INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

Innovations of the World

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

It’s easy to think that everything there is to know about the Windy City is already out there in the world—Chicago was, after all, the second most-visited US city in 2018 and has remained fertile ground internationally for a variety of industries, from finance to industry to education to transportation and beyond.

But a visit to Chicago is like a canopy tour compared to the root-deep exploration of the city that INNOVATE® Chicago provides. Filled with stories of Chi-Town’s innovators and innovation enablers, this high-end coffee-table book offers an in-depth look into the city’s innovation ecosystem. Every participant—large or small, corporate or nonprofit—is hand-selected for participation in INNOVATE® Chicago. By avoiding a pay-to-play model, we bring you 250+ pages of the authentic, the innovative, the best of Chicago!

In addition to the hardcover coffee-table book, INNOVATE® Chicago is also published as an e-book, with individual stories posted below.

Featured Thought Leaders

Featured Thought Leaders

Featured Innovators

Featured Innovators

A SAFE HAVEN FOUNDATION

A SAFE HAVEN FOUNDATION-OUR MISSION: ASPIRE. TRANSFORM. SUSTAIN.

OUR MISSION: ASPIRE. TRANSFORM. SUSTAIN.

A Safe Haven Foundation is a 501(c)3 not for profit, social enterprise that helps people ASPIRE. TRANSFORM. and SUSTAIN¨ their lives as they transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency with pride and purpose. A Safe Haven provides the tools for each individual to overcome the root causes of homelessness through a...

SONGFINCH

SONGFINCH - Is a Platform to Discover and Collaborate With Thousands of Musicians to Create Personalized

Is a Platform to Discover and Collaborate With Thousands of Musicians to Create Personalized, One-of-a-Kind Songs

Since launching, Songfinch has grown into the leading creator marketplace for musicians touting some of the most influential names in music and tech as investors, including music icon Quincy Jones, current music superstars Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye and Amala ‘Doja Cat’ Dlamini, Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman, School of Rock...

LITERA

Is Changing The Way Organizations Perfect Their Documents And Manage Transactions.

Litera (then Microsystems) was born in 1995 to solve a specific problem: helping law firms transition their documents from Word Perfect to Microsoft Word....

Aon

Aon-INNOVATION’S ROLE IN A HIGHLY VOLATILE WORLD

INNOVATION’S ROLE IN A HIGHLY VOLATILE WORLD

One of the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic experience is that companies have fundamentally changed the way they look at risk. Risks are more interconnected, so the impact is more profound. For example, increased weather events and supply chain disruptions are happening more frequently and having a greater impact...

ENTARA

ENTARA-PLAN FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE

PLAN FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE

It’s no secret that we live in a fast-paced world. Technology is constantly changing, cyber security attacks are on the rise, and consumer interests and needs continue to evolve. To keep up, Managed Service Providers (MSP) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) are having to modify their offerings to adhere...

CHICAGO INNOVATION

CHICAGO INNOVATION- EDUCATING

EDUCATING, CONNECTING AND CELEBRATING INNOVATORS IN THE CHICAGO REGION

Established in 2002 as the Chicago Innovation Awards, Chicago Innovation has grown from a single awards ceremony to a year-round series of events and programs to empower Chicago’s innovation ecosystem. Its vision is to solidify the Chicago region as a global hub of innovation and ensure that innovation is for...

Sage Corps

Sage Corps- Is An International Internship Program That Sends Students To Work With Startups. We’re Building The Next Gen Global Workforce

Is An International Internship Program That Sends Students To Work With Startups. We’re Building The Next Gen Global Workforce

In 2003, Matt Meltzer graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. He thought employers would line up to hire him. He was wrong. With zero job offers, Matt flew down to South America with a backpack. After living and working in Buenos Aires for one year, Matt returned...

PRITZKER GROUP

HELPING ENTREPRENEURS ACHIEVE GREATNESS

ABOUT PGVC Pritzker Group, founded by Tony and J.B. Pritzker, has three principal investment teams: Venture Capital, which provides early-stage venture funding to technology companies throughout the United States; Private Capital, which acquires and operates leading North America based companies; and Asset Management, which partners with top-performing investment managers across...

