One of the best ways to measure a startup ecosystem and where it is headed is by looking at its youngest entrepreneurs and technologists.
From classrooms at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, to the city's accelerator programs for budding entrepreneurs, there is evidence in all corners of Chicago that show it's not just tech veterans pushing the city's innovative spirit forward.
To highlight some of Chicago's young tech leaders, Chicago Inno has compiled a list of 25 promising and notable young entrepreneurs and technologists in the city's tech and startup scene. They range from current students, to recent graduates and to even those who've dropped out of college to pursue their tech dreams.
Those on the list were chosen based on nominations and Inno's editorial selection process. Check them out below.
Jeb Brault, 24 Account Executive, Jellyvision
Brault, a native of Chicago suburb Wilmette, originally started at Jellyvision in 2016 as an inside sales intern right after graduating from Saint Louis University. Jellyvision, founded in 2001, makes an employee communication platform to make complex tasks, like signing up for healthcare coverage and financial wellness programs, easier.
After his internship, Brault was hired full-time, and according to Jellyvision, he's one of their most valuable employees. In 2016, Brault sourced seven deals, making more than $100,000 in new revenue for Jellyvision. And in 2017, he sourced nine deals, including the State of Rhode Island and his alma mater, SLU, generating over $518,000 in new revenue for the tech company.
Aabesh De, 24 Sales Engineer, Reverb
In his position at Reverb, an online marketplace to buy and sell new, used and vintage music gear, De helps the startup's sellers add crucial e-commerce integrations to their shops to increase their sales.
During his time at Reverb, the number of integrations deployed has increased by 150 percent, according to the company. Additionally, De has spearheaded a vision-based artificial intelligence project with Microsoft that enables Reverb's tech to automatically identify guitars in photos by model, type and finish.
Tim Gamble, 21 Lead Data Engineer, Enodo
Gamble was Enodo's first employee outside of its founders. For the last two years, Gamble has worked at Enodo part-time and maintained a 4.0 GPA at DePaul University. Right after graduating this past spring, he was hired full-time as lead data engineer, a role in which he develops and maintains Enodo’s proprietary data pipeline and property database.
"Tim’s early efforts secured the data upon which our algorithms were initially developed, and he has vigorously improved and automated the majority of the data collection processes," said Enodo Spokesperson Sabrina Wottreng. "We wouldn’t be Enodo without him."
Jessica Gartenstein, 23 Co-Founder, Frönen
In 2017, Gartenstein helped launch Frönen, a non-dairy, banana-based frozen dessert, comprised of only bananas, honey and lemon, while she was still an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. Shortly after launching, Frönen won first place and $20,000 at UChicago's annual venture challenge, and it can be found in Foxtrot, Treasure Island and Galleria Market.
Carson Goodale, 24 Co-Founder and CEO, FanFood
In 2016, Goodale founded FanFood, the maker of a mobile concession ordering platform that allows users to order food and drink directly to their seats at events. FanFood was one of nine startups in Chicago's first Veterans in Residence, a six-month program organized by WeWork and Bunker Labs that gives free co-working space to veteran entrepreneurs. Goodale, who served in the National Guard, also participated in 1871's youth accelerator, Future Founders. FanFood is available at high schools, collegiate stadiums, concert venues, state fairs and theaters.
Spencer Gordon-Sand, 20 Founder & CEO, Besst
Founded by Gordon-Sand over the summer, Besst is a platform where users can make bets, wagering their friends' support instead of money. The app itself is a social platform, where users' newsfeeds are populated by the outcomes of their friends' bets. Users can engage with their friends' wins and losses, or pick sides and support them in ongoing bets.
The startup has $20,000 in funding that Gordon-Sand has raised from friends and family, and he's opening the next funding round on Sept. 30 when Besst debuts its beta product at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston. More than 1,000 people have signed up to use Besst's beta product, Gordon-Sand says.
Mary Hadley, 21 Curriculum Director, MakerGirl
MakerGirl, a nonprofit startup out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that hosts 3D printing and STEM classes for girls ages 7 to 10, has been expanding this fall. And Hadley has had much to do with it. Hadley designs the program's curriculum and has helped it expand from just offering 3D printing courses to also offering coding and robotics classes.
“Young girls need to have a safe space when they’re learning about STEM, so they are not afraid to fail,” Hadley told Chicago Inno in August.
