freshwater venture tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-379440 2009-03-06T12:16:06-06:00 mapping inland entrepreneurial activity TypePad typepad/antonow/csthttp://feedburner.google.com ReTel Technologies + George Aspland + Scott Roberts + Adam Rodnitzky tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62574731 2009-03-06T12:16:06-06:00 2009-03-06T12:16:07-06:00 ReTel Technologies has created a system that allows retailers, consumer packaged goods companies and quick service restaurants to tap into their own surveillance cameras to deliver large scale analysis of consumer behavior and operational factors in retail and restaurant locations.... m_evans

ReTelTechnolC24b-A02cT04a-Z_revised_mdmReTel Technologies has created a system that allows retailers, consumer packaged goods companies and quick service restaurants to tap into their own surveillance cameras to deliver large scale analysis of consumer behavior and operational factors in retail and restaurant locations.

Founders of Re Tel George Aspland, Adam Rodnitzky and Scott Roberts competed in the University of Chicago New Venture Challenge in 2007-2008.  Adam previously co-founded tixnix.com


Dimensions: <10 people x 2008 x $NDA
Funding: Grants from the Illinois Technology Association and the Midwest Venture Summit
Customers: Retailers, CPG companies and quick-service restaurants
Location: Chicago + reteltechnologies.com

Posted by Mike Evans. See an interview with Adam

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2009/03/retel-technologies-george-aspland-scott-roberts-adam-rodnitzky.html Everyblock.com + Adrian Holovaty + Wilson Miner + Dan O’Neil + Paul Smith tag:typepad.com,2003:post-62575007 2009-02-12T13:45:32-06:00 2009-02-12T13:45:32-06:00 Everyblock.com is an evolution of the concept of chicagocrime.org. It filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city. It contains civic... m_evans

Everyblock_logo Everyblock.com is an evolution of the concept of chicagocrime.org.  It filters an assortment of local news by location so you can keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city. It contains civic information, news articles, blog entries and other fun from accross the web.

Prior to Everyblock Adrian was head of innovations for the Washington Post. He also is the co-creator of the Django Web Framework.


Dimensions: <10 people x 2007 x $NDA
Funding: $1.1 million grant from Knight Foundation
Customers: Residents of 11 U.S. cities
Location: Chicago + www.everyblock.com

Posted by Mike Evans. See an Interview with Adrian

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2009/02/everyblockcom-adrian-holovaty-wilson-miner-dan-oneil-paul-smith.html Dawdle + Sachin Agarwal + Jaun Inton tag:typepad.com,2003:post-61875818 2009-01-25T08:41:04-06:00 2009-02-08T23:50:24-06:00 Dawdle is the gamer's online marketplace. Their mission is to "To make it moronically easy for gamers to buy and sell video games and gear online." Sellers post their games to a fixed price marketplace. Buyer's find games through an... m_evans

Logo_dawdle Dawdle is the gamer's online marketplace. Their mission is to "To make it moronically easy for gamers to buy and sell video games and gear online." Sellers post their games to a fixed price marketplace. Buyer's find games through an interface inspired by priceline. The marketplace is highly relevant to the specific set of buyers and sellers interested in video games.

Founder of dawdle, Sachin Agarwal, worked in venture capital and investment banking. He started Dawdle in August of 2007 along with co-founder Juan Inton.

Dimensions: <10 people x ~2 years (2007) x $NDA
Funding: Bootstrapped
Customers: Gamers buying and selling games, systems and accesories
Location: Chicago + www.dawdle.com

