Ferris & Co. is a founder performance center that pairs a building designed for focus and wellness with Ferris AI, an AI layer built into the building, for AI-native founding teams of three to six in Chicago's Loop.
Olympians train at Olympic performance centers. Founders train at Ferris & Co. It's the first Eudaimonia Machine built for founders: the five-room blueprint David Dewane conceived and Cal Newport introduced in Deep Work. We're building it at 1 W. Monroe St., on floors that used to be a WeWork. The last tenant rented desks. We admit founders.
San Francisco builds the models. New York funds them. Chicago is where they go to work, in the law firms, banks, insurers, and logistics companies that run the economy. Ferris Chicago is where founders build the companies that put AI to work for them.
Ferris & Co. is two parts, one system.
The building is designed to maximize focus and wellness. Ferris AI is built into it to give founders back their time. Neither works alone: the building gives founders energy, the AI gives them time, and together they compound.
The building follows the Eudaimonia Machine: Gallery, Salon, Library, Office, and Deep Work Chamber, each mapped to a floor. Founders move between focused and social work deliberately instead of blending both at one table. The result is fewer interruptions and more hours of real creative work.
Founding teams of three or more get a private office. Solo founders and smaller teams get a designated open desk. Every workspace is ready on day one (sit/stand desk, ergonomic chair, monitor), so no one burns the first week setting up.
Deep focus rooms with full sensory blockout and acoustic zoning, built for 90-minute sessions. Ferris AI holds your messages until you surface. That time goes to the decisions that move a company: recruiting, vision, and money.
Every member is paired with their own Ferris, which learns their voice, priorities, and rhythms. It handles follow-ups, research, and calendar Tetris, drafts the investor update in your voice, and pulls your last three exchanges with a candidate the night before an interview. Ferris isn't an app you open. It works through voice, wearables, and screens built into the building, starting with the mirror that greets you with your day.
A gym with workouts built from your goals, spa and recovery (sauna, cold plunge), a brain gym, a nap room, and a kitchen and restaurant on five that bring lunch to your seat. Founders are the athletes of the working world, and the building supports the energy and regulation that years of decisions depend on.
The fifth floor holds the lounge and bar, the communal long table, the open deck, deal rooms, the Lab event space, and the media lab. Every company is also a media company, so members can run their own show from the building. Ideas get tested fast, with sharp people, before you spend a month on them.
Membership is exclusive; learning isn't. Ferris & Co. hosts workshops and classes in the Lab that are open beyond membership, to help people use AI to build skills and accelerate their careers.
Ferris & Co. is a founders' club. You apply, accepted applicants are invited to a preview event, and then complete a full membership application. The first 90 days are spent earning full membership. Flexible-office providers like WeWork and Industrious lease space to anyone who can pay. Everyone inside Ferris is building something hard, and that's what makes the room valuable.
Membership runs month-to-month and renewal is based on engagement in the building and fit with the community, not just on whether the invoice is paid. Members stay because they use the building and add to it.
Founders currently pay $500 per person per month, and the price is the same whatever the size of the team. Most flexible-office providers price by the office, the square foot, or the seat type. At Ferris, team size decides only where you sit (a private office at three or more, an open desk below that), never what you pay per person. The price will increase when the office is completed.
The building follows the Eudaimonia Machine, conceived by David Dewane and introduced in Cal Newport's Deep Work, with architectural design by Barker Nestor. Most offices are designed around occupancy: how many people fit per square foot. Ferris is designed around one question: does this help founders build great companies?
Ferris AI is paired with each member and built into the building, from the entry mirror to the deep work chambers. Conventional office providers offer Wi-Fi and a room-booking app. Ferris gives every member an AI that learns how they work and takes the repetitive work off their plate.
Gym, spa and recovery, brain gym, nap room, and kitchen sit in the same building as your office. Chicago startup hubs like 1871 focus on programming and community. Ferris adds the physical infrastructure for focus, energy, and recovery every day.
A building that listens has to earn trust. Ferris & Co. includes dedicated rooms fully outside data collection, clear visual indicators whenever collection is happening, and member access to the data they generate. Ferris AI is built on an open-source foundation, customized for each member.
The ideal Ferris & Co. member is a founding team of three to six. With AI agents doing the work around them, a team of three to six operates like a team of thirty to ninety, small enough to move fast, with the output of a much larger company.
Founding teams of three to six building AI-native companies in Chicago
Founders who already use AI and agents to raise the quality and speed of their work
Missionary founders: people who started a company to solve one specific problem, and won't stop until it's solved
Founders who work in person and want a coaching-staff environment (fitness, recovery, experts, AI), not just a quiet room
Solo founders and two-person teams on their way to a founding team, with a designated open desk in a building full of builders
Remote or hybrid teams, and anyone who only wants somewhere quiet to sit.
Electricity was invented in labs, but it changed the world in factories. AI is following the same path: the first wave went to the companies building models, and the bigger opportunity now is applying AI to the service work businesses run on: law, accounting, consulting, insurance, finance, and logistics. Founders building AI for business should be where their customers are.
Chicago is America's third-largest economy and one of its recognized AI hubs. The metro is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any U.S. market except New York, and roughly 800,000 people work in professional and business services. It's also home to the world's highest-grossing law firm and the world's largest futures exchange.
