Whether it's a student entrepreneur balancing college courses and building a startup, a teenager in their bedroom learning to code, or a fresh college grad excelling in their new tech role, young people are contributing to Chicago's tech and startup industry in impactful ways.
To highlight some of Chicago’s youngest entrepreneurs and technologists, Chicago Inno compiles a list each year of 25 promising and accomplished techies in the city’s startup scene.
Last year's list included impressive young technologists making a difference at some of Chicago's most notable startups, such as Kin Insurance and ReviewTrackers, as well as budding founders working to get their own companies off the ground.
This year's list includes a variety of young innovators as well, ranging from employees at local tech companies like Cameo and Relativity, to founders and CEOs with innovative ideas of their own. And the youngest person on this list is just 16 years old.
Those on the list were chosen based on nominations and Inno's editorial selection process.
Sade Ayinde, 25
Founder of Kidhance & Associate Technical Product Manager at Relativity
As an associate technical product manager at Relativity, a Chicago legal tech company, Ayinde leads two engineering teams to help clients use the company's software. But on the side, she is also growing her startup, Kidhance, which sells monthly subscription boxes full of STEM-based activities and projects that don't require much supervision. To help her on her entrepreneurial journey, Ayinde is a member of Chicago startup incubator 1871 and is participating in its PYROS accelerator program.
Before joining Relativity, Ayinde was a data scientist at Deloitte, and in her free time, she is an active member of Women in Product's Chicago Chapter.
"I have a burning passion and characteristic to not only propel my career but to shake and grow my community," Ayinde says. "As a founder, I want to positively impact the lives of women and mothers everywhere."
Ian Michael Brock, 16
Founder of Dream Hustle Code
As the youngest person on this list, Brock, with the help of his parents, founded Dream Hustle Code, an organization that offers coding classes and personal development coaching to underrepresented students in fifth through ninth grades. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Brock created the "New Nerd" CS + Personal Development Virtual Program, which offers coding classes and personal development coaching to students from 28 different states as well as the Philippines, Canada and Africa. All the classes are led by Brock, who this summer mentored more than 300 students on the the basics of JavaScript.
Since launching Dream Hustle Code at just eight years old in 2013, Brock has organized computer science and coding events in Chicago, promoted his work at the 2019 BET Awards and fundraised a trip to Silicon Valley for 25 high school students. His mission is to inspire confidence in youth, while empowering them to be on the forefront of creating the new technologies of the future—and not just consuming it.
Claude Cimeus, 23
Product Manager at Forager
In his role at one of Chicago's fastest-growing logistics startups, Cimeus works with a team of designers and engineers to execute Forager's mission of shipping items internationally. Founded in 2018, Forager has developed a cross-border freight solution that makes it easier for shippers to transport products to and from Mexico and Canada. Its product, SCOUT, allows companies to book, track, and manage any load between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Earlier this year, the startup raised $10 million and was listed as one of Chicago Inno's 20 startups to watch in 2020.
Besides focusing on Forager's growth, Cimeus has also been a vocal member of Chicago's tech community on racial and social justice, organizing events around the issue and keeping the conversation going on Twitter.
Ana Cornell, 20
Founder of Acorn Genetics
As a biomedical engineering student at Northwestern University, Cornell is on a mission to change the way we do genetic testing. Acorn Genetics makes at-home DNA testing kits that provide results privately, affordably and quickly. Cornell has a fully-functioning prototype and plans to make it commercially viable by the end of 2021, and hopes to be competitive with companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.
Kamesh Darisipudi, 23
Founder and CEO of CareerBites
CareerBites is a startup that aims to address the lack of individuals' career exposure by offering a hub of interactive business scenarios that allow people to learn about a career in just 15 minutes. CareerBites helps eliminate the guessing that goes into career planning by putting users behind the wheel of different professions, asking them to tackle the same types of projects, decisions and conflicts as they would in a real world setting. Darisipudi is one of 22 entrepreneurs in the 2020 cohort of Future Founders, a local accelerator program for young entrepreneurs.
Ana Davis, 22, & Caleb Holland, 21
Founders of Innovestments
Davis and Holland, students at Pepperdine School of Law and Northwestern University, respectively, founded Innovestments with the goal of making real estate investing accessible to the average person, while also creating a path to ownership for aspiring homeowners. Innovestments offers a rent-to-own model. Clients sign a three-year lease-option, then meet with debt consultants, mortgage brokers and financial coaches from the startup's network, who help clients manage funds to save for a down payment.
