Barney Harford Now Orbitz CEO – Welcome to Chicago

For the past few years, I thought that there might be a new entrant to Chicago’s Internet scene. It was exciting to me because Chicago could certainly use some geographic diversity in it’s leadership. For a long time, it looked like that person would be Mark Cuban, but it now appears that he will not [...]

Chicago Cubs Pitcher Carlos Zambrano Throws Cubs First No Hitter Since 1972!!!

Wow!!! Go Cubs!!! Magic number is now 7!!!

TECH cocktail CONFERENCE Chicago – Creating Change For The Future

Wow! That was tiring, I stepped on the L at 7:30AM and didn’t get home until 1:30AM the next morning! 18 hours of pure madness! Most people noticed the great speeches by Gary Vee from Wine Library TV and Dick Costolo (aka ask the wizard) and others. But what I really appreciated was the other [...]

TC08 Chicago – Ask The Wizard Live – Dick Costolo Talks Entrepreneurship

Dick Costolo gave a really raw, heartfelt talk about Feedburner, venture capital fund raising and venture capital. I won’t dwell on it here, but even though I’ve never worked directly on anything with Dick, we’ve had an amazing exchange of ideas and conversation over the years. Someday I hope I can take that relationship to [...]

TC08 Chicago – Designing With Users In Mind

The following is a brief summary of the session that Former Feedburner folks Matt Shobe and John Zeratsky (I need to spend some time with that guy sometime) put on at TECH cocktail Conference 08.
Without further delay, here’s their tips on designing with users in mind!
Be Yourself – informal, fun
Be Fast – the perceived time when [...]

TC08 Chicago – Looking at Technology For Your Business In New Ways

TECH cocktail CONFERENCE 08 in Chicago got started with Mike Domek, after which the guys from Threadless gave a simple and fun session with some practical insight…
Problems
Scaling…printers, vendors, etc
Inventory is hard….
The Internet is Serious Business
Dealing with problems that we are not prepared to deal with… (can be an advantage too)
Advantages
Our Users – Do they care? Do [...]

Best of Show: Chicago Global Food and Style Expo 2008

This year the Global Food and Style Expo did not have the FMI show co-located along with the All Things Organic, Fancy Food Show and the U.S. Food Export Showcase so it was a slightly smaller show with less foot traffic. But it was filled with innovative products and amazing entrepreneurial stories! it’s a shame [...]

Tom Churchwell Venture Capital Speech at University of Chicago GSB

The following are high level notes of Tom Churchwell’s speech discussing venture capital at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (Chicago GSB). This talk took place in Chicago on January 22, 2008. I’m posting it today in celebration of this week’s Midwest Venture Summit.
Typical Fund Structure
- Management Fee 2.5% of committed capital
- Carried [...]

keep looking »