Search Interviews:
How a Chicago Startup is Getting Big Competitors to Collaborate and Democratize Data with Jimmy Zollo of Collaborata
Jimmy Zollo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Collaborata, a Chicago-based company serving the insights and marketing-research space. Collaborata helps companies find, shape, and buy expert-led multi-client research projects. It helps companies get expert market research that can help a company grow and innovate, and they connect research clients and suppliers to market research. They are the first-ever platform that allows brands to share research costs and insights, and they have been featured in Business Insider, BuiltInChicago, Greenbook, Market Research World.
Jimmy is also the Co-Founder of Joe & Bella, a service that provides older adults with the full array of products they need, and they offer their services for residents of care communities, their families, and caregivers.
Previously Jimmy helped drive the initial growth of Grubhub, one of Chicago’s most successful tech startups ever. He helped develop Grubhub’s industry-leading restaurant network, traveling across the country to launch new markets and grow existing ones.
Before Jimmy focused on tech, he worked in the sports industry, having worked for the Chicago Sky, then the Bulls, selling his favorite sport in his favorite city.
What it Takes to Become a Franchise Millionaire with Lance Graulich of ION Franchising
Lance Graulich is the Founder and CEO of ION Franchising, an industry-leading franchise, consulting, and development group. They represent over 650 franchise brands and business opportunities within 90 different categories.
Lance helps prospective entrepreneurs find their perfect franchise free of charge and he also helps independent business owners create a franchise system. He started in a family business on Wall Street after receiving his economics degree. He joined TGI Friday’s franchise in Arizona as a key executive and was vital in the rapid growth of the over $225 million organization.
Lance was a multi-unit, multi-state franchisee of Wingstop and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. He has created countless startup brands and is one of the industry-leading donut experts. He is the Founder of the doughnut chain Pinkbox Doughnut in Las Vegas.
As a business start-up expert with more than 25 years of experience, Lance has served as President of various franchise advisory councils and boards advising emerging franchise brands. He has also helped a multitude of companies grow efficiently and effectively, and he routinely provides advisory services to private equity firms covering the restaurant industry
![[Top Black Business Leader Series] Racial Inequality and Appalling Silence with Robert Wallace of BITHGROUP Technologies](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/robertwallace.jpg)
[Top Black Business Leader Series] Racial Inequality and Appalling Silence with Robert Wallace of BITHGROUP Technologies
Robert Wallace is a speaker, author, and a consultant with over 40 years of business experience spanning engineering, energy, and IT. He has a true rags-to-riches story that began in the Baltimore Projects amidst poverty and racial segregation before overcoming obstacles to establish three companies: BITHGROUP Technologies, Bithenergy, and EntreTeach.
Robert shares his innovative strategies for success in his books and workshops, which includes one of his books, Black Wealth: Your Road to Small Business Success. He partners with many different types of clients across a range of industries and some of his clients include Bank of America, Dartmouth College, IBM, Salvation Army, NIH, Toyota, Verizon, University of Pennsylvania, and many more.
![[Venture Capital & Chicago Series] How to Use Data and KPIs to Drive Important Decisions with Haley Kwait Zollo, Principal at Starting Line](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/haleykwaitzollo.png)
[Venture Capital & Chicago Series] How to Use Data and KPIs to Drive Important Decisions with Haley Kwait Zollo, Principal at Starting Line
Haley Kwait Zollo is Principal at Starting Line, a Chicago-based, thematic early-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in consumer services and products that are cheaper and better. They’ve invested in companies like Cameo, Catch Co, SpotHero, and many more.
Before joining Starting Line, Haley was VP of Strategy and Business Operations at Mac & Mia and was Manager of strategy and analytics at Trunk Club. She began her career as a Transaction Services Associate at KPMG.
How to Help Top Ecommerce Brands Grow
Rudy Mawer is the CEO and Founder of ROI Machines. ROI Machines is a digital marketing agency that helps companies get tens of thousands of leads with paid ads by setting up everything that a company needs from funnel design, development, copywriting much more. They help multiple 7 to 8 figure businesses generate over $150 million per year.
Before founding ROI Machines, Rudy was an elite sports nutritionist and trainer. He worked with Hollywood celebrities, elite athletes, NBA players, WWE, gold medalists, and more.
