Tech In Chicago

Latest Episodes:

Machine Learning, Fintech, & the Future of Payments - Canh Tran / Co-Founder of Rippleshot Sep 28, 2016

Show notes

Canh Tran is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rippleshot, a startup that detects payment card data breaches. They take a big-data machine learning approach, more common in search, genetics and advertising, and apply it in a novel way for the payment processing industry to help banks, merchants and processors proactively monitor suspicious fraudulent activity and implement smarter fraud risk management strategies when card compromises do occur. It is a massive industry with a lot of room for improvement.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

How Rippleshot catches data breaches
Why banks need outside help
Where the name comes from
What they are looking for in breaches
The ingeneious ways credit cards are stolen
How safe is our future when we pay with wearables
How they got their first customers by starting small
Why criminals target smaller banks
The differences between Silicon Valley, Chicago, and St Louis
What Canh would like to see chicago tech improve on
The differences between 1871 and Catapult
The benefits of growing up abroad
The impact a handwritten thank you letter
What the future of fraud loss looks like
What gets Canh up in the morning

Selected Links From The Episode:

Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871
Craig Vodnik, Co-Founder of C leverbridge and investor in Rippleshot

Favorite Book:

The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business; The Manticore; World of Wonders by Robertson Davies
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life by by Albert-laszlo Barabasi

Sparking Conversations One Shoe at a Time - Raaja Nemani / Co-Founder of Bucketfeet Sep 22, 2016

Show notes

Raaja Nemani is a Co-Founder and CEO of Bucketfeet, a footwear startup that collaborates with a global community of artists to design limited-edition shoes.

The idea began in Argentina when Aaron Firestein gave Raaja a pair of hand-designed canvas sneakers inspired by the city blocks of Buenos Aires. On the rest of Raaja's journey, these unique looking shoes sparked non-stop conversations across six continents with people of all races, religions, genders, and cultures. Upon returning home, he decided to start Bucketfeet with Aaron.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

The founding story
What the first shoes looked like
Where the name Bucketfeet comes from
How they sold their first shoes
How a party at Brian Splay's house jump started sales
Why Bucketfeet walked away from a Nordstrom deal
What is next for Bucketfeet

Selected Links From The Episode:

Aaron Firestein, Co-Founder of Bucketfeet
Brian Spaly, Co-Founder of Bonobos and Trunk Club
Context Media
Luxury Garage Sale
Threadless

Favorite Book:

The Road to Character by David Brooks

What Does the Future of Education Look Like? - Shaily Baranwal / Founder of Elevate K-12 & Classblox Sep 15, 2016

Show notes

Shaily Baranwal is the CEO and Founder of Elevate K-12 and Classblox. Elevate K-12 provides digital instruction and online resources to millions of at-risk students across the US. Since launching in 2008, Elevate K-12 has provided over 1 million hours of online instruction and has averaged a 35 percent increase in student test scores. Shaily's latest product, Classblox, is for consumers and it offers on-demand, online classes taught by real teachers. Students take hour long virtual, interactive classes from vetted teachers in subjects like algebra, Spanish, and ACT prep.

Shaily and her company's mission is to help ensure that every student gets one-on-one, online instructional support, irrespective of geography, demography and ethnicity.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

How Shaily started Elevate K-12 while still in school
What makes Elevate K-12 better than MOOCs
How they are able to provide personalized teaching for a reasonable price
Why Shaily started her company in Chicago
Why she hasn't moved the company
Why she's a big fan of distributed teams
How she was able to bootstrap for so many years
Why she decided to finally raise money
How she made her first sales
What she wished she knew when she got started
Why attitude and passion are everything when hiring
Why she likes to hire athletes

Selected Links From The Episode:

7 Semi-Serious Reasons I Chose Chicago Over San Francisco for the growth of my company by Shaily Baranwal
Why I got my first investor after 5+ years of successful bootstrapping by Shaily Baranwal

Favorite Books:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

Sponsored By:

Propllr: a Chicago public relations firm that helps startups and innovators build credibility and awareness for their companies, people, products and services.

