1871 CEO Howard Tullman (and NU Law Grad) Celebrates NU Entrepreneurship Day

Alumnus and professor Howard Tullman wins Illinois Humanities Council Award

Posted by anew.0000677560 in Northwestern Alumni Association on Apr 14, 2015 1:15:57 PM

EVANSTON, Ill. --- The Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) will honor Howard A. Tullman, CEO of digital startup incubator 1871 and an alumnus and adjunct professor of Northwestern University, with the 2015 Public Humanities Award at the council’s annual benefit luncheon on Thursday, May 14, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.

A serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, educator, writer, lecturer and art collector, Tullman has fostered a vibrant relationship between the humanities and business. Under his leadership, 1871 has become a globally renowned space for ideas, collaboration and innovation. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called 1871 “a driving force for Chicago’s tech scene, creating jobs and opportunity.”

Tullman lectures regularly on venturing, change management and entrepreneurship at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and Northwestern University School of Law.

Given annually by the IHC since 1984, the Public Humanities Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have helped transform lives and strengthened communities through the humanities.

“Business is a human pursuit, with creativity, innovation and collaboration serving as tenets for success,” said Angel Ysaguirre, IHC executive director. “Howard has highlighted these principles in the operations of 1871, with initiatives that engage political leaders, veterans, women, youth and people of color. He models the way the humanities can strengthen all aspects of life, including business.”

Throughout his career, Tullman has encouraged art as a vantage point for expression and digital innovation. He is a co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, a premier digital media arts college in Chicago. He also served as president of Kendall College in Chicago and transformed the 70-year-old college into a major national leader in the culinary and hospitality education market.

Tullman received a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern in 1967 and a J.D. from the School of Law in 1970. At the School of Law, he graduated with honors, was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as the chairman of the editors of The Law Review. He is the author of “The Perspiration Principles” and writes a weekly blog for Inc. magazine.

“Howard is a cultural phenomenon,” said Joel Henning, IHC board member and one of this year’s co-chairs. “I’m delighted to help honor a man who has done more than anyone here to nurture high-tech creativity and entrepreneurialism and also stimulate cutting-edge contemporary art, all of which has vastly enhanced the economics and culture of Illinois and indeed the entire country.”

Visit Northwestern News for more

1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN - LEHMAN LECTURE AT NORTHWESTERN SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

1871 CEO, Northwestern alumnus Howard Tullman talks entrepreneurship

Hal Jin, Reporter
January 6, 2015 •

Howard Tullman, CEO of startup incubator 1871, returned to his alma mater Tuesday to give a lesson on entrepreneurship.

More than 50 people attended Tullman’s (Weinberg ’67, Law ’70) lecture, this year’s Harvey Kapnick Business Institutions Program’s Lehman Brothers Lecture, in the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center.

Tullman advised audience members on how to make a startup successful and explained the mindsets of successful entrepreneurs.

“We’re not in the business of making money,” he said. “We’re in the business of people who want to make a difference.”

The company, named for the rebuilding of Chicago after the 1871 fire, currently houses 350 digital technology startups. The hub, which Tullman said he thought was even more selective than NU, has graduated 65 companies.

“If you’re doing this, you need to care about it and care about it daily because it’s really hard,” Tullman said. “At 1871, we’ve said we don’t need another 17 dating sites. You don’t want to spend a lot of time putting lipstick on a pig — you could be doing more important things.”

Tullman, who has been called the “the champ of serial entrepreneurs,” has founded more than a dozen high-tech companies over the past 45 years with more than $1 billion in exits. Aside from his work at 1871, he is also a general managing partner of venture funds and an adjunct professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he lectures about entrepreneurship.

Tullman said that because of his decade of experience as a lawyer and his background as an engineer, he’s not like other entrepreneurs.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky to have started 12 startups when ordinarily having a 3-out-of-10 success rate would be considered very successful,” he told The Daily.

During his presentation, Tullman emphasized the importance of executing good plans “violently” and not waiting to form the perfect plan. In today’s age, all the answers are available and “I don’t know” is the equivalent of saying “I’m lazy,” Tullman said.

“Work is, in the real world and in any world, more important than creativity, more important than talent, more important than sheer brains,” he said. “We might not be the smartest person in the world, but at the end of the day we will work the hardest.”

An incubator space for NU startups modeled after 1871 is slated to launch June 16, said Alicia Loffler, executive director of the Innovation and New Ventures Office. The Garage, located near the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion, aims to provide a space for aspiring student entrepreneurs, she said. When those students graduated, they’d hope to move their businesses into 1871.

One student interested in using the Garage is Cem Ozer, a freshman who attended the lecture.

