Blog

FastTrack: Turning Passion into a Career

Josh Hoffman-Peterson, founder of FastTrack. Every musician’s dream is to be recognized in some manner, whether locally or globally. “There are many jobs that go into creating a musical release. The tasks required to create music that breaks the listeners’...

iVentureJul 19 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

Campus Ventures: Solving University Undermatching

Campus Ventures: Solving University Undermatching

Campus Ventures’ Team Left to Right: Talia Farrell-Rosen, Monica Lannom, Zhaukhar (Jenna) Mukametkhan. (Not pictured Charmaine Nieves) Remember your college application process? The tedious Common App applications, hours upon hours of research,...

iVentureJul 16 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

vrtumind: Building an Effective Mindfulness App

vrtumind: Building an Effective Mindfulness App

Top Left to Right: Nolan Clarke, Benjamin Ray. Bottom Left to Right: Oluwabusayo Adebayo, Brendan Rattin. How did five young men start a unique mindfulness app to aid the growing mental health crisis? During 54, a startup competition hosted by Founders,...

iVentureJul 14 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

NASADYA: Excess Energy into Hydrogen & Oxygen

NASADYA: Excess Energy into Hydrogen & Oxygen

Chaitanya Gulati, founder of NASADYA. “Usually, there is a strong rainfall, and my power goes out,” Chaitanya Gulati, founder of NASADYA stated. “Luckily, we have generators but a majority of India doesn’t have that.” While working on an...

iVentureJul 12 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

Agriwater: Purifying the Most Polluted Water

Agriwater: Purifying the Most Polluted Water

Agriwater team from left to right: Karolina Guerrero, Bianca Bailey. (Not pictured Dinah Armstead and Nicole Adair). 780 million people do not have access to fecal free water and 35% of the world’s population lacks access to toilets connected to...

iVentureJul 07 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

Everything Worthwhile is Done with the Power of Collectivity

iVenture Alumni

iVenture Alumni

Everything Worthwhile is Done with the Power of Collectivity

Alumni Reflection from Hiba Ahmed I wasn’t expecting to be part of more than just a two-person startup team when I took on my internship freshman year. As iVenture started, I realized that being part of iVenture meant being part of a community of dozens...

iVentureJul 01 Alumni Reflection Comments Disabled

TAVO: Wake Up Feeling Refreshed

TAVO: Wake Up Feeling Refreshed

“Life’s too good to be SNOOZIN.” TAVO team from left to right: Michael Zheng, Lukas Kulbis, Tadas Kunickas. (Not pictured Alex Sirakides). Ever wonder why it’s so hard to wake up sometimes? It’s because our alarm clocks aren’t...

iVentureJun 30 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

CamUX: Interfacing with Technology without Hands

CamUX: Interfacing with Technology without Hands

CamUX team from left to right: Siddharth Bhujle, Dmirty Ilchenko, Ryan Prendergast Smartphones and tablets are integral parts of the current society, but 15 million Americans have difficulty using this technology. The manner we use this technology is...

iVentureJun 29 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

Objective: Personalizing your internet

Objective: Personalizing your internet

Rachel Rosa, co-founder of Objective. The team recently launched its Alpha version, register link at the end. Imagine creating a personalized internet that displays exactly what you want to view. It seems impossible with Google’s Search Engine Optimization...

iVentureJun 26 UIUC Startup Comments Disabled

Natrion: Creating a Safer and Affordable Battery for Solar Power

Natrion: Creating a Safer and Affordable Battery for Solar Power

Alex Kosyakov, Co-Founder of Natrion One knocked-down tree can cause a widespread power outage in the Northeast, leaving thousands without power. New York natives Alex Kosyakov and Tom Rouffiac experienced just that in high school. Their neighborhoods...

iVentureJun 17 University of Illinois Startup Comments Disabled

Medius Ventures: Realigning the Incentives for Digital Media to Work for the People

Medius Ventures: Realigning the Incentives for Digital Media to Work for the People

Article written by Steven Li, Founder of Medius Ventures Digital media has been one of the most interesting industries to me for a long time, and Buzzfeed’s growth story got me into the space. Its journey building out a variety of media and retail assets...

iVentureJun 09Comments Disabled

Reflections of an iVenture Fellow

Reflections of an iVenture Fellow

Sanya Rupani Deciding to stay in the cornfields of Champaign-Urbana for the summer wasn’t the most exciting choice I’ve ever made. Knowing little to nothing about iVenture at the time, I made the call simply based upon the multiple glowing reviews...

Manu EdakaraOct 29Comments Disabled

Creasion: Creating a Sustainable Water Source for Indonesian Communities

Creasion: Creating a Sustainable Water Source for Indonesian Communities

Nur Hepsanti Hasanah Maryam Karimah In Indonesia alone, 27 million people struggle with finding access to clean water. Living on an archipelago, most Indonesians have to travel hours outside of their homes to obtain drinkable water. This not only costs...

