Chicago
Founders
Brittany Laughlin, Gtrot
Brittany Laughlin is the co-founder of Gtrot, a social travel startup up looking to make trip planning more social. Previously she served as Marketing Manager at American Express, managing the launch plan for the Lowe’s Business Rewards Card to over 20,000 new cardmembers in the first 6 months. Brittany has won the esteemed American Express Open Innovation Award two years in a row and was nominated for the 2009 Chariman’s Award for Innovation. Brittany graduated from NYU’s Stern School of Business with a B.S. in Marketing and International Business and a minor in Film and TV from Tisch School of the Arts. Brittany is also a fanatic traveler and has visited 35 countries across all 7 continents. She was selected as a 2010 Fellow to the Startup Leadership Program in New York.
Ben Reid, Foodie Registry
Ben is the Founder & CEO of Foodie Registry (www.foodieregistry.com), THE wedding registry for restaurant date nights. Under Ben’s watch, Foodie Registry has expanded to 5 US cities, 140 restaurant partners, and has seen significant customer and sales growth. Prior to Foodie Registry, Ben was a successful equity options trader and educator at boutique proprietary trading firm PEAK6 Investments. Ben is an expert in startup operations, the gifting and wedding businesses, and financial derivatives. Ben holds a degree in Marketing from Michigan State University and an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Ben is an avid runner and traveler – he has run in two marathons and met his (Chicagoan) wife backpacking in Germany! Ben strongly believes empowering startup activity and entrepreneurship is the key to global economic growth and prosperity. He is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Brian Busche, BankBadger
Brian Busche is the Founder of BankBadger, an online banking application intended to help parents teach their kids about managing money in the digital age. Brian currently works at Leo Burnett, where he is a Senior Creative Technologist, leading the development of Web-based marketing projects for Fortune 500 Brands. Brian has also worked at Rendition Multimedia, a company he started in 1999 which lead to the creation of RPMworld in 2001. RPMworld Virtual Drag Racing became a profitable online game, and is one of the early examples of a virtual economy, real-time multiplayer interaction, and affiliate syndication of a Flash game. He is an expert in Adobe Flash development, and Actionscript programming. Brian was lead developer on a team which received a Webby Award in 2010, for Raytheon’s “Sum of All Thrills” interactive learning xperience. He holds a degree in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa, and became a Macromedia Certified Flash Developer in 2004. He is a fan of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Brian is passionate about bringing children and parents together through mutual online game play and educational software. His current venture aims to leverage the Internet to educate children about managing their money with the direct involvement of their parents. He is 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Brian Bauer, Kurfuffl
Mr. Bauer is the Founder & President of Kurfuffl, a social platform that tallies, tracks and organizes the formal, informal, friendly or foe-ly competitions of your daily life. Bauer has built a reputation as a valued leader for startup business ventures, using his well rounded experience in mergers and acquisitions, business process and human capital management to propel high growth businesses to reach their potential. As the Vice President of Operations and Client Services at Cellit, he acted as the internal mobile stakeholder for numerous Fortune 500 companies and nationally recognized brands. Bauer served as Vice President & General Manager of Barrington Interactive, which included the ground-up creation of a self-sufficient technology, content and sales division with a focus on hyper-local news and information. In his spare time, Bauer is an avid triathlete. Bauer received his B.S. in Business Administration from Truman State University and graduated cum laude from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business’ Executive Program. He is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Bryon Finke, Furnishly
Bryon is the founder of Furnishly, an early-stage Chicago startup that is establishing a more efficient marketplace for second-hand furniture in urban environments. Bryon currently works as a management consultant for Accenture specializing in strategy & business development. He has most recently spent time in the firm’s Products Innovation group, working to build new businesses with sizable revenue streams internally. Additionally, he has spent time building financial models for energy and life sciences clients. Bryon enjoys following market trends and staying on top of today’s most exciting consumer technology companies. He holds a BS in Enterprise Systems Engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign.
