“The real goal is to get people off their phones and instead meet people where they are,” he said.
Sidekick was founded by Illig and his wife, Laura Krebs Illig, during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown. It is a privately held, early-stage Delaware corporation with offices in Rochester and Eugene, Ore.
Illig — a 1987 graduate of Pittsford Sutherland High School — said the new venture represents the third stage of his professional life.
He spent the first part of his career working as a mergers and acquisitions attorney with Nixon Peabody and then as a law professor teaching business and sports law at the University of Oregon.
Illig noticed social isolation increasing in his students over the years and attributes some of that to social media platforms, where everything is often criticized and evaluated.
“We wanted to create a space that doesn’t have the stress or the competition,” he said, adding that there are no likes, comments or follow-counts on Sidekick.
The Illigs launched the business in 2022 from Rochester. Both have connections here…
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