Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Illinois based Founder operating in the Software space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Anthony Tassone
CEO and Founder of Green Key Technologies
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About Green Key Technologies: GreenKey is the voice-driven collaboration platform for financial markets: enhancing compliance and enabling sophisticated data analytics.
Aaron Frazin
Founder and CEO of Detective
Aaron Frazin is the Founder and CEO of Detective.io.
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About Detective: Detective is a digital adoption platform that automates the sales research process.
Eddie Lou
Co-Founder of Shiftgig
An active problem-solver and strategist, Eddie guides Shiftgig from an idea to an expanding technology business. He is also a co-founder and executive board director of One Goal, an education nonprofit, and has invested in and advised start-up entrepreneurs. He was formerly a General Partner at OCA Ventures and holds an MBA and a B.S. in Engineering from Washington University. A relentless competitor, Eddie did the Louisville Ironman, placing 2nd in the Janus Charity Challenge.
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About Shiftgig: Shiftgig helps staffing firms empower their workforce to browse and claim work that fit their skills and schedules.
Jett McCandless
Co-Founder and CEO of project44
Jett McCandless is Founder and CEO of project44.
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About project44: Project44 is a logistics technology company that provides a visibility solution to span the entire shipment workflow.
Keval Baxi
Founder of Codal of Codal
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About Codal: Codal is a full-stack UX design and application development agency with a focus on emerging technologies and Agile development.
Dan Pinto
Co-Founder and CEO of FingerprintJS
Dan Pinto is the Co-Founder and CEO of FingerprintJS. He also was also the Co-Founder and CTO of Machinio.
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About FingerprintJS: FingerprintJS provides an application programming interface designed for fraud detection on the modern web.
Chad Bronstein
CEO, Founder of Fyllo
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About Fyllo: Fyllo is a software company that provides compliance-first solutions for highly regulated industries.
Aristotle Loumis
Co-Founder, Chief Business Officer, Managing Partner of Fyllo
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About Fyllo: Fyllo is a software company that provides compliance-first solutions for highly regulated industries.
Ira Weiss
Founder & General Partner of Hyde Park Venture Partners
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About Base, Hyde Park Venture Partners, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business: Hyde Park Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on high-growth, mid-continent technology startups.
Guy Turner
Founder & Managing Director of Hyde Park Venture Partners
Guy is an early-stage venture investor in Chicago and a co-founder of Hyde Park Venture Partners.
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About Hyde Park Venture Partners, InContext Solutions, Kauffman Fellows, Oak Street Health, YCharts: Hyde Park Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on high-growth, mid-continent technology startups.
Bobby Hambrick
Founder and CEO of AutonomouStuff, LLC
Bobby Hambrick is the founder and CEO of AutonomouStuff, LLC. He founded the company in 2009. Recently, Bobby co-founded another company called PolySync, formerly Harbrick.
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About AutonomouStuff, LLC, Hexagon Positioning Intelligence: AutonomouStuff is a provider of autonomy-enabling technologies that specializes in perception sensors, GPS, and computing.
Daniel L. Ushman
Founder & CEO of TrendSpider
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About TrendSpider: TrendSpider is software that is used to make technical analysis with scanners, charts, analyses, automation and backtesting services.
Dan Wagner
Founder & CEO of Civis Analytics
Dan Wagner is ambassador for the firm’s external partnerships, representing the company’s vital, core interests as it engages client business opportunities. Dan served as the Chief Analytics Officer on the 2012 Obama campaign, overseeing a 54-person team of analysts, engineers and organizers that provided analytics and technologies for voter contact, digital, paid media, fundraising and communication. His department’s work was credited with “reinventing how national campaigns are done” and has been highlighted in Time Magazine, MIT Technology Review, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Los Angeles Times, and Harper’s. Dan began his work in politics as the Deputy Voter File Manager for Barack Obama during the 2008 Iowa caucuses, which defined the relevance of data, and client comprehension of data, in his career. That led to roles as the Great Lakes Targeting Desk and National Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Targeting Director, followed by the National Targeting Director at the Democratic National Committee for the 2010 election cycle. Dan previously worked with the FTI Consulting Economics Practice. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in economics and public policy. Dan is originally from Birmingham, Michigan, where he grew up imitating Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” performance. He remains the first one on any dance floor. He is fluent in Spanish and, according to two sources with knowledge of the incident, cried during “Like Water for Chocolate.” He used to play congas – not to be confused with the bongos – in a DC funk band.
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About Civis Analytics: Civis Analytics is a software company that helps public and private sector organizations make data-driven decisions.
Mathew Joseph Elenjickal
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FourKites
Matt is the founder and chief executive officer of FourKites. He founded FourKites in 2014 after recognizing pain points in the logistics industry and designing elegant and effective systems to address them. Prior to founding FourKites, Matt spent 7 years in the enterprise software space working for market leaders such as Oracle Corp and i2 Technologies/JDA Software Group. Matt has led high-impact teams that implemented logistics strategies and systems at P&G, Nestle, Kraft, Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Tyco, Argos and Nokia across North America, Western Europe and Latin America. Matt is passionate about logistics and supply chain management and has a keen sense for how technology can disrupt traditional silo-based planning and execution. Matt holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, an MS in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. He lives in Chicago.
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About FourKites: FourKites is a supply chain visibility platform designed for transportation into yards, warehouses, and stores.
Ruben Flores-Martinez
Founder & CEO of CASHDROP
Ruben Flores-Martinez is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at CASHDROP.
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About CASHDROP, Sugr: CASHDROP is a mobile commerce platform that helps businesses create and manage an online storefront from a smartphone.
Wally Ibrahim
Technical Co-Founder and CTO of Aloi
Wally Ibrahim is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Aloi. He has 20+ years of tech experience as consultant, sales engineer, and founder. Strong background in platform architecture and APIs.
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About Aloi: Connect the world’s cloud applications with Aloi.
Michael Rothman
Founder of SMS Assist
Michael Rothman has over 25 years of experience in the industrial service sector and 10 years in the retail services industry. Mr. Rothman served as chairman and CEO of SMS Assist, L.L.C. since its startup in 2003 to May 2017. Mr. Rothman currently serves as chairman. Mr. Rothman founded SMS Assist in 2003 with six employees. Under his leadership, SMS Assist transformed into one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Chicago. In 2016, the same year Rothman was named a Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year and also a national finalist by Ernst & Young, SMS Assist received $150 million in Series D funding at a $1 billion valuation from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, the same team that invested in Uber, Facebook, Pinterest and Spotify. SMS Assist has also been ranked on the Forbes World’s Best #32 of 100 Cloud Companies list, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for two years running, a 2017 Digital Edge 50 award winner, and in 2015 received the Moxie Award and the Momentum Award for its technology and industry leadership as well as the Innovation Award in 2013. Mr. Rothman transformed the business from a traditional brick and mortar service company into an advanced technology company whose mobile and cloud-based facilities maintenance platform manages over 28,000 affiliated providers to service a nationwide roster of Fortune 500 retail and industrial clients representing over 140,000 locations. SMS Assist’s proprietary technology provides vendor management, logistics planning, real-time order tracking, predictive modeling and electronic invoicing to deliver on-time, best-in-class service to every location, every time. A leader in facilities management, SMS Assist and its affiliated providers execute millions of services annually while delivering significant cost savings to their clients. Prior to SMS Assist, Mr. Rothman founded Kenny Industrial Services, a national coating and industrial cleaning company servicing 1,200 industrial customers, many from the Fortune 500. During his five-year tenure, Mr. Rothman was responsible for growth of the company’s annual revenues from $7 million to $240 million with 32 offices nationwide and over 3,000 employees. Before Mr. Rothman’s departure in 2003, he positioned Kenny as the #1 coating company and #32 in the top 600 specialty contractors in the country rated by E&R (Engineering Newsweek) and won many top safety awards.