Disrupting the Used Car Market With Data - Kayne Grau / Founder of DRIVIN Sep 09, 2016

Show notes

Kayne Grau is a Co-Founder and CEO of DRIVIN, a startup changing the way used-car dealers source their used-car inventory. Before founding DRIVIN, Kayne was the CTO at Cars.com.

Using proprietary technology and actionable local market data, DRIVIN sells, sources, acquires and delivers used-car inventory for used-car dealer partners across the country. DRIVIN helps dealers understand what's selling locally and how to price effectively. DRIVIN has raised $17.5 million from investors including Brad Keywell, Eric Lefkofsky, Mitch Golub, and Columbus Nova Technology Partners.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

How inefficient the used car market is
The origins of DRIVIN
How Lightbank companies are started up
How involved Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell are after coming up with an idea
What makes Eric and Brad's new startups repeatedly successful
Why DRIVIN went the B2B instead of B2C route
How they got their first customer
The best way to buy/sell used car as an individual
What can Chicago tech improve on?
Impact of self driving cars on used car business

Selected Links From The Episode:

Eric Lefkofsky, Co-Founder of Groupon, Uptake & Lightbank
Brad Keywell, Co-Founder of Groupon, Uptake & Lightbank
Justin Mahlik, Co-Founder & COO of DRIVIN
Cars.com
A utotrader.com
Kelly Blue Book
Shift
Cleversafe
Signal
Braintree
Uptake
Tempus
Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871

Favorite Books:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell
Lincoln On Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times Kindle Edition by Donald T. Phillips

Why Join A Tech Accelerator & Why VCs Start Accelerators - Constance Freedman / VC @ Moderne Ventures Aug 26, 2016

Show notes

Constance Freedman is the Founder and Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures, an early stage venture fund and accelerator investing in technology companies in real estate, mortgage, finance, insurance, and home services. These are multi-trillion dollar industries that make up well over 20% of the US GDP and are ripe for innovation. Prior to launching Moderne Ventures, Constance was the head of Strategic Investments at the National Association of Realtors where she launched and managed its investment arm, Second Century Ventures (SCV), and founded its accelerator program, Reach.

In 2014, Constance was recognized by Crain's Business in its prestigious 40 under 40 award and was also named on Crain's Chicago Top Tech 50. In both 2014 and 2015, Constance was recognized on Swanepoel's Power 200 Most Powerful Individuals in Residential Real Estate and in 2015, named in Inman's Top 101 in Real Estate.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

The most exciting tech developments for Moderne Ventures
Why venture capital firms start accelerators
How important an accelerator is for the deal flow
What the decision making process looks like for the accelerator and investments
Where they find the best companies for their accelerator
How to break into venture capital
How to find the right limited partners (LPs)

Selected Links From The Episode:

What An Ideal Startup Looks Like & Deal Sourcing With A Podcast - Nick Moran / The Full Ratchet Aug 19, 2016

Show notes

Nick Moran is a co-founder and Managing Director of New Stack Ventures and Moran Capital Partners. He also started the very popular The Full Ratchet podcast, where he interviews venture capital and angel investing experts on successful startup fundraising and investing strategy. Nick asked me to interview him for his 100th episode and I thought the content was so good that I decided to repost it here.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

How Nick got into venture capital
Why he started The Full Ratchet
His key takeaways after 100 episodes
Where he finds his deals
What an ideal startup looks like to him
What resources he recommends to investors and entrepreneurs
Nick's investment thesis and how he evaluates startups for investment
The best and worst things about the startup ecosystem in Chicago

Selected Links From The Episode:

David Rabie, Founder of Tovala
Jeff Heitzman, Nick's Partner at New Stack Ventures
Jason Heltzer, Origin Ventures
Max Levchin, Founder of Paypal and Affirm

Favorite Books:

Lord of The Flies by William Golding
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Ready Player One by Ernst Cline

