Ringing the Nasdaq Bell is a sign that you or your company has made it. Some of the country’s most prominent business leaders have rung the bell. Mark Zuckerberg, along with the Facebook team, rang the bell. Tom Kuczmarski, and Dan Miller, founders ofChicago Innovation Awards, rang it as well. And just recently, in honor of Techweek New York, Katy Lynch, had the opportunity to participate in this treasured ceremony.
“It was a great way to kick off the week. That was one of those things to cross of the bucket list,” said Techweek CEO, Katy Lynch. Techweek, which grew out of Chicago, is now featured in six cities domestically and one internationally.
“Our [Techweek] focus is really that we gather everyone from the local tech ecosystem…so VCs (venture capitalists), engineers, entrepreneurs, technologists, and the media. We gather all of these people together for one week to celebrate all things innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Lynch.
ParadigmNEXT is closely connected with the startup community, here in Chicago. Similar to Techweek, ParadigmNEXT takes an interest in learning, and seeing the growth of startups. ParadigmNEXT is excited to feature 5 startups on our radar.
Teacher Peach-
Teachers hold the important responsibility of educating, shaping, and molding America’s future. We can all think back and instantly remember a teacher who positively impacted our lives. This is why ParadigmNEXT is very excited to partner with Teacher Peach, a startup deeply rooted in the teacher community.
“Teacher Peach supports teachers,” said Randi Brill, Chief Peach of Teacher Peach.Teacher Peach creates and sells unique and supportive products for teachers—from gifts that show appreciation toward teachers to classroom products that reinforce character development for kids. “At Teacher Peach, we support and enhance the social and emotional needs of both teachers and students through our products and our online community,” said Brill.
ParadigmNEXT is enthused to partner with Teacher Peach and contribute to their explosive growth in this incredibly important industry. “ParadigmNEXT will help extend our reach to new audiences and help us connect with the people who matter most—teachers and the other educators and families who support teachers,” said Brill.
PaletteApp-
PaletteApp has transformed the way commercial construction industry experts research and find architectural products & materials. Being the world’s largest digital database of commercial products, CEO, Jerry Freeman, has seen their site serve thousands across the globe. “We have users in over sixty countries. We’ve been really lucky. When we finally figured out the right model for this, it has been working really well,” said Freeman.
ParadigmNEXT was brought in by PaletteApp to help re-design their homepage.PaletteApp relies heavily on their website, and it is imperative for business growth, to have a user friendly interface. To keep up with the high demand, Jerry and his team are looking forward to introducing even more services in the coming year. “Next year is going to be a huge year for us. We’re adding additional products, such as color forecasting, a completely digital process for submittals, and a product management tool.,” said Freeman.
Hero-
“Our tagline is, Save the Day,” said co-founder of Hero, Ben Rosenfield. Set to launch in January 2016, Hero, brings the worlds of freelancers and consumers together. Rosenfield, who has had success with developing apps, is now bringing his expertise to this revolutionary idea. “We are creating the micro b2b ecosphere that allows freelancers a more efficient way to connect with new jobs. ” said Rosenfield.
Rosenfield is eager to tap into the 850 billion dollar market, of freelance to consumer transactions. “Hero can be international. Whether you’re in Zurich Switzerland, or a photographer in Australia, or an artist in Dubai. There’s a massive amount of freelancers who [currently] are not being serviced.”
While gearing up for the launch, Hero is accepting applications for founding heroes.
Proxfinity-
Often at networking events, business conferences, and career fairs, people can become overwhelmed, and sometimes leave without even making important connections. The team at Proxfinity hopes to eliminate this problem, by introducing a series of patented products. Their flagship Smart Bullseye Badge, which is geared for the professional networking space, will alert attendees when a perfect match is nearby.
“This [Proxfinity Badge] is giving you the guarantee of finding someone who shares an interest,” says Proxfinity Co-founder, Lisa Carrel. As mentioned in our previous blog,Proxfinity has a b2b business structure. Being headquartered in Chicago, where b2b businesses strive, Lisa predicts quick growth for Proxfinity. “Chicago is very b2b. We hope to find some manufacturing ties to Chicago as well. I see us growing into a platform of products.”
Next week, Proxfinity Badges will be featured at Event Tech in Las Vegas.
Page Vault-
Finally, a startup that ParadigmNEXT had the privilege to work with was Page Vault. Their service accommodates legal professionals, by archiving web page content. Recently, it was announced that Page Vault was nominated for Chicago Inno’s 50 on fire. Jeffrey Eschbach, founder, and CEO of Page Vault, attributes their success to their time and money saving technology.
“Page Vault has succeeded up to this point because we’ve pioneered a great technological solution that addresses a real pain-point for attorneys. We’re just scratching the surface in this market and have already seen a lot of interest,” said Eschbach.
Page Vault is developing more features to better serve their users. “Our clients’ requests for new features are very consistent, which tells us that we are on the right path, and we are excited about our ongoing research and development to meet these requests,” said Eschbach.
The common thread between all of these startups, is that they are all extremely passionate about what they’re doing. As Katy Lynch explains, entrepreneurs must eat, sleep, and breathe their product or service. “Sail fast and sail often. Entrepreneurs should always be taking risks, and doing whatever it takes to go forward,”says Lynch.
This culture within the startup community, is what makes ParadigmNEXT proud to collaborate with, and work alongside startups in Chicago. We share the same passion to help startups reach a bigger audience, promote their brand, and overall help with business growth. ParadigmNEXT wants to be a step in the journey, so that one day, a startup we work with, will be ringing the Nasdaq Bell.
By: ParadigmNext https://paradigmnext.com
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+ParadigmNextChicago
ParadigmNEXT, Inc. is an innovative and creative Chicago digital marketing agency providing a wide range of internet marketing services. They provide digital branding and brand management, identity, integrated marketing, social media marketing & strategy, art direction, website design & development, startup incubation, commercial video production, product development, and commercial storefront development services to a wide array of clients ranging from bootstrapped startups to successful longstanding companies. Follow them on Google+.