Last night at Exchange312 in Wicker Park, around 150 founders, techies, community leaders and other interested business professionals gathered together for Chicago Inno's annual Startups to Watch event.
Thursday's event featured several companies that were showcased on our 20 Chicago Startups to Watch in 2020 list, which took a look at companies that are tackling challenging issues with innovative solutions---and who could see solid traction in the year to come.
The night began with four startup pitches from leaders at Bartesian, a Keurig-like countertop device for making cocktails at home and one of Oprah’s Favorite Things; Forager, a startup led by Coyote Logistics veteran Matt Silver that helps companies simplify international shipping; Arturo, a real estate data and analytics company that spun out of American Family Insurance; and TripScout, a travel app that provides travel insights and inspiration on more than 100 destinations across the world.
Following the startup pitches was a panel that included Allison Robinson, the CEO of The Mom Project; Vimal Bellamkonda, business support and strategist at Intellihot; Thomas Jonas, the CEO of Sustainable Bioproducts; and Eddie Lou, the co-founder and chairman of Shiftgig. The panel discussion touched on the challenging industries each company is tackling, the growth they've seen to date, and where their businesses are headed.
Take a look below at some photos from last night's event:
Gallery
And lastly, a big thank you to our sponsor Spark Equation, who had this to share after the event:
"Spark Equation would like to extend a big thank you to Chicago Inno, all the participants, and everyone that attended last night’s Startups to Watch event. Chicago is a special kind of tech community with inspirational companies and founders that we love to work with. We’re proud to be a part of the community and are looking forward to a great 2020."