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About Second Avenue Group, SMS Assist: SMS Assist is revolutionizing the multi-site property management market using the SMS proprietary technology platform.
Mike Collett
Founder & Managing Partner of Promus Ventures
Mike Collett is Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Chicago, San Francisco and Luxembourg investing in deep-technology software and hardware companies in the U.S., Europe and New Zealand. Mike has been a venture capital investor in software and hardware for over 15 years. He has invested in more than 70 private technology companies, including areas such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, space, fintech, robotics, synthetic biology, computer vision, connected car, blockchain, healthcare, insurance, agriculture, nanotechnology and others. Mike currently serves on numerous Boards of Directors of private technology companies, including Spire, Gauss Surgical, ICEYE, CrossLend, Rhombus and others. Mike previously was Founder and Managing Partner of Masters Capital Nanotechnology Fund, a venture capital firm. Investments included companies in quantum cascade lasers, quantum dots, photonic integrated optoelectronic devices, nano-engineered fabrics and others. While at Masters Capital, a hedge fund, Mike invested in private technology software and hardware companies. Prior to venture capital, Mike was a Vice President at Merrill Lynch in their Mergers & Acquisitions group as well as an Associate at Duff & Phelps. Mike holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Math and Bachelor’s of Arts in English from Vanderbilt University. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. Mike and his wife Paige have four children and live in Chicago.
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About Promus Ventures: Investing in early-stage deep-tech software/hardware companies run by visionary and tenacious founding teams.
Michael Elnick
Co-Founder of Tegus
Michael Elnick is the co-founder and co-CEO of Tegus.
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About Tegus: Tegus is a market intelligence platform for investors that provides thousands of instantly available, peer-led expert call transcripts.
Thomas Elnick
Co-Founder of Tegus
Thomas Elnick is the co-founder and co-CEO of Tegus.
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About Tegus: Tegus is a market intelligence platform for investors that provides thousands of instantly available, peer-led expert call transcripts.
Murali Kashaboina
Founder of Entrigna
Murali Kashaboina is the founder, CEO & President of Entrigna Inc. Murali is a Technology driven Business oriented leader & evangelist who brings 17+ years of IT experience in the areas of Travel & Transportation, E-Commerce, Real-Time Predictive Architectures , Real Time Business Intelligence, Event-Driven Services Architecture, Enterprise Architecture & Strategy, Applications Development & Delivery, IT Strategy, IT Project Execution & Governance, Technology Governance, IT Total Cost of Ownership Optimization and Agile Software Development Methodologies. Most recently, Murali served in the capacity of Managing Director, Enterprise Architecture at United Airlines and played a key role in the Merger Integration of United & Continental Airlines and in the selection of merger-surviving Enterprise Systems, ensuring business viability of systems in a perspective that could ultimately enable the realization of billions in revenue synergies. During 2004-2006, Murali was the Lead Architect for united.com and led the Architecture & Delivery of next generation online Booking Engine, one of the largest initiatives at United Airlines. His deep understanding of the intricacies involved in building real software for real world business problems and seamlessly enabling them for real business consumption, helped him in forming a strong technology group for Entrigna which truly is the differentiator of the company. Murali advocates that “Organizations should auto-pilot & cruise towards Profitability and Success by fueling their Business Operations with Real Time Intelligence that flows through and persists tangibly in their own Real Time Business Data”. Murali is an ardent knowledge-seeker with the belief that knowledge and expertise should be shared and not hoarded. Going with this belief, he published several white papers on various key technical subjects. Murali holds a Masters’ degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Dayton, Ohio
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About Entrigna, Forbes Councils: Entrigna offers RTES, a real time expert system platform that translates complex data and predictive analytics into actionable insights.
Geeth Narayanan
Co-Founder & SVP of Entrigna
Geeth Narayanan is the co-founder of Entrigna Inc. and a dedicated IT leader with over 15+ years of experience in the design, development and delivery of cost-effective, high performance technology solutions in various industries including banking, airline etc. Geeth is a results-driven executive with extensive experience leading people and project teams, developing business transformation and technology strategy roadmaps, implementing and overseeing technology solutions that spans multimillion-dollar budgets. He strives for optimal balance between strategic and tactical orientation with a focus towards delivery. He enjoys challenging leadership opportunities providing value-added technology solutions leveraging his business experience and systems expertise to contribute to the profitability of a growing organization. While working as a Director for Enterprise Applications and Information Architecture with United Airlines, Geeth played a key role in the merger of United and Continental Airlines including successful delivery of United’s “Customer Day One” program where he led a cross-subsidiary architecture for seamless customer experience. As a Lead Architect for the customer portfolio he led the delivery of Mileage Plus’ next generation “MP 2.0” program that delivered Airline Loyalty industry leading Redemption products weaving-in CIO’s IT multi-year vision items into program delivery. Prior to that, he led the architecture and delivery of United’s multi-channel, multi-product Merchandising program, that enabled United to deliver industry leading ancillary revenues. As a Senior Architect in the Ecommerce area he was instrumental in building the 3 Billion annual revenue generating united.com website. Prior to that Geeth worked as an Architect for Washington Mutual bank building their next generation Middleware Platform. Geeth is an avid technology blogger and follower of technology blogs to keep himself up-to-date on technology. He holds a Masters of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Toledo, Ohio
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About Cognizant, Entrigna: Entrigna offers RTES, a real time expert system platform that translates complex data and predictive analytics into actionable insights.
Venu Middela
Co-Founder of Entrigna
Venu Middela is the co-founder of Entrigna Inc. Prior to joining Entrigna, Venu served as a Senior Manager IT at United Airlines Inc. managing IT infrastructure & Middleware Engineering teams supporting Airline operations, customer channels. Venu is a seasoned veteran with 15+ years in building, architecting and managing Enterprise IT infrastructures including business critical ecommerce sites, mission critical IT operational systems.Prior to this role, Venu served as the Principal Infrastructure Architect at United, implemented Virtualiztion technologies across the enterprise, consolidating IT infrastructures,instrumental in stabilizing IT operations, meeting Enterprise Operational SLAs. Prior to United, Venu served as an Infrastructure Lead at Military.com, a web based portal serving 30 million Americans having Miltiary Affinity. Venu holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA . Venu is an avid sports fan, loves to travel.
