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Showing posts with label WTTW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WTTW. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
Friday, June 15, 2018
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Tech Titan Howard Tullman to Lead New Innovation Institute at IIT
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: http://www.pbs.org/video/3011570695/
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:http://www.pbs.org/video/3011570695/
Former 1871 CEO Howard Tullman on Tuesday was named the first executive director of the Kaplan Institute at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He begins his new position May 1.
“The beauty of this is, I had a staff of 30 at 1871 and we supported several thousand people a day and 500 companies,” Tullman said. “The difference here is that you have a whole university, and we’re sort of an enhancement and a supplement to that rather than having to start from zero.”
In October 2018, the Kaplan Institute will open in a new two-story building designed by John Ronan Architects. It will be the first new academic building on campus since the 1970s.
And there’s another change in store for IIT.
“One of the really special aspects of the new facility is that we’re moving the Design School from downtown back to the campus,” Tullman said. “So we’ll have in one place design, architecture, engineering, technology and entrepreneurship, all of those components. So that’ll be a very rich set of resources to draw from in terms of building this new idea.”
According to IIT, the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship will be “a hub for discovery, innovation, and business creation, giving students the skills and experience needed to make their innovations viable for the market.”
IIT identified goals for Tullman as leader of the Kaplan Center:
• Ensuring all undergraduate students acquire superior innovation and entrepreneurship skills and experience.
• Building strong partnerships with external organizations and entrepreneurs.
• Helping recruit creative students interested in STEM fields
• Providing tools and skills for students to solve complex and significant challenges.
“I feel like very few people even understand how substantial IIT was for so many years. It was really one of the ranked engineering schools in the country, and it’s hard to keep up to pace if you haven’t been able to expand and grow and do everything,” Tullman said. “We see the Kaplan Institute as really formative and an anchor for the next generation of new tech employees.”
Tullman announced in 2017 he was stepping down as CEO of the tech hub 1871. Prior to 1871, he co-founded Tribeca Flashpoint College and was president of Kendall College. He’s a member of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ChicagoNEXT council, the Illinois Arts Council, and the advisory council for the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Tullman will give the commencement speech at IIT on May 12, 2018.
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN ON WTTW CHICAGO TONIGHT
WATCH THE SHOW http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2018/01/02/1871-ceo-howard-tullman-cryptocurrency-skeptic
The pace of technological change grows ever faster and leaves many people bewildered. Now it’s even changing how we view money.
In the past year, many investors have piled into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in search of easy profits. They do so because they have faith – or at least have been told – that cryptocurrencies and the technology that underpins them will change our world.
But there are some skeptical voices out there.
One of them is serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, CEO of the tech incubator 1871 at the Merchandise Mart.
“We are in a kind of euphoric period for a lot of people,” said Tullman. “I see it every day because I see people running around our offices here saying they are investing in these crazy cryptocurrencies. This is as bad as it was during the dot-com era when taxi drivers were telling you about the positions they were taking in stocks.”
Tullman noted in a recent blog post that he was reminded of the old adage that “the biggest mistakes in business are made during good times, not when the going gets rough.” He says that access to cheap capital has allowed “a bunch of really bad ideas and crappy businesses to get funded.” But he cautions that while investing in new ideas and businesses is to be encouraged, not every idea makes economic sense.
“We want to encourage people to create new businesses and invest in new businesses but I think we also have to understand that some amount of this activity is not sustainable economic activity,” said Tullman.
While he is skeptical of cryptocurrencies, Tullman does believe the so-called “blockchain” technology that makes them possible could be hugely influential in shaping future commerce.
“My take is that the underlying technology, the blockchain technology, could be the next major advance in technology in the world,” said Tullman.
Blockchains are essentially a digital, decentralized public ledger tracking transactions. Each time a new transaction occurs a “block” is created and these blocks are “chained” together to become chains of records.
“The attributes are it’s time-stamped, it’s transparent, decentralized, it’s durable and it’s a documentation system. That’s what it is,” said Tullman. “The function as opposed to the definition – and this is what’s so critical – is that it permits for the first time, worldwide, almost instantaneously for users to transfer unique pieces of digital property or information to others – and this is where we are all taking an enormous leap of faith – but the description at least is the transfer is safe and secure.”
Tullman joins Phil Ponce to discuss cryptocurrencies and other technology trends that could shape our world.