Dinesh (Dino) Ganesarajah, PreScouter
Dinesh (Dino) Ganesarajah is the Founder and CEO of PreScouter. PreScouter connects corporate R&D labs to new inventions created at universities, bridging the multi-billion dollar gap in technology transfer. Ganesarajah started his career in the early days of OpenBet Technologies, building some of the most trafficked European gaming websites, such as PaddyPower.com and Ladbrokes.com. At the BBC, he was a Portfolio Manager, looking after the project and resource prioritization process for the BBC’s $120M new media activities. He enjoys public speaking, blogging, coding and other nerdy stuff. Ganesarajah has MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, where he was a McCormick Scholar. His undergraduate is an MEng Computing from Imperial College London, where he won the Project Prize for best final year thesis. He is 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Jenn Yee, MBA-Social.com
Jenn Yee is the Founder of MBA Social (http://mba-social.com), an online lifestyle magazine and survival guide that provides the nation’s top MBAs with content covering popular topics such as Love & Dating, Career, Entrepreneurship, Social Life, and more. Jenn is currently a Consultant at Clareo Partners, a strategy consulting network that provides innovative growth solutions for companies ranging from startups to large corporations. Jenn has also worked with high-profile media companies such as Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, National Geographic Society, Time Out, and Emphasis Media in the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to founding MBA-social.com, Jenn led technology development and social media strategy for NewEquityBusiness.com, an online platform that matches small- to medium-sized businesses with over 3000+ sources of public and private financing in the Chicago and San Francisco markets. Jenn enjoys vegetable gardening, watching NFL football, and the finer points of sandwich cuisine. She received her M.B.A. from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, her B.A. from Williams College, and is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Maliha Mustafa, SPARK Chicago & Funnl.me
Maliha Mustafa cofounded SPARK Chicago, a six-day incubation contest for startups. She served as the Chief Marketing Officer and was pivotal in creating the brand in only five months. Currently she is working on a product to help aspiring entrepreneurs improve their elevator pitches, and hopes to make entrepreneurial education more accessible to all. Prior to Chicago, Maliha lived in New York for nearly a decade as a former management consultant at Archstone Consulting and investment banker at Lehman Brothers—working in equity research and investment banking. Maliha attended high school in Aurora at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). She serves on the alumni board as an elected representative and judges in the entrepreneurial TALENT program. Maliha graduated cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University with a BA in Political Science. She is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Marian Mangoubi, BVM MEDIA
Marian Mangoubi is a Co-Founder of BVM MEDIA, an entertainment3.0 company that creates engaging multimedia content for young adult females. Prior to BVM MEDIA, she worked in digital media at DraftFCB and MediaEdge Interactive (MECi) now part of MindShare. Before getting into digital media, Marian worked in marketing and research roles at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity under the Illinois Film Office and Illinois Bureau of Tourism. Her first job out of college was as a Licensed Stock Broker for one of the few online trading companies, TD Waterhouse (now TD Ameritrade). She is an expert in digital, mobile, and integrated marketing, and knowledgeable in film and television entertainment. Marian holds an MBA and a BA in Sociology. She loves TV especially Burn Notice, Gossip Girl, Lost, Dr. Who, and The Good Wife, looks up to Oprah, Warren Buffet, and those working on social causes, and admires such brands as Alloy Media & Marketing (and its subsidiaries), GrubHub, and Tom’s Shoes She is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Moses Hohman, Human Practice
Moses Hohman is co-founder at Human Practice, a Chicago startup that helps patients find doctors through people they trust. Prior to Human Practice, Moses was VP of Development at Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD), a cheminformatics startup in Burlingame, CA. In 2011 CDD won Bio-IT World’s Best Practices Editors’ Choice Award for its software’s role in the collaborative search for new tuberculosis therapies. Moses has also worked as Associate Director of Bioinformatics at Northwestern University’s cancer center, and as a software developer at ThoughtWorks. He completed a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and an AB magna cum laude at Harvard University. Moses is the son of a talented union organizer and leader, who spoke truth to power and complacency in the union’s upper ranks, and of a mental health nurse manager driven by the joy and purpose of hard work. He likes to think he has inherited some of their courage, work ethic and commitment. He is married to his co-founder, who is a surgeon in private practice in Chicago. They have a two-year-old son. Moses loves cooking, foreign languages and travel, near or far. He is a 2012 fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Sinan Franklin, Blknotes
Sinan Franklin is the cofounder of Blknotes an early-stage local search startup; a web platform which curates reviews and recommendations from Black American points of view, empowering users to explore their communities from their unique perspectives. Sinan currently works as a Media Supervisor for Starcom MediaVest Group specializing in multicultural media strategy and activation. She has extensive experience across a variety of industries and clients, including Allstate Insurance, Disney Theme Parks, and Best Buy. Most recently, she was in charge of US Hispanic TV, and digital tactical planning across fifteen brands under the Procter & Gamble umbrella. She holds a B.A. in Communications. She is a fan of Public Radio, cupcakes, and remarkable UX design. She is passionate about solving web and mobile products problems for multicultural consumers. She is 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Innovators
Adi Kwatra, Colorz of Life & Hedge Fund Trader
Adi Kwatra, an engineering graduate from IIT Roorkee and University of Southern California and a candidate of the CFA Institute, uses his expertise in Investments, Computer Sciences and hardware based acceleration of computationally intensive algorithms while working as a Senior Strategy Developer at a Start-up High Frequency Algorithmic Trading Hedge Fund in Chicago. In his spare time, he co-founded the non-profit called Colorz Of Life, which believed in spreading cultural awareness by celebrating festivals from different cultures and spending quality time with the elderly at assisted living homes. He also actively volunteered as an Entrepreneurial Mentor for 3 years at BUILD which promotes entrepreneurship among youth. He is a 2012 SLP Fellow and Co-Program Leader for the founding class of SLP Chicago.