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About Entrigna: Entrigna offers RTES, a real time expert system platform that translates complex data and predictive analytics into actionable insights.
Prasad Nagu
Co-Founder & SVP of Entrigna
Prasad Nagu is the co-founder of Entrigna Inc. Prasad has over 14 years of experience.
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About Entrigna: Entrigna offers RTES, a real time expert system platform that translates complex data and predictive analytics into actionable insights.
Prasad Nagu
Co-Founder & SVP of Entrigna
Prasad Nagu is the co-founder of Entrigna Inc. Prasad has over 14 years of experience.
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About Entrigna: Entrigna offers RTES, a real time expert system platform that translates complex data and predictive analytics into actionable insights.
Michael Winnick
Founder, CEO of dscout
Michael leads dscout working closely with our team to reshape the in-context research landscape. Prior to starting dscout, Michael served as Managing Partner at gravitytank, where he worked across all aspects of the firm’s business, from strategy to BD, producing exponential growth. Michael is an expert in consumer electronics and digital service, and has deep passion for developing high performance teams.
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About dscout, gravitytank, Jump Satori, LeadAide: dscout helps companies better understand the experiences people have with their products and brands in everyday life.
Niko Spyridonos
Founder of Autoagent Data Solutions
Niko, the CEO, manages all sales, training and customer support. He also contributes to the development of the technology by utilizing user feedback.
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About Autoagent Data Solutions: Autoagent Data Solutions, a government organization, offers a system designed to help tax collectors simplify real estate tax processing.
David Casem
Co-Founder & CEO of Telnyx
David Casem is the Co-Founder & CEO.
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About Telnyx: Telnyx is a VoIP service provider that offers a cloud-based platform that offers access to carrier grade voice services over the internet.
Ian Reither
Founder & COO of Telnyx
Ian Reither is the Founder & COO at Telnyx.
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About Telnyx: Telnyx is a VoIP service provider that offers a cloud-based platform that offers access to carrier grade voice services over the internet.
Aaron Coles
Founder and CEO of Drift Net Securities
Aaron Coles currently works as Founder and Chief Eexecutive Officer at Drift Net Securities.
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About Drift Net Securities: Drift Net Securities creates and provides technical solutions to keep communities safe and disrupting security and AI-based technology.
Shyam Palreddy
Founder of GGK Tech
Shyam is the founder of GGK. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in the Industry. At GGK, Shyam works very closely with delivery teams to ensure commitments are delivered without compromising on GGK values and culture. Prior to GGK, he worked at Microsoft in Redmond for seven years in various development positions in Internet Explorer, Windows and .NET Framework teams. During this time, he developed many core components, especially for the .NET CLR and ASP.NET products. He later went on to manage application development teams within Microsoft and delivered many enterprise applications. Shyam started his career with CMC Ltd Ports & Cargo group where he was involved in developing large system integration projects involving a broad range of technologies for customers in Malaysia and India. Shyam has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Osmania University, Hyderabad.
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About GGK Tech: GGK Tech develops web applications and business intelligence solutions.
Shailendra Singh
Founder & CEO of Samya.AI
Shailendra Singh is the Founder & CEO at Samya.ai and the Board Member at MarketsandMarkets.
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About Samya.AI: Samya.AI operates as a revenue growth AI company that brings the power of deep learning.
Michael Jansen
Chairman, Founder & CEO of Cityzenith
Michael Jansen is a sought after Smart City industry leader and public speaker with numerous awards and accolades to his credit, and has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and myriads of business, technology, and AEC publications worldwide, including Architectural Record, ENR, Business Week, Domus, Contract Magazine, et. al. In 2007, Michael was awarded Building Design + Construction Magazine’s prestigious “40 Under 40” award honoring top CEOs in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry under the age of 40. An impassioned architect, urbanist, and entrepreneur, Michael founded Satellier in 2004, a CAD and BIM production services company backed by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Under his leadership, in just four years Satellier experienced explosive growth from a team size of 10 to over 450 and fundamentally changed the way AEC firms deliver services. In 2010, Michael assumed the helm of Cityzenith to pursue his dream of transforming life in cities all over the world. Michael was educated as an architect at Yale and Cambridge; earned a Fulbright scholarship; studied art and architecture in China and India; speaks four languages and has traveled to more than 80 countries; designs high-end, exotic furniture, and is an avid guitar player.
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About Cityzenith: Cityzenith is a technology startup that provides data visualization platform software and applications for IoT and Smart Cities.
George Stoitzev
Founder of BlueReceipt
George Stoitzev currently works as the Founder of BlueReceipt.
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About BlueReceipt: BlueReceipt develops a Shopify plugin that uses text marketing to boost revenue.
Brian Luerssen
Co-Founder of Draftbit
Brian Luerssen is the Co-Founder at Draftbit.
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About Draftbit, LongJump, Preposterous Inc., Relentless: Draftbit is a new way to build cross-platform, native iOS and Android apps.
Peter Piekarczyk
Co-Founder and CTO of Draftbit
Peter Piekarczyk is the Co-Founder & CTO at Draftbit.
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About Draftbit: Draftbit is a new way to build cross-platform, native iOS and Android apps.
Donald Hruska
Co-Founder and VP Engineering of Draftbit
Donald Hruska is the Co-Founder & VP Engineering at Draftbit.
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About Draftbit: Draftbit is a new way to build cross-platform, native iOS and Android apps.
Jong-Wook Shin
Founder, President and CEO of iiRcade
Results-driven, customer and consumer-focused executive with vision, dedication and drive to succeed. Visionary leader with strong entrepreneurship and innovation experiences as a founding CEO of an award-winning startup and vice president of innovations at LG Electronics. Winner of 2018 CES Innovation Award and Startup of the Year finalist recognitions at CES, IFA, Smart Kitchen Summit, Startup Conference. Recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious ‘Outstanding Top 45 Asian American in Business’ award in 2010 and Sony Mobile Presidential Award in 2011. 22+ years of experiences in the consumer electronics and mobile industry, leading organizations and creating innovative products with amazing experiences at Motorola, Sony Mobile, Intel, LG and HOPii. 16+ years of experiences in product management, product planning, product strategy, portfolio management, business strategies and business management. 18+ years of team management experiences and 8+ years of executive leadership experiences. 12+ years of strong experiences in disruptive innovations and entrepreneurship with startup experiences, new experience products and disruptive innovations creation accomplishments. Comprehensive knowledge and experiences in managing products from concept to launch and beyond. Strong business and technical skills. A dynamic self-starter with proven ability to resolve complex challenges in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment. Extensive experiences in customer and vendor management, and managing projects in both matrix organizations and startup environment. Excellent leadership skills from various executive leadership experiences. Kellogg MBA. Excellent people skills and highly persuasive negotiator. Strong communication and presentation skills. Great team player who is very dependable, very hard working and always makes a difference. Committed to professional excellence and success.