Sunday, August 06, 2017
1871 CEO HOWARD TULLMAN ON CHICAGO TONIGHT - WTTW
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/08/08/tullman-step-down-1871-leadership-role-end-year#.WYpgFOOBwwg.twitter
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Cubii and Gramovox Featured on WTTW
WATCH THE SEGMENT: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/03/31/crowdfunded-businesses-get-running-start
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Crowdfunded
Businesses Get a Running Start
Chicago Tonight Nick Blumberg | March 31, 2016 3:31 pm Watch the full segment here: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/03/31/crowdfunded-businesses-get-running-start Crowdfunding – small, individual investors pitching in to fund a product or a project – has seen massive growth over the last several years. According to one industry analyst, in 2016 crowdfunding could surpass venture capital as a source of cash for entrepreneurs. Here in Chicago, some very successful startups have used crowdfunding to get their businesses not just off the ground, but off to a running start. Still, while a successful Kickstarter campaign is undoubtedly a good sign for what's to come, it's hardly the full picture for the company or the consumer. TRANSCRIPT Phil Ponce: Sitting at a desk all day is the reality for many office workers, but it’s also a well-documented source of health woes. So, three University of Chicago grads came up with the idea of a small, under-desk elliptical to keep active at work. It launched on Kickstarter in the summer of 2014 to what co-founder Shivani Jain calls an overwhelming response. Shivani Jain, co-founder of Cubii: We had raised three-point-five times our goal, and we were over the moon, and we were just really happy that this was a success. But then, very soon reality started to kick in. We had 1,100 people who had trusted us, who had invested in us and wanted to see us deliver a product that’s going to make a difference in their lives. Ponce: The product went through several iterations and several months of delays. Jain: We ended the campaign in August and we had promised the backers that we’re going to deliver by January 2015. That was not going to happen. Ryota Sekine, Cubii co-founder: Because our volumes weren’t too large, a lot of manufacturers hesitate to work with a smaller company because of the initial investments involved. Ponce: Cubii finally shipped in December, 12 months after their target. Its founders freely admit Kickstarter gave them cash, but not all the know-how they needed. A lot of advisers helped them get up and running. Those advisers don’t come built-in with a crowdfunding site, like they might with venture capital. But they’re often key for startups. Waverly Deutsch, University of Chicago: Advisers do things like help them not make the mistakes that everybody else has made, help them correct mistakes quickly and learn from them, help them really think about strategy and execution. So it’s not just, what’s the right thing to do, but exactly how are we going to do it, and connect them to resources – so make introductions to potential hires, potential funders, potential customers, things like that. Ponce: So, here’s some free advice from Deutsch, for investors and entrepreneurs – things take longer than you think. Deutsch: I’ve participated in many Kickstarter campaigns, and not a single one of them has shipped in the deadline that they thought they would ship by. Everything takes longer. Ponce: Patience might not have been Pavan Bapu’s strongest quality. He’s the guy behind Gramovox, a company that aims to blend vintage design and modern technology in home audio. He was so eager to get started he quit his job with just $10,000 in the bank. Pavan Bapu, founder and CEO of Gramovox: Pretty embarrassing. Probably should have saved more money. Ponce: Gramovox’s first product was a Bluetooth-enabled gramophone-style speaker, which launched on Kickstarter in November of 2013. Bapu: It was tough to get hardware venture capitalists to invest in a product that didn’t exist, didn’t have any market traction or validation, so they’re betting on it blindly. Ponce: After huge success with the Bluetooth gramophone and an influx of cash from bigger investors, Gramovox went back to Kickstarter to help launch the floating record vertical turntable. You might wonder, why go back to crowdfunding when the company’s up and running? Bapu says it’s not just money. It’s market research. Bapu: Their validation of your product gives you great forecasting ability into the viability of the product long term. Ponce: And you get valuable feedback from people who feel invested in your product – no pun intended. Here’s an example. Bapu: We had a volume knob in the front and we had an on-and-off switch in the back, and there were lots of Kickstarter backers that said, ‘You know, you really should simplify that experience.’ So we incorporated the on-and-off with the volume controls in the front. When you turn it on, it clicks on, and then as you continue clockwise the volume increases, or decreases as you go counterclockwise. Ponce: So, crowd-funded startups get money, exposure, and feedback – but they face a lot of competition for dollars. Waverly Deutsch says the next big frontier is equity crowdfunding. Basically, buying stock in startups, which she says raises some concerns. Deutsch: You’re getting a relatively unsophisticated group of investors trying to do what angel investors and venture capitalists spend a lot of time, energy, and due diligence doing, which is investing in startups. Well now we’re getting the everyday man on the street who can put $5,000, $10,000 into an equity deal when startup failure rate is pretty high, are we going to get another bubble, and this one that’s going to more directly affect individual consumers? Ponce: And just as equity investing isn’t right for all or even most people, Cubii’s Shivani Jain says crowdfunding for startup capital isn’t right for every business. Jain: You get a lot of exposure, and you’re out there, and your brand is out there, and you have all these great customers, but because it’s so high-profile, if you fail for whatever reason – just because, nothing to do with your product, maybe the time is not right – then you fail on that scale as well. So, really evaluating when is the right time and whether it’s the right thing for you. |
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
Saturday, October 18, 2014
WTTW INTERVIEW WITH JB PRITZKER ON THE CHICAGO VENTURE SUMMIT
On the ABC reality show "Shark Tank," aspiring entrepreneurs sell their ideas to a panel of potential investors- the "sharks." Beginning tomorrow night, 30 entrepreneurs from Chicago and around the Midwest will pitch their own companies to investors from across the country at the Chicago Venture Summit. ChicagoNEXT, which is chaired by J.B. Pritzker, organized the summit. Pritzker joins Chicago Tonight host Phil Ponce to speak about the summit.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
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