Posted by Mike Evans. See an interview with Sachin

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2009/01/dawdle-sachin-argawal-jaun-inton.html Cappex + Leon Heller + Mike Moyer + Jace Mouse tag:typepad.com,2003:post-34011756 2007-05-14T11:56:52-05:00 2007-05-14T11:56:52-05:00 Cappex has set out to improve the college admissions process by helping universities and students connect. High school students fill out a profile on Cappex and receive invitations to apply to universities they may have never heard about otherwise. Meanwhile,... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img border="0" alt="Logotagline3" title="Logotagline3" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/14/logotagline3.gif" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" /> Cappex has set out to improve the college admissions process by helping universities and students connect. High school students fill out a profile on Cappex and receive invitations to apply to universities they may have never heard about otherwise. Meanwhile, Cappex works one-on-one with colleges to help them target appropriate students. The service is free students and most colleges, it will be advertiser supported.</p> <p>The founder of Cappex, Leon Heller, was previously chairman and CEO of <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/08/fastweb_bob_mic.html">FastWeb</a> until it was sold to Monster in in 2001. Also on the core team are Mike Moyer and Jace Mouse. Mike has held sales and marketing roles with a variety of companies including RealNetworks and Bissell. Jace has held technology roles at Orbitz, Cars.com, iExplore, and State Farm Insurance.</p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; &lt;50 people x&nbsp; ~1 year (2006) x $NDA<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Private investors<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Students trying to choose a college, pay for college, or choose a career<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Highland Park] + <a href="http://www.cappex.com">www.cappex.com</a> </p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/05/cappex_leon_hel.html Humanized + Aza Raskin + Jono DiCarlo + Atul Varma + Andrew Wilson tag:typepad.com,2003:post-33513396 2007-05-06T20:01:38-05:00 2007-05-06T20:01:38-05:00 Humanized is a small start-up on the north side of Chicago that is re-thinking the way you interact with your computer. Their product, Enso, takes simple tasks you do every day, in lots of your applications, and makes them easier.... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img border="0" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/29/humanized.jpg" title="Humanized" alt="Humanized" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" /> Humanized is a small start-up on the north side of Chicago that is re-thinking the way you interact with your computer. Their product, Enso, takes simple tasks you do every day, in lots of your applications, and makes them easier. If you are writing an email and need to multiple two numbers, with Enzo you can just multiply, no need to launch a separate calculator program. You have to <a href="http://www.humanized.com">watch the video</a> to appreciate the program, but dozens of other tasks, like capitalizing a sentence, defining a word, checking spelling--all are made easier. </p> <p>It's not every day a Chicago start-up launches to a praise from Walt Mossberg in the WSJ and interface guru Don Norman (among others). The team of four co-founders is a smart bunch with quite a varied background. One interesting anecdote, the President of Humanized, Aza Raskin, is the son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh. </p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong> 4 people people x ~1 year (2006) x $NDA<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Angel funding<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Anyone who uses a computer<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago + <a href="http://www.humanized.com">www.humanized.com</a> </p> <p><a href="http://www.perkspot.com/">&nbsp;</a></p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/05/humanized_aza_r.html ParkWhiz + Aashish Dalal + Jon Thornton tag:typepad.com,2003:post-33722974 2007-05-06T20:01:03-05:00 2007-05-06T20:01:03-05:00 ParkWhiz's product is simple, a searchable directory all the available parking in a city. Type in the address of your destination and you will see a map of all the parking options, complete with cost and the hours it is... Keith Schacht

Pwlogo_big ParkWhiz's product is simple, a searchable directory all the available parking in a city. Type in the address of your destination and you will see a map of all the parking options, complete with cost and the hours it is available. But in addition to conventional parking garages, the ParkWhiz directory is open to anyone who has owns a parking spot (or even a driveway) and wants to make it available for rent.

ParkWhiz was started by Aashish Dalal and Jon Thornton. The company began out of Aashish's own frustration finding parking around Chicago. Meanwhile, Jon Thornton was a student of a professor researching ways to improve the discovery of available parking. Aashish discovered this research when exploring the business idea and ParkWhiz was born.

Dimensions: ~5 people x 6 months (2006) x $NDA
Funding: $10K FastPitch competition, Navteq LBS challenge, and private
Customers: Anyone who drives and has trouble finding parking
Location: Chicago + www.parkwhiz.com

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/05/parkwhiz_aashis.html PerkSpot + Chris Hill tag:typepad.com,2003:post-15506001 2007-01-29T21:46:42-06:00 2007-01-29T21:46:42-06:00 When considering a new job offer, do you consider the perks? Discounted health club membership, movie tickets, cell phone plans--PerkSpot makes it easy for companies to offer perks like these to their employees. PerkSpot negotiate the deals with HP, Cingular,... Keith Schacht

Perkspot_logoWhen considering a new job offer, do you consider the perks? Discounted health club membership, movie tickets, cell phone plans--PerkSpot makes it easy for companies to offer perks like these to their employees. PerkSpot negotiate the deals with HP, Cingular, Enterprise, TicketsNow and dozens of other partners. They create a branded portal that plugs into your employee intranet so all employees can enjoy the perks.

PerkSpot was started by Chris Hill in 2006. He left his job in private equity after coming up with the idea and has had nice uptake from clients in a relatively short amount of time. Clients like offering perks to their employees, and the discount-offering companies like the unique marketing opportunity.

Dimensions: 2 people people x 1 year (2006) x $NDA
Funding: Owner funded
Customers: Employers, educational institutions, and professional associations
Location: Chicago [Lakeview] + www.perkspot.com

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/01/perkspot_chris_.html 1040 : Art Roldan tag:typepad.com,2003:post-15330329 2007-01-21T23:30:03-06:00 2007-01-21T23:30:03-06:00 Art Roldan's latest start-up, SecurePipe, was just acquired by AmbironTrustWave in January 2007. SecurePipe was Art's sixth start-up. Prior to this was Novarra where Art was CEO; Kettle Partners and JK&B Capital were both investors and Mark Achler, David Kronfeld,... Keith Schacht

Art_roldanArt Roldan's latest start-up, SecurePipe, was just acquired by AmbironTrustWave in January 2007. SecurePipe was Art's sixth start-up. Prior to this was Novarra where Art was CEO; Kettle Partners and JK&B Capital were both investors and Mark Achler, David Kronfeld, and Tasha Seitz were all on the board. Prior to Novarra, Art was CEO of Premsis Corp leading up to its aquisition by J.D. Edwards.
(Video profile)

> SecurePipe
> Novarra
> The Premisys Corp

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/01/1040_art_roldan.html PeopleFilter + Frank Pirri + Kevin Harrison tag:typepad.com,2003:post-15328447 2007-01-21T20:38:11-06:00 2007-01-21T20:38:11-06:00 If you have posted a job on Monster or CareerBuilder and been flooded with applicants, then you could use an Applicant Tracking System like PeopleFilter. Their software helps you search, sort, and manage incoming resumes for each job opening. There... Keith Schacht

Peoplefilter_logoIf you have posted a job on Monster or CareerBuilder and been flooded with applicants, then you could use an Applicant Tracking System like PeopleFilter. Their software helps you search, sort, and manage incoming resumes for each job opening. There are a lot of competing companies who have popped up in the past few years, but PeopleFilter's unique spin is to automatically analyzes resumes to determine how good of a fit each person is.

