Technori Podcast

Latest Episodes:

This Company Made $255 Million From Helping You Figure out What’s for Dinner Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

Home Chef was founded in 2013 by Patrick Vihtelic, who was inspired to bring homemade meals to as many people as possible thanks to memories of the fresh food he grew up eating on his family’s farm. In 2014, the company did $423,207 in revenue. CTO Matt Pulley came on board the following year, and in 2017 that revenue shot up by 60,166 percent, to a spicy $255 million. By May 2018, they were acquired by Kroger for an initial sum of $200 million, with the potential to earn $500 million more from future earnout payments, based on hitting certain milestones over the course of five years. Still, Matt is far from complacent. In the interview, he talks about the company’s early days, complete with a smoky test kitchen; their upcoming challenges; and how to help people answer the daily question that tears households apart: what’s for dinner?

Meet The Investors Swinging Big In The Midwest Aug 01, 2019

Show notes

If you buy into the mainstream narrative around the U.S. tech industry, California and New York are the two gleaming lights on either end of a dark and empty tunnel that runs between the coasts. That makes Victor Gutwein the man with the flashlight, shining a glowing beam onto the hidden opportunities all around the Midwest. So far, M25 has a portfolio of 88 companies, including former Technori guests humanpredictions, Winston Privacy, 2ndKitchen, and True Public. Victor stopped by the WGN Radio to share his insights with Scott on identifying companies that have the magic ingredients to rise to the top.

How Car-Shopping Company Shift Is Disrupting the Awful Business of Buying a Car Jul 31, 2019

Show notes

There are more than a few reasons why buying a car –– especially a used one –– is about as appealing as getting a root canal, being stuck on a packed airplane taxiing on a runway or using a porta-john at a burrito festival. The buying process is stuck in analog mode. So Toby Russell and his co-founder, George Arison, built an online used car marketplace that features transparent pricing, concierge service and a generous return policy. Can a startup disrupt a massive industry that’s still largely offline, stubbornly unresponsive to consumer habits and intent on obfuscating its inner workings? Listen to Toby talk to Scott at WGN Radio how Shift is changing the auto marketplace.

How a New Salon is Nailing the Manicure Experience for Professional Women Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

Kim Marsh, COO of ezza nails, sits down with Scott Kitun at WGN Radio. Kim and her co-founder Ale Breuer are both products of Teach for America and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Their mutual obsession with the minute details has helped them gain a deep understanding of their nail salons’ customers. That means they can provide better customer care and more relevant services, while also putting together a long-term strategy that’s set to chip away (pun intended!) at the multi-billion dollar nail salon industry.

4 Tips for Being a Better Leader From the Legendary Former Cisco Boss Jul 28, 2019

Show notes

Listen to John Chambers, former Cisco CEO and current leader of JC2 Ventures, talk with Scott about his career, book and new venture on WGN. John has been innovating tech since the ‘80s. He spent 25-plus years serving as the CEO, chairman and chairman emeritus of the company he helped found, Cisco. Then he went on to found JC2 Ventures, the culmination of his experience honing the cutting edge of the last quarter century of tech. Needless to say, John did exactly what he set out to do by asking us that question. As he always does, he pushed us to be our best.

Meet The Company Introducing Institutions To The Wild West Of Cryptocurrency Jul 25, 2019

Show notes

Edward Woodford, CEO of Seed CX, sits down with Scott at WGN Radio. At a time when cryptocurrency is rising in popularity, while also coming under scrutiny for its unregulated elements, Edward and his Seed CX co-founder Brian Liston are attempting to bring a more traditional audience into the game. After raising $25.1 million in 2015, the company said they were the first digital ass exchange with clients exclusively from “established institutions.”

This Crypto Company Wants To Reward You For Listening To Music Jul 23, 2019

Show notes

Dan Novaes sits down with Scott at WGN Radio. Dan’s company Current Media aims to upend how media consumption is monetized. In short, Current takes ad dollars and passes some of the value on to consumers, as an incentive to keep using the platform. On Current’s app, users do things that they already do on the internet — right now, the company is primarily focused on streaming music — and are rewarded with in-app points called CRNT, where 1,000 CRNT points equal $1. Points can be redeemed for gift cards, cash, and various products, including hardware like headphones

This Recruiting Company Uses Data To Send Emails People Actually Want To Read Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

If there’s one thing that drives tech workers completely nuts, it’s those awful, automated recruitment emails. So many of these recruiting emails go unread, unanswered and unloved. As a long-time tech recruiter, Elliot Garms has seen this play out — which is why he’s putting the humanity back into hiring through his company humanpredictions. What makes humanpredictions smarter than your average recruiter is software that employs data analytics to give you up-to-date information on not just a potential employee’s skills and experience, but their preferred technologies, and how likely they are to be looking for a new job.

This Leading AI Chicago Startup Turns Raw Data into Meaningful Stories for Business Intelligence Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

Chicago wasn’t built in a day, as the saying nearly goes, reminding us that everything worth doing takes time, patience and unwavering hard work. Stuart Frankel learned that lesson over nearly a decade of experience. In the nine years since he co-founded Narrative Science — which creates software that translates headache-inducing data into useful information — he’s watched the market slowly catch up to his way of thinking. The company itself has evolved too: after getting their start with software that turned baseball scores into stories for reporters, they’re now best known for report-writing product Quill — at least at the moment.

Craft Whiskey in the Mail? There’s a Subscription Box For That Jul 15, 2019

Show notes

Craft whiskey used to be the exclusive domain of snobs. That was the perception, at least. Think of a person who nerds out on craft whiskey and you might fall asleep at the very thought of a lecture on tasting notes and aging processes. But that’s not Dannie Strable, co-founder of RackHouse Whiskey, a subscription box that promises more than just a different drink every month. Instead of getting into the whiskey-tasting weeds, subscribers learn the stories behind the small, often family-operated distilleries provided in each box. Listen to hear Dannie sit down with Scott and talk about everything from his pro baseball career to learning the ropes of the whiskey industry.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected