Rattan L. Khosa SeedCon

Rattan Khosa, MBA ’79, started AMSYSCO in 1981 out of the basement of his home that he shared with his wife and young son, with lifetime savings of $44,000 and no other financing. After nearly four decades, he has grown it into a highly profitable company that provides post-tensioning systems on commercial structures, and occupies a 55,000 square foot facility; the company captures some 65% market share.

“Starting a business from scratch is like jumping off a cliff in the middle of the night while blindfolded, hoping that there is a safety net down below,” Khosa said.

“When more than 80 percent of companies fail within the first year – even those with ample funding – it’s clear that there is much more to a startup’s success than just money,” Khosa said. “I don’t simply want to provide the money for this new program; I plan to serve as a thought leader, mentor and guide for these aspiring entrepreneurs, so that my years of experience, my struggles and my successes may serve as an additional resource to help them succeed.”

“I know from personal experience that everyone needs help at some point in their lives. No one has succeeded on their own.”

Khosa is actively involved with the Polsky Center as a member of its advisory board, the Polsky Council.

Learn more about Rattan Khosa’s story.>>

As Deputy Dean, Starr oversees the Full-time, Evening, and Weekend MBA Programs, as well as the work of the Polsky Center and Rustandy Center at Booth. Prior to her role as Deputy Dean, Starr was the Executive Director of the Polsky Center, working with University of Chicago students, faculty, and staff to launch the next generation of high-impact ventures. She grew the entrepreneurship program at the University of Chicago from 2005 to 2020, and continues to champion the Center’s work today.

During Starr’s time as Executive Director at Polsky, she ran and expanded the Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge (NVC), which awards over $1M in funding and services to top entrepreneurial companies each year. The NVC is ranked the #1 university accelerator program in the nation. Since 1996, the NVC has fostered more than 800 startups, with 180+ that are still in operation and growing strong, has created thousands of jobs, and has produced exits of over nearly $6 billion, including Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) and Braintree Venmo (acquired by eBay’s PayPal for $800 million). In 2017, Starr testified before the U.S. Congress’ Committee on Small Business on the role of accelerator programs in creating new jobs and positively influencing economic development.

Matt is the co-founder and CEO of LogicGate. Prior to LogicGate, he spent over a decade in the management consulting space building technology solutions to operationalize regulatory, risk, and compliance programs for Fortune 100 companies. It was during this time he learned the skills to realize his true calling: building world-class companies that meaningfully affect the lives of others through user-friendly technology. Given his extensive background in the GRC space, Matt regularly speaks and consults on risk and compliance topics. He was named an Ernst & Young finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2020 Midwest Award and was recently recognized by The Globee 2022 CEO World Awards.

Ira Weiss is a clinical professor of accounting and entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth, and a partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners.  At Chicago Booth, Weiss teaches accounting, entrepreneurship and venture capital. Weiss has been actively investing in private companies for the past 20 years and has made over 150 venture capital and angel investments.  Weiss formerly served as the faculty liaison to Hyde Park Angels, and was formerly a partner at RK Ventures, a NY based pledge fund. 

Weiss currently serves on various boards as a director or observer, including Cove Markets, FourKites, LandscapeHub, Leap, NestEgg, PartySlate, and ShipBob. Previously, Weiss was on the board of Concerro (acquired by API Healthcare) and also a board member or an observer at Ahalogy (acquired by NYSE: QUOT), G2Crowd, and Streamlink Software.  His most notable exited investments include Rackspace (NASD: RAX), Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly), Edusoft (acquired by Houghton Mifflin), and Axioma (acquired by Deutsche Borse and General Atlantic). Weiss started his career as an accountant at Coopers and Lybrand, and received his MBA from Chicago Booth and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Allison is a Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners and has been with the firm since 2019. 

Prior to HPVP Allison ran business operations for Civis Analytics, a Chicago-based data science software startup. She also co-founded Flag Analytics, a predictive analytics company focused on public safety, and spent her early career in healthcare consulting at Accenture. She is a 2017 MBA/MPP from the University of Chicago. 