PeopleFilter (formerly Talentology) was founded by Frank Pirri and Kevin Harrison. The two founded PeopleFilter after selling MyPoints.com for $113 million in 2001, a company they were founding members of. The idea for PeopleFilter came from their frustration with hiring while at MyPoints. They raised a round of angel funding from friends and family while signing up customers like US Cellular. They closed a $4.5 million round in January of 2006.

Dimensions: ~45 people people x 6 years (2001) x $2 million in 2005
Funding: $1.2 million angel + $4.5 million VC from Cities Capital Funds (Cincinnati), Velocity Equity Partners (Boston)
Customers: HR departments of large companies
Location: Chicago [Arlington Heights] + www.peoplefilter.com

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/01/peoplefilter_fr.html Motorola + Galvins + Ed Zander tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14936194 2007-01-17T21:57:47-06:00 2007-01-17T21:57:47-06:00 Now let us praise Motorola. It's the #1 cell phone player in the U.S. (#2 and closing on Nokia worldwide) and 2) the #1 cable box/IP set-up/DVR maker (vs. Cisco's Scientific Atlanta). Combine those two critical consumer platforms with their... Eric Antonow <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img border="0" alt="Motorola_logo" title="Motorola_logo" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/motorola_logo.gif" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" />Now let us praise Motorola. It's the #1 cell phone player in the U.S. (#2 and closing on Nokia worldwide) and 2) the #1 cable box/IP set-up/DVR maker (vs. Cisco's Scientific Atlanta). Combine those two critical consumer platforms with their recent design and innovation leadership, and that makes this Chicago-area giant among the most influential technology companies worldwide - with the likes of Apple and Samsung. Other divisions include communications infrastructure, semiconductors (spun off as Freescale in 2004), and soon more mobile-related content delivery with recent acquisitions of Symbol Technology (enterprise mobility and RFID), Good Technology (mobile computing) and Tut Systems (video encoding and distribution). <br /><br />Motorola (originally Galvin Mfg) has played a role in many technology developments since the radio - the 'motor' portion of their name came from their car radio product. Lots of mission critical military communications (walkie-talkies), battery, chip innovations as well as early global wireless handsets and six sigma were created at Motorola. It was a family firm run by the Galvin's (Chris is now Chairman of NAVTEQ) until Ed Zander (former COO/President of Sun Microsystems) took the reigns of a turnaround in 2004.&nbsp; <br /><br /><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; 70,000 people x 78 years x $41B <br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Founders, probably; Public markets.&nbsp; <br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Phone companies, consumers, cable companies, carriers <br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Schaumburg] + <a href="http://www.motorola.com">www.motorola.com</a></p> </div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/01/motorola_galvin.html 1039 : Lee Rosenberg tag:typepad.com,2003:post-15063019 2007-01-08T01:23:56-06:00 2007-01-08T01:23:56-06:00 Lee Rosenberg is currently President and CEO of LRSmedia. LRSmedia creates music-focused entertainment programming (Legends of Jazz, SOUNDSTAGE). Lee has a long history of investment and entrepreneurship in Chicago. In 1996 he founded Kettle Partners Venture Capital along with Mark... Keith Schacht

Lee_rosenbergLee Rosenberg is currently President and CEO of LRSmedia. LRSmedia creates music-focused entertainment programming (Legends of Jazz, SOUNDSTAGE). Lee has a long history of investment and entrepreneurship in Chicago. In 1996 he founded Kettle Partners Venture Capital along with Mark Achler and David Semmel. Lee currently serves on the board of SurePayRoll (founded by Troy Henikoff and Scott Wald), Active Network, and Sportsvision. He has also served on several other portfolio companies including E-Greetings Network and Chris Gladwin's MusicNow. Prior to Kettle Lee was a director of GRP Records, an early pioneer of the compact disc and eventually the largest contemporary jazz record company before selling to MCA in 1990.

