We talk to Ahmed Ali, founder of the lifestyle and clothing brand Midwest Cowboy. Ahmed tells us how he got started on Midwest Cowboy in 2020 with a stimulus check, and has since made over six figures without taking a single venture dollar or leaving his full-time job. Listen to hear what convinced him to get started, and what he's learned along the way.

Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠Midwest Cowboy

Our website

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Andrew Gunderman, founder and CEO of Coherence. Coherence takes the work out of investing in cryptocurrency - no knowledge required. Listen in to learn more about Andrew's decision to leave Ohio State University and move to Chicago to work on Coherence full time.

Check out ⁠Coherence

⁠https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake⁠⁠

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Erica Bethe Levin, founder and CEO of Globowl. Globowl provides internationally inspired food to babies and toddlers in order to support early allergen introduction; decreasing the risk of developing food allergies and picky eating in the future. We discuss the unique challenges faced by companies that develop physical products (especially CPG brands), and we dive into why your answer to "Why You?" is so important. Listen to learn how Erica uses her passion and connection to this problem as one of her greatest assets.

Check out Globowl

https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake⁠

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk with Mike Raab, the director of Northwestern's student entrepreneurship community, the Garage. We chat about unique opportunities for students interested in learning about entrepreneurship or founding a company themselves. Listen to learn more about how you can take advantage of the entrepreneurship resources available at your school!

The Garage's website

https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake⁠

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We chat with Abhinaya Konduru from M25 about all the resources she's organized for the Chicago tech community (links below), what she looks for as an early-stage investor, and why Chicago is a great place to build a company! (Recorded on 3/4/23)

Text "join" to 312-847-2515 to join Abhinaya's Chicago tech events text group!

Looking for a cofounder? Start here: Cofounder Matchmaking

Check out 77 Coffees to meet other founders and community members!

https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

SMARTCharts automates notetaking for clinicians and turns progress into patient-friendly pictures, charts and graphs to support patient engagement, improve communication, and increase productivity for providers. We talk to founder Corinne Vargas about the origin of SMARTCharts as a tool she designed for herself, and when she decided to build a business around it. We also touch on winning pitch competitions, rough times during the pandemic, and the impact of the Chicago entrepreneurship community on SMARTCharts. (Recorded on 2/17/23)

SMARTCharts's website: https://www.mysmartcharts.com/

https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

Activated Scale is a marketplace that helps connect startups with experienced & vetted sales talent. We sit down with the founder, Prateek Mathur, to talk about his first steps after starting Activated Scale, the difficulties of managing a marketplace, and the importance of validating product-market fit when working on a new venture. (Recorded on 1/27/23)

Activated Scale's Website: https://www.activatedscale.com

https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/