Jason is the Head of Platform at Jump Capital. At Jump he partners with founders to have an exceptional experience with Jump from our first conversation through an exit. Prior to Jump, Jason was the CEO of Food Genius, a data insights and analytics platform for the food service industry, where he led the company through its acquisition by US. Foods in the spring of 2016. He Previously spent his time in a variety of B2B enterprise operating roles, predominantly in early-stage companies.

After many years of judging and mentoring Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC), Tebbe brings a wealth of successful entrepreneurial experience into the classroom by leveraging his founding of two NASDAQ-listed corporations as well as direct involvement in numerous startup and high-growth companies over the past thirty-five years. For over ten years, as both an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Polsky Center, Tebbe aids students in their entrepreneurial efforts and helps other professors enhance their classes. Outside of the classroom, Tebbe serves as chairman of World Business Chicago’s Innovation and Venture Strategy Council, a dedicated public-private effort to improve Chicago’s economic development as well as national and world competitiveness in science, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Rick Desai is a Managing Partner at Listen, a consumer focused venture capital that has invested in Factor, Calm, Kiwi Crate, Public Goods and Slumberkins. Rick is also a co-founder of Dashfire, a startup studio that built and invested in over 40+ companies from 2009 to 2014 including 20 that were MBA led. Rick was awarded a Clinton Fellowship in 2008 and spent one year leading social enterprise strategies in urban Indian slums for the NGO SAATH, where he remains an active contributor.  He previously was an investor at Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm.

Rick is an Adjunct Entrepreneurship Lecturer at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, teaching New Venture Development and was awarded a Faculty Impact award in 2018.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Ashley is Managing Partner at Bluestein Ventures where she drives the firm’s strategy, portfolio company support, and deal pipeline. Ashley has made over 30 investments in the space and is an observer on three boards. Ashley has appeared in Forbes (here and here), has been featured on industry podcasts (here, here, here, and here), and regularly serves on food industry panels.

Ashley has deep experience leading growth strategy and establishing scalable infrastructure necessary to build sustainable ventures. Prior to Bluestein, Ashley was Vice President of Strategy & Operations at Hartman Windows & Doors, where she was responsible for growth strategy, leading expansion across the U.S. as well as setting the platform on which to grow. Ashley also worked for Coinstar in Business Development, focusing on launching their new ventures. After college, Ashley was an Analyst at NERA Economic Consulting.

Active in the Chicago and food community, Ashley serves on the Board of Naturally Chicago, on Selection Committee of the Good Food Accelerator, and as a mentor at Food Foundry, The Hatchery, and the LeAD Accelerator, in addition to being a judge at Booth’s new venture competitions. She is also on the National Leadership Council of United States Artists. Ashley received an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and a BA in Political Economy, summa cum laude, from Williams College.

Ashley was vegan before it was cool and is the resident health and wellness nut on the team, endlessly focused on how to optimize habits for peak performance.

Lin Jiang is the Founder and CEO of Yishi Foods, a first-of-its kind breakfast brand that is reimagining your oatmeal–and morning ritual. After a childhood in China, Lin came to the U.S. for her college education in 2014. She started Yishi when she was craving a healthier breakfast with the flavors and ingredients that she grew up loving. Prior to Yishi, she worked at BCG and helped Fortune 500 companies develop strategic initiatives in organization design and M&A. She was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list(Class 2023) in the Food & Drink category. She is a current part-time MBA student at Chicago Booth.

Brian Coe began his entrepreneurial career in 1995 as co-founder and CEO of Litholink Corporation, a CLIA laboratory with integrated clinical decision support software that grew to serve approximately 25% of the US urology market and 10% of the nephrology market with national payer coverage before its acquisition by LabCorp in 2006. At LabCorp (NYSE: LH), Brian was promoted to Senior Vice President and led the expansion of the programs to other diseases that eventually included chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, bone disease, coagulation disorders, and diabetes as the platform fully integrated into the broader organization. Litholink’s programs currently serve ~9MM pts/yr.