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About iiRcade: Bringing Arcade Gaming to the 21st Century
Semyon Slobounov
Founder of HeadRehab
Semyon Slobounov is a Founder at HeadRehab.
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About HeadRehab: HeadRehab develops virtual reality systems with a focus on neurocognitive performance and enhancement tools.
Elena Slobounov
Founder of HeadRehab
Elena Slobounov is a Founder at HeadRehab.
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About HeadRehab: HeadRehab develops virtual reality systems with a focus on neurocognitive performance and enhancement tools.
Matthew Roszak
Co-Founder and Chairman of Bloq
Matthew Roszak is co-founder and chairman of Bloq, a blockchain enterprise software company. Mr. Roszak is also founding partner of Tally Capital, a private investment firm focused on blockchain-enabled technology with a portfolio of over 20 investments, including BitFury, Blockstream and Factom. He is a blockchain investor, entrepreneur and advocate. He has spent over 20 years in private equity and venture capital with Advent International, Keystone Capital Partners, Platinum Venture Partners and SilkRoad Equity, and has invested over $1 billion of capital (from start-up to IPO) in a broad range of industries. He is a director and beneficial owner of Eboost, MissionMode, NeuEntity, Onramp, SolidSpace and TrueLook. He serves as chairman of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry. In addition, he serves on the board of BitGive, a non-profit foundation targeting public health and the environment. He is also the founder of the Chicago Bitcoin Center, and was a producer of the blockchain industry’s first ever documentary, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin. He is a sought after thought leader on blockchain technology, and has testified before US Congress and spoken at The Brookings Institution. He has been featured on CNBC and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CoinDesk and Bitcoin Magazine. In addition, he has presented at FinTech conferences worldwide, including Money20/20, CES and American Banker.
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About Bloq, Chamber of Digital Commerce, Metronome, MissionMode, Tally Capital, Vesper.Finance: Bloq delivers enterprise grade block chain technology to leading companies worldwide.
Jason Fried
Co-Founder & CEO of Basecamp
Jason Fried is the Co – Founder & President of 37signals. A privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. Jason Co – Wrote all of 37signals books, including their latest “Rework”, and is invited to speak on entrepreneurship, design, management, and software all around the globe. Jason believes there’s real value and beauty in the basics.
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About Basecamp, Inc.com: Basecamp is a private, secure space online where people working together can organize and discuss.
Shradha Agarwal
Founder & Managing Partner of Jumpstart Ventures
Shradha Agarwal has a lifelong passion for building organizations to connect people and information, as well as align profit and purpose, having started her first business at age nine. In 2006, Shradha co-founded ContextMedia, a healthcare media company that delivers lifestyle education to 20M patients each month nationally. As President of the fast-growing company, Shradha is focused on product innovation, scaling operations and talent development. Her organization has doubled its revenue, profitability and distribution year-over-year while being consistently recognized for its culture, customer service and technology leadership. Shradha co-founded JumpStart Ventures in 2011 to fund other passionate entrepreneurs who are executing ambitious solutions in healthcare, education and media communications, and has since backed more than 40 companies with over $10 million in venture investments. She mentors entrepreneurs at Techstars, Impact Engine & Blueprint Health, but is equally invested in the venture philanthropy model for scaling nonprofit solutions through SVP Chicago and The Chicago Public Education Fund. She serves on the boards of OneGoal and Chicago Children’s Choir and spiritedly supports youth education, women leadership, and civic engagement. The CEC recently honored the two ContextMedia co-founders with the “2015 Chicagoness Award” for their deep commitment to developing the city’s ecosystem. Shradha was also recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House and awarded the Prominent Woman in Tech by ITA. She enjoys sharing stories, traveling internationally and exploring new cultures, food and music.
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About FireStarter Fund, Jumpstart Ventures, Social Venture Partners: JumpStart Ventures is an investment fund built to partner with entrepreneurs solving problems that need intelligent innovation.
Rohit Narayan
Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Cured
Rohit is Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Cured. Prior to Cured, he was a Principal Solution Engineer at Salesforce and a founding member of their Healthcare team, where he focused on helping healthcare organizations use modern technology to execute on broader strategic initiatives and manage the ever-changing industry and consumer needs. Prior to Salesforce, Rohit worked at Epic Systems as an Application Director and Application Success Owner running large revenue cycle implementations. Rohit graduated from the University of Michigan with a dual BA in Economics and German. He is also a graduate of the LEAD: Corporate Innovation program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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About Cured: a digital marketing & crm platform, built for healthcare organizations
Zach Kaplan
Co-Founder and CEO of Inventables
Zach Kaplan is the Founder and CEO of Inventables, the leader in 3D carving. A maker his whole life, he is on a mission to ignite digital manufacturing world wide and provide everyone with ambition a way to get started. Inventables flagship products Easel, Carvey, and X-Carve are used by a new wave of makers carving everything from circuit boards to skate boards. Named a “modern Leonardo” by the Museum of Science and Industry and a 40 under 40 by Crain’s Chicago Business, his dream is to create a world with 2 million digital manufacturers that have raving fans, not just customers.
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About Corazon Capital, Inventables: Inventables is a 3D carving company offers a powerful machine, intuitive software and unique materials.
Rahul Shah
Founder and CEO of Katalyst Technologies
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About ForecastEra, Katalyst Technologies: Katalyst Technologies provides a full range of IT professional services for its clients in the U.S., Middle East, and India.
Aashish Dalal
Founder & Chairman of Arrive
Aashish Dalal co-founded the largest eparking provider in the world, which is now the market leader. He is a leading expert on eparking, speaks frequently at industry conferences, and is published regularly in industry trade journals Parking and Parking Today. His role as industry catalyst earned him a spot on Crain’s Chicago Tech 25 and awards from Nokia and American Express. Before creating ParkWhiz, Aashish was with IBM Global Business Services. He earned his M.S. from DePaul University and B.A. from Northwestern University. To date, ParkWhiz has raised over $12 million in funding.
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About Arrive, ParkWhiz: Arrive is a provider of parking and other connected mobility services through apps, websites, voice platforms.
Gary Cohen
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cova
Gary leads Cova’s charge into the legal cannabis space by guiding the vision, strategic development, ‘go to market’ plans and culture. Before joining Cova, Gary was a principal in over a dozen tech start-ups in the mobile communications industry ranging from small VC funded companies to Fortune 100 firms, including Onavo, which was later acquired by Facebook. In those companies he led sales, marketing, business analytics and market expansions. He has also held a multitude of leadership roles with Verizon and AT&T. Gary holds a Degree in Finance with a Masters in Marketing from the University of Colorado. In his spare time Gary enjoys skiing, mountain biking, outdoor sports, travel and comfort food.
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About Cova, EZLinks Golf: Cova offers POS solution in the cannabis industry and helps retailers simplify compliance, reduce costs, and increase revenue.
Justyn Howard
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Sprout Social
Justyn Howard is the founder and CEO of Sprout Social, a leading Social Media Management (SMM) platform.
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About Sprout Social: Sprout Social provides a platform for businesses to manage social media engagement, publishing and analytics.
