Network Ventures

Unvale is a rapidly expanding social platform designed for creatives. It facilitates the development of stories, helps users grow an audience, and enables self-publishing. The platform's core feature is an online character management system, allowing creators to build detailed profiles for their characters, fostering connections with others, and aiding in the transformation of ideas into published stories.

Pickleheads is a digital platform dedicated to the growing community of pickleball players. It provides users with a comprehensive solution to find courts, schedule playing sessions, and join leagues, all from a single interface. The platform also facilitates the organization of lessons and tracks players' ratings, creating a streamlined experience for enthusiasts of the sport. By fostering a community among players, Pickleheads enhances the overall engagement in pickleball, making it easier for individuals to connect, compete, and improve their skills.

Unvale is a rapidly expanding social platform designed for creatives. It facilitates the development of stories, helps users grow an audience, and enables self-publishing. The platform's core feature is an online character management system, allowing creators to build detailed profiles for their characters, fostering connections with others, and aiding in the transformation of ideas into published stories.

When is an AI-driven off-boarding platform for employees. It's a personalized health insurance marketplace that simplifies the process of finding health insurance during a job transition. When is a B2B solution that partners with employers to provide a better off-boarding experience for employees while reducing the risk of high claims by making it easy for exiting employees to find alternatives to COBRA.

EarlyBird is a fintech gifting platform designed to simplify the investment process for parents and enable friends and family to contribute financially to children's futures. By transforming financial gifting into a personal and meaningful experience, EarlyBird allows users to gift contributions that help build generational wealth. Additionally, the company offers a digital memory-preserving platform where users can capture and share significant life events, photos, videos, and messages. This dual focus on financial empowerment and memory preservation fosters a sense of continuity and belonging within families, making EarlyBird a unique player in the intersection of financial technology and personal legacy.

When is an AI-driven off-boarding platform for employees. It's a personalized health insurance marketplace that simplifies the process of finding health insurance during a job transition. When is a B2B solution that partners with employers to provide a better off-boarding experience for employees while reducing the risk of high claims by making it easy for exiting employees to find alternatives to COBRA.

Ask Alex is an AI-powered data and marketing software company that focuses on enhancing customer acquisition and retention. The company's innovative software automates workflows to convert data into meaningful dialogue, allowing businesses to interact effectively with customers. By providing essential insights into customer trends and automating reporting on key business metrics, Ask Alex enables organizations to improve operational efficiency and drive revenue growth. This data-driven approach empowers businesses to explore in-depth insights, fostering stronger customer connections and facilitating strategic market engagement.

EarlyBird is a fintech gifting platform designed to simplify the investment process for parents and enable friends and family to contribute financially to children's futures. By transforming financial gifting into a personal and meaningful experience, EarlyBird allows users to gift contributions that help build generational wealth. Additionally, the company offers a digital memory-preserving platform where users can capture and share significant life events, photos, videos, and messages. This dual focus on financial empowerment and memory preservation fosters a sense of continuity and belonging within families, making EarlyBird a unique player in the intersection of financial technology and personal legacy.

When is an AI-driven off-boarding platform for employees. It's a personalized health insurance marketplace that simplifies the process of finding health insurance during a job transition. When is a B2B solution that partners with employers to provide a better off-boarding experience for employees while reducing the risk of high claims by making it easy for exiting employees to find alternatives to COBRA.

DwellSocial, Inc. is a Chicago-based company that operates an online platform designed to connect homeowners with contractors for various home projects and services. Founded in 2017, the platform facilitates professional referrals from users and group members, enhancing job opportunities within communities. Additionally, DwellSocial empowers neighborhoods by aggregating demand for meals from local restaurants, enabling pop-up dining experiences in suburban areas. This approach allows restaurants to expand their service areas, reach new customers, and optimize delivery logistics by consolidating orders from nearby patrons. By leveraging community engagement, DwellSocial aims to enrich local economies and improve access to both home services and dining options.

