News Honey-Sweetened ‘Nice Cream’ Expands Nationally, Gives Back to the Bees When Jessica Gartenstein, AB ’17, and Erik Nadeau, AB ’18, entered the 2017 College New Venture Challenge (CNVC), Frönen (formerly BeeNana) was just an idea. “We weren’t really thinking about...
News 2020 Holiday Guide: 20 Polsky-Supported Businesses As we near the end of 2020, the holiday season is officially here. While things will feel quite a bit different this year, we wanted to highlight some of our...
News NVC Alum Crave Natural Secures $650k in Pre-Seed Round for Healthy Food Startup Crave Natural in November raised a $650,000 pre-seed round of funding. Founded by Chicago Booth MBA candidate Lin Jiang, Crave Natural is a healthy food company with an East Asian...
News Small Business Spotlight: OjaExpress, Designed By and For Immigrants, Brings Same-Day Delivery to Ethnic Grocery Stores When Boyede Sobitan worked as a healthcare consultant, traveling four or five days out of every week, his return home to Chicago was often met with a request from his...
News 25 Teams Advance to Classroom Portion of the 2025 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge Today, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation announced the 25 teams advancing to the classroom portion of the 2025 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC), the University...
News Record $2.267 Million Awarded at 2025 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, B2B SaaS Company Takes First Rayni, a B2B SaaS company, has won first place in the 29th Annual Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC), during which a record-breaking more than $2.2 million was...
News Meet the Inaugural Alchemist Chicago Cohort Alchemist Accelerator and the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation are thrilled to announce the inaugural cohort of Alchemist Chicago. Alchemist Chicago Cohort 1 is made up...
News Polsky Center Names 13 Companies Participating in the 2019 Summer Accelerator Program The latest cohort of the Polsky Accelerator, a 10-week intensive summer program designed for both for-profit and not-for-profit startups, is announced.
News Finalists Selected for the 2019 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge For the first time in its 23 year history, 12 teams have been selected to advance to the finals of the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC).
News Small Business Growth Program Fall Cohort Announced The Polsky Small Business Growth Program has announced the Fall 2019 cohort, which is made up of small businesses located in the South and West Side of Chicago. Small teams...
News Simple Mills’ Not-so-simple Success: 5 Questions with Founder Katlin Smith After suffering from joint pain, Katlin Smith, now 28, took a hard look at her eating habits and opted for more whole, natural foods. She soon discovered a lack of...
News Finalists Named for the 2017 New Venture Challenge The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business has officially announced the 11 teams moving on to the finals of the New Venture Challenge. The...