Scott Cronin, Northwestern University
Scott Cronin is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University working on next generation power plant systems utilizing highly efficient fuel cell technology. His work primarily focuses on understanding long term performance degradation in these systems such that methods can be developed to mitigate these problems. These efforts led to the development of a consulting business with his advisor for a Global Fortune 500 company. Prior to this, he worked with organic electronic materials at Northwestern University and with metals at Caterpillar Inc. He has received several internal graduate fellowships at Northwestern University and an Honorable Mention for the National Science Foundation’s graduate fellowship program. He is interested in transferring proven technology from research labs into useful devices or services that can benefit society. In his free time, he plays sports, takes voice/music lessons, and improves upon his android app. He is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Srinath Kotte, CareFusion
Srinath (Sri) Kotte is a Research and Development Engineer with CareFusion, a global medical technology company. As part of the Engineering Development Program, Sri has worked in a variety of business units to help commercialize a wide range of products from surgical instruments to ventilation consumable sets. Prior to CareFusion, Sri worked with an international team for Carl Zeiss Meditec in Jena, Germany, gaining valuable business development and market research experience. Sri’s passion for entrepreneurship and health stems from his experience at a medical device start-up and continues today as he pursues a project to develop a novel material to be utilized in prosthetic limbs. Sri graduated with honors from the University of California, San Diego with a BS in Bioegineering. He is a 2011 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program San Diego and Co-Program Leader for the founding class of SLP Chicago.
Sue Kim, dressmeSue
Sue Kim is the Founder of dressmeSue, a fashion advice platform for people who hate to shop. Prior to dressmeSue, she created a unique freelancing service called Bgency, helping advertising agencies solve the problem of getting high quality creative and technical work done fast. Sue has also worked as a Java developer for Peapod, an online grocer founded in 1989 and acquired by Royal Ahold in 2000. Sue is an expert in passion and customer empathy. She was put on a Female Founder to Watch list by Women 2.0. Sue holds degrees in Sociology and Korea Studies. She is a fan of Lean Startup and wants to have fun making a difference. Sue is passionate about living in world where there are no more problems to solve. She is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
Sujata R. Emani, Cleveland Whiskey
Sujata R. Emani is the Research Director of Cleveland Whiskey, LLC a technology-driven American whiskey and spirits company creating a disruptive innovation in the spirits industry that challenges the methodologies of traditional spirits production. Her diverse academic background includes doctoral research in biochemistry and cell biology in Roger Tsien’s lab at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), as well as Master’s work in astrobiology and optical detection technology at Carnegie Mellon University. A self-proclaimed space junkie, Sujata conducted research with NASA-JSC where she experienced the exhilaration of microgravity at 33,000 feet aboard the KC-135A “Vomit Comet”. Sujata’s dedication to community and social responsibility led her to organize the 2nd Annual Business Plan Competition at UCSD which launched her into a non-profit start-up that connects and assists socially responsible entrepreneurs and innovators. She is an advocate for women and under-represented populations in higher education, a member of the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, and was awarded Outstanding Graduate Student by UCSD-Graduate Students Association. Sujata takes an active role in local political movements and performs music and improvisational comedy with her friends. Sujata is dedicated to revitalizing her hometown, Cleveland, Ohio, through growth and stewardship of the young entrepreneurs movement. She is a 2012 Fellow in the Startup Leadership Program in Chicago.