Freeborn & Peters LLP

Freeborn & Peters LLP-Is A Chambers-Ranked

Is A Chambers-Ranked, Leading Mid-Size Law Firm With Global Capabilities And A Vast Array Of Practice Areas

Freeborn is proud to deliver sector-specific legal advice that stems from decades of experience and a rich understanding of business and industry perspectives. Along with providing exceptional legal services, each Freeborn attorney embodies the firm’s five Core Values, integrity, caring, effectiveness, teamwork, and commitment, through high standards of client service...

NETWORK PERCEPTION

NETWORK PERCEPTION-CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IS DISRUPTED BY CYBER-ATTACKS: NETWORK PERCEPTION DEVELOPS A TECHNOLOGY TO PROACTIVELY VERIFY AND VISUALIZE THEIR CYBER RESILIENCE

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IS DISRUPTED BY CYBER-ATTACKS: NETWORK PERCEPTION DEVELOPS A TECHNOLOGY TO PROACTIVELY VERIFY AND VISUALIZE THEIR CYBER RESILIENCE

OUR MISSIONIn cybersecurity, threat actors are often one step ahead and the average cost of a breach routinely goes beyond seven figures. Most security solutions focus on detection and response, taking a reactive approach to cyber-attacks. The pace and acceleration of network changes create new vulnerabilities every day, decreasing the...

THE FORGE ADVENTURE PARKS

THE FORGE ADVENTURE PARKS-GET OUT AND PLAY

GET OUT AND PLAY

Chicagoland is home to one of the world’s most fantastic recreation destinations: The Forge: Lemont Quarries. Since opening in the summer of 2020, the 300-acre park has been named one of the top three new destinations in the United States. The park provides authentic, purpose-driven outdoor experiences for people of...

ACTIVECAMPAIGN

ACTIVECAMPAIGN-We Help Businesses Grow and Build Better Customer Experiences

We Help Businesses Grow and Build Better Customer Experiences

ActiveCampaign is the leader in Customer Experience Automation (CXA), helping businesses across the world meaningfully engage with their customers. Our platform gives businesses of all sizes access to 820+ prebuilt automations that combine email marketing, marketing automation and CRM for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat and...

PHYSIQ

Technology Pioneered To Predict Failure Of Mission-Critical Industrial Equipment Delivers Powerful Platform To Protect The Most Complex “Machine” Of All – The Human Body

A leader in digital medicine, dedicated to generating real-time health insight via physiological data and patented artificial intelligence (AI) analytics, physIQ is on a mission to transform healthcare. The physIQ enterprise-ready cloud platform is designed to continuously collect and process data from any wearable biosensor using an expanding portfolio of...

NATURE'S FYND

NATURE'S FYND-TRANSFORMING HOW THE WORLD EATS WITH FY™

TRANSFORMING HOW THE WORLD EATS WITH FY™, A NEW-TO-THE-WORLD, NUTRITIONAL FUNGI PROTEIN

The story of Nature’s Fynd™ begins millions of years ago, in an acidic hot spring located in what is today Yellowstone National Park when a remarkable microbe was born. In 2009, NASA-backed research on extremophiles led our co-founder to the park’s hot springs. He then isolated and discovered a remarkable...

POWER REVIEWS

POWER REVIEWS- ENABLING BRANDS AND RETAILERS TO DRIVE MORE REVENUE WITH RATINGS AND REVIEWS

ENABLING BRANDS AND RETAILERS TO DRIVE MORE REVENUE WITH RATINGS AND REVIEWS

PowerReviews works with more than 1,000 global brands and retailers to help them collect, display and analyze user-generated content – Ratings and Reviews, Questions and Answers, and images and videos – on their websites. As more consumers flocked online as a result of Covid, this content actually became significantly more...

