Each year the Techstars Chicago class has a keynote speaker to kick off demo day, the conclusion of the startup accelerator's 3-month program where companies showcase their businesses to investors and the media. And there are few tech leaders more appropriate for an inspirational startup talk than this year's speaker Chris Gladwin, who's just sold his company Cleversafe for more than $1 billion, made his employees very wealthy, and is already on to his next startup.
When an average of 9 out of 10 startups fail, Gladwin's story is every entrepreneur's dream. And it happened right here in Chicago.
On Thursday, 10 companies took their next step toward startup success as they presented at Techstars Chicago Demo Day at the House of Blues. Gladwin stressed toughness to the young companies, noting that Cleversave went years without revenue, "but we had patents," Glavin told the crowd with a smile. In fact, in 2014 Cleversafe was ranked as having one of the top 10 most powerful patent portfolios, behind the likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM and other tech giants.
You have to believe in what you're building, and be tough to get through rough patches in your business, he explained. Chicagoans are tough by nature, Gladwin added, thanks to our weather. If cold is something you can't handle, how are you going to be tough enough to lead your business? he asked the crowd.
Time will tell if this year's startups have the toughness and other tools it takes to build a successful tech business, but getting into Techstars is a good first step. Here are the 10 startups that presented at the 2016 Techstars Chicago demo day:
1. CompleteSet
CompleteSet wants to be a "treasure map for collectors" by providing a platform that helps them track, discover, buy and sell their collectibles. From baseball cards to action figures to comic books--and everything in between--CompleteSet aims to be an eBay alternative for collectors. It allows people to catalogue their collection, see which pieces they're missing, and discover where they can find the last items to complete their set. Buyers get notifications when a collectible they want is for sale, and are matched with the seller online, with CompleteSet taking a transaction fee. The startup says it has 50,000 collectors on the site.
2. PartySlate
PartySlate is a marketing platform that gives event professionals a better way to showcase their work. The startup is like a Houzz for the event industry by giving event planners a platform for finding venues, photographers, caterers and more. PartySlate makes money by charging subscription fees for venues to have elevated exposure on the site, and it also sells event decor on its platform. The company says in 5 months it already has 50% marketshare in Chicago and plans to expand to more markets.
3. Bright
Bright, a startup from Signal founder Jeff Judge, is a business analytics platform that helps companies better understand the health of their companies and gives them tools to grow faster. Bright's data helps companies make smarter decisions by taking a closer look at revenue and customers--specifically how they're acquired, how often they churn, and when they upgrade or downgrade.
4. Arena
Arena is a platform for sports fans to chat with one another during live events. Working with sports like UFC, Arena gives fans a place to connect that's not as cluttered as Twitter or Facebook, and that's focused just on the live event. Arena boasts some impressive audience numbers, claiming that it has more than 700,000 monthly active users and had over 100,000 uniques on a single UFC event. The startup is building widgets to allow websites and blogs to host Arena chats directly on their site. And Arena hopes to be at 10 million monthly active users in the next 12 months.
5. Jio
Jio, a wearable device maker built by former Motorola executives and engineers, wants to give parents piece of mind with its child tracking device Jiobit. The startup says Jiobit is the smallest location device in the world, and its battery lasts weeks, not days. The small device clips onto a child's clothes and stays with him or her all day. Jiobit's technology alerts parents when their child has left their side, and helps parents locate kids in crowded public places. The device also learns a child's routine over time and can alert a parent if the child deviates his or her everyday route--like not coming home directly after school. The company has raised over $1.2 million and 13,000 people have signed up to be notified when the device is available for pre-order.
6. Fitbot
Fitbot wants to help personal trainers earn more money by giving them a platform to connect with clients and provide remote coaching. With the Fitbot app, trainers no longer need to send emails and spreadsheets back and forth with clients. They can manage clients, track nutrition, message with clients and track their progress all in the app. And the app will soon allow trainers to get paid directly in the platform.
7. ConvertFlow
ConvertFlow is a startup that helps companies convert website visitors into customers with personalized calls-to-action and marketing automation. With inserting just a single line of code, companies can get more customers by personalizing their website for each visitor, creating calls to action that help engage with people visiting the site.
8. Brightwork
Brightwork helps developers build apps by reducing the time it takes to develop, scale and manage applications. The startup says it lets companies focus on writing their apps, not learning server side languages, frameworks and infrastructure. Brightwork's founders were previously at Twilio and Nike.
9. LogicGate
LogicGate allows businesses to automate risk and compliance operations in order to reduce their expose to fines and compliance violations. The startup lets companies quickly deploy tools using best practice solution templates and configure them to their business.
10. EatPakd
EatPakd is a monthly school lunch delivery startup that sends healthy, pre-made meals to a family's home. Meals are delivered weekly, and it gives parents a break from having to worry about making nutritious lunches every school day. EatPakd says it's doing over $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue, and plans to open more distribution centers in Arizona and Atlanta as it begins to expand the business across the US.