Brian left LabCorp to serve as co-founder and CEO of Talis Biomedical (NASDAQ:TLIS) (FKA SlipChip), a point-of-care molecular diagnostics platform for infectious disease. He led the company from conception through its IPO, led by JPM and BAML, raising approximately $500MM in equity capital over 9 years, with an additional $50MM in non-dilutive grant funding. Brian currently serves as an adjunct professor at Chicago Booth, where he previously co-created and taught Entrepreneurial Discovery course with Prof Mark Tebbe, instructs the I-Corps course at the Polsky Center, and serves as an active advisor in multiple life science start-up companies.

Jennifer Fried is the cofounder and CEO of ExplORer Surgical, a workflow management software company for operating rooms. Jennifer earned a BA in mathematical methods in the social sciences and economics, and financial economics from Northwestern University. She also earned an MBA from the Chicago Booth. While at Booth, she led ExplORer Surgical to a second place finish in the New Venture Challenge where the team earned $50,000. ExplORer Surgical was recently the recipient of a $500,000 investment from the University of Chicago Startup Investment Program as a part of its recent series A financing round.

Ryan Mundy is Founder & CEO of Alkeme Health Co. – a digital health company with a mission to become the universal healthcare provider for the Black community. Alkeme Health is a start-up rooted in Black wellness, a space for our culture and our care. Aiming to become the digital destination of total health for the Black community, Alkeme, at its core, is a content platform launching with a focus on mental health. Through compelling & culturally relevant content, Alkeme intends to normalize and de-stigmatize mental health in culture, making it not only accessible, but aspirational.

Previously, Ryan co-founded SWZLE (acquired Oct’ 2020) and was Managing Director of Techlete Ventures.

Ryan played eight years as professional athlete in the National Football League and is a Super Bowl champion (Super Bowl 43).

Rachel Stillman serves as a Vice President at 7wireVentures where she focuses on investments in digital healthcare and technology. She is currently a Board Member of Carebox. She was a member of the deal team for CirrusMD, Jasper, MedArrive, Brightline, Payzen, and Vivante. She is active with the portfolio, having provided strategic project support to companies including CirrusMD, Transcarent, NOCD, HomeThrive, RecoveryOne, SameSky Health, Vivante and Carebox.

Rachel’s prior experience in venture capital includes her time at Qure Ventures, Israel’s first exclusively focused digital health fund. Prior to Rachel’s career in venture capital, she worked in the Healthcare Group at MB Financial Bank where she advised and supported healthcare organizations and healthcare service providers with their financing and risk management needs. There, she gained copious amounts of transaction experience structuring acquisition financings, leveraged financings, private syndications, and credit derivative products.

Rachel is a co-founder of Dropping Claims, a content platform written by women in HealthTech, powered by the HealthTech Grind.

Rachel received a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors from Indiana University.

Doug Monieson, MBA ’89, is a veteran entrepreneur and Midwest investor. He is currently executive chairman of the board of UICO, a rugged touch screen company founded at Chicago Booth and one of the first investments made by Hyde Park Angels (HPA). He is chairman emeritus of Hyde Park Angels (HPA), the largest and most active angel group in the Midwest. Doug is also founder and head trader at Doug Monieson Trading, LLC. and on the Board of Directors of Fishidy, a mobile/social fishing app that was recently acquired by Ray Marine, a division of Flir Inc. He is also on the advisory board for the Kaplan Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He led the successful exit of Gradebeam, which was purchased by Textura (TXTR) in 2011.  Gradebeam.com was a SAAS business that connects general contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry. Doug has a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Michigan and an MBA in finance from Chicago Booth.

A seasoned operator and venture investor, Sach co-founded Jump Capital in 2012, an early-stage venture firm specializing in seed/series A investments. The firm invests $3-10M within the Fintech, B2B SaaS, and IT Infrastructure, but extends avid interest toward industries under-served by technology.

Motivate Co-founder and General Partner David Wieland started and sold one of the first and largest hotel WiFi operators, bought and successfully sold one of the first web-hosting companies, started and sold one of the first and largest video interviewing software platforms, co-founded one of the largest angel investor groups in the US, personally invested in over 100 startups, collected hundreds of premium domain names like Bourbon.com, Austin.com, and received his BA from Notre Dame and MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg.