How To Deal With Bad Press & Competing In The Crowded Coffee Market - Philip Tadros / Founder Doejo & Bow Truss Aug 09, 2016

Show notes

Philip Tadros is a true serial entrepreneur and restauranteur. He is the founder of Doejo, a digital agency, Dollop Coffee, a cafe and bakery, Bow Truss Coffee, a coffee roastery and cafe, The Budlong, a hot chicken restaurant chain, SPACE, a co-working space, and Aquanaut Brewing, a craft brewery. He opened his first coffee shop at 19 after dropping out of college and now runs the largest network of independently owned coffee shops in Chicago.

Crain's recently ran a special report questioning some of Phil's business practices titled "One of Chicago's most connected entrepreneurs has made more than a few enemies". We dive into what really happened in the second half of this episode and what he's learned from the experience.

listen on iTunes listen on google play

In This Episode You Will Learn:

How Phil got his start as an entrepreneur after dropping out of college
The differences between the beer and coffee community
How he differentiates himself in the competitive food industry
Phil's side of the story on the Crain's special report
What he's learned from the experience
How he and his team handled the bad press

Selected Links From The Episode:

Favorite Books:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Personalized Medicine, 3D Printing, Snapchat & Networking - Dima Elissa / Founder of VisMed3D Jul 20, 2016

Show notes

Dima Elissa is the founder and CEO of VisMed3D, a startup providing 3D surgical patient replicas for state-of-the-art treatment and training of doctors. Based in Matter, the startup is on the cutting edge of personalized medicine. In addition to her startup, Dima devotes considerable time, energy, and guidance to other women entrepreneurs.

listen on iTunes listen on google play

In This Episode You Will Learn:

How Dima decided to pursue 3D printing
How Dima landed her first partnership with big healthcare
What the best bang for you buck networking is
The value in 3D printing for surgeons
What the future of medical 3D printing looks like
The value in snapchat for her company
What to watch out for as a first time founder

Selected Links From The Episode:

Favorite Books:

The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women by Harriet Rubin

Artificial Intelligence, Healthcare Startups, Wearables & Diversity - Star Cunningham / Founder of 4DHealthware Jul 13, 2016

Show notes

Star Cunningham is the Founder and CEO of 4DHealthware, a startup that provides artificially intelligent "nudges", SMS and email messages, to patients with chronic conditions based on data collected via 250 wearable devices like bluetooth glucometers and activity trackers. Medicare now reimburses healthcare providers $40 per patient per month for every 20 minutes spent managing care outside a doctor's office and 4DHealthware interactions count. Star has raised $770,000 to date and is on the verge of becoming the 12th African American woman ever to secure more than a million dollars in venture funding for her tech startup. Before founding, 4DHealthware, Star was at IBM for about 10 years.

listen on iTunes listen on Google play

In This Episode You Will Learn:

Why Star decided to found a company after working in big business
How she landed the first partnerships in healthcare
The power of nudging people in the right direction
The future of wearables and artificial intelligence
How to get more diversity in tech
The importance of getting young black girls into tech
What she thinks about diversity quotas
When founders should start thinking about diversity

Selected Links From The Episode:

Favorite Book:

Entrepreneurs Are Made Not Born by Lloyd E. Shefsky
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell
Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren

Investing In Design-Led Companies & What Chicago Tech Is Missing - John Roa / AKTA & Roa Ventures Jul 06, 2016

Show notes

John Roa is a serial tech entrepreneur and long time Chicagoan. He got his entrepreneurial start by creating a computer repair business at 14 and hasn't stopped since. Last year, he sold ÄKTA, his tech-consulting and design firm, to Salesforce. Now John is planning to invest in other Chicago startups via Roa Ventures, a fund that focuses on "early-stage investments, projects and experiments". He has also created the non-profit, Digital Hope, and enjoys playing competitive poker and traveling extensively.

listen on iTunes listen on google play

In This Episode You Will Learn: