Success Stories
Company Portfolios
Helping bring ideas to life
The Polsky Center is proud to have supported many successful startups incuding Braintree, Grubhub, and Simple Mills. Spanning various industries, the Polsky Center is a resource for hundreds of community members, students, faculty, and alumni looking to bring an idea to life. Learn more about an assortment of these companies by clicking on the logos below.
AgileMD
AgileMD
- Founded by Borna Safabakhsh, MBA ’11
- 1st place at the 2011 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) ($25,000)
- Headquartered in San Francisco, CA
- @agileMD
Appiness
Appiness
- Founded by Jonas De Cooman, MBA ’16
- 1st place at the 2016 GNVC (awarded $7,500)
- Headquartered in Belgium (London Executive MBA program )
- @appiness_inc
Ascent Technologies
Ascent Technologies
- Founded by Brian Clark, MBA '17 and Aaron Droba, MBA '16
- 2015 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) Finalist ($10,000)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- Chicago Startup Investment Program Recipient (2018)
- @AscentRegTech
BallotReady
BallotReady
- Founded by Sebastian Ellefson, AB'03 , Alex Niemczewski, AB '09, and Aviva Rosman
- 1st place at the 2015 John Edwardson, '72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC) ($30,000)
- George Shultz Innovation Fund invested company (Spring 2016)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @BallotReady
Base
Base
- Founded by Uzi Shmilovici, MBA ‘11, Bart Kiszala, and Pawel Niznik
- 2nd place at the 2010 Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) ($15,000)
- Headquartered in Mountain View, CA
- @getbase
BenchPrep
BenchPrep
- Founded by Ashish Rangnekar and Ujjwal Gupta in 2009
- 1st place at the 2010 NVC ($30,000)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- Raised a total of $28.2 M in funding over 3 rounds
- Twitter: @benchprep, Facebook: @benchprep
BloomNation
BloomNation
- Founded by David Daneshgar, MBA '12, Farbod Shoraka, and Gregg Weisstein
- 3rd place at the 2012 NVC
- Headquartered in Los Angeles, California
- @Bloomnation
Braintree
Braintree
https://www.braintreepayments.com/
- Founded by Bryan Johnson, MBA '07
- 1st place at the 2007 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge
- Acquired Venmo, which lets you pay friends for things like drinks or a cab ride using a bank transfer, debit card, or credit card, in August 2012
- Acquired by PayPal for $800 million and joins the eBay PayPal family in September 2013
CancerIQ
CancerIQ
- Founded by Feyi Olopade, Moe Alkhafaji, Haibo Lu, and Olufunmilayo Olapade
- 4th place at the 2013 NVC ($10,000)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @CancerIQ.
CaptainU
CaptainU
- Founded by Avi Stopper, MBA ’06 and Michael Farb, MBA ’09
- 1st place at the 2008 NVC ($25,000)
- Headquartered in San Francisco, CA
- @CaptainU
ClostraBio
ClostraBio
https://www.clostrabio.com/index.html
- Founded by Cathryn R. Nagler, PhD and Jeffrey A. Hubbell, PhD
- 4th place at the 2017 New Venture Challenge
- Awarded up to $200,000 at the 2017 George Shultz Innovation Fund Finals
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @ClostraBio
Cubii
Cubii
- Founders by Arnav Dalmia, AB ’13, Ryota Sekine, AB ’13, and Shivani Jain
- 2nd place at the 2013 CNVC
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @MyCubii
Darby Smart
Darby Smart
- Founded by Nicole Farb, MBA ’09
- Headquartered in San Francisco, CA
- @darbysmart
ExplORer Surgical
ExplORer Surgical
- Founded by Jennifer Fried, MBA '15 and CMO Alexander Langerman, MD '05, SM, '15,
- 2nd place at the 2015 NVC ($50,000)
- Polsky Incubator Alumn
- Awarded $64,300 at the 2014 Spring George Shultz Innovation Fund Finals
- UChicago Startup Investment Program recipient (2017)
GrubHub
GrubHub
- Cofounder and CEO Matt Maloney, MS, '00, MBA '10
- Tied for first place at the 2006 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) ($17,500)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL with offices in Chicago, New York, and London
- @grubhub
Hello Tractor
Hello Tractor
- Founded by Lavandez Jones and Jehiel Oliver in 2011
- 1st place at the 2014 Social NVC ($30,000)
- Headquartered in Washington DC
- Twitter: @HelloTractor, Facebook: @hellotractor, Instagram: @hellotractor
LuminAID
LuminAID
- Founded by Andrea Sreshta, MBA '16, and Anna Stork
- 1st place at the 2012 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC) ($25,000)
- Star and gem lanterns were prototyped at the Polsky Center Fab Lab in 2016
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- LuminAID was featured on Shark Tank and received offers from all 5 investors in 2015
- @luminAIDlab
Mighty
Mighty
- Founded by Megan Hryndza
- 2018 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC) Finalist
- Polsky Incubator Company -- Community Affiliation
- @mightydeposits
MoneyThink
MoneyThink