Manu EdakaraJun 01Comments Disabled

Program directors plan out the space before the program begins

iVenture Begins

iVenture Begins

iVenture directors planning out space before the program begins As another summer rolls around, iVenture has kicked off its 10-week startup accelerator welcoming 15 new talented student ventures to the iVenture family. On Thursday and Friday, the iVenture...

iVentureMay 23Comments Disabled

Entrepreneurial Eye: iVenture from a Fine Arts Perspective

Entrepreneurial Eye: iVenture from a Fine Arts Perspective

Interview with Industrial Design major & entrepreneur Kofo Sulaiman, co-founder of Slay’d, an app that better connects minority beauty industry professionals to their customers. iVA: How has your perspective on entrepreneurship changed since...

iVentureOct 30Comments Disabled

Applications for iVenture 4 (2018-2019) now open!

Applications for iVenture 4 (2018-2019) now open!

Apply to join iVenture 4 (2018-2019)! Final wave applications are due April 30, 2018. Read info below and apply here. The iVenture Accelerator is the educational accelerator for top student startups at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign....

Oct 11Comments Disabled

Communicate like it matters, because it matters! – Jennifer Bechtel

Communicate like it matters, because it matters! – Jennifer Bechtel

Jennifer Bechtel from Innovation Living-Learning Community shares her advice on public-speaking and pitching. Jennifer has a background in theater, film directing, and coaching young entrepreneurs in all aspects of professional growth. Go early and...

iVentureJul 24Comments Disabled

Advice on Customer Discovery from ChopBox & TeaSquares Founder Jordan Buckner

Advice on Customer Discovery from ChopBox & TeaSquares Founder Jordan Buckner

Photo cred: DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson Tools for Customer Discovery Founder of ChopBox & TeaSquares, Jordan Buckner, explains that success in costumer discovery comes through research, trial-and-error, and collaboration. Illinois MBA graduate Jordan...

iVentureJun 22Comments Disabled

Mentor Spotlight: cleverbridge & Hyde Park Angels’ Craig Vodnik

Mentor Spotlight: cleverbridge & Hyde Park Angels’ Craig Vodnik

Craig Vodnik, founder of cleverbridge, continues to support young entrepreneurs by answering iVenture’s questions about mentoring. Hi Craig, As you already know, the iVenture Accelerator works hard to match its resident and alumni teams with mentors....

iVentureJun 16Comments Disabled

iVenture Year 3 Kicks Off with Team Building & Exploring CU’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

iVenture Year 3 Kicks Off with Team Building & Exploring CU’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

This year iVenture Accelerator’s twelve new teams are receiving stipends, seed funding, access to advisors & networking events, co-working space, and… a mega-motivated cohort of peers. Each new iVenture 3 team walked in on day one with just as...

iVentureJun 12Comments Disabled

UIUC Startup Story: Amber Agriculture

Every January, over 150,000 exhibitors, media outlets, and industry professionals flock to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest consumer electronics and technology tradeshow. CES 2017 was no exception; nearly 4,000...

iVentureJun 07Comments Disabled

Mesh++ featured in Chicago Tribune

Mesh++ featured in Chicago Tribune

Mesh++, a iVenture second cohort, was recently profiled in a Chicago Tribune article for their upcoming pilot with Chicago Park Districts. They build solar powered wi-fi nodes to supply internet in areas of low-power and low-connectivity. Read more...

Mar 15Comments Disabled

Engadget Names Amber Agriculture Top Startup at CES

Engadget Names Amber Agriculture Top Startup at CES

Amber Agriculture, a venture in iVenture Accelerator second cohort, has been named the top startup of the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES). See Research Park’s press release for full coverage.

Jan 19Comments Disabled

Cast21 Raises $800K for Their Waterproof, Breathable Cast

Cast21 Raises $800K for Their Waterproof, Breathable Cast

Cast21, a medical device startup in iVenture’s second cohort, recently raised $800K for the waterproof, breathable casting technology. Check out ChicagoInno’s full story here.

Jan 19Comments Disabled

Amber Ag spends semester prototyping in Shenzhen, China in Hax Accelerator

Amber Ag spends semester prototyping in Shenzhen, China in Hax Accelerator

How they met Apple’s Tim Cook, Alibaba’s Jack Ma, and the Premier of China during their semester away. We interviewed Lucas Frye, founder of Amber Agriculture, an ag-tech startup implementing technology to help farmers manage their crop storage after...

Dec 30Comments Disabled

Therapalz wins Saint Louis University Real Elevator Pitch Competition

Therapalz wins Saint Louis University Real Elevator Pitch Competition

Therapalz, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student startup that incorporates a therapeutic object to help caretakers better care for their loved ones with Alzheimer’s, won the Saint Louis University Real Elevator Pitch Competition on Sunday,...