Nick Hamburger, 20 Founder & Co-CEO, Quevos
Quevos, which Hamburger founded in January 2018, makes a high-protein snack chip whose primary ingredient is egg whites, packing the "nutrition of an omelette into a bag of chips." The startup won the College New Venture Challenge at the University of Chicago in March, taking home $15,000.
Quevos is also one of five startups in Kraft Heinz's Springboard, a program that looks to help food entrepreneurs turn their young businesses into thriving CPG brands. In the incubator program, Kraft Heinz provides each startup with $50,000, business training, workspace, access to mentors and other resources.
Rohit Kalyanpur, 21 Founder & CEO, Optivolt Labs
Kalyanpur founded Optivolt in 2014, but recently dropped out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's electrical and computer engineering program to pursue it full time. His startup is developing an optimized solar integration platform for machines and devices that use lithium ion/polymer batteries. Their first product is a solar-powered integration platform for industrial drones, which can significantly increase range and flight time by harnessing solar energy.
Optivolt Labs is also currently in Techstars' Chicago accelerator program, which provided the startup with $120,000 in seed funding. The startup employs a team of four and Kalyanpur said they will be opening a round of financing after Techstars Demo Day on Oct. 4.
Abhinaya Konduru, 23 Investment Analyst, M25
A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she studied finance and mathematical computer science, Konduru landed at Chicago-based venture capital firm M25. The VC firm, founded in 2015, primarily invests in early-stage startups in the Midwest. In her role, Konduru works on managing investments in the firm's portfolio companies, as well as working to find new companies the firm may be interested in investing in. M25's portfolio companies include Chicago startups Kin Insurance, Ballot Ready and DataCubes.
Ryan Kuang, 21, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer Alex Swerdlow, 21, Co-Founder & CEO Gather Activism
Founded in 2017 by Kuang and Swerdlow while they were both juniors at the University of Chicago, Gather Activism operates as a centralized online platform for political engagement. It provides users with tools to organize every aspect of their civic engagement work, including group communications, and coordinating rallies or demonstrations.
Adam Lavitola, 23 Founder, Clubhouse Athletic
Clubhouse Athletic is a website for companies, groups and teams to order custom sports apparel. Lavitola began working on the idea for his startup in college at Illinois Wesleyan University and then decided to pursue it full-time after graduation because of how popular it was.
"I always had a passion for bringing design ideas to life, and this led me to work with peers on campus to design and create custom apparel for their organizations," Lavitola said. "Through the magic of social media and my website, I was getting hits from all over the country from various markets. This was enough to prove to me that there was a need, or at the very least an interest, for what I was doing."
In its first seven months of operation, Lavitola says Clubhouse Athletic received more than 1,000 orders, generating $111,000. Its clients include Manila Killa and Barstool Sports.
Ashley Moy, 24 Founder & CEO, Cast21
In 2016, Moy founded Cast21, which has created waterproof, breathable casts, braces, and splints. Unlike traditional casts, the Cast21 has an open lattice design (inspired by a Chinese finger trap) that allows the wearer to wash and scratch the skin below the molding.
Moy is an alumna of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she participated in the college's iVenture Accelerator. Since then, the startup has raised $800,000 in seed funding.
Zachary Novicoff, 20 Director of Strategic Operations, FanHome
FanHome, a local startup out of Northwestern University, has created a platform for e-sports fans to find and purchase tickets to e-sports events in their area. Launched just in June, FanHome has hosted four events in Chicago, each one growing in size, with the latest one attracting about 50 fans.
In his role, Novicoff works to find new ways to integrate e-sports into venues to help the company succeed and attract the eyes of investors. In August, FanHome won first place and $4,000 in Northwestern University’s Wildfire Demo Day competition.
"FanHome would not be where it is today without Zach," said FanHome Founder and CEO Lucas Pasch. "He played a critical role in the business' development all summer, and he was our presenter at Wildfire Demo Day, where we took home first place."
Lucas Philips, 21 Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, BrewBike
Philips originally launched BrewBike in fall 2015 when he started riding his coffee stand and bike hybrid around campus, hauling around kegs of cold brew and selling them. He’d park it in high-traffic areas, catching students and faculty as they made their way to class. But through guidance from Northwestern’s innovation center, The Garage, and financial support from $10,000 raised in an Indiegogo campaign, Philips and his co-founders have been able to build a viable business, catching the eyes of investors. Earlier this year, BrewBike was awarded $20,000 at Northwestern’s VentureCat, and $45,000 at UChicago’s New Venture Challenge, part of which was from the Pritzker Group.