KPI Sense is a provider of B2B SaaS financial reporting solutions tailored for startups. The company specializes in aggregating, optimizing, and reporting financial data to help SaaS businesses articulate their financial narratives. Its innovative software streamlines data collection and analysis, allowing users to compile information from various sources into a coherent and accessible format. This functionality not only simplifies the process of financial reporting but also delivers crucial insights into business performance and scalability without the burden of manual data preparation. Additionally, KPI Sense assists companies in developing their early financial strategies, reviewing historical data, and generating automated financial reports, thereby supporting founders and teams in achieving strategic growth.

Shopflix is a product demonstration platform that enables brands to effectively promote their offerings. The company provides livestreaming services, allowing clients to stream their products and create live advertisements. Through its platform, brands can convey their stories to a wider audience, enhancing their reach and visibility. Additionally, Shopflix has a Creative Team that manages the scheduling and production of promotional shoots for the brands, ensuring a professional presentation of their products. This combination of live streaming and creative support positions Shopflix as a valuable tool for brands looking to engage with consumers in an interactive manner.

86 Repairs is a computer software company that offers a subscription-based platform designed to streamline the repair and maintenance processes for restaurant groups. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company provides comprehensive management of equipment repairs, including for ice machines, dishwashers, and ovens. Its services feature 24/7 support from a team of experts and deliver actionable insights aimed at enhancing back-of-house operations. By handling the entire service process, 86 Repairs allows restaurant owners to alleviate the burdens of equipment maintenance, enabling them to concentrate on providing quality service to their guests.

EarlyBird is a fintech gifting platform designed to simplify the investment process for parents and enable friends and family to contribute financially to children's futures. By transforming financial gifting into a personal and meaningful experience, EarlyBird allows users to gift contributions that help build generational wealth. Additionally, the company offers a digital memory-preserving platform where users can capture and share significant life events, photos, videos, and messages. This dual focus on financial empowerment and memory preservation fosters a sense of continuity and belonging within families, making EarlyBird a unique player in the intersection of financial technology and personal legacy.

Retail Aware Inc., founded in 2016 and based in Omaha, Nebraska, specializes in developing wireless sensors that provide real-time business intelligence. These sensors measure various aspects of consumer behavior and retail execution, including product engagements, audience footfall, dwell time, temperature, motion/vibration, and alerts. The data collected is accessible through a web portal, dashboards, reports, or via an API, allowing integration with existing tools. Retail Aware's platform helps brands, retailers, advertisers, and others optimize merchandising and drive ROI by providing shelf-level insights on impressions, dwell time, product engagement, audience demographics, and operational factors such as stock outages, all without using cameras. The company also offers services in integration, IoT connectivity, and digital signage.

Draftbit, Inc. is a software company based in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 2017. It provides a drag and drop platform for developing cross-platform mobile applications, allowing users to create native iOS and Android apps quickly and efficiently. The platform caters to both designers and developers, enabling them to visually design apps without the need for extensive coding skills. With Draftbit, users can export clean, well-documented code and libraries, ensuring full control over their projects. The tool simplifies the app development process, making it accessible for startups and business owners to build, launch, and iterate on mobile applications in a fraction of the time traditionally required.

Nexus A.I. is a Chicago-based company founded in 2014 that specializes in application software leveraging Artificial Intelligence for staffing and team building. The software is designed to streamline the process of identifying and curating talent, including freelancers, based on specific skills, competencies, and customizable attributes. By analyzing employee skills and experience, Nexus A.I. helps organizations build effective teams, identify skill gaps, and create staffing efficiencies. The platform enables users to align work with skills, track skill progression, and organize teams around project-based tasks, thereby improving overall utilization rates. With a global presence, Nexus A.I. supports users in over fifty countries across six continents, fostering inclusivity and enhancing talent management for various campaigns.