Aaron Rankin
Co-Founder & CTO of Sprout Social
Aaron Rankin is a co-founder and the CTO of Sprout Social, a leading Social Media Management (SMM) platform.
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About Self Employed, Sprout Social: Sprout Social provides a platform for businesses to manage social media engagement, publishing and analytics.
Pamela Morgan
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Third Key Solutions
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About Empowered Law, Third Key Solutions: Third Key Solutions offers consulting and cryptographic key management solutions for companies using decentralized digital currencies.
Daniel Adamany
Founder & CEO of AHEAD
As president and CEO of AHEAD, Daniel Adamany is responsible for company strategy and overall vision of the organization. Daniel is hands-on, engaging directly with clients and partners, ensuring the organization continues to meet and exceed expectations. Prior to AHEAD, Daniel played a pivotal role in EMC’s rise to prominence, winning several national awards for leadership and performance. Daniel has a robust background in sales strategy and an unparalleled understanding of finance. He plays a critical role in structuring deals and assisting clients with procuring vital solutions in today’s difficult economy. Daniel is also involved in several entrepreneurial ventures within various industries, including real estate, hospitality, and entertainment, where he lends his experience and vision to drive success. Daniel has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
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About AHEAD, Vertical Trail: AHEAD is a solutions-based company that helps clients move to an optimized IT service delivery model.
Matt Kunkel
Co-Founder & CEO of LogicGate
Matt Kunkel is the CEO and co-founder of LogicGate, Inc. Mr. Kunkel has over a decade of experience delivering cutting edge technology solutions to solve complex business issues related to audits, investigations, risk management, regulatory compliance, and process automation. He is an industry leading expert in solving organizations governance, risk, and compliance issues using technology. He regularly consultants and leads large teams that solve client needs in the areas of Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Device Manufacturing, and Energy.
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About LogicGate: LogicGate builds technology that allows businesses to automate and track disorganized processes in risk and compliance.
Eric Lunt
Co-Founder of Signal
Prior to joining BrightTag, Eric was co-founder and CTO of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. After the acquisition, Eric remained at Google in a senior technology role. Prior to FeedBurner, Eric co-founded and served as CTO at Spyonit.com (acquired by 724 Solutions), served as lead technical architect at Digital Knowledge Assets (creators of the collaborative personal publishing software “sceneServer”), and helped to lead the application architecture team in Accenture’s next generation technology group known as “Project Eagle.” Eric graduated from Princeton University with a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering and a Certificate in Applied Computational Mathematics. In addition to his work at BrightTag, Eric is a senior technology advisor to Twitter and he also sits on the board of Gnip. Eric was recognized as one of Crain’s Tech 25 for his contributions to drive technology growth in Chicago.
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About FireStarter Fund: Signal is an independent SaaS provider of data onboarding and real-time identity resolution.
Larby Amirouche
Founder & CEO of Starlight Group
Larby Amirouche is a pioneer in online marketing and e-commerce, widely admired as a business pioneer and trendsetter. Famous for his successes in boosting branded products through direct response campaigns, he began making headlines following co-founding Tracking202, a PPC advertising and analytics technologies platform used by affiliate marketers to monitor their campaigns. Larby began affiliate advertising backed by just $300 in charge, a small bit of knowledge, and turned it to countless dollars CPA company he generated. Tracking202, still in life, was obtained for about $ 1 million prior to Larby finished his sophomore year of college, and it has gone to monitor billions of dollars’ worth of advertising purchases. It was this base which enabled him to come across long-term, sustainable business success over the electronic advertising motion, directly easing earnings value hundreds of millions of dollars for customers throughout the world. As an expert in all sorts of direct response advertising, such as social media and research engine, he’s been reliable as a consultant by hedge fund executives and his goods are showcased on national and regional information programs, such as Fox and MSNBC. He’s enthusiastic about allowing entrepreneurs to chart their own destiny and is dedicated to making sure that the advertising community uses best practices to protect the rights of customers. As he constantly says: an educated consumer is a loyal customer.
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About Starlight Group: Starlight used the latest development frameworks to bring maximum responsiveness, speed, consumer experiences, to your business, worldwide.
Young-Jae Kim
Co-Founder and CTO of Anthill AI
Young-Jae Kim currently works as Co-Founder and CTO at Anthill AI.
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About Anthill AI: Anthill enables companies to retain, engage, and develop employees when work happens away from the office.
Brad Weisberg
Founder & CEO of Snapsheet
Brad founded Snapsheet in 2011 and has led the company through multiple hyper growth stages. He is passionate about developing creative solutions for today’s complex problems, using powerful technical platforms to deliver great user experiences. He is a champion for the Chicago tech community and regularly mentors leaders at emerging tech companies. His work with Snapsheet has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company. Brad has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and advertising from Indiana University Bloomington. He is a guest lecturer at Northwestern University.
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About Snapsheet: Snapsheet delivers claims experiences through its cloud-native claims management software and tech-enabled appraisal services.
Orazio Buzza
Founder & CEO of Fooda
Orazio Buzza is a Co-Founder at Fooda, Inc. He served as President & Chief Operating Officer of Echo Global Logistics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ECHO), from May 2005 until August 2010. From October 2003 to May 2005, he was the CFO and COO of InnerWorkings, Inc. (Nasdaq: INWK). From July 2001 to September 2003, Orazio was Vice President of Finance and Operations at Bus Bank, an online provider of charter bus services. He received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Supply Chain Management from the University of Illinois, and he is also a CPA.
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About Fooda: Fooda is a food technology platform that connects restaurants to people while at work.
Michael Nervick
CEO/Founder of Sleek Technologies
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About Sleek Technologies: Freight Management Saas and Data
Oleg Yanchyk
CIO/Founder of Sleek Technologies
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About Sleek Technologies: Freight Management Saas and Data
Jitesh Thakkar
Founder and Chief Architect of Edge Financial Technologies
Jitesh is a chief architect. Jitesh leads the firm in Capital Markets projects that range from algorithmic trading strategies, Low latency trading systems, risk management solutions and compliance systems. Jitesh Thakkar has 18 years of professional experience in software development. He is passionate about software development and crafting quality solutions that are built to last. Through Edge Financial Technologies, he works with banks, trading firms and asset management firms to provide software solutions that are fast, flexible and reliable. Jitesh Thakkar came to the US at 13 years of age. He fell in love with computers and programming in his first few months in the US when he saw the Apple IIe in a computer lab. As a hobby and a passion, he taught himself programming. Jitesh worked several internships while attending college to pay for the education. He graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago in 1998 with a Bachelors in Computer Engineering. Jitesh worked at UBS Investment bank, working with “quants” developing exotic pricing models and software tools. He joined Stafford Trading in 2001, developed order routing systems and execution management systems. Jitesh joined Trading Technologies (TT), a software platform vendor in 2003. At TT, he developed custom FIX engines, order management solutions and exchange connectivity to several exchanges; including CME Group’s iLink Order Routing System. In 2007, Jitesh founded Edge Financial Technologies to help several trading firms’ transition from click trading to automated trading. In 2008-2009, Jitesh developed and optimized a custom FIX engine to meet low latency needs of several trading firms. In 2010, Jitesh and the Edge team certified a market data handler and an order routing system to connect to CME Group in under 25 microseconds. Since then, Jitesh worked on several algorithmic trading strategies that include Market making, Trend Following, Mean Reversion, Economic event based trading, Multi-exchange spread and arbitrage, Multi-legged trading strategies. In addition to trading strategies, Jitesh has worked with firms to develop many custom solutions, including Measurement of tick to trade latency with sub microsecond accuracy, Real time risk monitoring, margin checking and back office integration, Custom order types, Custom trade identification and market change detection systems, Trade Reconciliation systems, Compliance system for several exchange and regulatory rules, Risk management and kill switch systems, Execution Management Systems, Smart Order Routing Systems. Jitesh Thakkar was invited to and served on CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee’s subcommittee on High Frequency Trading from 2012 to 2014. Jitesh continues to work with banks, exchanges, brokerages and trading firms to provide expert guidance and technology solutions.