Lilliana de Souza, 21
Associate at Techstars Chicago & President of Northwestern University's EPIC
de Souza wears many hats. She's a full-time student, studying computer science and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University, is president of Northwestern's student entrepreneurship club, EPIC, and the youngest associate at Techstars Chicago, where she helps choose the accelerator's cohorts of investments.
She's also an entrepreneur. de Souza competed and won first place in Northwestern's pitch competition, ImproveNU, for her idea for a campus-wide safety program that educated incoming students about personal security, called NPowerU. This year she also competed in Stanford University's hackathon, where she took home two prizes for PocketPT, a platform that uses computer vision and machine learning to bring physical therapy into people's homes, correcting their exercises for them. Additionally, de Souza was named one of eight women in STEM Scholars by The Alumnae of Northwestern University.
"I have taken a deep dive into our unique startup ecosystem here, constantly creating new ways to make positive impact through entrepreneurship and tech," de Souza says.
Ian Dilick, 19
Founder of Eschaton
Dilick is currently taking a semester off from Loyola University to build Eschaton, which is creating technology that allows self-driving cars to see and detect objects beyond the line-of-sight. Eschaton's platform uses a communication system in which each vehicle broadcasts information about what it sees, creating a shared map between multiple vehicles. Dilick is prepping for two pilot programs next year that will test his tech.
Chaitanya Gulati, 20
Founder and CEO of NASADYA
Founded in 2018, NASADYA is working to create sustainable energy systems for the future. The company addresses waste issues in energy grids by converting excess energy into hydrogen and oxygen. Gulati is an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pursuing a dual degree in systems engineering and design, and innovation leadership and engineering entrepreneurship. He and his startup were selected to be in U of I's iVenture Accelerator, as well as the 2020 cohort of Future Founders, a local accelerator program for young entrepreneurs.
Jackson Jhin, 25
Senior Vice President of Strategy at Cameo
At the young age of 25, Jhin is on the executive team of one of Chicago's fastest-growing and most-talked-about startups. Cameo, founded in 2017, runs a celebrity-shout out app that gives users a new way to interact with their favorite celebrities. In his role, Jhin oversees the strategy and analytics teams at Cameo. To date, the tech company has raised more than $65 million in funding.
Garrett Jochnau, 23
Innovation and Insights Associate at Kivvit
In his role at Kivvit, a Chicago-based public relations firm that works with dozens of tech and startup clients, Jochnau acts as an entrepreneur inside the agency. He has developed methodologies that incorporate data analytics into Kivvit’s public affairs work across the country. For example, Garrett developed the Kivvit impact report, which combines over 15 different data visualizations and sources to provide a comprehensive view of a news story’s trajectory.
He has also spearheaded Kivvit’s misinformation tracking and mitigation approach, which uses audience segmentation technology to understand who is spreading and who has been exposed to inaccurate and misleading information, equipping clients with the ability to precisely intercept exposed audiences to fact check. As the manager of Kivvit’s dedicated Insights and Innovation team, Jochnau is one of the youngest firm-wide leaders at the company.
Luke Lida, 23, & Melody Li, 20
Founders of Subli
Lida and Li are the founders of Subli, a startup aiming to simplify the apartment subletting process for students. Currently, many students use sites like Facebook and Craigslist to find subletters, which can present challenges on vetting tenants and receiving payments. Using Subli, renters can communicate with potential tenants, schedule home tours, sign documents and schedule cleaning services all within one platform. To ensure that only students use Subli, the software requires users to have a .edu email address to sign up.
Li is currently pursuing a dual degree in sociology and economics at the University of Chicago, and Lida graduated in 2019 with a degree in philosophy. Earlier this year, Subli came in first place and won $25,000 at UChicago's College New Venture Challenge.
Amy Ma, 22
Founder of Talklet
Ma, a current student at the University of Chicago, is pursuing a dual degree in biological sciences and economics, as well as an MBA from the college's Booth School of Business, founded Talklet last year. The startup is a mental health platform that connects qualified listeners to people who want to talk and feel heard. Talklet's mission is to make mental wellbeing more accessible and help users cope with stress, anxiety, or burnout but do not experience symptoms severe enough to cross the clinical threshold for diagnosis. Talklet came in third place and won $10,000 at UChicago's College New Venture Challenge.
