Built in Chicago's startups to watch in 2018.

“I run The Garage like a startup,” Kaufman said. “I’m trying to give students an entrepreneurial toolkit and mindset, so they can be successful in anything they choose to do.”