Chicago has the customers and the economy, but not yet the startup density of the coasts. Ferris & Co. doesn't compete with Silicon Valley on capital. It's built to be the best place in the world to build a company, at the center of the Loop, so talent attracts talent, great companies follow, and investors follow them.
In 1893, Chicago set out to answer the Eiffel Tower. The fair's chief architect first rejected George Ferris's wheel as too fragile; Ferris spent his own money on safety studies, recruited investors, and built the first Ferris wheel through a Chicago winter in about six months. More than 1.4 million people rode it. Our logo honors that wheel, and Ferris & Co. exists for founders building what others doubt. The name has a second Chicago nod too: Ferris Bueller's Day Off runs through the Loop, a block from 1 W. Monroe. Bueller made one day unforgettable. We're built to make every day count.
Years ago, architect David Dewane couldn't focus in his own office. Over lunch, a friend asked what the ultimate space for deep work would look like; David sketched five rooms in about fifteen minutes and sent the write-up to Cal Newport, who put it in Deep Work. Ferris & Co. is that concept built for founders, with architectural design by Barker Nestor, and AI designed by David Steinberg and a group of AI Residents.
David conceived the Eudaimonia Machine and leads Ferris & Co. as Executive Director. He hosts The Eudaimonia Machine podcast on the search for the ideal workplace.
LinkedInBarker Nestor is involved in the architectural design of Ferris & Co., turning the Eudaimonia Machine into a working building at 1 W. Monroe.
barkernestor.comAccepted applicants receive an invitation to a preview event on site. Meet founder members, present your company, and tour the building.
A deeper look at you, your team, and what you're building.
Month-to-month, three months, or six months.
Building access, your workspace, and pairing with your Ferris AI.
Membership means working from the building. Workspaces are ready on day one.
Based on engagement in the building and community fit.
Day to day through Ferris AI (voice, in-building screens, and your devices) and the Ferris & Co. team on site.
The operations team for space and access, the AI team for Ferris AI, and in-house experts for fitness, recovery, and mentorship.
Ferris & Co. is a founder performance center in Chicago's Loop. It pairs a building designed for focus and wellness with Ferris AI, an AI layer built into the building and paired with every member.
It's a building designed around what founders need to do their best work: focus, energy, and time. Ferris & Co. puts deep-work architecture, fitness and recovery, and AI support at one address.
It's a five-room layout for deep work (Gallery, Salon, Library, Office, and Deep Work Chamber) conceived by David Dewane and featured in Cal Newport's Deep Work. Ferris & Co. is the first version built for founders.
No. Coworking providers rent seats and offices to anyone who can pay; Ferris & Co. admits founders by application. The building used to be a WeWork, and we rebuilt it around what founders need to build companies.
Founding teams of three to six. With AI agents, a team that size operates like a team of thirty to ninety, and the building is designed around how those teams work.
Founder membership is currently $500 per person per month, and the price is the same no matter how big your team is. Team size only decides your workspace: a private office at three or more, a designated open desk below that. The price will increase when the office is completed.
Membership terms are month-to-month, three months, or six months. Renewal is based on engagement in the building and fit with the community. The first 90 days are provisional and are spent earning full membership.
Founding teams of three to six get a private office. Solo founders and smaller teams get a designated open desk, with full access to the chambers, call rooms, and every amenity.
1 W. Monroe St., in the heart of Chicago's Loop.
It's named for the first Ferris wheel, built for Chicago's 1893 World's Fair after critics doubted it could be done. Our logo honors it, and the name nods to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which runs through the Loop a block away.
San Francisco builds the models; Chicago is where businesses put them to work. Chicago is America's third-largest economy, with more Fortune 500 headquarters than any metro but New York, so founders building AI for business are close to their customers.
AI-native founders who will work from the building, ideally founding teams of three to six. Membership is by application.
Apply at ferrischicago.com/apply. Accepted applicants receive an invitation to a preview event, followed by a full membership application.
Ferris AI learns each member's voice, priorities, and rhythms, then handles follow-ups, research, and scheduling. It holds your messages while you're in a deep work chamber and flags the few that need you.
No. The building includes dedicated rooms fully outside data collection and clear indicators whenever collection is happening. Members can access the data they generate.
Yes. Ferris & Co. hosts workshops and classes in the Lab, our event space, that are open beyond membership.
No. Membership means working from the building, because the Machine only works if you're inside it.
The concept is the Eudaimonia Machine, created by David Dewane, Ferris & Co.'s Executive Director. Barker Nestor is involved in the architectural design of the building. David Steinberg leads Ferris AI and the AI Residents.
Ferris AI is led by David Steinberg and a group of AI resident experts focused on topics including health, wellness, integrity, sales, marketing, growth, content, hardware.
Currently, while under construction, Ferris & Co. does not have a Part-Time pass, and we do plan to offer some type of plan in the future to accommodate part-time out-of-state Chicago founders (you live in another city and travel to Chicago).
Ferris Studio is under construction. When it opens, it will be the in-building media studio where founders make content that performs on LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. It's set up for four core formats: interviews with you and up to three guests around a desk, product demos that capture both you and your screen so viewers can follow along, direct-to-camera videos where you speak straight to your audience, and event panels where you join other guests in a conference-style discussion.