Since 1982, Scott Meadow has been a principal investor in the private equity industry. He is the 2011 recipient of the Richard J. Daley Award. The Daley Medal acknowledges a single individual who has given direct and extraordinary support to the state of Illinois by participating in or being an advocate for the venture capital and private equity industry.

Meadow has held the position of clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth since 2000. He was awarded the 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Phoenix Prize and the Faculty Excellence Award in 2010. He was designated by Business Week’s “Guide to the Best Business Schools” (2003, 8th edition) and (2005, 9th edition) as one of the outstanding entrepreneurial professors in the country. Meadow has taught 10000 students at Booth, in courses including Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity, Commercializing Innovation (which he created), Introduction to Venture Capital (which he created), Entrepreneurial Finance & Venture Capital, and the New Venture Challenge, and he is the faculty advisor for the Venture Capital Investment Competition. Meadow is also on the advisory board and steering committee of the Innovation Fund at the University of Chicago.

Meadow has over 30 years of experience as a general partner with four venture capital and private equity firms including William Blair Venture Partners, The Frontenac Company, The Sprout Group, and most recently with the Edgewater Funds, where he remains an associate partner. Over the course of his career, Meadow has approved hundreds of equity financings, been active in fundraising and has personally led, originated or created more than 60 investments, including two dozen healthcare services companies, over a dozen consumer services and retail companies, as well as biotech companies and companies enhanced by the Internet and social media. Meadow has been recognized by Venture One as one of the outstanding healthcare investors in the industry and is a testifying expert witness in a broad range of commercial disputes involving entrepreneurship.

Representative investments include Coventry Corporation, HEALTHSOUTH, Sunrise Assisted Living, Sunrise International, Managed Health Network, Aspen Education Services, Seurat Therapeutics, Pathology Partners, Heritage Healthcare, MedPartners, The Sports Authority, CompUSA, and Staples. Meadow recently served on the board of directors of National Equipment Services (NASDAQ: NLEQ) during its emergence from Chapter 11 and Barrier Safe Systems. He has served on the advisory board of Invenergy, GenerationOne, Dais Corporation, and Anka Associates, a private equity firm focused on Turkey. Meadow earned an AB, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Scott is an experienced public-company CEO, investor, founder, board chair & advisor. He was most recently CEO of Autonomous Vehicles and Mobility Businesses at Ford Motor Company.

Prior to Ford, Scott was an Executive in Residence at General Catalyst Partners, a top-tier venture and growth capital firm based in Cambridge, MA. He was an active Chairman at two growth stage portfolio companies Envoy Global, Inc and TrueMotion, Inc. (where he is a co-founder). Scott stepped down from his two Chairman roles in 2021 when GC realized very successful exits from both Envoy and TrueMotion.

Griffith served as Chairman and Chief Executive officer of Zipcar, Inc from 2003-2013, solidifying the company as the world’s leading car sharing network. In 2003 Scott took the helm of a troubled, underfunded start up and proceeded to re-position the brand, re-set the business model and bring in a new leadership team. Scott raised several venture rounds from top-tier venture capital firms (Benchmark and Greylock) and built the company organically and through several M&A transactions in the US and Europe. Scott recruited a very strong leadership team and board of directors and took the company public. He later negotiated the sale of Zipcar to Avis Budget Group. Zipcar was recognized on the cover of both Inc. & Fortune – the Fortune cover dubbed Zipcar as the “Best New Idea in Business”.

Griffith has been recognized as one of BusinessWeek’s “Best Leaders”, and as one of Huffington Post’s “Game-Changers in Transportation”, and as Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s “Social Entrepreneur CEO of the Year”.  He has appeared many times on CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg TV, speaking on topics including:  leadership, developing high-performance company cultures, venture and growth capital, strategic M&A, the future of transportation, electric vehicles, assisted/self-driving technology and transportation policy.

Earlier in his career, Scott spent several years advising executives at Fortune 500 companies as a strategy consultant at leading business strategy firm, The Parthenon Group and prior to business school Scott held several executive roles at both The Boeing Company and Hughes Electronics.

