Map of the local innovation industry.
Meet some of the best and newest startups based in Chicago.
Suzanne is a trained Interaction Designer who has over 15 years as a practioner applying the methodology of Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design to various projects across industries in healthcare, financial services, automotive, telecommunicatio
Founded @public-good-software, Director of UX & Product @obama-for-america, founding team @the-point, early UXer @orbitz, founder @fuzzy-math.
Designer, developer, builder, entrepreneur, mentor. First designer at @groupon. Currently Head of Platform Experience @quirky
Designer. Husband. Friend to startups. Maker of things. Avid fan: scary movies, loud music. Work: CXO @betable. Past: @threadless, @digg, @simplegeo.
http://www.callmejeffrey.com
Author of Design for Hackers (Debuted at #18 on @amazon) Mentor at 500 Startups. Changing the way you see design.
Formerly product at Twilio. Currently working on my own projects.
http://future-bits.com
Designer and Developer based in Chicago
Business Designer. Previously UX Designer + Innovation Strategist. Former @adaptive-path + @nike consultant.
Growing @openairplane Professional pilot, husband, father, nerd. Passionate about user experience + aviation. Find me on a computer, or in a cockpit.
http://blog.aopa.org/opinionleaders/category/authors/rod-rakic/
Investor CEO of MiGym: Experience in successful startups including Betfair and The Coupons App & corporate experience at US Cellular and Allstate; Kellogg MBA
Creative Director at Visually; freelance designer
MS in Product Design & Development Management @northwestern-university. Design, product, research and business focus.
Blue Tide Founder // @parkwhiz Front-End // Love a good API // Design // JS // CSS // UI/UX // Optimism // SharkWeek // From Indianapolis, IN
http://blog.iamzachreed.com/
Product Designer @weebly. Formerly at @backplane and @viatask.
Creative Director at @coupontrade
Design Director of Bloc.io, Lead Designer for High Gear Media. Founder of Made by Munsters.
Product Designer @quirky. Co-founder of Paid, an iPhone app to manage your Stripe account. Formerly of @groupon
IT Consultant, Studied Economics @university-of-chicago and investor with @kewpie-associates.
Currently: Co-founder at digit.co. Previously: MyZeus acquired by Groupon, 2011.
http://patrickalgrim.me
Product designer, team builder & coder getting into some new trouble. Advisor to Chicago & Detroit startups. #GoWings #GoBlue #ChicagoStartups
Entrepreneur, Designer, Teacher and Director at IDEO
Entrepreneur, User-Experience Evangelist, Sense-Maker, Founder of Cicada Design Co. (2007), CrinklePaw Pet Innovations (2009).
My mom told me work hard, be kind to people, and success will follow. Co-Founder of @freebie Family & friends first kinda guy. Growth hacker / biz builder
Master's HCI student at Carnegie Mellon, with B.S. in Mechanical Engineering/Robotics. Worked as a generalist product designer/developer at Picplum.
Experience Manager for Manifest Digital; Strategy & Experience Advisor for Project Travel; BFA in Graphic design with a strong development background.
Technology Entrepreneur – Create, Design, Develop, Innovate
Techstars mentor, start-up advisor. Currently @razorfish. Acquity Group and gravitytank alum. Experience design, mobile, omni-channel focus.
UI at @alltuition and brilliant.org. Contributed to @food-genius and @betterfly. UChicago economics grad. Loves product, IxD, and brands that span the digital and the physical.
Develop and design apps. Dev/Design for @steamboat-labs-1 and @Brewerbox. Worked on @kloudless @deskhero
Developed parallel backtesting software for stock trading firm. Haskell lover. Python guru. Strong web development background. Lead developer on many projects.
CIO & co-founder at @everpurse; creator of @nomorecreeps.com and occasional freelancer.
http://jessepinho.com
Dan is a designer and developer, specializing in experience and interface design and front-end development.
Co-founder and CEO of heathfinch.
http://blog.healthfinch.com
Founder @monthlys-1, @mantra-1 • Worked at @benchprep, @manifest-digital - UX expert with front-end and back-end chops. 14 years in industry, know how to market.