“He gave some really good advice,” the McCormick student said. “The talk was not on how to start a startup, but on how to be an entrepreneur.”

Ozer started a textile company in high school that specialized in producing cold weather products. Although his company failed due to too much competition, Ozer said he wants to use the Garage when he comes up with more ideas.

“There are plenty of students here who are intelligent who mainly go into consulting positions, but some take a little risk,” said Patty FitzGibbons, assistant director of BIP. “The lecture gives them maybe a little more strength to be able to pursue other options.”

Those other options might be difficult, if Tullman is to be believed.

“The great thing is today just about everyone wants to be an entrepreneur,” Tullman said. “If we knew how long a path it’d be, none of us would’ve done it.”

When an audience member asked what Tullman does when he can’t focus, the entrepreneur let out a short laugh.

“That’s not my problem,” he said.

1871 CEO Howard Tullman at NU for Lehman Brothers Lecture

Ryan, Ferro to donate $4 million to launch Northwestern incubator

Ryan, Ferro to donate $4 million to launch Northwestern incubator

March 18, 2014

Print | Comments

55

37

18

0

1

Pat Ryan Jr.

A pair of veteran Chicago tech entrepreneurs are helping bankroll a startup incubator launching later this year at Northwestern University.

NU trustees Michael Ferro Jr. and Pat Ryan Jr. each are donating $2 million to help fund the Garage, a space for Northwestern students to turn their ideas into startup companies.

Inspired by the lore of Silicon Valley, where legendary companies such as Hewlett-Packard Inc. and Apple Co. were started in garages, the facility for student entrepreneurs will be built in a new parking garage on campus and open as early as next fall.

The Garage grew out of a broader effort initiated by university President Morton Schapiro and led by venture capitalist Peter Barris aimed at boosting innovation across the campus. It's modeled on Harvard University's Innovation Lab andStanford University's Design School. Mr. Barris led a group of trustees to visit Harvard and Stanford last year to get ideas about how universities can play a role in innovation.

Mr. Ryan, a Northwestern alum who founded Chicago software company Incisent Labs, led the subcommittee that developed the Garage concept. He and his wife, Lydia, decided a few weeks ago to make a $2 million challenge grant.

“I wanted to make sure we got this right,” Mr. Ryan told me.

Michael Ferro

Mr. Ferro and his wife, Jacky, quickly stepped up as well, donating through their family foundation.

“Every top university has something like this. We should have this at Northwestern," Mr. Ferro said. "The best place to have an incubator is at an urban university.”

In addition to being Northwestern trustees, Messrs. Ferro and Ryan have been active with the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, which played a critical early role in helping Chicago's startup tech community get rolling over the past decade.

Startups are of particular interest to Mr. Ferro, CEO of Merrick Ventures, an investor in Wrapports, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and several other companies. Though he's best-known for starting Internet software company Click Commerceduring the dot-com boom, Mr. Ferro said he started his first software company when he was a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“I was one of those guys,” he said.

Another alum, whose name was not made public, donated $1 million for the buildout of the 12,500-square-foot space, which will be designed by Gensler.

Messrs. Ryan and Ferro's gifts will be used for operations and programming. They said the university will match their contributions. Northwestern has not yet responded to an interview request.

With funding underway, the two say the next job is finding an executive director to run the Garage. It might have a head start, however. The tech incubator inside the Merchandise Mart, 1871, just completed a months-long national search for a CEO that resulted in local entrepreneur (and Northwestern alum) Howard Tullman taking the job.

From the Kellogg School of Management to the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern has been ramping up its entrepreneurship efforts in recent years, adding staff and increasing opportunities for students to participate in business-plan competitions and start companies.

“(President Schapiro) wants entrepreneurs to be at Northwestern, no matter what school it's in,” Mr. Ferro said. “When students look at Northwestern, if they want to be entrepreneur, it's a great place to be. There are lot of startups happening at Northwestern.”

It's beginning to pay off, with a string of startups from Northwestern students, including SwipeSense, NuMat andNuCurrent. Groupon Inc. was started by Andrew Mason, a music major at Northwestern. It was backed by Mr. Barris, a Northwestern alum and Chicago native who leads one of the nation's largest venture-capital funds, New Enterprise Associates.

Although the Garage is inspired in part by the success of 1871, it will be different in one key aspect, Mr. Ryan says.

“It provides an opportunity for students to take their projects, where they think it can become a company, and gives them a place to work on it,” he said. “If it goes to the next level, it can go to a place like 1871. If a great company comes out of it, that's a real bonus. But it's great learning whether they start a company or not. It's the perfect bridge between academic learning and entrepreneurship.”

Follow John on Twitter at @JohnPletz.