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About Edge Financial Technologies, Undisclosed: Edge Financial Technologies is an IT consultancy dedicated to the financial industry to help enterprises achieve profitable growth.
Ashish Rangnekar
Co-Founder and CEO of BenchPrep
Ashish Rangenkar is one of BenchPrep’s co-founders, and directs business development, public relations, and operational efforts on a day-to-day basis. Before founding BenchPrep, Ashish perfected his analytical skills as a strategy consultant for Capital One. At 22, he was an adjunct lecturer in the Math department at the City University of New York, an experience that has helped inform his perspectives on education and learning.
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About BenchPrep: BenchPrep offers a learner success platform to improve engagement and outcomes for learners.
Brian Liddell
Co-Founder, Chief Financial Officer, Finance & Senior Partner of Harmony Healthcare IT
Brian is a Senior Partner with Harmony Healthcare IT, serving as Chief Financial Officer. He has over 15 years of information technology work experience since graduating from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in 2001. Assisting with the formation of Harmony Healthcare IT, Brian has gained healthcare domain expertise in revenue cycle management, practice management systems, electronic health records, analytics tools and data extraction/migration/retention. Brian is an integral part of the management team with core competencies in finance, budgeting, forecasting, expense control, risk mitigation, human resources, commercial property management and real estate. He manages partner relationships, review of legal agreements, contract negotiations and financial modeling. He contributes to business planning and strategy development. When his head is not in a spreadsheet, Brian can typically be found in a stadium somewhere across the nation at a major sports event or concert.
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About Harmony Healthcare IT: Harmony Healthcare IT provide technology for healthcare organizations that safeguards information, ensures cashflow & increase productivity.
Jack Philbin
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Vibes
As one of the premier thought-leaders in mobile marketing and wireless, Jack spearheads Vibes’ strategic direction and drives the company’s position as the leading provider of mobile relationship management technology solutions for leading brands. An entrepreneur and builder, Jack has specific expertise in business development, strategic client management and consumer marketing. Jack currently serves as Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association North America Board of Directors and on the CTIA Wireless Internet Caucus. Jack was honored with the MMA’s “Outstanding Individual Achievement” award in 2005. Under Jack’s leadership, Vibes was ranked #92 on the 2007 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing US companies and has received numerous awards for their innovation.
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About FireStarter Fund, Mobile Marketing Association, Vibes: Vibes is a mobile marketing software platform.
Alex Campbell
Co-Founder of Vibes
Alex Campbell is an entrepreneur who co-founded Vibes in 1998. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has received numerous accolades including Red Herring’s Top 25 Tech Rebels, Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40” and induction into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2009.
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About FireStarter Fund, Vibes: Vibes is a mobile marketing software platform.
Dale Pollak
Founder of vAuto
Dale’s career in the automotive industry spans more than two decades. As a dealer, technology entrepreneur, and best-selling author, Dale has helped many dealers in North America make dramatic improvements in their vehicle operations. Dale pioneered the Velocity Method of Inventory Management™ to maximize used vehicle profitability through market metrics. Dale crafted this approach as a Cadillac dealer in Chicago. With this approach, Dale founded vAuto, Inc., in 2005. In 2010, Cox Automotive acquired vAuto. Dale now guides strategic product development and integration for vAuto and other Cox Automotive companies. Dale holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University, a law degree from DePaul University’s College of Law, and is a four-time winner of the American Jurisprudence Award. In addition, Dale received the 2010 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and in 2011, was inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. In 2014, Dale was named as Poling Chair at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
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About Cox Automotive, vAuto: VAuto provides web-based inventory management solutions for retail automotive dealerships in the United States.
Tarik khribech
CEO/Founder of Allbetter
Allbetter was born out of passion, innovation, and irritation. Founder Tarik Khribech was born in Morocco and migrated to the USA. He soon finished his Master’s degree in Computer Science and began working for Fortune 100 companies. Years of launching innovative businesses with growing success fueled Tarik’s fire for measurable, positive results. But as an immigrant, he saw first-hand the frustration of small business life, especially during the recent pandemic. Irritation grew while using the available apps for homeowners and contractors, and an idea, a deep, long-term vision, and a solution were born. Now entering its third year, allbetter has attracted a world-class team of visionaries, business and brand strategists, technology and app experts, and more, all dedicated to make the contractor and homeowner industry better, make small business better, make busy homeowners feel better, and this world, well…you know.
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About Allbetter: Changing the way property owners find local contractors, and helping both succeed.
Ed Bellis
CTO, Founder of Kenna Security
Ed Bellis is a security industry veteran and expert and was once named Information Security Executive of the year. He founded Kenna Security to deliver a data-driven risk-based approach to remediation and help IT teams prioritize and thwart would-be security threats. Bellis is the former CISO of Orbitz and former Vice President, Corporate Information Security at Bank of America. He is an Advisor to Dharma and former Advisor to SecurityScoreboard.com and Society of Payment Security Professionals. Bellis is a contributing author to the book, Beautiful Security and a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
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About Kenna Security: Kenna is a SaaS risk and vulnerability intelligence platform that accurately measures risk and prioritizes remediation efforts.
Riana Lynn
Founder and CEO of Journey Foods
Riana Lynn is a leader in food innovation, technology, and venture strategy. As a serial entrepreneur, she develops high-growth, nationally recognized technology and food businesses. Scaling a family juice company inspired her to develop FoodTrace, supply chain software that impacts thousands of food businesses across the US and beyond. Riana’s development strategies are pivotal to some of the world’s most innovative food and agriculture startups. She also works with Fortune 500 companies on new innovations. Her accomplishments have been featured on CNBC, Forbes, USA Today, Wired, TechCrunch, INC, Entrepreneur Magazine, Crain’s “20 in their 20s”, among others.
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About Journey Foods: Journey Foods solves food science and supply chain inefficiencies with enterprise software to help companies feed 8 billion people better.
