For its 14th live pitch event, Technori invited unknown Chicago success storyOrlando Saez to the stage. Saez is an entrepreneur probably best known for developing Boingo Wireless, a global Wi-Fi provider that is regarded as a thought leader in the airport industry. After selling Boingo, Saez shifted his focus to promoting economic development for high-tech, high-growth businesses across the state of Illinois.
How did Saez transfer his technical skill set to a government job? How did he rise up to become the general partner of the first ever state-run venture fund? Saez says it is his strong commitment to diversity that helped him foster relationships that promote innovation initiatives within the government. To demonstrate his point he asked the audience of the sold-out pitch even an important question: “When will you be satisfied?”
For Saez the answer to this question was simple: he is a lifelong learner. For him, diversity of thought and creative thinking lead to satisfaction and success.
Saez began to appreciate the power of creative thinking when he took a break from engineering school to attend a clown college. At clown college Saez learned more than simply how to juggle: he became comfortable performing in front of people, a skill that proved essential during his later involvement with sales and marketing.
When Saez entered corporate America he learned he had a big appetite for risk, a trait we constantly associate with entrepreneurship. As he continued to build relationships with the successful people around him his appetite for risk only increased. “The more relationships you build, the more experiences you have, and it increases your appetite for risk because you have a safety net,” said Saez. He says it is this safety net that gives entrepreneurs the resources they need to tackle the competitive startup market.