Founder @refstop-com (sold 2007), Currently @thepizzabutton and @sway-fm • Worked at @isocket • Studied at @indiana-university-bloomington
Founder and CEO @charlie-app a @dreamit-ventures backed company. Kauffman Global Scholar 2012 @ewing-marion-kauffman-foundation
Founder @monthlys-1, @mantra-labs-2 • Worked at @lightbank, @benchprep
A jovial lad & professional fellow. Eau Claire native, Dad, Design Director, UI/UX #OFATech, community organizer, civic geek, placemaker & cyclist.
Award-winning software product exec with start-up DNA. Worked for Laszlo Systems (General Catalyst Partners) and LucidEra (Benchmark) and have an exit to Sun (Karelia).
Co-Founder of @scholastica. Academic publishing experience at Callaloo (JHU Press). Designed at many Chicago software companies.
http://www.robwalshonline.com/blog/
Chief Legal Rebel • Founder @attorneyfee • Bar Association President • Relentless Hustler
Co-founder @Doejo, Digital Agency of the year 2012, Advisor,
http://mapofthedead.com
MS Engineering Design from Northwestern, led NU Solar Car Team, 1st campus solar installation. Worked at GM & Northrop. Founded 1st tech startup in class at NU.
Technical Guy with a Designer's Eye
Founder @tabule • Developer & aspiring UX Designer • Studied CS + Psych + Business, graduated cum laude @illinois-institute-of-technology
http://metamorphium.com
Design engineer currently working at @spark • Cook Engineering Design Fellow, B.E. Mechanical Engineering (2012) at @dartmouth-college College
Versatile front-end designer/developer with experience across multiple fields of design.
Entrepreneur. Hacker. Founder. Hipster. IU Kelley School of Business.
CEO at Windcastle Venture Consulting, Visiting Instructor of Economics at Kenyon College
Founded @fitsby, Founded @designation
http://blog.kevinyun.co
Co-Founding partner of M+I Creative, and CitizenMade. I'm also a partner at TalkSession and I provide consulting services in UX Design and Digital Strategy.
http://dynasteeinc.com
Designer/art director in Chicago with 15+ years digital/interactive. Most recently Creative Director at Threadless, previously at BBDO, Goodby, Arc, and HUGE.
Product Designer, formerly of Groupon, Scrapblog. Creator of Vidless. Focused on UX, design, front-end.
VP of Strategy and Design, TodayTix. Designer, strategist, tech nerd, MBA. Love building companies. Columbia University and IIT Institute of Design grad.
Product Development Executive, Partner at Digital Intent
Interaction designer for the noun project. Thinker at Simple.Honest.Work. Bassist for Glittermouse. Making for humanity.
COO of MikiYaka, worked at Google and Orbitz, Design Freelancer for Hoodle Inc., Pivot Media, LLC., Sumpura, Inc., Gyantra, Inc., and Nuggets by Gyantra.
http://blog.mikiyaka.com
Worked at @walls-360
UChicago undergrad, founded 2 companies (one seeded, one sold), lots of startup work experience, looking for PM/Data/Design role this summer
Awesome iOS developer.
Studied at @wheaton-college
Senior UI Designer, 8 yrs of design exp., background in advertising, blend of product & advertising experience, passionate about building products and teams.
Front-End Developer
http://starterleague.chrismpeterson.com/
Northwestern CS, interested in a full-time position with a combination of front-end development and UI/UX design work.
Founder @p360 • Worked at @vmware, @partners-simons • Studied at @union-college
Front-End/ UX Ninja, study javascript like its my job
Founder & Host @signal-tower. Interactive Producer @red-square-agency. Former marketer at @drchrono and @crowdfunder-com. Graduate from @the-starter-league.
Design Director. Unrepentant Internet addict and information junkie.
Founding principal of N2TV Studio, LLC Architecture and Design firm.
Director of UX @ Reverb.com
http://nicholasevans.org
Worked at @cisco, @sentictechnologies • Studied at @hebrew-university-of-jerusalem
IDEO Design Lead for Digital + Physical products and services. Mentor at Excelerate.