Leafwire, Inc. is a networking platform tailored for the cannabis industry, established in 2016 and based in Denver, Colorado. The company facilitates connections among businesses, investors, and job seekers within the cannabis ecosystem. It allows users to share information, promote events, and seek funding and partnerships. Leafwire offers features such as a verified investor network, job listings, and a custom-curated news feed, enabling seamless collaboration and communication among industry participants. Originally known as Leafwires, LLC, the company rebranded to Leafwire, Inc. in October 2020 to better reflect its mission of fostering a secure and welcoming environment for the cannabis community.

86 Repairs is a computer software company that offers a subscription-based platform designed to streamline the repair and maintenance processes for restaurant groups. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company provides comprehensive management of equipment repairs, including for ice machines, dishwashers, and ovens. Its services feature 24/7 support from a team of experts and deliver actionable insights aimed at enhancing back-of-house operations. By handling the entire service process, 86 Repairs allows restaurant owners to alleviate the burdens of equipment maintenance, enabling them to concentrate on providing quality service to their guests.

HumanPredictions is a data-driven software company that specializes in optimizing the recruitment of technical talent. By leveraging public data and advanced machine learning models, the company creates detailed technical profiles for individuals, assessing their likelihood of being open to new job opportunities. This approach allows enterprise teams, startup founders, and agency recruiters to streamline their hiring processes, spending less time on candidate research and more time on meaningful engagement. Founded by experienced tech recruiters, HumanPredictions is deeply embedded in tech communities and focuses on data sources often overlooked by conventional aggregators. The software not only automates the decision-making process regarding when and how to contact potential candidates but also assists customers in various research activities, including assessing investment opportunities and analyzing geographic talent concentrations. Ultimately, HumanPredictions aims to enhance the effectiveness of recruiters, enabling them to concentrate on building relationships and evaluating talent.

The Minte is a Chicago-based company that provides hotel-style housekeeping services primarily for residents of high-rise apartment buildings. Established in 2017, the company employs a building-centric model for staffing housekeepers, ensuring consistent and trusted cleaning services. The Minte's offerings include a range of cleaning tasks, such as floor sweeping, countertop wiping, dishwashing assistance, decluttering, and comprehensive bathroom refreshing. Its services can be conveniently booked through a mobile app or by utilizing a dash-like button located at the apartment entrance, allowing residents to maintain a professionally clean living space akin to that of a hotel room.

Hunt Club, established in 2014 and based in Chicago, Illinois, operates an online platform that facilitates executive recruitment through relationships and referrals. The company connects a network of over 10,000 professionals, including executives, managers, and industry experts, with partner companies seeking to fill open positions. Hunt Club's proprietary technology automates the process of sourcing, qualifying, and hiring talent, providing access to a pool of 5 million candidates not typically accessible through traditional recruitment channels.

The Graide Network, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Chicago, Illinois, that provides an online platform connecting middle and high school teachers with qualified teaching assistants. Founded in 2015, the platform facilitates the grading of student assignments and offers comprehensive feedback, allowing teachers to post class assignments and receive tailored matches with teaching assistants. This system not only streamlines the grading process but also enhances the quality of feedback students receive, thereby supporting their writing and critical thinking development. Additionally, the company offers an administrator dashboard to help schools implement effective writing plans, ensuring that teachers are well-supported and that students receive personalized guidance. The Graide Network aims to transform how educators allocate their time, enabling them to concentrate on the most impactful aspects of teaching.

PrintWithMe is a pioneering business that offers a convenient and accessible printing solution through its extensive network of wireless printer kiosks across the United States. Established in 2014, the company operates in all 50 states, placing printers in locations such as multifamily apartments, coffee shops, hotels, and co-working spaces. Users can print securely and easily from any digital device with just a few clicks, benefiting from automated paper and toner management facilitated by predictive analytics. PrintWithMe has enabled over 20 million pages to be printed on sustainably-sourced paper, promoting community resource sharing and reducing electronic waste by an average of 550 pounds per location each year. Through its services, PrintWithMe caters to the increasing demand for remote and hybrid workspaces, allowing customers to print and pay quickly and efficiently.

