Off The 2018 Launchpad: Kellogg’s Hottest MBA Startups - Poets&Quants

2018 Zell Fellows and past alumni sitting with Sam Zell. Courtesy: Tomer Foltyn Photography | www.TomerFoltyn.com

A startup is like art. It is a profoundly intimate expression of the founder. A passion molded into a mission, a startup is a means to invent, serve, compete, and endow. It’s a long shot requiring total commitment — a process laden with fateful tradeoffs and dead ends, where falling short isn’t always failing forward.

Why take the risk and make the sacrifices? There is an exhilaration that comes with ownership and freedom, of turning an inspiration into a career-making venture. That’s the goal of the Zell Fellows program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Founded in 2013, Zell Fellows is designed to support student entrepreneurs who plan to launch businesses they can run after graduation. Consisting of 30 hand-picked students, the program is an incubator extraordinaire, one that caters to students at every level of their venture’s development.

PROMISING STARTUPS BOOSTING KELLOGG’S PROFILE

The Zell Fellows program is more than jut financial backing for student ideas. “In addition to the welcomed seed funding, there is the network of advisors and resources that is made available,” writes Milan Raj, who is earning a dual MBA-MS in Design Innovation at Kellogg with the McCormick School of Engineering. “From a design firm on retainer to monthly check-ins with business leaders to treks meeting with diverse businesses across industries, these opportunities have shaped how I think about targeting real customer pain points and how to build with a focus on scalability. To launch a business side-by-side with other dedicated students who are launching their own disruptive businesses which solve unique challenges across industries has been the ultimate confidence booster.”

This year, you’ll find plenty of innovative ideas percolating out of the Zell Fellows program. For example, reBLEND is marketing smoothies made from traditionally discarded produce. BackWave Technologies fights heart failure through a monitor that alerts physicians when patients’ heart output decreases. Online platforms, however, have been particularly popular with this year’s fellows. Stay.EAT+DRINK focuses on boosting occupancy rates in hotels, restaurants, and spas through a “ROI-centric” model targeting Millennials and Gen-Y. Qualtrium connects Latin American companies and investors, while Hilltop Health offers a turnkey solution for veterinarians to manage their practices.

David Schonthal. Courtesy photo

Some enterprises are already gaining traction. Qualtrium has lined up several clients on its platform. reBLEND notched an 86% satisfaction score in early trials. And stay.EAT+DRINK was a Northwestern darling, racking up several awards during the year. However, these startups have big shoes to fill. Look no further than Zell’s inaugural class, which boasts Matt Elenjickal’s FourKites, a global supply chain solution that has raised over $16.5 million. Then there are Zell alums Wise Apple (Rebecca Sholiton, Zell ’16 and Nate Cooper, Zell ’17) and FlyHomes (Stephen Lane, Zell ’15 and Tushar Garg, Zell ’16), which have raised a combined $7.3 million.

‘AN ACCELERATOR OF PEOPLE, NOT VENTURES’

That’s a formidable start for a five-year-old program. The growth stems less from emphasizing building businesses and more on developing people, says David Schonthal, a clinical associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship and faculty director of the Zell Fellows program.

“We provide students with mentorship to help them operate their business effectively. We have a pretty extensive program where we provide each of them with executive coaches to develop their leadership skills. We’ve created programs for the Zell Fellows that are specifically focused on founder leadership issues; we’re helping each of these entrepreneurs develop their emotional intelligence, self-awareness, identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and help them understand how to build effective teams around them, so they can complement their skills.”

In a nutshell, the Zell Fellows differs from most programs by focusing more on the founder than the enterprise. “The Zell Fellows is an accelerator of people not ventures,” Schonthal notes. “Our bet is on you as a founder, not on the particular concept that you are working on. Our evaluation of the success of this program is whether or not people do something — whether they take an entrepreneurial leap at some point in their career — and can look back on this program and say it gave them the skills and fortitude to do that.”