CEO & Co-Founder @mercier-jones. Strong background in engineering and product design and development (Insitu-Boeing, Radio Flyer, Fellowes).• Studied at @virginia-commonwealth-university
Founder @6th-man-apps • Worked at @upto, @grand-circus • Studied at @university Of Michigan
Interaction designer and front-end developer, CS background. Start-up enthusiast. STEM for girls advocate. Worked at dscout, Gravitytank, and VSA Partners.
Active in a broad range of activities in the Chicago area, Claudine Tambuatco is particularly well known in philanthropic circles.
http://claudinetambuatco.org/
Co-Founder @shopgab • Worked at @sprint, @pureadds
Brown University Grad; Headed Brown Entrepreneurship Program; Performance Poet; Lover of Ideas; Wanderer of Words and Worlds
http://hamadachronicles.wordpress.com/
Marketing Associate at @dealsgoround-1, Podcaster at @InsightIntell, Post Rock enthusiast, Aspiring Designer... Oh yeah & I have rocking fiance @LindsayONeal
Architecture & Interaction Design. Job Captain for two National museum exhibitions. Owner of three companies and a miniature schnauzer.
http://www.TanaGreen.com
Hybrid cross-platform mobile first engineer - specialize in creating hardware accelerated JS apps - one code base, all platforms - Yo, Bower, JS, Node, Ruby
Founder at Packanimal Creative. UX IA UI
http://matthewcopeland.me
Founder @coursecloud-1 • Studied at @northwestern-university, University of Notre Dame
UI/UX Designer + FED.
Creative and social strategist in advertising. Writer, art director, design director in past lives at agencies and startups. Available for freelance.
Consultant in the world of Web and Mobile Design - User Experience, Usability, HCI, Information Architecture, SEO, Web and Mobile app programming, Social Media
Conceived & developed first 7 years of John Madden Football, participated in launching startups thru IPO, Harvard Masters in Ops&Mgmt - disruptive technology.
Founder Printavo [Screen-printing shop management software] • Studied at @university-of-illinois-urbana-champaign
Mobile designer and developer with strong foundation in native iOS apps; Lead dev/designer for PocketCab.
Long-time collaborator on multiple projects. Design, strategic input, developing sites & branding from start to finish.
Founder Griot Enterprises • Worked at @draftfcb, @adobe • Studied at @UMich, @School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Shawna is an experienced consumer insights analyst with a proven track record of delivering actionable data driven insights through primary market research data. She is currently pursuing her master’s at Northwestern University with a focus on statistica
http://packagedesign.tumblr.com/
User Experience Craft-titioner
Designer, engineer, scientist and entrepreneur. Taught seniors as a freshman, made LEDs which emit sunlight, and am Fellow at VC firm. Inventor to a good home.
I'm helping build a great community at G2 Crowd
Founding Member at @every-last-morsel, Worked for @happyfantickets • Studied at @depaul-university
Worked at @amc-networks, @u-s-ambassador • Studied at @northwestern-university, Trinity
Intuitive multi-platform product builder. Information consumer. Startup junky. Interactive Art Director and UI/UXer for mobile at Draftfcb Chicago.
Founder and CEO @fitcline • College student • Tech and fitness enthusiast. • Self-taught; web developer and graphic designer.
@carbonmade @magnum-ci @instafeed; MS @UIUC; PhD @university-of-illinois-chicago and so on
Master of design from top art school. Mobile designer, Built 4 apps (2 iOS, 1 Android, 1 Chrome)
Owner of Catalyses LLC built from the brand Aspire Technologies. Please take a look at my personal profile and the new website.
An Avid Domain Trader and Business Brain-stormer
ThinkBank & ThinkTank Member
Looking for Mentors and Possible Partners/Inve
Good business needs good marketing. Good design is good marketing. MIT grad turned UX/Product Designer - translating user needs into useful & valuable products.
Worked at @mit-media-lab, @bytemobile, @citrix-systems
UPenn grad, web product designer. I create great web experiences and I make good web experiences better.
Worked at @active-mind-technology, @elevate-studios
Worked at @built-in-chicago, @belly • Studied at @abilene-christian-university
http://www.bodyshopbids.com
@intel Engineer; Tenacious Technologist;