“Inspiring, empowering and celebrating entrepreneurs.” That is the motto of Technori. And in the less than 2 years Technori has been launched, it has stuck to its mission like a fly on a buffalo.
Technori, a Chicago based startup, was founded by Seth Kravitz and Val Chulamorkodt in December 2010. According to Val, Technori was started by her and Seth “to galvanize and uplift the Chicago startup community using the resources and skills at our disposal. It was and still is a project inspired by the people and ecosystem that supported both of us and many, many others so diligently and sincerely.”
Looking at Seth and Val’s recent history makes perfect sense. Seth Kravitz, according to his Technori bio, fell in love with the Chicago entrepreneur community and began volunteering as a mentor at Depaul University’s Coleman Entrepreneur Center, the Knapp Center at IIT, Excelerate Labs, the Founder Institute, and Code Academy, another Chicago startup. He started a web design firm that since has merged with InsuranceAgents.com, which has now grown to 65 employees and made Inc 500 list twice, in 2009 and 2010.
Val Chulamorkodt, meanwhile was schooled and practiced as a corporate lawyer, but having deep interest in social media and technology, had an itch to be part of Chicago’s tech scene. Her friend and mentor, the now ubiquitous Pek Pongpaet, who I interviewed for TigerStartups a few weeks ago just as he was finishing up on his instantly popular mashup of Pinterest and Instagram, Pinstagram, convinced Val to take the leap and become an entrepreneur herself, in the field she always had passion and interest in, technology. (btw. If you didn’t know, Pek was in Facebook headquarters this Wednesday and my suspicion is he wasn’t visiting as a tourist.)
So it is not surprising that the community that supported and inspired Seth and Val, have now become the recipient of Val and Seth’s services. Technori, since its launch, has become one of the must go-to destinations for budding entrepreneurs, technology enthusiast, and to even veterans of the Chicago tech scene. How? Well, Technori has stuck to its mission, by providing the necessary resources and platform for digital entrepreneurs in Chicago. Entrepreneurs can find the most important and relevant articles, such as “How to find a developer, “How to hire in Chicago”, the who’s who of angel investors and the expectations of angel investing, the must read or see interviews, and probably the most important “go-to” of all, the Technori monthly pitch event.
Pitch events in Chicago are becoming more routine. There are pitch events in Chicago almost weekly, the result of demand by Chicago’s burgeoning startups. And of all the pitch events in Chicago, Technori’s has become the premier one. Each month, near the end, Technori Pitch showcases the city’s most innovative companies, pitching their latest technologies. It’s the city’s first large-scale, curated platform for companies to demo before an audience of entrepreneurs, executives, and enthusiasts. Five companies are selected by Technori and each startup has 5 minutes to demo their product and 3 minutes of moderated audience Q&A.
Due to demand,Technori encourages startups to apply through Technori’s website, but Technori accepts emails and even snail mail on occasion. There is no deadline as applicants are accepted on a rolling basis. If you haven't seen Technori Pitch and you would like to, you are in luck. The next one is right around the corner, the May Technori Pitch event is on the 29th and tickets are still available.
The pitch itself, there are no winners and losers in the classical sense. In fact, all five companies are winners in that all five are showcased to the audience. According to Val, “The point isn't to name "the best" of five startups. It's to showcase talent, skill, and hard work. The competition is within each company to do the best that they can to communicate why their product is something we should use, invest in, and tell others about. If they succeed at that, believe me, real prizes will follow.”
If you are in Chicago and your startup has something to show for the most intuned tech audience, than applying to Technori Pitch may be for you. And if you do apply, I would recommend that before you do, make sure your company and you, the speaker, is ready to demo in front of a large audience. Because in this audience, you may find some of your bootstrapped peers you always see at the Next Door cafe, but also listening intently to your sales pitch may just be representatives from Lightbank, New World Ventures and Hyde Park Angels. And if you do get in to Technori Pitch, good luck and take a deep breath because Chicago is now watching.
Originally posted on TigerStartups.