> LRSmedia
> SurePayRoll
> Active Networks
> Sportsvision
> MusicNow
> E-Greetings Network
> GRP Records

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/01/1039_lee_rosenb.html CohesiveFT + Patrick Kerpan, Alexis Richardson, Craig Heimark, Dwight Koop tag:typepad.com,2003:post-15062200 2007-01-07T23:28:46-06:00 2007-01-07T23:28:46-06:00 CohesiveFT is trying to make the installation of enterprise software as easy as installing desktop software. Currently, installing an enterprise CRM system is quite a bit more complex than upgrading your copy of Microsoft Outlook. CohesiveFT is simplifying this process... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Cohesiveft_logo" alt="Cohesiveft_logo" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/cohesiveft_logo.gif" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" />CohesiveFT is trying to make the installation of enterprise software as easy as installing desktop software. Currently, installing an enterprise CRM system is quite a bit more complex than upgrading your copy of Microsoft Outlook. CohesiveFT is simplifying this process by creating &quot;virtual appliances.&quot; A virtual appliances is a huge file that is an &quot;image&quot; of a whole computer. Inside this file is an operating system, supporting software, and any special configuration. All the customer has to do is load up the virtual appliance and they have an exact copy of a perfectly setup server.</p> <p>The team behind CohesiveFT is a seasoned one: Patrick Kerpan (CTO) was previously CTO of Borland after they acquired the company he founded, Bedouin; Alexis Richardson (Bus. Dev) previously founded MetaLogic; Craig Heimark (CEO) is an advisor to OCA Ventures and previously CIO of SBC Warburg; and Dwight Koop (COO) was a founding member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in addition to a senior manager at Borland, Swiss Bank, and Continental Bank. </p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; ~10 people x 1 year x TBD<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>TBD<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Initial customers are financial institutions<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago, Palo Alto, London + <a href="http://www.cohesiveft.com/">www.cohesiveft.com</a></p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2007/01/cohesiveft_patr.html Viewpoints Network + Matt Moog tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14936789 2006-12-31T13:10:42-06:00 2006-12-31T13:10:42-06:00 The last time you bought a big ticket item--house, car, medical services, college education, electronics--did you use the web to do research? 85% of consumers answer "Yes" to this question, but in spite of this, can you name a company... Keith Schacht

Viewpoints_logoThe last time you bought a big ticket item--house, car, medical services, college education, electronics--did you use the web to do research? 85% of consumers answer "Yes" to this question, but in spite of this, can you name a company that dominates this research space? Viewpoints Network plans to become the leader in providing high-quality reviews for the major purchases in life, and to do this, they are assembling a group of a few hundred online reviewers.

Viewpoints Network was founded by Matt Moog who was with Q Interactive for the last 10 years (last 5 as CEO). In July of 2006, Matt founded Viewpoints. By August Matt raised $4.7 million (a few different Chicago VCs contributed to this) and not long after the operating team was assembled. This crew consists of a few former Q Interactive employees, plus Leon Chism, former Chief Internet Architect at Orbitz.

Dimensions: 7 people x 6 months x TBD
Funding: $4.7 Series A round. Participants included Lon Chow, J.B. Pritzker, Matt McCall
Customers: Consumers making major life purchases
Location: Chicago [Loop] + www.viewpoints.com

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/viewpoints_netw.html Orbitz Family Tree tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14936560 2006-12-31T12:46:34-06:00 2006-12-31T12:46:34-06:00 Orbitz, the website you know for booking airline tickets and researching travel, has been providing another valuable service to the Chicago community you may not be aware of--spinning off talent. In researching Chicago technology companies, it's interesting how many of... Keith Schacht

Orbitz, the website you know for booking airline tickets and researching travel, has been providing another valuable service to the Chicago community you may not be aware of--spinning off talent. In researching Chicago technology companies, it's interesting how many of them have a common root in Orbitz.

