Entrepreneurs hear that they need to grow their teams and plan for bigger and better things every day. They develop plans centered on bringing in talent, creating new organizational structures, and putting that talent to work in core growth areas for the business. However, another key part of growing a team is planning for the…
Whether to hire a service provider is a tricky question for many entrepreneurs. Startups are expected to run lean and be scrappy, mostly due to limited resources. Consequently, there’s a distinctive DIY mentality to startup culture, and in a lot of cases, it breeds extraordinary results. But not all the time. Frankly, sometimes you don’t…
Content. It’s an ominous word for companies of all sizes, but especially so for startups. You know you need strong content to help establish your brand, attract new users and showcase your products or services, but exactly how do you go about doing so? As with most well-executed parts of your business, effective content starts…
The Hyde Park Angels “New Investment Series” profiles our most recent investments by examining the investment process and the individual company’s future trajectory from two perspectives: the portfolio company’s CEO and the HPA leader who made the deal happen. This edition focuses on Tiz. We recently invested in Tiz, which makes online ordering for bars,…
2016 was an incredible year for entrepreneurship and innovation in Chicago and the Midwest, in large part due to our ecosystem’s willingness to share resources and provide the tools necessary for success. In that spirit, we looked back on all of our blogs from 2016 and hand-picked the top 5 most read and shared to…
As any entrepreneur knows, pricing is a critical component of successfully bringing a SaaS product to market. Even after determining your revenue model and pricing strategy, finding the price that customers are willing to pay for can be a challenge. That’s why we spoke with an expert on SaaS pricing, Trustwave Co-Founder, Truss Co-Founder, and…
Chicago, IL – December 7, 2016 – Alida Miranda-Wolff has taken on the role of Director of Platform at Hyde Park Angels. As the early-stage investment group’s first-ever Director of Platform, Alida will drive and strengthen the HPA brand across all channels through a variety of unique strategies and initiatives directed towards key stakeholders in…
If you missed the event or just want a quick recap, read on for highlights from the discussion. The event brought together world-class entrepreneurs and investors Jim Gray (CEO, G-Bar Limited Partnership; Co-Founder, OptionsXpress), Amanda Lannert (CEO, Jellyvision), Badal Shah (Co-Founder and CEO, TurboAppeal), Michael Small (CEO, gogo), and Kevin Willer (Partner, Chicago Ventures) to…
Growth Stories is a new HPA blog series focused on profiling what happens to our portfolio companies after they raise venture capital. This first edition focuses on The Eastman Egg Company’s latest expansion. When Hunter Swartz first landed on the fast-casual breakfast concept in 2014, he started by opening a food truck. Two years later,…
As part of HPA’s efforts to build opportunities for growth and success across our portfolio and our partners, we connect them to one another to drive results. We connected our portfolio company Xaptum with one of our partners, Westcon-Comstor, to do just that. Almost a year later, we spoke with Steve Garrou, EVP of Corporate…