As usual, we had a fantastic showing at TECH cocktail Chicago last Thursday, May 13th – it’s hard to believe it’s already come and gone! Hundreds of people filled the top floor of John Barleycorn mingling and checking out our 13 local technology companies and our supporting sponsors. The following startups were on hand demoing their…
Read MoreFamily dinners, weekend visits with relatives and regular family gatherings and holidays have traditionally been how families have stayed connected, sharing stories and updates about life. But as more and more of us have large distances between us, the occasional holiday visit is forced into a manic and stressful catch-up time. But what if you…
Read MoreWith the rise of services like Groupon and LivingSocial and other similar sites offering consumers daily deals to save money on restaurants, spas, sporting events and on other products, services and experiences, we expected to eventually see someone come along and try to help organize all the various deals into one concise offering. This is…
Read MoreThe Internet has changed the way most people think about getting a job and in many ways has made it more competitive. And with all the tools available, people often string together a variety of pieces to send to hiring employers. They may send a traditional resume attached as a .doc along with the URL…
Read MoreRiver is a business communication web application to help internal employees know what is going on with projects across a company. River also helps people manage their tasks so that users will always be up-to-date with their current to-do list. Their goal? To keep people informed about what is happening within each project and what…
Read MoreOh, how we love our virtual worlds. But the simple browser-based virtual world graphics have never caught up with gaming consoles or even the 3D worlds that require some type of download and installation, like Second Life. Cloudmach wants to change all that. By rendering 3D graphics on a server and transferring them into the…
Read MoreAs more and more companies start to use social media to build their brands and reach their customers, the need to gather information on how effective their efforts are and understand general brand sentiment begins to grow. This can generate huge amounts of data and it can be difficult to zero in on what is…
Read MoreAs a kid growing up, I used to love reading with my parents. Whether it was children’s books, history books, or computer manuals; it was something I enjoyed doing with my parents, especially my Dad. But some kids may not have a parent or grandparent around to read with them. Situations like parents being in…
Read MoreOften the process for musicians to find gigs can be costly and time consuming. They have to create DVDs and press kits which, for smaller bands, can be very expensive. G2.fm thinks it may have a solution to this problem. G2′s idea is to create an online band profile that incorporates all the components of…
Read MoreMany of you probably remember the movie Pay It Forward, where the premise was to do something good for somebody and that good deed will come back around to you in some fashion. It is a mantra some firmly live by. Over the last several years we have seen the rise in micro-finance sites, like…
Read MoreIn their lofty, bright office space in the West Loop of Chicago, I recently got a chance to visit Sandbox Industries, a Chicago-based venture firm since 2003 investing in businesses a number of different ways in the Midwest. While attending a community building “lunch with a friend” meetup, I got to meet members of the…
Read MoreZINECUBE is about doing it yourself – on every level. About two years ago, inspired by a friends’ Grandfather who wanted to sell his bronze statues, Cory Hohs and Jigar Patel started “messing around” with creating a website for artists to display their work. The idea for ZINECUBE as a user-generated content site allowing users to display…
Read MoreSpending a night out on the town with a large group of friends is always a great time, whether you’re bar hopping or trying out a new restaurant. It’s always fun, until the check comes. Then there’s the issue of splitting up the tab which can be messy. Some members of your party may only…
Read MoreGift cards and wedding registries make up multi-billion dollar industries and restaurants gift cards and certificates make up a very large segment of all gift card purchases. In a city like Chicago where upscale restaurants flourish and competition is fierce, gifting dinners is a huge opportunity – one that Foodie Registry is jumping on. Foodie…
Read MoreA few years ago my mother was really into genealogy – she spent a good amount of time researching her family back to France, but at a certain point, it just became too difficult from afar. What she needed was a service like Genlighten where she may have found a local researcher in that small…
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There are a number of startup accelerator and incubator programs in the United States. We are fans of these programs (not to be confused with... Read More
Two months after the iPad 2 debuted in March, around 40% of users surveyed said their iPad was their primary computer, up from around 30%... Read More
With our Startup Mixology Conference coming up next week followed by our classic Tech Cocktail DC Summer mixer which will showcase a handful of early-stage... Read More
Coming off of one of our biggest Tech Cocktail mixer events in Chicago this past week, which showcased 14 early-stage start-ups, we thought it would... Read More