Krys Burnette Will Transform Your Business from the Inside Out

January 16, 2019 by J Blaszczykiewicz

As any entrepreneur can tell you, good teams equal good business. And though most founders have good intentions, it’s not easy to build and organize the right team, set the right processes, and develop the right leaders. It’s an issue that Krys Burnette, Co-owner and Org Design Lead at August — which helps organizations optimize for uncertainty by emphasizing agility and experimentation — has dedicated her career to solving. In this post, Burnette talks about the value of innovation, creative freedom, and self-honesty.

January 8, 2019 by J Blaszczykiewicz

As a startup founder and entrepreneur, intellectual property (IP) isn’t always your top priority. However, intellectual property is just as important to your organization as any other business consideration and shouldn’t be ignored. In this guest post series, Nicole Poulos, an attorney at K&L Gates LLP, describes what entrepreneurs need to know about developing intellectual property strategies for business. Poulos is an attorney whose practice focuses on intellectual property, cloud computing, data center and infrastructure, licensing and technology transactions, privacy and data security, trademark, and copyright matters.

January 8, 2019 by J Blaszczykiewicz

JOBS! Every week, we highlight a number of open jobs for our member companies. If you’re looking for an exciting career in the tech industry or an opportunity to work alongside Chicago’s best and brightest, then you’ve come to the right place. Here are the job openings for the week of January 8, 2019.

January 2, 2019 by J Blaszczykiewicz

Deciding to enter the entrepreneurial waters is exciting. However, these moments of happiness are often accompanied by numerous financial worries. You need to secure your funds on time and, most importantly, know how and where to spend those funds. In this guest article, Bizzmark Consultant Keith Coppersmith talks about how you can best manage your finances when starting a business.

December 21, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

It’s the time of the year for gifts, eggnog, and all-around cheer. While we love winter wonderlands, we understand if it’s just a little too cold to go outside at the moment. Instead, take a minute to cozy up in front of a warm fireplace and check out 1871’s greatest hits from this past year — in case you’ve been out of the loop on Twitter, here are The 12 Days of 1871.

December 18, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

Last week, 10 female entrepreneurs from Chicago’s tech and entrepreneur community presented their business ideas in front of a packed auditorium at 1871. The event, which helps founders generate leads and connect with investors, officially marks their graduation from our eighth WiSTEM cohort. To celebrate this achievement, we asked them to reflect on the 12-week program in their own words. Here are their ‘words of WiSTEM.’

December 18, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

We’re excited to partner with Fenox Venture Capital, a leading Venture Capital firm to bring their global startup competition to Chicago. During this competition, contestants will compete for a $1,000,000 investment prize and most importantly, an opportunity to be heard on a global stage.

December 17, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

Initial Cohort of The Food Foundry to Feature Five Food Industry Related Businesses; Cohort to Participate in 16-Week Accelerator Offering Access to Mentorship, Advanced Curriculum, and Industry Resources.

December 13, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

Most of us will wear a few different hats throughout our lives. At 40, Donald Hyun Kiolbassa, President and Owner of Donald Hyun Kiolbassa, Attorney at Law, has already been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and (quite literally) wrote the book. In this post, Kiolbassa reflects on his entrepreneurial journey and what it truly means to grow as an individual and professional.

December 13, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

In January 2018, 1871 was selected by the Kauffman Foundation as one of six entrepreneurial support organizations nationwide to serve as a policy advocate for entrepreneurs. In partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, 1871 is using the grant to fund a three-year program that will convene entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers in one room to address the issues that are impacting entrepreneurs the most. The program features two policy forums a year to discuss the most relevant challenges facing entrepreneurs. Together, the objective is to find policy-driven solutions and amplify entrepreneurs’ and investors’ voices in Chicago, Washington D.C. and beyond. Read more about our grant from the Kauffman Foundation here.

December 11, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

Conversion. Search Engine Marketing. Taglines. PPC. Brand experience. When you’re just starting out, the world of marketing and branding can seem overwhelming. There are so many approaches to getting your company and product seen that it becomes difficult to know where to start. At the fourth session of 1871’s Groundwork series — a set of public workshops focusing on foundational topics for fledgling entrepreneurs — Reva Minkoff of Digital4Startups, David Kelbaugh of Tacklebox Brand Partners, Shirley Yang of Muses, and Solomon Thimothy of Clickx broke down the best approaches to creating a strong branding and marketing foundation for startups.

December 5, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

“Just put one foot in front of the other.” If you’re building a business, you’ve probably heard this line more than once. However, Matthew Thor, a software engineer at Screencastify, takes the saying a bit more literally than his peers. As a runner who once came in 84th place at the Chicago Marathon (out of an estimated 45,000 participants), Thor is no stranger to endurance, initiative, and hustle. In this post, he talks about the importance of focus, balance, and competition.

December 4, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

December 3, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

We rely so heavily on smartphones and other connected gadgets, but what is it that enables those devices to function? One of 1871’s newest members, Crown Castle, the company enabling much of your wireless world, gives us a glimpse into the realm of cell towers, small cells, fiber optics and all things shared communications. This blog is part of the company’s “Tomorrow’s Chicago Today” series, which begins with a panel discussion on communications infrastructure Wednesday, December 5.

November 30, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

“If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, then you don’t know what you are doing.” – Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Father of Quality Evolution. Dr. Deming’s ideas of product quality largely inspired Japan’s post-WWII economic boom in manufacturing. His celebrated 14 points for management have also stood as a standard for transforming business effectiveness since the 1980s. In this guest blog post, Wilma Paxton Doherty, a Senior Consultant at ON THE MARK, talks about how organizations can apply Agile thinking by using Dr. Deming’s philosophies.

November 28, 2018 by J Blaszczykiewicz

Women make up half of the total college-educated workforce in the United States yet only 29 percent of the overall science and engineering workforce. It’s an issue that Stephanie Hein, CEO of MakerGirl, is working to solve. In this article, she talks about why it’s important to show young women the value of STEM — and have some fun in the process.

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