Quote of the Day Coverage

SoCore Energy


Pete Kadens
Co-founder and President
SoCore Energy
The SunLock and Solar Rental Service

“Customers drove this innovation. You can’t innovate in a vacuum. In our industry, it’s collaborative. I listened. I met people. I didn’t always know what I was talking about. I learned what not to do by listening to others. Being a competent listener is half the battle in innovation.”

—Pete Kadens, Co-founder and President of SoCore Energy, which makes solar energy more flexible, accessible and affordable.

S&C Electric Company


Tim Qualheim
Vice President-US Business Unit
S&C Electric Company
S&C TripSaver™ Dropout Recloser

“We constantly ask our utility customers about their needs. We want to know about their operating practices . . . what works for them . . . and what doesn’t work as they’d like. This product was developed as a result of such questioning. We listened to our customers and delivered what they needed.”

—Tim Qualheim, Vice President, US Business Unit, S&C Electric Company⎯a century-old Chicago-based global provider of equipment and services for electric power systems.

PrepMe, LLC


Karan Goel
Founder and CEO
PrepMe LLC
PrepMe – Personalized Online Test Prep

“The college experiences that we benefitted from the most were teachers engaging us in dialogue or interaction—not just lectures. So, we are trying to let technology deliver the core instruction and let our people drive engagement and higher-order thinking.”

—Karan Goel, Founder and CEO, PrepMe LLC, maker of customized test preparation software, acquired by Blackboard-buyer Providence Equity in August, 2011.

Molex


Adam Stanczak
Global Product Manager
Molex
Molex Solder Charge SMT Technology

“We made a number of products that use solder technology that’s common in industry, and we faced the same difficulties our customers faced. So we took a step back and asked, ‘What qualities in that technology do we still need, and what can we change?’ We were able to change the design of conventional soldering methods and create solder-charge technology.”

—Adam Stanczak, Product Manager, Molex, Lisle, Ill., a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect components.

CME Clearing


Kim Taylor
Managing Director and President of CME Clearing
CME Group
Common Clearing Link

“Two Chicago rivals entered into a historic partnership in 2004, saving the futures industry more than $1 billion and laying the groundwork for the CME/CBOT merger in 2007, which would become the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, right here in Chicago.”

—Kim Taylor, Managing Director and President of CME Clearing, the clearinghouse for CME Group’s Chicago-based global derivatives markets.

37Signals


Jason Fried
CEO & Co-founder
37signals
Basecamp

“Buzzwords, lingo, and sensationalized sales-and-marketing-speak have no place at 37signals. We communicate clearly and honestly.”

—Jason Fried, CEO and co-founder, with Carlos Segura and Ernest Kim, of Chicago-based 37signals, which morphed from a web design firm in 1999 into a provider of online collaborative tools.

Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy


Howard Tullman
President and CEO
Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy
Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy

“Great education isn’t about filling an empty vessel. It’s about lighting a fire and sustaining the passion that we all have to make a difference in the lives of others.”

—Howard A. Tullman, President and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy in Chicago, which made its debut in 2007.

Touch Taste Technologies: TouchLife Interactive Tables


Rhon Daguro
Co-founder and CEO
Touch Taste Technologies
TouchLife Interactive Tables

“We didn’t have to come up with the idea; the consumer already wanted it. The challenge was not whether there was a market for this, but if we could do it cleaner, better, faster, and simpler than everybody else.”

—Rhon Daguro, Co-founder and CEO of Touch Taste Technologies, maker of interactive service products for the hospitality, entertainment, night life, and gaming industries.

American Cancer Society: Patient Navigation Services


Adrienne White
Vice President of Health Initiatives and Advocacy
American Cancer Society, Illinois Division, Inc.
Patient Navigation Services

“We designed a program that, regardless of social or economic status or geography, patients can enter from multiple portals: telephone, face-to-face, online. No matter where they enter, they all have access to the same system of a myriad of services, resources, and information.”

—Adrienne White, Vice President of Health Initiatives and Advocacy, American Cancer Society, Illinois Division, Inc.

 

Groupon


Andrew Mason
Founder and CEO
Groupon
Groupon

“We cracked the code for local business ecommerce.”

—Andrew Mason, Founder and CEO of Groupon, social ecommerce daily deal phenomenon and the fastest-growing company ever.

USG: SHEETROCK® Brand UltraLight Panels


Qiang Yu
Senior Research Associate
USG
SHEETROCK® Brand UltraLight Panels

“In our industry, energy is two-sided. On one side, people exert energy when transporting and installing wallboard. On another side, processes consume energy in making the product. If we can reduce the amount of materials, we reduce the overall energy needed in the entire system.”

—Qiang Yu, Senior Research Associate at USG, a leading manufacturer of building and construction materials.

Threadless


Jake Nickell
Founder
skinnycorp
Threadless

“A big difference is how involved our customers are in our whole process. We were way ahead of crowdsourcing.”

—Jake Nickell, Co-founder, Threadless, an online t-shirt vendor and creative hub featuring new designs submitted and rated by the Threadless community each week.

 

PAWS Chicago: Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic


Paula Fasseas
Founder and Chairman
PAWS Chicago
Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic

“I want Chicago to be a No Kill city! We tackle pet overpopulation in two ways: through affordable sterilization of owned pets and adoption of homeless animals. This results in a dramatic reduction of euthanasia.”

—Paula Fasseas, Founder and Chair of PAWS Chicago and the Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic, which aims to make Chicago a No Kill city through a progressive approach to animal welfare.

EveryBlock


Adrian Holovaty
Founder
EveryBlock
EveryBlock

“Open government data is a big thing we rely on. We were doing open data way before it got trendy.”

—Adrian Holovaty, Founder of EveryBlock, an online community for following neighborhood news and connecting with your neighbors; later acquired by MSNBC.com.

 

comScore


Gian Fulgoni
Executive Chairman and Co-founder
comScore
AdEffx

“Nine out of every ten dollars are spent in physical stores. When you run online advertising campaigns, you need to know more than just the impact of that advertising on e-commerce sales; you need to also know how it directly translates to sales in stores.”

—Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of comScore, the global leader in measuring the digital world.

 

 

Abbott: XIENCE V

 


John M. Capek, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Medical Devices
Abbott
XIENCE V

“The nature of innovation in cardiology and the history of our company has been built on not only coming up with the best solution, but continuing to make the best better. That is what the XIENCE platform has the capability to do. Abbott never treats anything as ‘good enough.’”

—John M. Capek, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Medical Devices, a division of Abbott that offers a broad range of medical and surgical devices focusing on minimally invasive, fast and accurate treatment options.

 


crowdSPRING


Mike Samson
Co-founder and CEO
crowdSPRING
crowdSPRING

“It was a huge personal risk to pursue a startup venture, and we needed to prove to ourselves that this was a viable business opportunity. We had successful careers; we needed to really convince ourselves that we were going to do it… and then convince our wives.”

—Mike Samson, Co-founder, along with Ross Kimbarovsky, of crowdSPRING, the world’s largest marketplace for creative services.

 

TurboTap


Matt Younkle
Founder and Inventor
Laminar Technologies LLC
TurboTap ®

“I didn’t like waiting in line for beer as a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. There had to be a way to make the line move more quickly.”

—Matt Younkle, Founder of Laminar Technologies and inventor of the TurboTap©, a liquid-dispensing mechanism that pours beer faster than ever before.