News Shark Tank Veteran LuminAID Launches Kickstarter Campaign for New Product LuminAID, the Chicago company that found success on “Shark Tank” two years ago, is turning to Kickstarter to fund the launch of its latest product. Co-founders Anna Stork ⇒ and Andrea...
News UChicago-Founded Menswear Startup Has a Kickstarter Success on Day One In less than 12 hours last week, a Chicago-based menswear fashion startup exceeded twice its funding goal of $15,000. The Kickstarter for Portefini’s first product, the Everyday Blazer, launched Nov. 1,...
News How the Build and Launch Accelerators Helped Lead These Startups to Success The Polsky Center’s Build and Launch Accelerators are 10-week summer programs that provide a unique opportunity for founders to focus solely on their businesses and social enterprises in a collaborative...
News Seven Ways to Land Your First 100 Customers The following article was written by Melissa Harris, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Polsky Center, and originally published in Crain’s Chicago Business on February 19, 2024. Read the original article. You can’t...
News Tovala Raises $1.6 Million for its Connected Oven, Goes on Sale March 1 In March, Tovala launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its connected oven and its Blue Apron-like service. Since then, approximately 1,000 ovens have been purchased. This expression of interest has attracted the attention...
News Kicked into Gear: 6 Chicago Startups That Saw Success Through Crowdfunding Great ideas are just the first step to building a great product, but getting funding is the real hurdle in turning your idea into a reality. While you could turn...
News A Look Back on the History of Tovala: How an Idea for Fresher and Quicker Meals Became a $11M-Backed Venture By Xiaohe Grace Gu One Sunday afternoon, when David Rabie, MBA ’15, was trying to make food for the whole week, he realized that he was using four different appliances....
News Polsky Weekly 10 // April 5 Quevos launches Kickstarter, Simple Mills on the Today Show , Care+Wear’s newest product launch, and more.
News Quevos, the ‘Better for You’ Chip, Expands in the Snack Aisle Nick Hamburger and his company, Quevos – a low-carb, high-protein egg white chip brand – are taking the world by storm. The idea arose from Hamburger’s original business partner and...
News UChicago Backs Tovala’s $20 Million Series B Funding Round The meal service and smart oven company, founded by a University of Chicago alumni, has closed a $20 million Series B funding round to scale its business across the US....
News Quevos Lands $200,000 Investment on ABC’s Shark Tank from KIND Snacks Founder Daniel Lubetzky On Friday, January 22, Quevos, the egg white snack company, appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank, the reality show where entrepreneurs pitch their company to a team of celebrity investors (“sharks”)...
