Ventures by the Lake

In this episode of Ventures by the Lake, we sit down with Manuela Zoninsein, founder and CEO of Kadeya, to talk about reinventing bottled water, dialing in on deep customer needs, and scaling hardware in overlooked markets.Manuela shares how Kadeya evolved from a homegrown experiment to a full-fledged closed-loop beverage system, complete with smart, self-sanitizing vending machines and reusable bottles. What started as a pilot in a tech office kitchen has since found product-market fit on construction sites, military bases, and industrial campuses - where hydration, waste, and logistics collide.We discuss how her background shaped her entrepreneurial lens, and why she believes industrial infrastructure is the most overlooked climate opportunity today. Manuela also talks through early pivots, the challenges of being a hardware founder, and how she built a team culture rooted in transparency, curiosity, and speed.Check out Kadeya here!

In this episode of Ventures by the Lake, we sit down with Tom Sosnoff - founder of Thinkorswim, Tastytrade, and Tastylive - to talk about grit, trading floors, and building billion-dollar companies. A pioneer in options trading and fintech, Tom shares how he landed in Chicago with $5,000 and ended up creating some of the most influential platforms in retail trading.

We sit down with Kevin Willer - the founding CEO of 1871, founding partner at Chicago Ventures, and a driving force in building Chicago’s startup community. Kevin shares stories from launching Google’s Chicago office in the early 2000s, to helping create 1871 as a hub for entrepreneurs, to investing in the city’s next generation of founders. We explore the evolution of Chicago’s tech scene, lessons from two decades of growth, and why the next wave of big bets - from hard tech to quantum computing - could define the city’s future.

Landon Campbell from Drive Capital joins us to talk about how he got started in venture capital, what makes Chicago a great place to start a company, and what he's looking for in the next wave of founders.Check out Landon's Loop

Josh Furstoss joins us to reflect on his journey of building Incued, an investor relations platform for private markets. We dive deep into his story: his initial idea, prototype, fundraising, go-to-market, and ultimately acquisition.

Bill Fienup is a co-founder of mHub, Chicago's hardtech innovation center. We sat down with him to discuss how he's made a career out of inventing hardtech products ranging from ketchup dispensers to medical devices. Bill also shares the story behind mHub's beginning and how the next wave of aspiring inventors can get started building.

We're back in action with season 2 of Ventures by the Lake! Coinflip founder Daniel Polotsky tells the story of how he went from selling his first Bitcoin ATM to growing Coinflip to be the largest network of cryptocurrency kiosks in the world.For context: We recorded this episode with Daniel in 2024, so there may be some outdated comments (the Coinflip app is now live on both the iOS App Store and Google Play).Check out Coinflip here

Join us for our conversation with Sophia Wennstedt from Blip Energy! Blip is making energy equity accessible to accelerate the clean energy transition by building a new category of smart, affordable energy storage to add homes to the smart grid network. Listen to learn about Sophia's journey from engineer to business school, to founder. Check out ⁠Blip Our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

Join us for our conversation with Tayyaba Ali from Tikal Industries! Tikal is an environmental diagnostics company leveraging advanced hardware and AI to detect contaminants in water. Listen in to learn what goes into building a hardware tech company and how to approach an environmental problem from a business lens. Check out Tikal Our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Mariana Padilla, CEO of Kikrr. Kikrr is a platform that connects buyers to cybersecurity software vendors and provides access to on-demand demos. Listen to the episode to learn how Mariana & Kikrr aren't afraid to do things a little differently in the cybersecurity industry. Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kikrr⁠ Our ⁠website⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Ahmed Ali, founder of the lifestyle and clothing brand Midwest Cowboy. Ahmed tells us how he got started on Midwest Cowboy in 2020 with a stimulus check, and has since made over six figures without taking a single venture dollar or leaving his full-time job. Listen to hear what convinced him to get started, and what he's learned along the way. Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠Midwest Cowboy Our website Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Andrew Gunderman, founder and CEO of Coherence. Coherence takes the work out of investing in cryptocurrency - no knowledge required. Listen in to learn more about Andrew's decision to leave Ohio State University and move to Chicago to work on Coherence full time. Check out ⁠Coherence ⁠https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake⁠⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk to Erica Bethe Levin, founder and CEO of Globowl. Globowl provides internationally inspired food to babies and toddlers in order to support early allergen introduction; decreasing the risk of developing food allergies and picky eating in the future. We discuss the unique challenges faced by companies that develop physical products (especially CPG brands), and we dive into why your answer to "Why You?" is so important. Listen to learn how Erica uses her passion and connection to this problem as one of her greatest assets. Check out Globowl https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We talk with Mike Raab, the director of Northwestern's student entrepreneurship community, the Garage. We chat about unique opportunities for students interested in learning about entrepreneurship or founding a company themselves. Listen to learn more about how you can take advantage of the entrepreneurship resources available at your school! The Garage's website https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

We chat with Abhinaya Konduru from M25 about all the resources she's organized for the Chicago tech community (links below), what she looks for as an early-stage investor, and why Chicago is a great place to build a company! (Recorded on 3/4/23) Text "join" to 312-847-2515 to join Abhinaya's Chicago tech events text group! Looking for a cofounder? Start here: Cofounder Matchmaking Check out 77 Coffees to meet other founders and community members! https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

SMARTCharts automates notetaking for clinicians and turns progress into patient-friendly pictures, charts and graphs to support patient engagement, improve communication, and increase productivity for providers. We talk to founder Corinne Vargas about the origin of SMARTCharts as a tool she designed for herself, and when she decided to build a business around it. We also touch on winning pitch competitions, rough times during the pandemic, and the impact of the Chicago entrepreneurship community on SMARTCharts. (Recorded on 2/17/23) SMARTCharts's website: https://www.mysmartcharts.com/ https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

Activated Scale is a marketplace that helps connect startups with experienced & vetted sales talent. We sit down with the founder, Prateek Mathur, to talk about his first steps after starting Activated Scale, the difficulties of managing a marketplace, and the importance of validating product-market fit when working on a new venture. (Recorded on 1/27/23) Activated Scale's Website: https://www.activatedscale.com https://linktr.ee/venturesbythelake Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/