Apartment Jet is a property management software designed for owners and operators in the apartment industry, focusing on short-term rentals. The platform provides essential tools that enhance portfolio-level visibility and control, enabling multifamily apartment developers to effectively manage corporate and guest suites as well as vacant units. By optimizing revenue opportunities, Apartment Jet helps property owners maintain a sense of community that can often be overlooked in the sharing economy. Overall, the company's solutions facilitate a smoother transition for apartments into the short-term rental market, catering to travelers and tourists.

Esquify, Inc. is a legal technology company that operates an online document review platform tailored for law firms. Founded in 2014 and based in Chicago, Illinois, Esquify utilizes patented machine learning technology to facilitate virtual document review, thereby replacing traditional in-person processes. The platform provides a suite of features including performance analytics for individual reviewers and teams, real-time productivity analysis, and communication tools, all aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of legal document reviews. By allowing reviewers to work securely from any location while being supervised in real-time, Esquify significantly reduces total review costs for its clients by 20-45%, while also achieving over 90% productivity among reviewers. As of December 2018, Esquify operates as a subsidiary of Xcellence, Inc.

PrintWithMe is a pioneering business that offers a convenient and accessible printing solution through its extensive network of wireless printer kiosks across the United States. Established in 2014, the company operates in all 50 states, placing printers in locations such as multifamily apartments, coffee shops, hotels, and co-working spaces. Users can print securely and easily from any digital device with just a few clicks, benefiting from automated paper and toner management facilitated by predictive analytics. PrintWithMe has enabled over 20 million pages to be printed on sustainably-sourced paper, promoting community resource sharing and reducing electronic waste by an average of 550 pounds per location each year. Through its services, PrintWithMe caters to the increasing demand for remote and hybrid workspaces, allowing customers to print and pay quickly and efficiently.

ConceptDrop, Inc. is an online marketplace that connects businesses with a community of professional graphic designers, offering a design on-demand service. The platform enables companies to obtain various design materials, including PowerPoint presentations, infographics, flyers, brochures, logos, and more, while also providing copywriting services. By joining ConceptDrop's community, designers can earn income, collaborate with corporations, and enhance their portfolios. The company, which was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Chicago, Illinois, was previously known as Quick2LAUNCH LLC before rebranding in January 2015. Additionally, ConceptDrop leverages artificial intelligence to assist enterprises in sourcing freelancers and constructing internal teams.

Nexus A.I. is a Chicago-based company founded in 2014 that specializes in application software leveraging Artificial Intelligence for staffing and team building. The software is designed to streamline the process of identifying and curating talent, including freelancers, based on specific skills, competencies, and customizable attributes. By analyzing employee skills and experience, Nexus A.I. helps organizations build effective teams, identify skill gaps, and create staffing efficiencies. The platform enables users to align work with skills, track skill progression, and organize teams around project-based tasks, thereby improving overall utilization rates. With a global presence, Nexus A.I. supports users in over fifty countries across six continents, fostering inclusivity and enhancing talent management for various campaigns.

ShipBob Inc. is a technology company that provides an online shipping and fulfillment platform tailored for small e-commerce businesses and direct-to-consumer brands. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, ShipBob offers an end-to-end fulfillment solution that includes warehousing, inventory management, and package delivery, ensuring shipments are processed within 1-2 business days. The company operates a network of fulfillment centers across the United States and integrates seamlessly with various e-commerce platforms, such as eBay, Shopify, Amazon, and Magento. ShipBob's software enables users to manage orders, track real-time stock levels, and communicate with customers, streamlining the fulfillment process for online merchants. Additionally, the company provides services such as pickup, packaging, and batch fulfillment, enhancing the efficiency of e-commerce operations.