LEVEL EX

Playing Is Training: Chicago’s Gaming And Healthcare Legacies Meet At Level Ex

Today, Level Ex has 750,000 medical professionals playing its games to advance their skills and earn Continuing Medical Education (CME). The story of how it changed the way medicine is learned and practiced is as much an ode to Chicago as it is a start-up success story....

FORECHECK

FORECHECK-THE SECRET WEAPON IN WINNING THE CYBERCRIME WAR

THE SECRET WEAPON IN WINNING THE CYBERCRIME WAR

Cyber security is an arms race that is positioned to continue indefinitely. New technologies are constantly emerging to combat cyber criminals, but regardless, criminals discover how to exploit them. Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and other security-focused vendors detect many of these attacks and alert their customers and the community,...

ENVOY

ENVOY- MAKES HIRING AND MANAGING AN INTERNATIONAL WORKFORCE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE

MAKES HIRING AND MANAGING AN INTERNATIONAL WORKFORCE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE

Envoy is a global immigration services provider offering the only immigration management platform that makes it seamless for companies to hire and manage an international workforce. We combine expert legal representation and proprietary technology to bring efficiency and transparency to the immigration process for employers and employees.   At Envoy...

CREATING IT FUTURES

CREATING IT FUTURES-Satisfying

Satisfying, Well-Paying Tech Jobs Abound

The acute shortage of technology workers in the United States has driven up wages significantly. The median annual salary of an entry-level employee working on a help desk is $53,470, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median salary for all tech workers is $81,000. The expected growth...

REBOOT PARTNERS

REBOOT PARTNERS

REBOOT PARTNERS Reboot Partners helps emerging growth company CEO’s to operate at scale and accelerate global growth—and advises Fortune 1000 executives and multi-national corporations on how to tackle their most challenging issues, by seizing emerging market opportunities, building global partnerships and development initiatives, and leading sustainable digital-transformation programs. From behind-the-scenes...

LOGGERHEAD TOOLS

LOGGERHEAD TOOLS- Award-Winning American Innovation

Award-Winning American Innovation

LoggerHead Tools’ mission is to create innovative hand tools manufactured in America. The company’s flagship product is the Bionic Wrench™, a tool that combines the convenience of pliers with the performance of a wrench. The company launched the Bionic Wrench at the National Hardware Show in 2005 and has since...

SMARTMIRROR

SMART MIRROR-Shaping the Future of Dentistry

Shaping the Future of Dentistry

The dental mirror is the single-most important tool for dentists and hygienists alike, but it hasn’t changed in form or function for more than 100 years. SmartMirror looks, feels and acts like a traditional dental mirror, but features pioneering technology that meets the needs of today’s dentists and patients alike....

GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE

GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE- The True Definition Of Innovation Can Be Found At GiGi’s Playhouse

The True Definition Of Innovation Can Be Found At GiGi’s Playhouse, Where Changing The World Is In The Palm Of Your Hand

What started in 2003 as a mother’s vision to change the world’s perception of individuals with Down syndrome and create opportunities for her daughter, GiGi, evolved into a global movement of acceptance for all. GiGi’s Playhouse started in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and has catapulted to an entrepreneurial network of 60...

MATTER

MATTER-At MATTER

At MATTER, We Help People And Organizations Transform Ideas Into Solutions That Improve The Healthcare Experience

At MATTER — a global innovation hub headquartered in Chicago — entrepreneurs come together with industry leaders, scientists and clinicians from across the globe to collaborate on developing next-generation healthcare technologies. We believe that collaboration between entrepreneurs and industry leaders is the fastest, most effective way to accelerate innovation, advance...

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The Publisher

Glen Edwards

Glen Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and served in the United States Marine Corps Services. For the next 10 years, Glen worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer in Philadelphia, counseling underprivileged children in North and West Philadelphia. In 1983, Glen left the court and went to work... click to read more

The Publisher

Glen Edwards

Glen Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University and served in the United States Marine Corps Services. For the next 10 years, Glen worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer in Philadelphia, counseling underprivileged children in North and West Philadelphia. In 1983, Glen left the court and went to work... click to read more

Other Ecosystems