Alida Miranda-Wolff

Alida Miranda-Wolff heads up communications and strategy at Hyde Park Angels, crafting and disseminating the organization’s brand in all forms across all channels. In addition to single-handedly building HPA’s integrated communications plan and executing its core elements, Alida manages membership, partnerships, portfolio company support, and all community engagement.

Prior to joining Hyde Park Angels, Alida served in a variety of journalism, marketing, communications, and management roles, specializing in creating spreadable multimedia content for tech-enabled businesses at all stages. Alida has run several Kickstarter campaigns, including one of the most successful in Chicago history, and still mentors companies running their own campaigns.

Alida graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago in 2014 with multiple honors and awards. She remains active in the university of alumni network, serving on five advisory boards and committees. Alida is also a published author and poet, with two poetry chapbooks currently in print.

STEM Classes

Illinois nonprofits hope mentors and real-world projects will improve diversity in STEM classes

Illinois has the unique distinction of producing more top STEM talent than almost any other state, and it continues to produce a record number of STEM degrees each year. But when it comes to the diversity of STEM talent, it’s a different story. A report from the Illinois Science and Technology Association found that in computer science, 16.7 percent […]

April 5, 2018 By Alida Miranda-Wolff
midwestmap

Midwest tech organizations working to increase number of female founders

How bad is the diversity in tech problem? Seriously bad. And seriously long-standing. For almost 30 years, women have made up less than 10 percent of the entrepreneurial and venture capital market labor forces, while Hispanics hovered at 2 percent and African Americans below 1 percent, according to a recent Harvard Business School paper. What’s more, […]

February 13, 2018 By Alida Miranda-Wolff
John Higginson

Illinois tech companies working to retain local engineering grads

Illinois is the second largest producer of computer science graduates in the country. In fact, in 2016, Illinois produced a record 40,400 STEM degrees. Yet research collected by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition shows Illinois still has room to grow. Specifically, while Illinois ranks 15th in the country for retaining computer science graduates, 45 percent of […]

January 29, 2018 By Alida Miranda-Wolff

How female founders are faring in the Midwest

Women remain underrepresented in tech, even as the industry tries to address jaw-dropping statistics about their absence in tech’s upper echelon. Less than 3 percent of female founders raised venture capital in 2017, even though in the first quarter of 2017, 17 percent of startups reported having a female founder. On the venture capital side, less than […]

January 12, 2018 By Alida Miranda-Wolff

Illinois tech organizations are working to close the diversity gap

Diversity is a major topic of conversation in tech, but so far, that conversation hasn’t significantly improved representation of women and minorities in the industry. In a recent survey conducted by First Round Capital, nearly 68 percent of founders across the country believe that the tech industry will not become representative of the general population in terms […]

December 12, 2017 By Alida Miranda-Wolff

How SkinnyPop Led the Better-for-You Trend

People First is the Hyde Park Angels podcast dedicated to deconstructing entrepreneurial success into actionable takeaways you can use today. Hyde Park Angels is the most active early-stage investor in Chicago with a commitment to taking a “people-first approach” to investing. By matching our members’ expertise with entrepreneurs’ needs, we help develop top-performing companies that are delivering […]

December 7, 2017 By Alida Miranda-Wolff
Build, Scale, and Exit a Cloud Startup

How to Build, Scale and Exit a Cloud Company in Today’s Market

People First is the Hyde Park Angels podcast dedicated to deconstructing entrepreneurial success into actionable takeaways you can use today. Hyde Park Angels is the most active early-stage investor in Chicago with a commitment to taking a “people-first approach” to investing. By matching our members’ expertise with entrepreneurs’ needs, we help develop top-performing companies that are delivering […]

October 10, 2017 By Alida Miranda-Wolff
Truss

Disrupt an Established Market with the Right Blend of People, Process, and Tech

 The Hyde Park Angels “New Investment Series” profiles our most recent investments by examining the portfolio company and its future trajectory from two perspectives: the portfolio company founders and the HPA leaders who made the deal happen. This edition focuses on Truss.  Truss is a commercial real estate technology platform that allows tenants looking for […]

How Branch Messenger Raised $10M to Offer Employee Self-Service for Shift Workers Everywhere

The Hyde Park Angels “New Investment Series” profiles our most recent investments by examining the portfolio company and its future trajectory from two perspectives: the portfolio company’s CEO and the HPA leader who made the deal happen. This edition focuses on Branch Messenger.  Branch Messenger is an employee self-service platform that allows hourly shifts workers […]

August 25, 2017 By Alida Miranda-Wolff
Michael Small, Gogo, podcast

How to Build a Team that Copes with Extraordinary Change from a Telecom Leader

People First is the Hyde Park Angels podcast dedicated to deconstructing entrepreneurial success into actionable takeaways you can use today. Hyde Park Angels is the most active early-stage investor in Chicago with a commitment to taking a “people-first approach” to investing. By matching our members’ expertise with entrepreneurs’ needs, we help develop top-performing companies that […]

August 8, 2017 By Alida Miranda-Wolff