- Founded by Ted Gonder, AB '12
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @moneythink
NetEnergy
NetEnergy
- Founded by Said Al-Hallaj and Mike Pintar, MBA ’16
- 2nd place at the 2015 NVC (including the inaugural Khosa Maker Award)
- Headquartered in Chicago
Parallel Works
Parallel Works
https://www.parallelworks.com/
- Polsky Incubator Company
- Argonne National Laboratory and Computation Institute at the University of Chicago affiliate
- @ParallelWorks
PartySlate
PartySlate
https://partyslate.com/chicago
- Founded by Julie Novack and Kristin McMillin
- NVC Team
- @PartySlate
PrepMe
PrepMe
- Founded by Karan Goel, MBA ’06, Avichai Garg, and Joe Jewell
- 1st place at the 2005 NVC ($20,000)
- Acquired by Ascend Leaning in 2011
Quevos
Quevos
- Founded by Nick Hamburger and Zack Schreier in 2018
- 1st place at the 2018 College NVC ($15,000)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- Facebook: @eatquevos, Instagram: @eatquevos
Rise Interactive
Rise Interactive
http://www.riseinteractive.com/
- Founded by Jon Morris, MBA '05
- 2nd place at the 2008 NVC ($10,000)
- @RiseInteractive
Seurat Therapeutics
Seurat Therapeutics
https://www.seurat-therapeutics.com/
- Research conducted by Richard Kraig, MD, PhD
- Founded in 2016
- Invested by the George Shultz Innovation Fund (Fall 2016)
- Finalists at the 2018 Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
Simple Mills
Simple Mills
Stats
- Founded by Katlin Smith
- Won 1st Place of the NVC in 2014 ($30,000)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @SimpleMills
SoCore Energy
SoCore Energy
- Founded by Pete Kadens
- 3rd Place at the 2008 NVC ($10,000)
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @SoCore_Solar
Tovala
Tovala
- Founded in 2015 (CEO and Founder, David Rabie)
- 1st place at the 2015 NVC ($70,000)
- Named one of four Pritzker Group Venture Capital Fellows for the 2015 summer program
- Kickstarter campaign exceeds $100,000 goal in less than 24 hours of launch
- I-Corps Participant
- Founder, David Rabie, MBA '15, is a PF3 Fellow (2015)
- UChicago Startup Investment Program Recipient
- @tovalafood
Select Licensees and Partners
The Polsky Center has partnered with a number of company partners to further develop University-based technologies through licenses and sponsored research. The Polsky Center is proud to continue these relationships and seeks to build new partnerships. Learn more about some of our current partners by clicking on the logos below or visiting the Select Licensees page.
AbbVie
AbbVie
- Five year partnership with UChicago
- Learn more about AbbVie's partnership with the Polsky Center here.
AduroBiotech
AduroBiotech
- Principal Investigator - Tom Gajewski
- Headquartered in Berkley, CA
- Deal Date- 2016
- Current Status- Phase I: Clinical Trial Launched
AgileMD
AgileMD
- Founded by Borna Safabakhsh, MBA ’11
- 1st place at the 2011 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) ($25,000)
- Headquartered in San Francisco, CA
- @agileMD
Celegene
Celegene
ClostraBio
ClostraBio
https://www.clostrabio.com/index.html
- Founded by Cathryn R. Nagler, PhD and Jeffrey A. Hubbell, PhD
- 4th place at the 2017 New Venture Challenge
- Awarded up to $200,000 at the 2017 George Shultz Innovation Fund Finals
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL
- @ClostraBio
Electrochaea
Electrochaea
- Principal Investigator - Laurens Mets
- Deal Date - 2010
- Current Status - Venture backed, building commercial scale facility in Denmark
- Industry - Clean Tech
- Learn more about Electrochaea in this press release
Evelo Therapeutics
Evelo Therapeutics
- Principal Investigator – Tom Gajewski
- Deal Date – 2016
- Industry -- Microbiome
- Current Status -- Venture backed
- Learn more about Evelo Therapeutics in this press releases
Everyday Learning
Everyday Learning
https://web.archive.org/web/20150905180717/https://www.mheonline.com/
- Principle Investigator – Max Bell and Zalman Usiskin
- Deal Date – 1998
- Industry -- Education
- Current Status - Acquired by McGraw-Hill, widely used curriculum
ExplORer Surgical
ExplORer Surgical
- Founded by Jennifer Fried, MBA '15 and CMO Alexander Langerman, MD '05, SM, '15,
- 2nd place at the 2015 NVC ($50,000)
- Polsky Incubator Alumn
- Awarded $64,300 at the 2014 Spring George Shultz Innovation Fund Finals
- UChicago Startup Investment Program recipient (2017)
Phillips 66
Phillips 66
http://www.phillips66.com/EN/Pages/index.aspx
- Principle Investigator – Luping Yu
- Deal Date – 2014
- Industry – Clean Tech
- Current Status – In-development
Progenics
Progenics
Seurat Therapeutics
Seurat Therapeutics
https://www.seurat-therapeutics.com/
- Research conducted by Richard Kraig, MD, PhD
- Founded in 2016
- Invested by the George Shultz Innovation Fund (Fall 2016)
- Finalists at the 2018 Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge
- Headquartered in Chicago, IL