Since hiring Goldman Sachs alum and Insureon co-founder Jared Kaplan as CEO in late 2015, OppLoans has grown rapidly from a minor consumer finance platform to a leading industry force and influencer. We have grown company revenues from $8M to $268M in 2019--all while maintaining GAAP profitability--by doing what we do best: Delivering a five-star customer experience.

In his 13-year tenure with Zebra, Anders has tripled the size of Zebra and pivoted the company’s reputation from “a printer company” to an innovator with end-to-end solutions to enable every asset and worker to be visible, connected and fully optimized. Anders has demonstrated his commitment to the employees and partners who enable Zebra to deliver a performance edge to its customers on the front line of business through an inclusive culture of innovation.

Stephanie Klein is a venerable force within the Chicago technology community whose track record speaks for itself. She is unafraid to challenge the status quo, constantly pushing the limits on how technology can be used to transform financial services and passionate about paying it forward for her growing team at Braviant and the Chicago startup community as a whole.

Through a groundbreaking program with Orcam Inc., The Chicago Lighthouse is working to prove that employees who are blind or visually impaired can be as productive as their non-disabled peers. As is evidenced by the launch of similar initiatives in other markets, our work is laying the foundation to help people who are blind or visually impaired throughout the world.

Since it’s 2001 Chicago founding, Kin + Carta has multiplied client offerings and capabilities, elevated the focus on employee growth opportunities, and impacted local communities and the world’s largest brands alike. Kin + Carta is committed to the equity of resources and transformation within the local Chicago community — everything becomes available to those around us to ensure that, as an industry, we continue to move forward together.

Cash reliance is an unfortunate reality for most cannabis businesses as they have been left behind by traditional payments and technology companies. Digital payments can help fill that void and AeroPay is leading the way as a disruptor in the financial technology space with their suite of compliant digital payments solutions for cannabis businesses.

Cyber Pop-up is bringing the gig-economy to the cybersecurity industry in a way that is trustworthy, safe and efficient for businesses of all sizes. The startup is also building a much needed global next-generation talent pipeline that will put a dent in the 3.5 million cyber expert talent shortage and continually build the future of cybersecurity professionals.

Matt is passionate about driving change in logistics and supply chain management and has brought to market solutions that have disrupted the siloed planning and execution that have long plagued the industry. At the same time, he has built a highly successful company that manages over $100 billion in freight for more than 400 shippers and their carrier partners at any given time, while creating a diverse and highly-inclusive environment boasting a workforce that includes 40% women and more than 50% non-Caucasian employees.

G2 is changing the way business decisions are made by bringing more than 29.8M data points to over 3 million business technology buyers each month. With over 785,000 validated user reviews available to buyers around the world, G2 has become a critical resource for technology buyers everywhere.

Through a combination of cellular-connected devices, data science, and certified health coaches, Livongo effectively empowers Members to better manage their health while at home. The Livongo platform became especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic when people with chronic conditions were more likely to experience complications due to the virus. In July of 2019, Livongo executed the largest digital health initial public offering in history. Just over a year later, Livongo announced a $18.5 billion merger agreement with Teladoc Health, which is the largest industry merger to date.

Chandra is leading the nation’s digital manufacturing institute (one of only 14 national manufacturing innovation institutes) at a time when the U.S. is encountering a crisis directly affected by the resiliency of its supply chain and manufacturing base. Her devotion to this cause has the potential to make an outsized impact on our national economy, and she is creating opportunities for women and underserved populations along the way in a win across the board for business, workforce, and the United States.

These founders have created a wholly unique platform that helps small independent filmmakers get financial compensation and access to broader distribution of their work. Their platform also brings about real change in organizations through generating in-depth discussions on hard issues that are productive and result in greater empathy and compassion for others while simplifying the HR tracking process.

Unlike other startups that focus on vanity metrics like company valuation, Jason’s only concern is delivering value for the customer, all the way down to reading every NPS score we get (from 100k customers). He lives Customer Experience, which is the core of our solution and company, and the effectiveness of this can be seen in the fact that we spend 30% less on sales and marketing than all competitors of our size, and are able to bring in 40% of our leads from customer referrals (which is unheard of in our industry.)