1871 Member and Alumni Companies Selected as Moxie Awards Finalists

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1871 and The 2015 Moxie Awards

Last week’s Moxie Awards brought together leaders of Chicago’s digital business community to celebrate the city’s thriving ecosystem of innovation. Now in their fourth year, Built In Chicago’s Moxie Awards recognize exceptional leaders and companies. Fifteen awards were given across four categories that include Startup Awards, Supporting Awards, Individual Awards, and Headline Awards.

In past years, 1871 companies and other community members have been frequent nominees and winners at the Moxie Awards. This year was no exception, with 1871 companies, mentors, partners, and CEC Momentum Award finalists represented across each of the four categories of awards. After over 22,000 people cast their votes, the 2015 Moxie Award winners from the 1871 community include:

Best B2B Startup: SimpleRelevance

SimpleRelevance helps marketers send personalized, targeted messages to their e-mail lists. The company uses technology to gather purchasing and browsing insights linked to an e-mail address, empowering marketers to create targeted campaigns.

SimpleRelevance is a recent graduate of 1871.

Best Startup Co-Founders: Eileen Murphy and Abby Ross (ThinkCERCA)

Eileen Murphy and Abby Ross are working to improve education with ThinkCERCA, and recently closed a $3.2 million Series A Round for the company. ThinkCERCA is an online platform designed to empower teachers to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines and increase engagement.

ThinkCERCA is an 1871 alumni company that has returned to the 1871 space, and is now the largest employer at 1871.

Startup of the Year: SpotHero

SpotHero is an on-demand parking app and website that helps drivers find parking and reserve a spot with convenient garages, lots, and valets for up to 50% off the drive-up rate. Founded in Chicago in 2011, the company is now active in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Boston, and a number of other major US cities. In addition to being the top downloaded and top rated parking app in both the iTunes and Google Play App Stores, SpotHero was also the first on-demand parking app to offer Apple Pay and Google Wallet. SpotHero is an 1871 alumni company.

Investor of the Year – Adam Koopersmith (Pritzker Group Venture Capital)

Adam Koopersmith joined Pritzker Group Venture Capital in 2004 and has focused on SaaS applications, interactive marketing solutions and health applications. He also sits on the board of organizations like TechStars, Sittercity, Advantage Optics and Firm58.

Pritzker Group Venture Capital is a tenant of 1871, and Adam Koopersmith is a frequent mentor of 1871 startups.

Best Software Company AND Best Company Culture: Jellyvision

Jellyvision is one of Chicago’s most successful digital communications firms. In 2009, the company launched ALEX, an employee engagement platform that communicates matters like health benefits to new hires and current staff. The software is used by over 300 companies, 52 of which are Fortune 500 companies that have hundreds to millions of employees.

Jellyvision was a 2014 CEC Momentum Award Finalist

CEO of the Year: Amanda Lannert (Jellyvision)

During her time at Jellyvision, Amanda Lannert has built an award-winning company culture and doubled her company’s revenue in three out of the last four years. After so much success, it’s not surprising that this is the third year in a row Amanda has taken the coveted CEO of the Year title at the Moxie Awards.

Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners at the 2015 Moxie Awards!

MOXIE AWARDS IMAGES

Jellyvision's Lannert, CEO of the Year, leads the way at Moxie Awards

Attendees gather for the Third Annual Moxie Awards, which celebrate Chicago's technology startups. (Genna Ord / for Blue Sky / June 19, 2014)

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By John Carpenter, @ScoopCarp, Blue Sky Reporter
June 20, 2014, 8:25 a.m.

Amanda Lannert of Jellyvision took home CEO of the Year honors at the Third Annual Moxie Awards at the Park West on Thursday night.

Online food-ordering platform GrubHub, on the heels of its $192 million IPO earlier this year, was named Breakthrough Digital Company of the Year.

The moment was particularly special for Lannert, as the award presenter was Jellyvision founder Harry Gottlieb. He recalled the day he offered Lannert the CEO job by handing her a box of business cards with the new title on it. She had been president.

CEO Amanda Lannert has shaped a culture of humor and hard work at Jellyvision Lab

“This was so much more special because I was able to share it with our founder, who has helped me so much,” Lannert said Thursday.

Also nominated for CEO of the Year were Logan LaHive of Belly, Shawn Riegsecker of Centro, Justyn Howard of Sprout Social and Rishi Shah of ContextMedia.

“All of the finalists are incredible CEOs and leaders in Chicago's tech community,” said Built In CEO Maria Katris. “The fact that Amanda won the award is a testament to her strengths as a leader and executor. I have no doubt Jellyvision will continue to exceed expectations in 2014 under her leadership.”

Previous winners of the CEO of the Year Award were Mike Sands of BrightTag (now Signal) last year and Matt Maloney of GrubHub in 2012.

Thursday night’s event was sold out, with more than 850 attendees, Katris said. More than 80,000 individual nominations were submitted for awards this year, and more than 360,000 votes were cast, she said. A panel of judges also voted on the nominees. Voting weight was split 50-50 between the general public and the judges, Katris said.

Built In Chicago Founder Matt Moog said events like the Moxie Awards are important for the community.

“Any community or ecosystem needs to recognize the people in it,” Moog said. “It’s a really important part of the feedback loop. To be recognized by your peers means something to people.”

1871 CEO Howard Tullman agreed.

“This community is pretty (expletive deleted) tight,” said Tullman, known for his salty language. “It’s growing. It’s exciting. And we are celebrating a lot of great stories tonight.”

Dylan Richard, chief technology officer of Modest Inc., said the size of the event “is a good reflection on where this community has come. This kind of thing didn’t exist five years ago.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke onstage briefly, saying the size of the event reflects the growing importance of Chicago's tech sector.

The full list of winners:

• CEO of the Year: Amanda Lannert, Jellyvision

• Best Consumer Web: SpotHero

• Best B2B: TempoDB

• Best New Startup: Civis Analytics

• Best Startup Co-Founders: Jimmy Odom, Daniela Bolzmann and Kirk Lashley, WeDeliver

• Best Service Provider: VineSprout Public Relations

• Digital Agency of the Year: Rise Interactive                   

• Mentor of the Year: Chuck Templeton, Impact Engine

• Investor of the Year: Stuart Larkins, Chicago Ventures

• Tech Woman of the Year: Kristi Ross, CEO & President, dough

• CTO of the Year: Aaron Rankin, Sprout Social

• Best Software Company: Signal

• Startup of the Year: Sprout Social 

• Best Company Culture: Centro

• Best Enterprise Web Company: kCura 

• Breakthrough Digital Company of the Year: GrubHub          

– jccarpenter@tribune.com