CUSTOM APPROACH LEADS TO FOUR DISTINCT TRACKS

Zell Fellows forego any course credit for their work, however. Instead, it is a year-long, co-curricular endeavor that students complete more as a calling than a grade. Targeted mainly to full-time second-year and one-year MBAs, the program has been a work-in-progress that has evolved to meet the specific needs of Kellogg’s entrepreneurial population. Notably, the program maintains four unique tracks, each with its own faculty leader and executive coaches.

The first — and oldest — is the New Venture Track, a catch-all led by Gregg Latterman, a Kellogg MBA, entrepreneur, and angel investor. In his professional life, Latterman had signed artists like Train and John Mayer to his record label’s joint venture with Columbia Records (he later formed a management company whose client list included Liz Phair, Michelle Branch, and The Fray). Under the leadership of Schonthal and Latterman, the New Venture Track quickly became a go-to for Kellogg’s aspiring entrepreneurs.

Zell Fellows working together in a makers space. Courtesy photo

Despite the track’s popularity, Schonthal understood that student ventures couldn’t be confined to a one-size-fits-all model. By the third year of Zell Fellows, Schonthal began adapting the programming to fit the differing needs of the ventures. This was particularly true for students who were looking to pursue entrepreneurship in ways beyond starting a business from scratch. This led to the launch of the Acquisition and Ownership Track. Run by Alex Schneider, who co-founded a private equity firm that invests in small businesses, this track caters to students looking to acquire and grow businesses – an umbrella that Schonthal says covers areas like search funds, fundless sponsorship, franchising, and family businesses.

In 2016 the Zell Fellows added a Healthcare Track, since a third of the students were gravitating towards healthtech, an industry, Schonthal says, requires far different development and resourcing than a consumer-focused tech startup. To oversee this track, Kellogg brought on Pete McNerney, a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist that Schonthal describes as a “pioneer in the medtech investing space.” This past year, the program also added an Emerging Markets Track for social entrepreneurs, which is headed by Jamie Jones – a scientist-turned-researcher and venture fund manager who has partnered in the past with the Gates Foundation and the U.S. Department of State.

FACULTY LEADERS KEEP VENTURES MOVING FORWARD

Kellogg’s Zell Fellows approach, which trains the individual and tailors the programming and resources to the individual entrepreneurs, was the motivating force behind Chase Michaelek coming to Evanston. The founder of Hilltop Health, Michaelek describes Zell Fellows as a “fast track accelerator” — one where the quality of faculty and coaching offers practical guidance that resonates with the startup situations he encounters. As a member of the New Venture Track, Michaelek receives dedicated weekly office hours with Latterman, who seamlessly ties his music industry experience and theoretical teaching to the day-to-day hurdles of his students’ ventures.

“Gregg is a really relatable guy who helps you with everything from business structuring to negotiation conversations with partners or suppliers,” Michaelek explains. “He is really a sounding board, a guy who isn’t quick to talk but quick to listen. Being a first-time entrepreneur, having that trust that I can seek him out on a pretty regular basis is really helpful.”

Latterman’s lessons just don’t revolve around the business. His coaching sessions also force Michaelek to confront issues like executive presence and communication skills. More important, he acts as a manager to keep student on task and a mentor to reinforce the bigger picture. “The accountability factor that Gregg has with us has been remarkable,” Michaelek adds. “He keeps us honest and active with driving our business forward. He reminds us that we are students, but we are also trying to advance businesses. He understands that sometimes you have to prioritize business and sometimes you have to prioritize school.”

Go to page 3 to access in-depth profiles of the most promising startups at Kellogg this year.

Roshni Khurana, 2016-17 Zell Fellow, talking with Sam Zell about her venture. Courtesy photo

RESOURCES INCLUDE A $10,000 STIPEND

Faculty expertise is just one tool in the Zell Fellows arsenal. For one, the tracks are given access to resources that they’d normally shell out big bucks for if they leaped in entrepreneurship cold. Schonthal even clicks off a list, which includes healthcare and regulatory professionals, intellectual property attorneys, investors and fund managers, and experts in governmental affairs and emerging markets. The benefit? Simple, says Schonthal, such resources give graduates the best advantages in running a sustainable business after graduation.