Daniel Estrada
Co-Founder and CEO of 86 Repairs
Daniel Estrada is the co-founder and CEO of 86 Repairs, the repair and maintenance management platform built for the restaurant industry. He has over 20 years of experience in technical and leadership roles, including as a software engineer, project manager, consultant to startups and Fortune 500 companies, and as the practice head in a global digital consultancy. Daniel is a first generation American, multi-citizen, and speaks 3 languages.
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About 86 Repairs: 86 Repairs is a subscription service that optimizes and manages end-to-end equipment repair and maintenance for restaurant groups.
Ravi Singh
Co-Founder & CTO of Catalytic
Ravi Singh is Chief Researcher at RavWare Software.
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About Catalytic, RavWare Software, RavWare Software: Catalytic offers the easiest platform for digital transformation and the automation of knowledge work.
Vishu Ramanathan
Founder of Buildout
Vishu Ramanathan is CEO of Buildout, the leading end-to-end marketing software for commercial real estate.He founded the company in 2010 with fellow software developer Jason Tillery. His background is in software development where he specializes in bridging complex business problems with people and technology to form a solution. Before founding Buildout, Vishu spent 10 years with Business Logic, now Next Capital, and also worked as an independent software developer in industries with sophisticated problems, including finance, logistics and trade regulation.
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About Buildout: Buildout is an end-to-end solution that provides a marketing platform for commercial real estate.
Rakesh Madhava
Founder & CEO of Nextpoint
Rakesh Madhava is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NextPoint Inc., where he leads a unique team of computer scientists, litigation support professionals, and communication experts. He has 15 years of experience in legal technology and trial support with specific experience in white-collar criminal defense, breach of contract, intellectual property, shareholder suits, tortious interference suits, and product liability. Madhava is a frequent speaker on the topics of cloud computing and new technologies in electronic data management and is an avid participant in legal technology industry events. In 2005, he received a special proclamation for his work within the 7th Circuit Bar Association and is a member of the American Society of Trial Consultants, American Institute of Graphic Arts, and TiE, a network of professionals that fosters entrepreneurship.
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About Nextpoint: Nextpoint develops regulatory, compliance, and litigation software applications.
Binod Singh
Co-Founder, President & CEO of ILANTUS Technologies
Binod Singh is one of the few individuals that have been involved with the IDM/IAM domain since its inception. He has also been deeply involved with the founders of Identity Management, Access Management and Access Governance technologies, working actively with them and their organizations in conceptualizing, development and bringing them to the market. Binod has worked along with more than 75 corporations world-wide implementing these technologies. He works very closely with analysts, developers and technology providers in this domain and is a prominent speaker on forums worldwide. For the last 14 years, as Co-founder, President and CEO, Binod has successfully steered ILANTUS to be the world’s leading value added solution provider in the Identity Access Management (IAM) and Governance space. Before the entrepreneurial bug bit him, Binod worked with WIPRO, Digital (COMPAQ) and CA in senior and top management positions. Binod holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Masters in Industrial Management.
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About ILANTUS Technologies: ILANTUS Technologies specializes in the identity, governance, and access domain with a focus in implementation and managed services.
Jake Lumetta
Founder and CEO of ButterCMS
Jake Lumetta serves as a Founder and CEO at ButterCMS.
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About ButterCMS: Add a blog or CMS to your website in minutes. ButterCMS is a headless CMS and blogging platform built for developers.
Matthew Stenquist
Co-Founder / VP of Product of Talk.onl
Matthew Stenquist is an American game designer, professional snowboarder, and tech entrepreneur. Matt is known for his coding abilities and UI/UX design skills which have been featured in many publications and has worked the opportunity to work with clients such as Ubisoft, and Microsoft.
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About Joyhype, Talk.onl: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talkonl/
Aksh Gupta
CEO and Co-Founder of Occasion
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About Occasion: Occasion provides a simple, but powerful tool for merchants to grow their business and connect with customers.
Adam Siegel
Co-Founder and CEO of Cultivate Labs
Adam is a founder of Inkling and as CEO is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the company and assisting in business development and client service. Before founding Inkling, Adam spent 10 years as a consultant at Accenture, working with a long list of Fortune 100 and Government Agencies and also leading up research initiatives around next generation user experiences. Adam has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Indiana University.
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About Cultivate Labs, Federis Group: Cultivate Labs use crowdsourcing their best thinking to guide your most important decisions.
William Dunn
Founder & President of Dunn Solutions Group
William Dunn founded Dunn Solutions Group in 1988. Over last 27 years, he led the company as it grew from a Chicago-based boutique firm to a 100 plus employee digital ecommerce and business transformation consultancy with offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, Raleigh, and Bangalore, India. Focused primarily on analytics solutions and application development, the company serves Fortune 500 corporations and aggressive, growing companies worldwide. Dunn Solutions Group’s success, Dunn says, largely is due to the company’s ability to listen to clients and deliver on their expectations. And he prides himself on being an “evangelist” for new ideas, while remaining grounded in the practical world of business. Bill received his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He gained early experience at AT&T, Bell Laboratories and U.S. Robotics.
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About Dunn Solutions Group: Dunn Solutions Group is a company that specializes in ecommerce products.
Jennifer Fried
Co-Founder & CEO of ExplORer Surgical
Jennifer Fried is the CEO & Co-Founder of ExplORer Surgical .
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About ExplORer Surgical, Portfolia: ExplORer is an interactive surgical playbook that promotes optimal teamwork in the operating room.
Zach Sloan
Co-Founder and CFO of Rentgrata
Zach Sloan is the Co-Founder and CFO at Rentgrata.
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About Rentgrata: Rentgrata is a messaging platform that connects prospective renters with current residents of apartment communities.
Ben Margolit
Co-Founder and CEO of Rentgrata
Ben Margolit is a Co-Founder and CEO at Rentgrata.
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About Rentgrata: Rentgrata is a messaging platform that connects prospective renters with current residents of apartment communities.
Sam McArtor
Co-Founder and COO of Rentgrata
Sam McArtor is a Co-Founder and COO at Rentgrata.
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About Rentgrata: Rentgrata is a messaging platform that connects prospective renters with current residents of apartment communities.
Josh Sutchar
Co-Founder / CXO & VP of TrainHeroic
After a four-year football career playing for the University of San Diego as a fullback, Josh practiced consulting and coached high school football prior to co-founding TrainHeroic. Josh leads TrainHeroic’s Performance team, a support resource for TrainHeroic’s coaches and athletes. On the rare occasion he dips out of the office, Josh loves training, rooting for his home team Chicago Bears, hanging out with his friends, and spending time with his family.
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About TrainHeroic: The performance training platform that helps coaches and athletes win in the gym.
Charles Kwon
Co-Founder & CEO of OmniSparx
Charles Kwon has over 30 years of experience in transforming companies by leveraging disruptive technologies. He has built and sold multiple startups and helped companies such as Microsoft, Dell, HP, and Dropbox.
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About OmniSparx: OmniSparx is a premier collaboration platform for crypto organizations to create and share value within their communities.
