Beyond being a fun distraction at the gym or on your commute, podcasts are gaining recognition as an engaging and accessible business tool. While it’s easy to get started, it’s hard to make a podcast good, which is why professional podcast production agency Dante32 is flourishing. Founded in 2018 by CEO Griffin Caprio and CSO Jenn Dudley, Chicago-based Dante32 helps businesses create podcasts in a style and format that resonates with their specific audience. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/3702594/3702594_2019-12-10-192934.64kmono.mp3 ..read more

In the wake of the remarkable fall of WeWork, you’re forgiven if you feel more than a little skeptical about coworking as a business model. But Knotel is doing things differently. They may not have WeWork’s name recognition — yet — but the company is building a coworking empire based on stringent market analysis. Knotel is led by startup veteran Amol Sarva. He has a track record of growing great companies and was on the founding team of Virgin Mobile USA. Around 2015, Amol and his partner decided to evaluate coworking as a business opportunity — they wanted to understand the hype. “We did the ..read more

The struggle to get from work to the gym is real. Arnav Dalmia realized that all but the most dedicated gym-goers find it challenging to fit in regular exercise. So he originally founded Cubii to make it easier to be active while at work. The company’s mission has evolved from there. He first pitched the under-desk mini elliptical machines to the Technori Showcase in 2015, when the company was known as Fitness Cubed. After launching with the intent of helping cooped-up office workers, Cubii quickly gained popularity with another demographic — one often ignored by the fitness industry. “I sta ..read more

Managing food allergies requires a lot of time and effort — and information isn’t always available when and where you need it. As the mom of a daughter with life-threatening food allergies, Susie Hultquist knew this problem all too well. But it wasn’t until she struggled to identify whether her daughter could safely eat Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies that business inspiration struck. In 2015, Susie founded Spokin. Think Instagram meets Yelp meets WebMD, specifically built for people with allergies. Users review products and restaurants all around the world based on their allergens, and their c ..read more

“In the senior living market, the old image is nursing home: the new image is active communities for older adults who can simplify their lives and spend their free time really enjoying themselves, their family, their friends,” says Nancy Koenig, CEO of Caremerge, which provides technology solutions for the senior living market. Like previous guests Jay Klauminzer and Elizabeth Harz, Nancy’s story is an interesting study in how to lead a company you didn’t start. She became the CEO in October 2017, taking the reigns from co-founder and chairman Asif Khan. Nancy explains her approach to taking ..read more

The rising number of luxury apartment buildings is putting property managers under increasing pressure to entice new tenants — and to convince current ones to stay when their lease is up. When round-the-clock doormen, a state-of-the-art fitness center and a residential lounge are seen as standard, how can property managers set their building apart? Jude Chiy founded resident engagement platform Flamingo to offer a solution. Not only can residents use it to do useful things like pay rent and make maintenance requests, Flamingo also allows property managers to easily offer concierge-style serv ..read more

It’s as true for tech as it is for war and football: sometimes the best defense is a good offense. But that requires everyone within an organization to understand the threat and how to counter it. Scott Kannry and Brendan Fitzpatrick, Axio’s CEO and VP of Cyber Risk Engineering respectively, understand this challenge. Axio’s goal is to help organizations neutralize cybersecurity threats through a combination of services and products. The company prides itself on removing the jargon and insider talk to make cybersecurity more accessible to the entire organization. http://serve.castfire.com/a ..read more

Moving to the cloud can be intimidating for people accustomed to storing all their data on hardware. Enter Mitch Greenwald and his company Cloudbakers, which helps small to medium-sized businesses translate the vision of cloud-based storage into reality. As a Google Premier Partner for more than eight years, Cloudbakers has worked with financial services, technology, healthcare and other businesses to make the switch to Google products. What’s neat about Cloudbakers is that they don’t just introduce you to the apps and run: they plan your transition process carefully and help your team navig ..read more

Established companies often wonder what it takes to create true digital transformation — the kind that helps your customers and your bottom line. Hub Group is a great example. Founded in 1971 on the outskirts of Chicago, by Joyce and Phillip Yeager. The couple saw the potential of intermodal shipping, in which containers are transported from one place to another using multiple types of transportation — usually trains and trucks — without having to unload their contents. Hub Group is still thriving today, thanks in large part to Joyce and Phillip’s son David Yeager, the current CEO and Chai ..read more

Eleven states (including Illinois) and D.C. are in various stages of legalizing recreational marijuana, and in 2018 the cannabis industry was estimated to be worth $10.4 billion — even though the drug is still restricted at the federal level. As the market becomes increasingly viable and appealing, ahem, budding cannabis entrepreneurs are faced with the challenge of moving an underground operation online. One of the biggest transition issues is navigating compliance laws. Aristotle Loumis and Chad Bronstein founded the marketing tech platform Fyllo earlier this year. The company offers to he ..read more