Click the companies and people below to learn more

Orbitz_map

http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/orbitz_family_t.html ZapTel + Ron Reimann tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14936118 2006-12-31T12:03:18-06:00 2006-12-31T12:03:18-06:00 There are lots of places to buy international prepaid phone cards, but no one makes it quite as easy as ZapTel. A few clicks to purchase, and your calling code is delivered via email. In additional to simplifying calling card... Eric Antonow <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img border="0" alt="Zaptel" title="Zaptel" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/zaptel.gif" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" /> There are lots of places to buy international prepaid phone cards, but no one makes it quite as easy as ZapTel. A few clicks to purchase, and your calling code is delivered via email. In additional to simplifying calling card plans, they also provide online management of call records and billing so you can track and refill your account. <br /><br />Ron has founded or been involved in multiple ventures. He founded Baler software in 1989, where he met Bob Geras as an investor. He joined Doug Grimsted at Geneer and helped grow the company to $22MM. He joined Scott Woodard at <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/08/showingtime_sco.html">ShowingTime</a> and helped successfully reposition the firm on its current footing. In 2003, using all the experience and a desire to own a business again, he bought a modest, online phone card company. Using SEO, SEM and smart sampling, he quickly tripled the company's revenues in 18 months and now manages the very profitable company remotely from a large boat in Lake Michigan. In 2006 the company made INCs top 500 fastest growing companies. <br /><br /><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; 8 people x 3 years x $3MM <br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Founder<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> International students and others needing to call home cheaply<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Rolling Meadows] + <a href="http://www.zaptel.com">www.zaptel.com</a><a href="http://www.locallaunch.com">&nbsp;</a> </p> </div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/zaptel_ron_reim.html LocalLaunch + Justin Sanger + Brad Geddes tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14935251 2006-12-31T11:18:27-06:00 2006-12-31T11:18:27-06:00 Imagine you own a small, local, offline business, and you've got to figure out where to put your scarce resources against the online marketing. LocalLaunch began by creating RegisterLocal - allowing business owner to distribute their basic profile (address, phone,... Eric Antonow <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img border="0" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/locallaunch.gif" title="Locallaunch" alt="Locallaunch" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" /> Imagine you own a small, local, offline business, and you've got to figure out where to put your scarce resources against the online marketing. LocalLaunch began by creating RegisterLocal - allowing business owner to distribute their basic profile (address, phone, categories) to all the major online directories with a single entry. They extended the model to a unified dashboard (PAD or Personal Advertising Dashboard) for simplify management of local SEM campaigns across multiple PPC search engines and directories. <br /><br />Before founding LocalLaunch in 2003, Justin started and ran online marketing firm Pulsity over six years. Brad has written on SEO and SEM via ebooks, major search engine sites as well as speaking events from PPC's inception. He founded iDjinni Consulting in 2002 and joined LocalLaunch two years later. LocalLaunch was was acquired in 2006 by R.H. Donnelley, the country's leading yellow pages and directory publisher.<br /><br /><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; 40 people x 3 years x NDA <br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Founders<strong>&nbsp;</strong><br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Small local businesses, local search directories<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Downtown] + <a href="http://www.locallaunch.com">www.locallaunch.com</a> </p> </div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/locallaunch_jus.html FunBrain + Michael Cirks + Paul Hudson tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14743802 2006-12-19T00:10:15-06:00 2006-12-19T00:10:15-06:00 When children want to have a little fun learning their multiplication tables, and teachers want a ready-made quiz they can download for to their class--FunBrain makes them both happy. With educational games for children K-8, and tools for teachers to... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Funbrain_logo" alt="Funbrain_logo" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/funbrain_logo.gif" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" />When children want to have a little fun learning their multiplication tables, and teachers want a ready-made quiz they can download for to their class--FunBrain makes them both happy. With educational games for children K-8, and tools for teachers to find, create, and grade quizzes, the site claims the title of #1 education site for kids and teachers. Even back in 2000, the site would draw 35 million page views per month and was consistently ranked one of the top 5 most popular children's sites on the web. Today it still remains one of the top 1000 most trafficked internet sites in the US (according to Alexa.com).</p> <p>Although the website is still going strong, the story is a blast from the past. The site was founded in 1997 by two U of C grads, Michael Cirks and Paul Hudson, originally as a division of PMpublishing (a company developing software for banks and traders). In 1999 it was spun-off as it's own entity. 2000 was a busy year for the company, first merging with FamilyEducation Network (a venture-backed Boston company) and then later that year, the new entity was bought by Pearson for $129 million in cash.