We've recently committed to growing entrepreneurship throughout the city while fostering diversity by leveraging our purchasing power -- specifically through the money we spend on food. As part of this initiative, we're sitting down with local entrepreneurs we've worked with to find out more about their businesses and their journeys as small business owners. Here's our interview with Nikkita Randle, Owner of Twisted Eggroll.

The financial information provided within is available as a downloadable PDF. You can view our IRS Form 990 here. Please also take a look at our 2016 Annual Report for more information on 1871's activities and impact last year.  

We had the rare opportunity last week to sit down at 1871 with Joe Mansueto, the founder, and CEO of Morningstar, for a fireside chat. Having known Joe for more than 30 years now, and given the astonishing growth and success of his various business ventures, I’m always amazed at how modest and accessible he remains and what a great booster of Chicago and its entrepreneurs he has always been. 

HMG Strategy, LLC hosted The 2016 Chicago CIO Executive Leadership Summit in Chicago on Thursday, May 12, 2016. CEO, Hunter Muller interviewed Howard Tullman on his leadership at 1871 during a time of enormous change. Tullman discussed how 1871 is working to attract big companies to connect with startups and plans for tech incubators in new fields, including retail.

I've written recently about how unfortunate it is when businesses don't know what they don't know. Whatever their particular organizational biases (age or gender) or structural barriers (hierarchy or bureaucracy) may be that interfere with open and effective company-wide communication, the bottom line is that they're flying at least partly blind and it's actually an easy fix. (See This Common Communication Mistake is Destroying Your Productivity.)

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