Piyush Puri, 22 Engineer, Uptake
A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Puri started at Uptake nine months ago as an intern and is now a full-time employee on the tech company's software engineering team. Uptake, which has become one of Chicago's most notable tech companies, uses predictive analytics to help companies know when their machines are likely to break down. It was founded by Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell in 2014, has raised $258 million in VC funding and is valued at more than $2 billion.
Nick Rodriguez, 20 Software Engineer, Catalytic
A graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and Fullstack Academy of Code, Rodriguez is a full-time engineer at Catalytic. The Chicago startup uses artificial intelligence to help companies automate business processes, like generating financial documents and analyzing customer emails to determine if they are happy or not.
Back in July, Catalytic raised $5.6 million in venture capital funding, bringing its total funding to more than $16 million, according to Crunchbase.
Kristen Sanders, 21 Founder and CEO, People6
Sanders, an undergraduate student at Northwestern University, founded People6 earlier this year. The startup is a digital marketing agency that matches college students with contract work at real businesses. In the Northwestern's Wildfire Demo Day competition in August, People6 won third place and $2,000.
Abbie Sheppard, 22 Head of Cameo UK, Cameo
Cameo, a Chicago startup that lets you request and pay for video shout-out messages from celebrities, originally hired Sheppard in 2017 as an intern. Throughout the next year, she was promoted four times, eventually being named head of talent relations. Now, she's recently been promoted again to oversee the startup's international expansion in London.
Evelyn Ting, 22 Software Engineer, Civis Analytics
Founded in 2013, Civis Analytics makes a cloud-based software and provides consulting services to help companies improve their data science efforts. The startup has raised $22 million in venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase.
Ting joined Civis Analytics in 2017 and according to the startup, played an important role in bridging the gap between engineering and data science in the development of a new product.
Akshat Thirani, 23 Co-Founder & CEO, Amper Technologies
Founded by Thirani in 2016, Amper helps manufacturers improve the performance of their operations by tracking machine operations in real-time and giving insight on areas of improvement. Using Amper's IoT system and modern dashboard, any kind of machine can be monitored, and deployment only takes a few minutes. To date, the startup has raised $1.8 million from investors like Slow Ventures, 1517 Fund and SOSV.
Sam Walder, 23 CEO, Trala
Walder, a University of Illinois graduate, launched Trala in 2017. The startup, which is Julliard-approved, teaches users how to play the violin through tutorials, daily lessons and instant feedback on mistakes. Walder, who launched Trala with his co-founder Vishnu Indukuri, says it can teach beginners to play songs like “Amazing Grace” in only 30 days.
Last year, Trala took home $15,000 after beating out other startups at U of I's 17th annual Cozad New Venture Competition. And now, it is one of 10 startups in Techstars Chicago, the annual accelerator that provides mentoring and resources to early-stage startups.
Ben Weiss, 23 Co-Founder & CEO, Zcruit
Weiss co-founded Zcruit in 2016 with other Northwestern University undergraduate students and it has become the first student startup from the institution's innovation center, The Garage, to get acquired. The startup made a software that uses predictive analytics to assess how likely a football recruit is to commit to a university.
While developing the company, Weiss participated in Future Founders, a youth startup accelerator based out of 1871. And late last year, it caught the eye of Reigning Champs, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based company that provides resources to student athletes, parents, coaches and colleges, which acquired them for an undisclosed amount. As part of the deal, Weiss was the only Zcruit employee to stay with the company and now works out of NCSA’s offices in Old Town.
Isabelle Woodrow, 24 Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, LivingPath
After graduating from Stanford University, Woodrow came to Chicago to launch LivingPath, an online platform helping people discover senior living communities. Fifty million Americans will need long-term care over the next two decades, and LivingPath work to connect them with high-quality providers. The startup was also one of 13 in 1871's fifth WiSTEM accelerator class last summer.
Think we missed someone on this list? Or just want to connect with the Chicago Inno team on future editorial projects? Email ChicagoInfo@AmericanInno.com.