Dec 08Comments Disabled

iVenture Wraps Up Summer Program with Second Annual Chicago Demo Day

iVenture Wraps Up Summer Program with Second Annual Chicago Demo Day

Two days after iVenture’s Campus Demo Day event, on August 4th, the teams packed up their demos and hit the road for their last Chicago trip of the summer! The teams, having meticulously practiced their pitches, excitedly took the stage and shared...

iVentureAug 09Comments Disabled

iVenture Startups Pitch Their Company at Campus Demo Day Event!

iVenture Startups Pitch Their Company at Campus Demo Day Event!

On the morning of Tuesday, August 2nd, iVenture teams were seen practicing pitches, picking up posters, and setting up their demos for their big showcase. iVenture’s Campus Demo Day, hosted by EnterpriseWorks in Research Park, began with a brief...

iVentureAug 09Comments Disabled

iVenture Pitches in 1871 Space Following Breakout Sessions with Top Executives

iVenture Pitches in 1871 Space Following Breakout Sessions with Top Executives

Following their talk with Sean Chou, the iVenture teams made their way across the hall to 1871, a startup space in Chicago’s famed Merchandise Mart. Divided into groups of like disciplines, the students broke off to talk to executives and receive...

iVentureAug 02Comments Disabled

Sean Chou, former CTO at Fieldglass, Tells iVenture His Entrepreneurial Story

Sean Chou, former CTO at Fieldglass, Tells iVenture His Entrepreneurial Story

On July 24, the iVenture teams excitedly gathered into the Matter Medical Accelerator space to meet and talk with Sean Chou. Once the students sat down, Sean introduced himself as a former University of Illinois student entrepreneur. Since graduating...

iVentureAug 02Comments Disabled

Kevin Price, CFO of Trunk Club, hosts iVenture Students for Talk + Networking Event

Kevin Price, CFO of Trunk Club, hosts iVenture Students for Talk + Networking Event

University of Illinois alum Kevin Price opened the doors of his industrial, three floor office and sales space to talk with our cohort about his experiences as an entrepreneur launching Trunk Club. After telling his story about the way this small company...

iVentureJul 22Comments Disabled

iVenture Alumni Mayank Kale Imparts Wisdom to the New Cohort

iVenture Alumni Mayank Kale Imparts Wisdom to the New Cohort

During the MATTER event at Chicago’s Tech Week, the class of 2016 attended a talk from iVenture alumni Mayank Kale, incoming computer science senior and cofounder of Invoq Health. He lent some encouragement to startup teams facing their first bouts...

iVentureJun 30Comments Disabled

iVenture Teams Return From Chicago’s Tech Week Competition

iVenture Teams Return From Chicago’s Tech Week Competition

Last Thursday, our iVenture teams took their ideas on the road! Chicago’s annual Tech Week, a startup competition event, complete with a large expo, informative summits and lots of networking opportunities! Six of our teams (Amber Ag, ExoWear, Cast21,...

iVentureJun 30Comments Disabled

College of Engineering Professor Bruce Litchfield Gives Workshop on Creativity + Innovation

College of Engineering Professor Bruce Litchfield Gives Workshop on Creativity + Innovation

After a morning of individual work time, the students reconvened in the iVenture Commons for a workshop from College of Engineering professor Bruce Litchfield. His class, which has many iVenture alumnas, focuses on the various creative processes, and...

iVentureJun 20Comments Disabled

Jed Taylor teaches Lean Startup + Business Model Canvas

Workshop

Workshop

Jed Taylor teaches Lean Startup + Business Model Canvas

Jed Taylor, Director of Operations at the Technology Entrepreneur Center, joined the iVenture Fellows last Friday to lead a workshop on the “Lean Startup” and the Business Model Canvas. Jed is an entrepreneur-in-residence at Enterprise Works, and...

Jun 17Comments Disabled

Serial Entrepreneur + VC Associate Chase Bonhag Talks Collegiate Entrepreneurship

Serial Entrepreneur + VC Associate Chase Bonhag Talks Collegiate Entrepreneurship

Chase Bonhag joined the iVenture Fellows today for a lively discussion about humility, gratitude, and the power of supportive advisors. Chase is an Associate at IllinoisVENTURES and has been heavily involved in the local entrepreneurship ecosystem....

iVentureJun 13Comments Disabled

iVenture Welcomes Al Goldstein, CEO of Avant, to Kickoff Summer Session!

iVenture Welcomes Al Goldstein, CEO of Avant, to Kickoff Summer Session!

Today kicked off the first day of the 2016-2017 iVenture Accelerator! Following a welcome breakfast, entrepreneur-extraordinaire Al Goldstein joined the Fellows to speak about his journey co-founding three successful companies: Enova International, Pangea...

iVentureJun 07Comments Disabled

Lunch+Office Hours with Kevin Price, CFO of Trunk Club

Lunch+Office Hours with Kevin Price, CFO of Trunk Club

Kevin Price, CFO and Co-Founder of Trunk Club, joined the iVenture Accelerator for a lunch talk and office hours. He joined Trunk Club as a founding member in 2008. . He shared his journey on helping Trunk Club get to $100 million in revenues per...

Mar 30Comments Disabled

Spring iVenture Startup Wins!