![[Direct Response Series] Embracing Vulnerability and Telling Powerful Stories with Ray Edwards](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/rayedwards.jpg)
[Direct Response Series] Embracing Vulnerability and Telling Powerful Stories with Ray Edwards
Ray Edwards is a famous copywriter, best-selling author, and keynote speaker. His direct response campaigns have resulted in an estimated $100 million in sales, and he has worked with high-profile clients such as Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, and Mark Victor Hansen. Ray is currently a copywriting consultant and the Founder of the Copywriting Academy Coaching Program and the Ray Edwards Copywriting Agency. He is also the host of the top-ranked podcast, The Ray Edwards Show.
![[Direct Response Series] From Maxwell Street to Infomercials with Ron Popeil](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ronpopeil.jpg)
[Direct Response Series] From Maxwell Street to Infomercials with Ron Popeil
Ron Popeil is a unique inventor and a legend of sales infomercials and direct response marketing. Over the last 40 years, Ron’s products have pulled in more than $2 billion in sales. He has created innumerable products and infomercials, such as the Showtime Rotisserie, the Chop-O-Matic, the Veg-O-Matic, and many more.
Ron is still going strong with his latest product, the 5-in-1 fryer which can cook a 15 pound turkey in 46 minutes.
Using Conversion Optimization to Skyrocket Your Business with Peep Laja
Peep Laja is a former champion of optimization and experimentation turned business builder. He is the Founder and CEO of CXL Institute, the only skill-building platform for marketers that uses the world’s top 1% of practitioners as its instructors. With years of experience and multiple companies under his belt, Peep is considered the #1 most influential conversion rate optimization expert in the world.
Peep also hosts the annual CXL Live, a must-attend conference that features the best in online optimization and experimentation.
The Secrets of High-Quality Copywriting with Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers
Joanna Wiebe is the Founder and Conversion Copywriter at Copyhackers, as well as the Co-Founder and Head of Growth at Airstory. As the original conversion copywriter with a career that spans almost 15 years, Joanna has worked with incredible companies such as BT, Canva, Glowforge, Prezi, and many more. In addition to writing top-notch copy, Joanna has also coached and advised more than 70,000 businesses of all shapes and sizes.
![[Venture Capital Series] How Important Are Core Values When Investing in a Company? With David Mann & Derrick Smith of The Firefly Group LLC](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/davidmannandderricksmith.jpg)
[Venture Capital Series] How Important Are Core Values When Investing in a Company? With David Mann & Derrick Smith of The Firefly Group LLC
David Mann and Derrick Smith are Partners at The Firefly Group. They invest in growth-oriented, lower middle market companies that include US-based companies with EBITDA of at least a million dollars.
Before co-founding The Firefly Group, David Mann co-founded Spring Mill Venture Partners, a venture capital firm. He previously worked with ServiceMaster Ventures and served as a founding member of the ServiceMaster home Service Center. David began his career as an Officer of the US Navy. He got his MBA from Harvard and is an Adjunct Faculty at the Indiana University, Kelley School of Business.
Derrick Smith led the launch of a family office where he served as managing director before co-founding The Firefly Group. He began his career with CHV Capital, the healthcare venture capital arm of the Indiana University Health. He also helped start and led Indiana University’s Health International and Management Company while at CHV Capital. He earned his MBA from Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, and serves as an executive business advisor at Rise Sports Advisors.
![[Top Black Business Leader Series] Largest Black-Owned Security Firm in the Nation – Humble Beginnings to Over 1000 Staff with John and Dr. Denitra Griffin of AGB Investigative Services](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/johnanddrdenitragriffin.jpg)
[Top Black Business Leader Series] Largest Black-Owned Security Firm in the Nation – Humble Beginnings to Over 1000 Staff with John and Dr. Denitra Griffin of AGB Investigative Services
John and Dr. Denitra Griffin are Co-Founders of the largest black-owned security firm in the United States, AGB (Always Giving Back) Investigative Services. John is the CEO of the AGB Investigative Services and Dr. Griffin is the President. John and Dr. Griffin founded AGB Investigative Services in 2001. They offer expertise in all aspects of security, including physical and cyber. Their mission is to eliminate economic inequities by delivering training and smart services to protect your people, property, and data.
