As consumers, we are constantly shopping and that activity is increasing done online. Those of us longing for the days of the yard sale, wanting to barter or find used goods for low prices, are relegated to eBay or Craigslist, but the two are far apart in terms of security and seller-buyer interaction. That’s where Eborhood comes in, seeking to build something in the valley of these two giants. The Texas-based company is making a push for local online trade and has implemented features like identity verification and map-based browsing. Founder Rajan Babaria was kind enough to… Read More

Recently, Bernard Moon graciously took some of his busy time to talk with us and be part of our Hotseat segment.  Bernard is a serial entrepreneur, who has left footprints from Chicago to San Francisco and as far as South Korea.  His latest ventures are VidQuik and SparkLabs, which he talks more about in depth below.  Previously, he was Managing Director of the Lunsford Group, which is a private investment firm consisting of entities in technology, healthcare, and real estate. He was Co-founder and VP of Business Development at GoingOn Networks, a social media platform… Read More

Most recently, TigerStartups sat down with Roomaloo co-founder, Fleming Au. Born and raised in Chicago, Fleming gave us some insight on his new roommate-matching startup, suggestions for emerging entrepreneurs and encouragement for the path forward. Let’s get started!What was the inspiration for Roomaloo?The true inspiration and concept of Roomaloo came when my co-founder, Patrick Yoon, and I recognized that the current roommate matching space was antiquated.  And due to some of our own personal roommate nightmares in the past, we wanted to find a solution to end bad roommate experiences.Can you give us a little bit of… Read More

Business school is supposed to be a time when it’s acceptable to start over. Being at University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of my fellow classmates were from abroad. Among the Brazilians, Chileans, Bulgarians, Israelis and Russians, I found a fair share of Asian students too—hailing from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and mainland China. However, the conversations with my fellow Asian classmates reflected slightly more than just the desire for a good education. Particularly those who were looking to business school with a more entrepreneurial eye, Booth meant more… Read More

Waggit founder Audrey Tan takes a few minutes out of her busy day to tell us about life at a startup. Waggit is a social network for dog lovers that focuses on building a strong community of dog lovers. With Waggit, members can find pet sitters, dog walkers, or great people with whom they can schedule dog play dates.  

What made you decide to start Waggit? Why dog lovers? It sounds trivial, but I wanted to do something that combined numerous things that made me happy.  And since I love tech, dogs and seeing people build positive… Read More

A convertible car often conjures images of leisurely driving on highways next to the beach, conveniently letting down its rooftop on the first sign of rain. Architecture on the other hand, brings images of Greek columns, old cathedrals or polished, glistening corporate buildings. Now, how about convenient, convertible fashion designed by a licensed architect? Boditecture delivers you just that.

Boditecture is a clothing line which delivers convertibility in more ways than one. Far from being an ordinary idea, Boditecture's revolutionary concept of transforming one's attire in up to eight different styles (to think: more than the astronomical… Read More

Taiwan, a little island off the coast of Mainland China, was once described by Portuguese traders as Ilha Formosa, or "Beautiful Island." This title has stuck with Taiwan over a long and eventful history, and visitors to the Beautiful Island often find themselves swept away by friendly locals, delicious cuisine, and an abundance of traditional Chinese culture. Unfortunately, said visitors aren't nearly as many as they should be, since for some mysterious reason, Taiwan has never registered in the public conscious like Mainland China or Hong Kong. This is changing in recent years, however, with Taiwan pop stars… Read More

Ridejoy is currently a West Coast based ridesharing service that was written about in Tech Crunch, San Francisco Chronicle and KQED News. It started in the days of Burning Man '11, a life saver for many who wanted to find rides. As a startup with an open ended, friendly and comfortably attentive design, Ridejoy allows one of the more fulfilling user life experiences yet in terms of ridesharing.    Being one among Ridejoy's three co-founders (the remaining two being Kalvin Wang and Randy Pang), Jason Shen was interviewed for… Read More

Not too long ago, we profiled Technori, a Chicago-based startup, that gives entrepreneurs in the technology startup scene the resources, information and the platform to successfully build their company.  Technori was founded by Seth Kravitz and Val Chulamorkodt in 2010 and they have become an important part of the Chicago tech ecosystem. Val Chulamorkodt started her career as a lawyer but now is a full time entrepreneur. Not too long ago I sat down with Val over coffee to discuss the vibrant Chicago tech scene.  From that conversation came several more email exchanges, which in… Read More