</p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; TBD people x 9 years x $ NDA (division of Pearson)<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Founders until merger with FamilyEducation Network<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Kids K-8 and teachers<br /><strong>Location: </strong>Champaign, IL (Pearson offices), Boston (FunBrain offices) + <a href="http://www.funbrain.com/">www.funbrain.com</a></p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/funbrain_michae.html FreshLook Marketing Group + Mark Degner + Ed Mackowiak + Joe Kolano tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14744123 2006-12-19T00:09:40-06:00 2006-12-19T00:09:40-06:00 As a Chicago grocer, it would be exciting to see sales on your bananas up 3% for the month; until you learn that sales for all other Chicago grocers are up 10%. FreshLook makes analysis like this possible with its... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Freshlook_marketing_logo" alt="Freshlook_marketing_logo" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/freshlook_marketing_logo.jpg" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" />As a Chicago grocer, it would be exciting to see sales on your bananas up 3% for the month; until you learn that sales for all other Chicago grocers are up 10%. FreshLook makes analysis like this possible with its detailed sales tracking data for fruits, vegetables, cheese, meats, bakery items, and all the other perishable foods. They provide this data to growers, manufacturers, retailers--all parties involved in the perishable food industry.</p> <p>FreshLook was founded by three IRI veterans, Mark Degner, Ed Mackowiak and Joe Kolano. It spun-off of, and was funded by, IRI in 2000. IRI is leading provider of UPC scanner data, and the parent of numerous other Chicago start-ups. IRI's main focus is on data for CPG companies, but perishable products have played an increasing role in grocery stores attempts to differentiate themselves in the market. In 2000, perishable products accounted for 30% of all supermarket food sales.</p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; TBD people x 6 years x $NDA<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>IRI<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Growers, manufacturers, and retailers of perishable foods<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Hoffman Estates, IL] + <a href="http://www.freshlookmarketing.com/">www.freshlookmarketing.com</a></p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/freshlook_marke.html 1038: Chris Gladwin tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14569235 2006-12-10T16:54:46-06:00 2006-12-10T16:54:46-06:00 Chris is the founder and CEO of Cleversafe, a unique data storage company, and the latest in a series of ventures Chris founded. Most recent was MusicNow, sold to Circuit City in 2004. Prior to that was Cruise Technologies, a... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Chrisgladwin" alt="Chrisgladwin" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/chrisgladwin.jpg" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" />Chris is the founder and CEO of Cleversafe, a unique data storage company, and the latest in a series of ventures Chris founded. Most recent was MusicNow, sold to Circuit City in 2004. Prior to that was Cruise Technologies, a dominant supplier of wireless thin client technology. Chris is&nbsp; an inventor on over 30 patents (issued &amp; pending), has testified before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on music copyright, and is an avid poker player.</p> <p>&gt; <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/08/cleversafe_chri.html">Cleversafe</a><br />&gt; MusicNow<br />&gt; Cruise Technologies</p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/1038_charley_ca.html InterCall + Scott Etzler tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14567587 2006-12-10T15:24:47-06:00 2006-12-10T15:24:47-06:00 3-way calling is nice when you're in a pinch, but how do you handle a conference call with 2,000 participants? InterCall is the largest dedicated conference provider in the world. They handle audio, video, and web conferencing for Fortune 1000... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a href="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/intercall_logo_3.gif"><img title="Intercall_logo_3" height="91" alt="Intercall_logo_3" src="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/images/intercall_logo_3.gif" width="200" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" /></a>3-way calling is nice when you're in a pinch, but how do you handle a conference call with 2,000 participants? InterCall is the largest dedicated conference provider in the world. They handle audio, video, and web conferencing for Fortune 1000 companies like HP and Motorola. With offices in 11 countries and over 140,000 conferencing ports available, they help thousands of companies every day do sales training, press conferences, and manage investor relations.</p> <p>InterCall was founded in 1991 by ITC Holding Company (a 110-year-old telecom firm). In 2003, West Corpporation acquired InterCall for $400 million. Today, they have offices in 11 countries. Scott Etzler is the CEO. He joined the company in 1998 after holding positions at AT&amp;T, Decision Industries, and U.S. Spring.<br /><br /><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; 2100 people x 15 years x ~$600 million in 2006<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>ITC Holding Company<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Fortune 1000 companies<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Downtown] + <a href="http://www.intercall.com">www.intercall.com</a></p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/intercall_scott.html 1028 : Dan Ratner : Sittercity tag:typepad.com,2003:post-13830170 2006-12-02T21:00:00-06:00 2006-12-02T21:00:00-06:00 Dan first founded Snapdragon Technologies, a Boston-based IT consulting firm, and merged it with Wired Business. He became their CTO and in '98 morphed the company into a nationwide DSL provider. He had a brief stint with a new start-up... Keith Schacht