Dr. Griffin is also the CEO and Founder of the AGB Foundation where they give out business internships and college scholarships to young people.
They also own and run The AGB Institute which provides training for people seeking to better themselves as professionals and enhance their life skills. They offer various courses related to security training, business security, professional development, and administrative support.
![[Venture Capital Series] Early-stage Investing Hack and Emerging Opportunities with Matthew Le Merle of Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Matthew-Le-Merle.jpg)
[Venture Capital Series] Early-stage Investing Hack and Emerging Opportunities with Matthew Le Merle of Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital
Matthew Le Merle is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Fifth Era and Keiretsu Capital, one of the most active early-stage venture investors backing almost 200 companies a year. They’ve backed over 20 unicorns, including Airbnb, Spotify, Coinbase, and many more.
Matthew has advised leading companies, including Amazon, Cisco, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, on growth and innovation. He’s an economic value creation expert that has helped drive annual savings of over $2 billion at a leading retailer and $1 billion at a leading bank.
He has written several books with the latest one being The Intelligent Investor – Silicon Valley: Practical Wisdom for Investors and Entrepreneurs from 50 Leading Silicon Valley Angels and Venture Capitalists which he co-wrote with Alison Davis.
![[Israel Business Series] Getting Inside the Mind of a Hacker with Ido Safruti of PerimeterX](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Ido-Safruti.jpg)
[Israel Business Series] Getting Inside the Mind of a Hacker with Ido Safruti of PerimeterX
Ido Safruti is the Co-Founder and CTO of PerimeterX, a cybersecurity company that can detect and stop automated threats and helps to block malicious code. They began operations in 2014. Some of their solutions are PerimeterX Bot Defender™ and Code Defender, among others, which help to accurately protect companies’ websites across the digital enterprise, e-commerce, financial services, food delivery, travel and hospitality, and media industries.
PerimeterX helps protect these websites from all types of automated or non-human attacks at any scale, including protection from infected code that can leak personal information. They’ve helped some of the world’s largest brands, including Zillow, Bill.com, Skechers, Godiva, and many more.
![[Venture Capital & Israel Business Series] Disrupting Major Industries with Technology and Taking 3 Companies from Inception to IPO with Elie Wurtman of Pico Venture Partners](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Elie-Wurtman.jpg)
[Venture Capital & Israel Business Series] Disrupting Major Industries with Technology and Taking 3 Companies from Inception to IPO with Elie Wurtman of Pico Venture Partners
Elie Wurtman is the Co-founder and Partner at PICO Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm headquartered in Jerusalem. Elie’s investments portfolio includes Vroom, a company that hit a market cap of $5.5 billion after its IPO, and Spot.io, which was acquired by NetApp for $450 million. Elie also has investments in Gloat, ChargeAfter, AutoLeadStar.
Prior to starting PICO, Elie was a General Partner of Benchmark Capital and he has taken three companies from founding to IPO. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Deltathree, one of Jerusalem’s first unicorns.
Elie’s other notable startups include Iron Source, where he’s an External Director and active mentor. He is also the Founder of PICO Kids, a social enterprise focused on child education in Jerusalem. Elie also owns and runs Bat Shlomo Vineyards, a boutique winery in Northern Israel.
![[Top Chicago Business Series] What do Lobsters, Howard Stern, and Oprah Have in Common? with Dan Zawacki founder of Lobster Gram and 4 Mores [EOS]](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/dan-zawackis.jpg)
[Top Chicago Business Series] What do Lobsters, Howard Stern, and Oprah Have in Common? with Dan Zawacki founder of Lobster Gram and 4 Mores [EOS]
Dan Zawacki founded Lobster Gram in 1986, a company that sold and delivered live lobsters and seafood around the U.S as gifts. He was the first person in the world to do this and by doing so, he was able to create a new market. As a result, he was featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Oprah, and 500 other media outlets.
After three decades of running Lobster Gram, Dan sold the company. Dan now runs THE 4 MORES℠, where he helps organizations implement the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS). As a Certified EOS Implementer, Dan helps owners and leadership teams gain more structure, growth, profit, and fun.
