Want your brand to blow up on Instagram, but don’t have enough followers to make a splash with a post? Can’t find the time to reach out to every influencer to spread your message? Corbett Drummey, co-founder of Popular Pays, will bring these influencers to you. Founded in 2013, the Chicago-based Popular Pays seeks to […]

Binit Tejani wants you to know that he makes a “mean veggie biryani.” That comes as a bit of a surprise from the senior data strategist at Quantmetry, a company where you expect the staff to be crunching numbers day and night. A “simple but powerful ethos” drives Quantmetry. It takes the mountains of information that […]

Meet ParqEx Founder, Vivek Mehra Don’t have time to scour the city for some decent parking? Vivek Mehra, founder and CEO of ParqEx, wants to bring parking straight to your smartphone, and allow you to find the right spot in the right neighborhood for the right price. ParqEx is based in Chicago, and the woes […]

Bryan Davis never would’ve predicted he’d be selling shirts for a living. After moving from the Midwest to New York for college, Davis worked as a managing partner in the nightclub and restaurant scene, but decided that he wasn’t fond of the lifestyle or the hours. During a trip to Thailand in 2007, he observed […]

Many entrepreneurs dream of their moment in the spotlight, but for 23-year-old Sharon Winter, that dream became a reality when she was tapped to star in Startup U. “When I got there, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Winter says about her stint on the ABC Family reality series, which premieres August 11. “I […]

You don’t have to clear your schedule to polish up your computer skills. There are little moments throughout the day— your lunch hour, the commute home, a coffee break—to take in a coding lesson or two. Find a comfortable spot and fire up Lrn, a mobile app that teaches the basics of coding through interactive […]

When a massive earthquake rocked Haiti in 2010, Andrea Sreshta and Anna Stork decided to do something about it. The pair, friends since meeting in graduate school for architecture, created an emergency lighting source called LuminAID. According to Sreshta, the partnership was an obvious one. “We had worked on a lot of team projects together,” […]

While tossing around ideas when they worked together at Johnson & Johnson, Matt Hornbuckle and Kirk Keel would often complain about how their dress shirts hardly ever fit right. Hornbuckle recalls that for him the breaking point came while he was on a date. “She jokingly called out the shirt I was wearing for being […]

It’s been five months since your last haircut, and everyone in the office can tell, but you don’t want to go through the hassle of ringing up the only place you know on the other side of the city to check for appointment openings. Giorgia Rossi knows your struggle. When working at McKinsey and Co., […]

Everybody can relate to the hassle of making reservations at an upscale restaurant: the place is booked solid, you have an endless wait for your table, or you show up and your name isn’t on the list. Joshua Stern, founder of I Know the Chef, wants to solve the problem with a little technology. Founded […]

On a bright Sunday afternoon, four 20-somethings carrying a stepladder and some tools walk onto the basketball court at Corporal John A. Seravalli Playground. Ryan Kulp looks at the hoops, rusted, and bare. The kids playing ball look up to him, a little puzzled. Kulp isn’t employed by the city’s park department. It may come […]