CEO and Co-Founder of Paro. Michael Burdick joined the workforce like many a bright-eyed bushy tail millennial looking to build his career and develop his passions. Instead, he found himself locked into a job that made him feel like another cog in the machine – undervalued, lack of growth opportunity and underutilizing his skill set.…
Digital video has exploded during the pandemic, to the point we may be at an inflection point for the medium — except for Quibi. You probably missed it unless you’re one of those Extremely Online types who spends most of their time on Twitter, but the term “pivot to video” was a meme in the…
John Higginson became Groupon’s new CTO in December 2019. A Chicago native, John previously served as CTO for software firm Applied Systems, floral industry experts FTD, vehicle fleet-leasing company Wheels Inc. and most recently FinTech company Enova International. John started out as a typical computer whiz, but realized he wanted more say over the…
Small businesses that don’t have a CFO but still handle significant amounts of money often struggle to manage and forecast their finances effectively. Large certified public accountant (CPA) firms are increasingly looking to expand their services to include financial forecasting and modeling in order to stay ahead of their competition. Clockwork’s accounting software uses…
Expanding into new markets brings opportunities and risks. For consumers, Uber is known for changing the simple act of getting a taxi and ordering food. For the past two years, the company has been moving into the B-to-B market with Uber Freight. “We’ve built an app for independent owner-operators and small fleets, where they can…
Moving to the cloud can be intimidating for people accustomed to storing all their data on hardware. Enter Mitch Greenwald and his company Cloudbakers, which helps small to medium-sized businesses translate the vision of cloud-based storage into reality. As a Google Premier Partner for more than eight years, Cloudbakers has worked with financial services, technology,…
You’ve decided to run a race. Maybe it’s a 10K or maybe you’re one of those nuts who has signed up for the Chicago Marathon. Either way, congratulations! Now, how are you going to train and stay motivated? Tech helps us in so many areas of our lives — from watching movies to ordering takeout…
When Vijen Patel and his co-founder Drew McKenna started Pressbox, a locker-based laundromat and dry cleaner, he had no idea what he got himself into. Two years after founding the company out of a 600 sq ft office, they had so many pick-ups that they couldn’t walk from the front door to their inventory stations.…
Aside from founders telling you that their company is their baby, families don’t often figure into the mythology of the tech startup. One simple reason is that many of the people who are focusing on family life are not in the office: they’re at home with said family. And while some of them are happy…
When Jay Klauminzer was 14 years old, he got his first job selling magazines over the phone. He says his main takeaway from those early days is that to be successful, you have to be a good listener. “A lot of sales is about listening to what the consumer needs and crafting a story…