![[Top Black Business Leader Series] Confidence to Live Richly And Die Wealthy with Chris Gandy, Founder of Midwest Legacy Group](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Chris-gandy.jpg)
[Top Black Business Leader Series] Confidence to Live Richly And Die Wealthy with Chris Gandy, Founder of Midwest Legacy Group
Chris Gandy is the Founder of Midwest Legacy Group, a boutique concierge insurance group for executives, professional athletes, physicians, business owners, and entrepreneurs.
Chris has spent the last two decades helping individuals reach their most important financial goals. His firm focuses on unique tax reduction strategies, retirement income optimization, generational wealth, and more.
Chris is a former pro-basketball player. He played for the University of Illinois, where he was co-captain before playing professionally for the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and France. He’s been featured in numerous magazines such as Crain’s Chicago, GQ, Black Enterprise, African American Career Worlds.
Chris has served on multiple boards including the Chicago Concussion Coalition, The Urban League, and he is currently serving as board member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and the National Committee for Diversity Inclusion Task Force where he is the youngest member serving on the national board.
![[Top Agency Series] How to Run Your Agency Profitably with Marcel Petitpas of Parakeeto](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Marcel-Petitpas.jpg)
[Top Agency Series] How to Run Your Agency Profitably with Marcel Petitpas of Parakeeto
Marcel Petitpas is the CEO and Co-founder of Parakeeto, an agency profitability platform that modern digital and creative agencies use to scope and measure more profitable projects in record time. They help agencies and consultancies automagically create accurate and data-driven estimates for their projects in seconds. They utilize information gathered from the Harvest time-tracking data of their clients to get the results they need for their project estimations.
Harvest data allows Parakeeto to view all information from past projects to show you exactly how much time it’s likely to take you to complete your next one. Their methods also provide real-time feedback on any changes made to the project and gives an updated estimate that compares the current project to previous ones.
![[Venture Capital Series] A Framework for Making Important Decisions with Fabrice Grinda of FJ Labs](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/fabrice-grinda.jpg)
[Venture Capital Series] A Framework for Making Important Decisions with Fabrice Grinda of FJ Labs
Fabrice Grinda is a Founding Partner at FJ Labs, is a stage-agnostic consumer facing-fund headquartered in New York City. They invest in ambitious founders solving big problems. They have investments in more than 600 investments around the world including Alibaba Group, Airbnb, Beepi, Fanduel, Dropbox, and many more, and have had over 300 million investment exits.
Fabrice was a Co-founder and former CEO of OLX, and drove the company’s business development, investor relations, M&A and product development efforts in his capacity as co-CEO. Prior to OLX, he was the founder and CEO of Zingy Inc., a mobile media startup which he successfully grew to $200 million in content sales in just four years. Fabrice was also the Co-founder and former CEO of Aucland, one of the three largest auction websites in Europe.
Forbes named Fabrice as the number one Angel Investor in 2018, which was measured by the number of investments and exits that he has done over the years.
The Other Side of a Big Exit with Ryan Moran of Capitalism.com
Ryan Moran is the Founder of Capitalism.com, where he brings like-minded entrepreneurs and experts together to build brands and businesses that last.
Ryan has launched Amazon businesses that he eventually sold for over eight-figures. Today, he has a portfolio of brands and he documents and shares his entrepreneurial journey on his podcast, Capitalism.com podcast.
Ryan is also the author of the book 12 Months to $1 Million: How to Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business, and Become a Seven-Figure Entrepreneur.
![[Top Women Leaders] How To Become a Better Communicator with Deirdre Breakenridge of Pure Performance Communications](https://www.inspiredinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Deirdre-Breakenridg.jpg)
[Top Women Leaders] How To Become a Better Communicator with Deirdre Breakenridge of Pure Performance Communications
Deirdre Breakenridge is the CEO of Pure Performance Communications, a company that fuses strategic communications with innovative technology to impact business communications from consumer interest to brand loyalty and advocacy. Deirdre has been in PR and marketing for over 25 years, helping senior executives in mid-and-large organizations better communicate with their stakeholders.
Deirdre also does reputation management and social media relations. She’s a LinkedIn Learning instructor and was an Adjunct Professor at NYU, and she has written many books including Answers for Modern Communicators, and her latest one book, Answers for Ethical Marketers.
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