Supported by
ScaleUp is back for its 10th year. This isn’t just another tech conference. It’s a high-impact, half-day immersion designed for those in the thick of scaling teams, products, operations. We’re moving past the surface level to tackle the critical inflection points of the scale-up journey.
Who should attend?
Take your company and team to new heights! This event is perfect for:
Growth-stage
Founders
Late-stage Scalers
Corporate Innovators
Team
Leaders
The Takeaways
This is the ultimate opportunity to form invaluable connections with peers and potential partners, gain tactical strategies for driving growth, and increase your brand awareness within the Chicago tech community.Â
✅ Candid Conversations: Go beyond the highlight reel with behind-the-scenes conversations. Unpack the actual decisions that shaped breakout companies.
✅ Direct Expert Access: Solve your scaling hurdles at Networking Tables. Meet with Experts-in-Residence and Mentors to get tailored support.
✅ Growth through Community: Strengthen your ties within the Chicago tech community – founders, leaders, investors.
Agenda
- Tactical Growth Strategies: Forget the fluff. Learn from industry veterans who share the “how-to” behind their successesÂ
- Growth-Centered Workshops: Move beyond passive listening. Engage in interactive sessions designed to solve your specific scaling bottlenecks.
- High-Level Networking: Connect with a curated group of peers, thought leaders, and potential partners within the Chicago tech community.
Meet our Keynote Speaker
Mike Lazerow is a serial founder, visionary early-stage investor, and New York Times bestselling author with a long-standing reputation for building, scaling, and backing successful companies.
Over the past three decades, he and his wife, Kass, have launched and scaled multiple ventures, including Buddy Media, acquired by Salesforce for $745 million in 2012, and GOLF.com, acquired by Time Warner in 2006. As an investor, Mike has backed more than 100 startups, including breakout successes like Scopely (acquired for $5 billion in 2023) and Liquid Death.
Collectively, the companies he has cofounded and provided early-stage capital to have generated more than $10 billion in realized returns. Today, he owns and operates a growing portfolio of companies across venture capital, healthcare, executive recruiting, and sports. Mike and his wife’s debut book, Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story About the Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success, became an instant bestseller, landing on the New York Times, USA Today, and LA Times bestseller lists and winning the National Non-Fiction Book Award for its honest look at what it really takes to build a business.