Nick O'Brien, 22, Andrew Medland, 22, & Isaac Lichter, 23
Founders of Aeris
This trio of Evanston natives founded Aeris, a startup that has developed copper-coated phone cases that claim to destroy bacteria within 30 minutes. Using 100% recycled copper and a proprietary coating method developed by Aeris, the case’s copper ions penetrate bacteria molecules and break them down. The startup has filed a patent for its copper-coating technology. Aeris cases come in several iPhone and Galaxy models and cost $39. The founders launched Aeris in March, shortly after Lichter and Medland contracted Covid-19 themselves.
Melissa Mohl, 25
Broker Account Executive at Jellyvision
In just a year and a half, Mohl has been promoted twice at Jellyvision, a Chicago company operating an employee communication platform. Mohl originally joined Jellyvision in the spring of 2019 as a business development representative, but after exceeding her goals, becoming one of the company's top performers, she was quickly promoted to a channel development associate role in January 2020. Within four months of working that role, she was promoted once again to broker account executive. Since taking this new role in April, Mohl has been a stellar sales representative, closing deals regularly, Jellyvision says.
David Pawlan, 23
Co-founder and Strategist at Aloa
Pawlan, a Chicago native and recent graduate of Vanderbilt University, has helped build Aloa, a platform for outsourcing software development for startups. The startup is working to be a one-stop-shop for startups to find, manage and pay for their software development experience. To date, Aloa has delivered more than 100 successful projects across about 30 industries. Aloa's clients have built products that have been used by brands like ESPN, Disney, Dell and Pepsi.
Justin Reimonenq, 24
Founder and CEO at Common
Common is a platform for the digital management of social experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. The startup works with businesses like restaurants as well as public spaces like parks to help people plan small and safe social gatherings. The platform also helps to insulate users from the risk of Covid-19 transmission by notifying them when they've been in contact with other users that have developed symptoms. Reimonenq graduated from the University of Notre Dame, and before launching Common, he worked in finance at GE Healthcare. To help build Common, Reimonenq recently joined Chicago startup hub 1871.
Raymundo Vargas, 22
Founder and CEO of Teneez
Teneez is a premium sneaker rental company that provides sneaker enthusiasts with access to the most in demand sneakers at a fraction of the cost. Users can browse a selection of retro Nikes, Yeezy Boosts and other sneakers for rent and purchase. The startup, which employs eight people, came in second place and won $20,000 at the University of Chicago’s College New Venture Challenge in March. And the startup's TikTok has grown to 11,000 followers.
Drew Wandzilak, 20
Co-Founder and Head of Growth at RollCall.vote & Founder and CEO of Masteri
As a current Northwestern University student, Wandzilak has stayed busy launching companies. His first, RollCall, is an application that allows users to track the status of their mail-in ballots, find voting information and deadlines, and encourage community members to vote. Wandzilak spends his time mainly directing the startup's state-by-state strategy, coordinating with local officials and candidates, and engaging with users on social media.
His other company, Masteri, is an independent learning platform, which combines research-based principles to tailor a learning plan for any individual who's looking to master any subject, from a language, to building an app or starting a podcast.
"I started this company with the intention of building more proactive learners instead of reactive," Wandzilak says. "Individualized learning has seen an increase in interest during the pandemic, and we hope to provide the tools for those looking to go on their own learning journey."
Andrew Wilkins, 25
Founder and CEO of Ascend Deliveries
Ascend is a drone delivery service company that's working to make last-mile drone delivery more affordable. With its drone, called "Tars," Ascend's device has an array of abilities like full autonomy, machine learning recognition landing and waypoint mission capabilities. Tars requires zero human interaction and can facilitate deliveries all on its own, the company says, adding that Tars' autonomy allows for scalability as Ascend grows its fleet of drones. To help grow the company, Wilkins was accepted into the 2020 cohort of Future Founders, a local accelerator program for young entrepreneurs, to grow his company.
Michael Zhou, 21
Co-founder and CEO of Mock On
Zhou, currently a senior at Northwestern University, leads Mock On, an online mock trial academy for high schoolers. As a collegiate mock trial competitor himself and the president of Northwestern's Mock Trial team, he knows the ins and out of the activity. But when Covid-19 hit, his mock trial season was cut short. Knowing that other students were facing the same issue, he launched Mock On in May and has since hosted two online Zoom camps. More than 50 students from around the U.S. have signed up and learned about the mock trial process. Admission costs $35.
