#Something Greater

I'm excited to see the emergence of new technically focused groups in Chicago's startup ecosystem. One thing SF has over Chicago is an organized technical community. We need more hackathons, more resources for great engineers, and more of an engineering community to make progress here. In the early days of a startup the only two skills that matter are building and selling. If you aren't spending time building your product then you're not going to go very far. Chicago needs a stronger engineering community and we have several groups working to make that happen.

We had an incredible conversation with Eric Rubin from Red Swan Ventures during our recent Bionic Colabs community chat: "Founders & Funders: Decoding the VC Playbook." Danny Goodman from P33 Chicago led the chat as we dived deep into the widening gap between founders and investors, touching on critical insights for building conviction, understanding venture economics, and forging lasting founder-investor partnerships. Some key takeaways: 💰 Raising capital has become more of a status symbol, but what founders really need are fast decisions, clarity, and access. 🔢 As VCs become more financially focused, founders need to do their own research to ensure alignment. 🤓 Founders should be proactive about understanding the venture process—especially the fund’s dynamics and the power law that governs VC returns. If you missed the chat, check out the summary and recording - link in comments. Let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments! #startup #venturecapital #founders #investors #entrepreneurship

Just returned from my travels and found the Tippie Fall 2024 Magazine in my mailbox. Surprised to see my face inside, honored for my professional work. Reaction: "What the hawk..." Thanks for the recognition, The University of Iowa Tippie College of Business! The cover feels fitting for Volta too. #gohawks

Here’s a not-so-fun fact: 73% of self-employed people overpay their taxes. The sad truth is, school doesn’t teach you about taxes or finances. There are few ways to prepare for becoming an entrepreneur besides doing it, failing a little, and learning. Here are some tax mistakes I made starting as a freelancer and how you can do it better. I'd love to hear any tax or finance stories you have (wins or mistakes), comment below ⬇ #freelance #realtor #tax

NYC - What are you up to this weekend? Come say hello and stop by our booth at the Windup Watch Fair on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! We'll be there alongside lots of great watch brands. And best part, it's FREE! https://lnkd.in/g-vP6zSS #NYC #weekendplans #WindupWatchFair

#BTWBusinessSolz is a well crafted software design and development company with a wide range of services in building mobile apps and website. We are specialised in #uiuxdesign to deliver an eye catching prototype before live development. This ensures the client to visualise a perfect delivery of the product prior to the development. One of our prototype for the Dineo Dating app is over here to give you a better understanding on our work. #figma #html #android #ios #flutter #react #reactnative #reactjs #ui #ux #mobileappdevelopment #webappdevelopment #ondemandservices BTW Business Solz, Info@btwbs.com +91 73059 78533 India.

BTW Business Solz offers a wide range of Design and Development services . We are specialised in building UI/UX prototype before development, this is to ensure that client is very happy on what they are going to receive as an output after the requirement analysis is done. We are open to work/assit with any development company & direct client. Our primary focus is to understand the requirement and provide a visual solution to our clients. #design #figma #ui #ux #mobileappdevelopment #webappdevelopment #website #webapp #prototype BTW Business Solutions , info@btwbs.com +91 73059 78533 India.

A brand in my network is looking for a US energy bar manufacturer that can work with functional ingredients like GABA, ashwagandha, chasteberry extract, etc. Anyone come to mind?

Did I ever tell you what I did this summer? > Won the Best Vocal Percussion award at A3 Nationals in Chicago, while my team Illini Awaaz ranked 2nd in the nation. 🎙️ > Got my startup into iVenture Accelerator and registered the business with the state under 1ClickCampaign LLC 🤯 > Met with investors, serial entrepreneurs, and thinkers at iV9 demo day and mHUB . Met with Scott Samuel and became a part of #somethinggreater 🛜 > Attended Polsky Center at the University of Chicago NVC finals and met the winner, Lance Hackney from FreshX, holding a million-dollar check. 💳 > Got some epic guidance from Krishna Ramaswamy and wished ClimeCast luck on their next phase in SF 👋 > Pitched DataPull (Notice the name change?) at Tim Chow's place - Brewlab and learned about his life and journey (wise man) ☕ > Bantered with Ryan Coon: learned about his exit with Avail, by Realtor.com and took his advice ("Be a roach - don't back down") 🪳 > Connected with the legend, Dean W. Brooke Elliott—huge congrats to her on becoming Dean of the Gies College of Business! 🎉 > Learned pricing strategies and product packaging from Thomas Parkinson, (we basically overhauled our business model after that one) 🫡 > Shared thoughts on entrepreneurial life with Darnell Leatherwood. I need to to learn gravitas from that man 🤩 > Partnered with firms at The Garage at Northwestern University— beautiful campus 🏖️ > Got some killer advice from DeepWalk founder Brandon Yates about early-stage mistakes (Admitted that most problems did not have solid solution) 🗒️ > Tina Hrabak (LongJump) and Cara Bognar dropped some serious knowledge about the VC world (who knew VCs have to raise money too?). 💡 > Popped into Tech Pulse at 1871 Chicago, heard amazing insights on AI from Xiaochen Z. and Armando Pauker. (SLMs = future, right?) 🤔 > Visited Ascent Integrated Tech with Paul Couston and got real about entrepreneurship and the journey. 🎻 > My favorite? A talk from Erik Severinghaus on the founder journey. This guy went from a 7 to 8 figure exit straight out of college to running businesses and working for Bloomfilter. His book Scale Your Everest is a must-read for founders. 🫢 > Networked at University of Illinois’ office in the Amita building, met legends like Eddy Mejia (had a shoebox business in iV??), Jonathan Politzki, Alex Kosyakov, and other U of I founders. All great people with killer stories. 🌐 >Much Shelist, P.C. hosted us, talked data privacy laws for DataPull and planned our go-to-market strategy for B2B clients. Feels like the big leagues now. ⬅️ > And for the grand finale: got invited to Ravin Gandhi’s beautiful home and met some of his high powered business friends, including Guy Lakonishok. They schooled us on what it really takes to be a founder. 🏢 Message of gratitude to Manu Edakara, Mayank Mehta, Elias Kourpas, and everyone else who took me and DataPull through this amazing journey Quite the ride

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