Landon Campbell from Drive Capital joins us to talk about how he got started in venture capital, what makes Chicago a great place to start a company, and what he's looking for in the next wave of founders.

Check out Landon's Loop

Josh Furstoss joins us to reflect on his journey of building Incued, an investor relations platform for private markets. We dive deep into his story: his initial idea, prototype, fundraising, go-to-market, and ultimately acquisition.

Bill Fienup is a co-founder of mHub, Chicago's hardtech innovation center. We sat down with him to discuss how he's made a career out of inventing hardtech products ranging from ketchup dispensers to medical devices. Bill also shares the story behind mHub's beginning and how the next wave of aspiring inventors can get started building.

We're back in action with season 2 of Ventures by the Lake!

Coinflip founder Daniel Polotsky tells the story of how he went from selling his first Bitcoin ATM to growing Coinflip to be the largest network of cryptocurrency kiosks in the world.

For context: We recorded this episode with Daniel in 2024, so there may be some outdated comments (the Coinflip app is now live on both the iOS App Store and Google Play).

Check out Coinflip here

Join us for our conversation with Sophia Wennstedt from Blip Energy! Blip is making energy equity accessible to accelerate the clean energy transition by building a new category of smart, affordable energy storage to add homes to the smart grid network. Listen to learn about Sophia's journey from engineer to business school, to founder.

Check out ⁠Blip

Our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

Join us for our conversation with Tayyaba Ali from Tikal Industries! Tikal is an environmental diagnostics company leveraging advanced hardware and AI to detect contaminants in water. Listen in to learn what goes into building a hardware tech company and how to approach an environmental problem from a business lens.

Check out Tikal

Our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Mariana Padilla, CEO of Kikrr. Kikrr is a platform that connects buyers to cybersecurity software vendors and provides access to on-demand demos. Listen to the episode to learn how Mariana & Kikrr aren't afraid to do things a little differently in the cybersecurity industry.

Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kikrr⁠

Our ⁠website⁠

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Ahmed Ali, founder of the lifestyle and clothing brand Midwest Cowboy. Ahmed tells us how he got started on Midwest Cowboy in 2020 with a stimulus check, and has since made over six figures without taking a single venture dollar or leaving his full-time job. Listen to hear what convinced him to get started, and what he's learned along the way.

Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠Midwest Cowboy

Our website

Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/