Scott holds a BS in engineering from Carnegie Mellon and a MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  Scott is an active alum at Chicago Booth, including long-standing membership on the Advisory Council for the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at The University of Chicago.

Kevin is a Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Chicago Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund where he is overseeing all aspects of Chicago Ventures including fund management, deal sourcing and investments, and working directly with portfolio companies.  He joined the fund in June 2013.

From 2011 to 2013, Kevin was the Founding CEO of 1871, one of the top ranked incubators in the world serving hundreds of startups building their early-stage businesses located at Chicago’s famed Merchandise Mart.  Since Kevin helped launch 1871 in May 2012, the center has welcomed thousands of visitors to events and curated hundreds of workshops and office hours with mentors for entrepreneurs.  During Kevin’s time as CEO, high-profile visitors included former British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, AOL Founder Steve Case, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, and YouTube co-founder Steve Chen – shining a spotlight on Chicago’s growing startup community nationally and globally.  During this time, Kevin was also a Venture Partner at Pritzker Group Venture Capital, overseeing their early-stage Seed Investments.

Previously, Kevin co-founded the Google Chicago office in late 2000.  In his over 10 years with Google, Kevin helped grow this office to more than 400 professionals and led relationships with some of Google’s largest marketing partners based in the Midwest.  Before Google, Kevin held business development positions at CMGI, an early internet incubator, and USRobotics, the pioneer in modem technology.

Kevin is actively involved in several civic and charitable organizations.  He was named to Crain’s 2011 “40 Under 40” list as well as Crain’s 2012 Tech 50 list.  He is on the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Institute of Technology and of Loyola University Chicago.  He is a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago and Vice Chairman of the Technology Membership Committee of The Economic Club of Chicago.  He currently serves on the boards of NorthShore University HealthSystem, the BigShoulders Fund, ChooseChicago, mHub, The Resurrection Project, the Future Founders Foundation, the CEC, the Chicago Fire Foundation, and the inaugural Development Council for USA Soccer.  In 2011, he served on the steering committee for Mayor Emanuel’s Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs and currently is a member of the Mayor’s technology council, ChicagoNEXT.  Previously, he was a Director of The Economic Club of Chicago and a Trustee of his alma mater, Loyola Academy.

Kevin earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business (’10) where he previously served on the Executive Advisory Board for the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship.  He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Boston College (’96) and studied at the London School of Economics.  Kevin, his wife Victoria, and their children, Jacqueline, Max and Lizzie, reside in Winnetka.

Mike LaVitola is the co-founder and CEO of Foxtrot –a contemporary evolution of the corner store and café. Mike began his career working in investment banking in Austin, Texas, focusing on large-scale, public private partnership infrastructure transactions. He then joined a middle market private equity firm in Chicago before attending Chicago Booth, where he launched Foxtrot in 2013.

Erika Mercer serves as the executive program director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In this role, she oversees all entrepreneurship programming within Chicago Booth, leading a team of staff in developing co-curricular programs and experiential learning opportunities for MBA students, alumni, and other related constituents. This includes managing the startup, private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurship through acquisition, and small business programs that serve the professional interests students and alumni. She has been with the Polsky Center since 2010 and, over that time, has led the development and growth of numerous Polsky Center offerings.

Erika brings close to 20 years of experience in higher education, having previously held roles in the international programming offices at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and Brown University, where she managed, developed, and promoted study abroad programs worldwide, acted as the primary contact for students, faculty, and staff on site, and provided international training and advising to undergraduates. She served as a member of several international education organizations, including The Forum on Education Abroad and NAFSA: Association of International Educators; was published in Abroad View Magazine and the Bulletin of the American Research Center in Egypt; and presented at national conferences on the topic of cultural and citizen diplomacy. She also interned in the Academic Editorial Department at Oxford University Press, where she assisted editors with the review and preparation of manuscripts for production.

Erika earned a BA, magna cum laude, from Middlebury College and an EdM from Harvard University. She has studied in Spain, Germany, and Egypt.