Dan_rattnerDan first founded Snapdragon Technologies, a Boston-based IT consulting firm, and merged it with Wired Business. He became their CTO and in '98 morphed the company into a nationwide DSL provider. He had a brief stint with a new start-up and then joined Driveitaway (started in Boston, but the venture brought him to Chicago). Today he is VP of Technology for Sittercity and Chairman of the Nanotechnology Alliance. Dan went to Brown University.

> Sittercity
> Nanotechnology Alliance
> Driveitaway
> Snapdragon Technologies
> Brown University

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/1028_dan_ratner.html 1037 : Jamie Crouthamel : Performics tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14270583 2006-12-02T20:59:17-06:00 2006-12-02T20:59:17-06:00 Jamie is best known as the founder and CEO of Performics - an online marketing firm that was an early advocate of text ads and helped spur the adoption of Overture and Google AdWords. He built the firm with Stuart... Eric Antonow <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Crouthamel" alt="Crouthamel" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/crouthamel.gif" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" /> Jamie is best known as the founder and CEO of Performics - an online marketing firm that was an early advocate of text ads and helped spur the adoption of Overture and Google AdWords. He built the firm with Stuart Frankel and Chris Heneger, and sold in 2004 to DoubleClick for $60MM+. Since then he has served as a Director at PRIMIS Marketing Group until it was acquired in 2006. There he worked with Dan DiCaro who, like Stu and Chris, worked with <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/10/1006_howard_tul.html">Howard Tullman</a> in a past venture.&nbsp; Prior to Performics he was was COO of FastParts - one of the early business-to-business Internet auctioning models. He graduated from Kellogg as well as Northwestern's engineering school.<br /><br />&gt; PRIMIS Marketing<br />&gt; <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/09/performics_jami.html">Performics</a><br />&gt; FastParts<br />&gt; Kellogg<br />&gt; Northwestern<br />&nbsp; </p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/1037_jamie_crou.html Concept Shopping + Joe Battoe tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14200515 2006-12-02T20:58:38-06:00 2006-12-02T20:58:38-06:00 Next time you walk into Jewel grocery store, you can scan you Preferred Card and you'll receive a print out of a dozen coupons for items targeted based on your past purchases. This program -- called Avenu -- drives increased... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Concept_off_2" alt="Concept_off_2" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/concept_off_2.gif" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" />Next time you walk into Jewel grocery store, you can scan you Preferred Card and you'll receive a print out of a dozen coupons for items targeted based on your past purchases. This program -- called Avenu -- drives increased sales for retailers, trial for product manufacturers, as well as some savings for consumers. Already in 500 Jewel and Albertson's stores, the system is delivers much higher conversion than traditional couponing.<strong><br /></strong><br />The Concept Shopping team has its roots deep in the consumer market research industry. Joe Battoe founded the company and is currently CEO, he was previously a division president at <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/08/iri.html">IRI</a>. Rita Kovac and John Hennessy also spent time at IRI, and had prior stints with other consumer market research companies.<br /><br /><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; TBD people x 4 years x $NDA&nbsp; <br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Sutter Hill Ventures<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Consumer product manufacturers looking to market their products <br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Lisle] + <a href="http://www.conceptshopping.com/">www.conceptshopping.com</a></p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/12/concept_shoppin.html Great Software Laboratory + Sunil Gaitonde + Shridhar Shukla tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14072344 2006-11-22T22:09:47-06:00 2006-11-22T22:09:47-06:00 The convergence of all the communication technologies is happening all around us: television on your cell phone, phone calls from your computer, e-mail from your cell pocket. Great Software Laboratory (GS Lab) is building an expertise in this area by... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Logo" alt="Logo" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/logo.jpg" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" />The convergence of all the communication technologies is happening all around us: television on your cell phone, phone calls from your computer, e-mail from your cell pocket. Great Software Laboratory (GS Lab) is building an expertise in this area by delivering custom software applications for clients in this space as they patiently work towards a more productized platform.<br /><br />After selling his first start-up, Internet Junction, to Cisco, and his second start-up, Sarvega, to Intel, <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/10/1007_sunil_gait.html">Sunil Gaitonde</a> has decided to take a different approach with GS Lab. He is focusing on building a company, not a product. &quot;Communications Convergence&quot;, as he calls it, is not going to happen overnight. By taking on very focused custom projects, he is building a team of people with an expertise in this area until he is ready to launch his own product. Co-founder Shrindhar was COO at Persistent Systems and helped them grow to 500+ people in eight years. Both also found time to get their Ph.Ds. </p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; 100 people x 3 years x $ NDA <br /><strong>Funding:</strong> Bootstrapping through revenue from custom development<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Companies building products in the communication space (handheld, collaboration, etc)<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Burr Ridge] + India [Pune] + <a href="http://www.gs-lab.com/">www.gs-lab.com</a><br /><strong>Facebook: </strong><a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/10/1007_sunil_gait.html">Sunil Gaitonde</a> </p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/great_software_.html DBS Communications + Larry Roches + Daniel McFarland + Chris Rechtsteiner tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14073175 2006-11-22T21:48:46-06:00 2006-11-22T21:48:46-06:00 Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) resell the minutes of wireless and long-distance carriers, by branding and repackaging cell phone service for niche markets. DBS Communications has quickly grown to become a $100MM company with their EZlinkMobile and EZlink2Go brands. Their... Keith Schacht <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><img title="Logo2" alt="Logo2" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/logo2.jpg" border="0" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" /></p> <p>Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) resell the minutes of wireless and long-distance carriers, by branding and repackaging cell phone service for niche markets. DBS Communications has quickly grown to become a $100MM company with their EZlinkMobile and EZlink2Go brands. Their pre-paid phones are resold through retail stores and targeted towards niche customers who want a phone without long-term contracts. They recently spun out their Versent Mobile division to provide private-label similar phone services for other companies. <br /><br />DBS was founded by Larry Roches and Daniel McFarland in 1998. Larry is responsible for the business strategy while Dan handles the technical side of things. Prior to DBS, Larry was CEO of EdGate.com, a director at WhittmanHart, and CEO of Quantra Corporation. He also was a key executive at System Software Associates (SSA) and helped take the company public. Dan was previously a VP at Cingular Wireless, CFO at Los Angeles Cellular Telephone, and his wireless experience stretches back to American Cellular Communications Corp in 1987. Chris handles market development for Versent and comes from tours at Parlano, Apropos Technology, Quintus Corporation, Mustang.com, Rockwell and Ameritech. </p> <p><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; TBD people x&nbsp; 8 years x $NDA<br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Edgewater Funds, Sierra Ventures<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Retailers in low-income neighborhoods and ultimately the consumers who shop there<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Schaumburg] + <a href="http://www.dbsnow.com/">www.dbsnow.com</a> + <a href="http://www.versentmobile.com">www.versentmobile.com</a> </p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/dbs_communicati.html 1027 : Bob Michelson : Goliath Solutions tag:typepad.com,2003:post-13750227 2006-11-22T21:40:47-06:00 2006-11-22T21:40:47-06:00 Bob is currently CEO of Goliath Solutions - a provide tracking for in-store displays and promotions - where he works with Gary Overhultz (an IRI vet). Bob was previously President of FastWEB, provider of financial aid information to students until... Keith Schacht

BobmichelsonBob is currently CEO of Goliath Solutions - a provide tracking for in-store displays and promotions - where he works with Gary Overhultz (an IRI vet). Bob was previously President of FastWEB, provider of financial aid information to students until it was sold to Monster in 2002. Before that, he was Chairman of FunBrain which was sold to Pearson in 2001. He also did time at iXL, IBM, and graduated from Indiana University.