Andrew Rowland
Founder, CEO of Classkick
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About Classkick: Classkick pffers a real-time personalized feedback and help platform for teachers and students.
Jamail Carter
Co-Founder of Varuna
Jamail Carter is the co-founder of Varuna.
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About Varuna: Varuna provides alerts, recommendations, and predictions to help water utility leaders to effectively manage a water system.
Brian David Crane
Founder of CallerSmart
Brian David Crane is the founder of CallerSmart, the best app for investigating mystery phone numbers, and avoiding unwanted calls and texts. To solve the iPhone’s caller ID problem, CallerSmart uses game mechanics that make it fun for users to help keep our 600 million U.S. phone book listings accurate and up-to-date for everyone (including celebrities).
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About CallerSmart: CallerSmart helps you investigate mystery phone numbers, and avoid unwanted calls and texts.
Jeffrey Eschbach
Founder & CEO of Page Vault
JEFFREY ESCHBACH is an entrepreneur and tech innovator, with over 20 years of experience creating new products and businesses. He is the founder and CEO of Page Vault Inc., a company that transforms Internet content into evidence for the legal world. Before that, Jeffrey built a career leading R&D initiatives at Intel Japan and Motorola Research Labs. After moving to Chicago a decade ago, he became immersed in its growing startup scene, and now advises and invests in early-stage companies there. He received an MBA with honors from The Kellogg School of Management, regularly teaches as a professor at the school, and serves as the Director of Program Outreach for the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. He also holds undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. Jeffrey is a National Science Foundation Fellow, has earned 11 USPTO patents related to cloud-computing, and frequently speaks on startup and corporate innovation topics.
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About Chicago Early Growth Ventures (CEGV), Kellogg School of Management, Page Vault: Page Vault enables legal professionals to easily capture web content for use as evidence in the U.S. courts.
Todd Price
CTO & Co-Founder of Page Vault
Todd is highly successful at using technology to bring value to businesses of every size. His unique combination of business sense, passion for technology, and effective communication make him an invaluable team leader and business catalyst. He sees your needs, discerns a course of action, and gets it done. As an Analyst/Architect/Developer, Todd has guided many leadership teams through technology projects large and small, from requirements to design to assembly, testing, deployment, training, maintenance and next iteration. He loves to create technology solutions that address not only your current problems and opportunities, but well beyond into the future by designing with the perspective of the client and the assumption of change in mind. As an Entrepreneur, he has networked, strategized, and built from the ground up in an environment where cost is of utmost importance yet value needs to be created now.As a Developer, Todd is a “coding black belt” whose expertise is often sought and relied upon to do the heavy lifting.As an IT Leader, Todd has overseen data center construction, desktop deployment, budgets, acquisitions, business partnerships, office closures, team building, RFPs, and many other executive level activities.
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About Devingly, Page Vault: Page Vault enables legal professionals to easily capture web content for use as evidence in the U.S. courts.
Stephen Nazaran
Head of Operations, Co-Founder & CFO of Page Vault
Steve coordinates Page Vault’s finances, operations, and marketing. Steve Nazaran is co-founder and CFO of Page Vault. Steve oversees product management, daily operations, marketing, and finance for the growing company. He has an extensive background in operations in small organizations and loves the challenge of wearing many hats in an expanding company. Steve is a National Science Fellow, holds an advanced degree from the University of Notre Dame and is currently an MBA candidate at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
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About Page Vault, Page Vault: Page Vault enables legal professionals to easily capture web content for use as evidence in the U.S. courts.
Cenk Yurtbilir
Co-Founder of Qooper
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About Qooper: Qooper provides Mentoring & Learning Software solutions to companies, universities and associations.
Robert Yoskowitz
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nullafi
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About Nullafi: Nullafi Shield is a zero-code add-on to any endpoint that gives admins one-click control over what data that endpoint receives
Stephen Yoskowitz
Co-Founder and COO of Nullafi
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About Nullafi: Nullafi Shield is a zero-code add-on to any endpoint that gives admins one-click control over what data that endpoint receives
Jordan Berry
Founder of Interloop
Founder of Interloop.
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About Interloop: Put Your Data To Work
S. Jay Olshansky
Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Lapetus Solutions
Jay leads the biodemography team as well as contributes to the development of all applications associated with estimates of duration and quality of life. Formally trained as a demographer with additional background in the biological sciences, he has served as an advisor to numerous companies and countries on their mortality forecasting methods and assumptions. He co-created the field of biodemography, which is a merging of the biological/demographic/actuarial sciences for the purpose of explaining why people live as long as they do. In addition to his leadership responsibilities at LSI, Jay is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago.
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About Lapetus Solutions, University of Illinois at Chicago: Lapetus Solutions creates science and technology-based solutions for lifecycle event companies.
Steve Hole
Founder of 1118
Steve is a dynamic, results driven leader with more than 20 years of professional experience in both startups and leading global brands including the National Basketball Association, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, Accenture, and Pfizer where he partnered with executive leadership teams to lead transformational business planning and strategy. Steve has also started or held executive management positions for multiple start-up companies in the high-tech industry. Several of these start-ups were acquired based on their intellectual property and market success.
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About 1118: 1118 is a leading Web & Mobile App Design & Development company.
John Viebach
Founder of Zipgrade
John Viebach is a Founder of Zipgrade. John’s wife was teaching an SAT prep class in the evenings in a borrowed classroom. Without access to an OMR machine, she was grading bubble-in answer sheets by hand at the end of every class. A few years previous, John had been experimenting with computer vision grading as part of his volunteer work with a state high school mathlete contest. With smartphone capabilities improving and a very obvious need, John set to work to create a cost effective grading app for the iPhone. Since then, John has talked with hundreds of teachers and expanded ZipGrade with features requested by classroom teachers around the world.
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About Zipgrade: ZipGrade LLC is a single-founder, bootstrapped company founded by John Viebach
Jay Sebben
Founder & CEO of L Street Collaborative
Jay Sebben is the Founder & CEO at L Street Collaborative, LLC.
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About Crowdfind, Fultonbridge Partners, L Street Collaborative, Quicksilver Studios, Stetco Group: L Street Collaborative is a venture development company focused on developing enterprise software platforms.
Nick Stojka
Co-Founder of Sertifi
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About Sertifi: Sertifi provides a frictionless business tool that enables organizations to collect payments and signed contract quickly and easily.
Linda Darragh
Co-Founder of Impact Engine
Linda Darragh recently joined the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University as the executive director of the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice and the Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital. In this role, she is Kellogg’s senior administrator overseeing and integrating the school’s curricular, co-curricular, and alumni outreach activities in entrepreneurship, social enterprise, venture capital and private equity. Linda is a cornerstone of the Chicago entrepreneurship community and recognized globally as a leader in entrepreneurship education. Prior to Kellogg, she served as the director of Entrepreneurship Programs at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she was instrumental in furthering entrepreneurship. Linda received her Master’s degree from the University of Toronto and her Bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University.
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About Impact Engine, Northwestern University: Impact Engine is a venture capital and private equity firm that invests financial and human capital in early-stage companies.
