Our “Mentoring @1871” interview series will  feature 1871 community members who have made a valuable contribution to our network. The new interview initiative is a collection of stories, stories that highlight what Chicago leaders have gained by participating in the 1871 mentorship program.

An interesting report from Gallup raises the stakes for innovation in customer engagement—just as an interesting new event from the Chicago American Marketing Association is about to present new perspectives on how to truly engage (Feb. 23 at 1871).

1871 says: From our partners at Gigster. To view the original post, visit https://gigster.com/blog/why-chat-will-replace-phone-calls-for-b2b/

Our new “Mentoring at 1871” interview series will feature 1871 mentors who have made a valuable contribution to our community. Our members gain incredible knowledge from the people who volunteer their time to mentor at 1871, and we're excited to share some of those mentors' insights with you.

Not every solution or app needs to set the entire world on fire or to be built on a platform just slightly less grand than the Taj Mahal. It's not always "smart" to build your app to run on the hottest and newest smart phone and nowhere else. You might get some buzz and some early adopters, but being in the shiny new thing biz isn't the path to building a big business when ready access and broad availability trump haptic feedback, VR capabilities and other gee whiz features. Mass ultimately always matters--there are millions more Fords than Ferraris-- and when the real value and design of your business is to touch and impact as many people as possible, the lower the bar to use and adoption, the better.

As I take a moment to reflect on #GivingTuesday, I cannot help but put pen to paper and attempt to articulate a theme we saw represented in many Chicago events this Fall - the idea of “Chicagoness” or “Conscious Chicago,” as coined by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and YWCA Metropolitan Chicago respectively. Two months ago, my co-founder Rishi Shah and I were standing on stage at 1871’s Momentum Awards, receiving the generous inaugural recognition of representing “Chicagoness.” This challenged me to distill my thoughts and inspired me to share them here.

1871 expresses its deepest condolences for the loss of Hank Williams, who passed away in mid-November. Hank was a long-time partner of Google For Entrepreneurs, whose network of tech hubs and organizations benefited tremendously from his passion for promoting diversity in the innovation economy. 1871 is honored to be a part of the GFE family and is saddened by Hank’s loss.

Entrepreneurs Jessica Tenuta, Co-Founder and Head of Design at our portfolio company, Packback, and her co-founders Mike Shannon and Kasey Gandham, are some of the best pitchers in the startup ecosystem. That’s something any person who watched their episode of Shark Tank might know. But a lot of the skill, poise, and confidence that helped them received funding from Mark Cuban for their e-textbook rental company, they developed and refined while applying to Shark Tank.

Q: Tell us about what your company does.

Q: Tell us about what your company does.