> Goliath Solutions
> FastWEB
> FunBrain
> iXL
> IBM
> Indiana University

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/1027_bob_michel.html 1035 : Eric Antonow : Freshwater Venture tag:typepad.com,2003:post-13887471 2006-11-22T21:40:05-06:00 2006-11-22T21:40:05-06:00 Eric co-founded and edits Freshwater Venture with Keith Schacht, and he chairs the Chicago board of the Taproot Foundation with Adam Hecktman, Chris Morgan, Charles Coustan. He's worked with Zach Kaplan and Josh Metnick as an advisor to their respective... Keith Schacht

Eric_antonowEric co-founded and edits Freshwater Venture with Keith Schacht, and he chairs the Chicago board of the Taproot Foundation with Adam Hecktman, Chris Morgan, Charles Coustan. He's worked with Zach Kaplan and Josh Metnick as an advisor to their respective companies. He was CEO of Katabat Corporation, acquired in 2005 by Trader Publishing/Dominion. He built the company with Dave Sidwell, Ara Bayindiryan, and many others (with a financial assist from Bob Geras). Prior to Katabat, Eric was at Giant Step with Kate Edwards, Eric Heneghan, Mike Ruffalo, Rishad Tobaccowala, Mike Leff, Sean Chou and Mike Sands before the company was acquired by Leo Burnett. Eric graduated from the University of Michigan and Kellogg. In January, he's headed to Google.

> Google
> Taproot Foundation
> Inventables
> Chicago.com
> Katabat
> Giant Step
> Kellogg
> U of M

http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/1035_eric_anton.html 1029 : Matt Ferguson : CareerBuilder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-13830691 2006-11-22T21:39:05-06:00 2006-11-22T21:39:05-06:00 Matt is currently CEO of CareerBuilder, where he works with Kevin Knapp (formerly of Cars.com), Farhan Yasin & Richard Castellini (both formerly of DigitalWork) as well as Eric Presley and others from his previous life at Headhunter.net. Tim Landon is... Keith Schacht

Ferguson_1Matt is currently CEO of CareerBuilder, where he works with Kevin Knapp (formerly of Cars.com), Farhan Yasin & Richard Castellini (both formerly of DigitalWork) as well as Eric Presley and others from his previous life at Headhunter.net. Tim Landon is a board member. He was VP of Business Development at Headhunter.net until the CareerBuilder acquisition. Prior to that, he was at DigitalWork and a few other entrepreneurial ventures he founded. He began as a a lawyer with Baker & McKenzie. His law degree is from Northwestern and an MBA from University of Chicago.

> CareerBuilder
> Headhunter.net
> DigitalWork
> U of C
> Northwestern

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/1029_matt_fergu.html Installshield + Viresh Bhatia + Rick Harold tag:typepad.com,2003:post-14198622 2006-11-19T22:58:54-06:00 2006-11-19T22:58:54-06:00 You're probably reading this on one of the 500 Million PCs where Installshield has helped you add/remove 80% of the software sitting on your hard drive. For PC software developers it eliminates the need to wrestle with the install and... Eric Antonow <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <p><img border="0" alt="Installshield_logo_206" title="Installshield_logo_206" src="http://antonow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/installshield_logo_206.gif" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" /> You're probably reading this on one of the 500 Million PCs where Installshield has helped you add/remove 80% of the software sitting on your hard drive. For PC software developers it eliminates the need to wrestle with the install and configuration issues - a major source of application failures. For you, it provides for an experience as simple as Next &gt; Next &gt; Finish. <br /><br />Viresh and Rick met at Northwestern and originally started their venture to build geographic mapping software for the PC. Three years and not much success later they accidentally 'created' InstallShield when they were mocking up an advertisement and needed one more product to balance the layout. Customers at a conference expressed interest in the new product, so they built the business on the basis of that demand. They grew to to $40MM in revenue with no outside funding. They were acquired in 2004 for $74MM by Macrovision. <br /><br /><strong>Dimensions:</strong>&nbsp; 250 people x 19 years x $40MM+ <br /><strong>Funding: </strong>Founders<br /><strong>Customers:</strong> Everyone, except perhaps Mac users<br /><strong>Location:</strong> Chicago [Schaumburg] + www.installshield.com&nbsp; <br /><strong>Facebook:</strong> <a href="http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/10/1012_viresh_bha.html">Viresh Bhatia</a> </p></div> http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/installshield.html 1031 : Peter Largen : CenterPost tag:typepad.com,2003:post-13868381 2006-11-19T21:58:38-06:00 2006-11-19T21:58:38-06:00 Peter is COO and works with Kate Edwards at CenterPost. He was previously VP of Fixed Operations for AutoNation. Before that, he and Kate worked together at CCC, where he was President & COO at their DriveLogic venture and CMO.... Eric Antonow

Peter_largen_1Peter is COO and works with Kate Edwards at CenterPost. He was previously VP of Fixed Operations for AutoNation. Before that, he and Kate worked together at CCC, where he was President & COO at their DriveLogic venture and CMO. He was held leadership positions at ChoiceParts, ADP Hollander, and was founder of Sales Master Systems. He got his BA at University of Minnesota, magna cum laude.

> CenterPost
> AutoNation
> CCC
> DriveLogic
> ChoiceParts
> ADP Hollander
> Sales Master Systems
> U of Minn

 http://www.freshwaterventure.com/2006/11/1031_peter_larg.html