Those aren’t the biggest enticements for Zell Fellows, either. “They also get a supplement — a $10,000 stipend per student that they can spend on business expenses for building their business,” adds Schonthal. “These may include such as legal services, design services, programming and other related expenses that would go into building the business entity itself. So it goes beyond the mentorship and exposure.”

Beyond that, the Zell Fellows program has built-in programming to aid students in their industries. Notably, says Schonthal, each track attends a conference geared to their passions. Acquisition and Ownership fellows, for example, traditionally head to a conferences focused on search funds and M&A. The program also offers opportunities to attend global events such as SXSW or the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference. In addition, the program blocks off time for fellows to interact with high profile entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Chicago and beyond.

“We give them the means to go to the environments in which they stand to benefit most for building their business,” Schonthal emphasizes. “We make sure they get in front of the thought leaders and the community that they are going to be part of.”

SPRING TREK TO ISRAEL UNIFIES THE ZELL FELLOWS COMMUNITY

One way Zell Fellows does this is through its annual trek to Israel over spring break. Led by Sam Zell himself, the Zell Fellows visit leading startups and complete intensive programming. The real benefit, however, is the time spent together networking and solving similar startup issues — not just with Zell peers at IDC and the University of Michigan, but also with Zell alumni.

A Zell fellow sharing feedback on a prototype. Courtesy photo

“This year, we brought 25 alumni from our program,” Schonthal recalls. “They spent a lot of time with our current students. I’m already starting to hear the stories. We had one student who is launching an eCommerce business who got some time to spend with one of our first Zell students, Chris Chon, who’s one of the founders of Leonard and Church, a successful watch business. They spent an hour together talking about the ins-and-outs of ecommerce and our current student walked away with a ton of useful knowledge about how she might go about her business differently based on Chris’ experience. We had a bunch of healthtech alumni show up in Israel who worked with another student on things like how they structured their clinical trials, who they went to for fund-raising, and landmines they stepped on to help him avoid those things.”

Such consideration, particularly from the fellowship’s benefactor, also left a lasting impression on Michaelek. “Covering expenses for things like business formation or logo design is great,” he admits. “What I’ll remember this program most for is the people. Having spent time personally with Sam Zell in Israel and having access to the people who work for him or with him, I know how much they care about the people in this program and what they’re trying to helping us accomplish together. It’s not like they are taking financial stakes in our companies. They’re taking stakes in our personal selves. They’re making personal investments in us. I really feel this support will not only benefit me going forward, but I can look back on it and say, ‘This is what really differentiated my business and my experience at Kellogg.’”

“DON’T LET THE GREAT GET IN THE WAY OF THE GOOD”

Kellogg alumni are even more engaged when the Zell Fellows are back in Evanston. When it comes to choosing students to be Zell Fellows, each track features an advisory council with 1-2 alumni members.  That’s just the start, Schonthal notes. “They also come in a lot for talks and mentoring or even make themselves available for office hours. What we’re trying to create is something not unlike a YPO-type community where if you are a Zell alum or student, there is no hesitation ever of picking up the phone and calling another Zell, knowing your phone call or email will be returned.”

Michaelek has picked up some of his best lessons from Caroline Snider, a 2017 Zell Fellow and founder of Welltended, an ecommerce platform for potted plants. The winner of several pitch competitions who has grown her business without giving up any equity, Snider has served as an inspiration and mentor to Michaelek.

“She gave me this quote — and I use it a lot with my business — ‘Don’t let the great get in the way of the good.’ That’s really important when you are a first time entrepreneur with a background in consulting or private equity, where you’re used to making things perfect. With startups, you need to make things work and keep things happening.  You don’t have the time to perfect everything.”

GOING THROUGH THE JOURNEY TOGETHER

Perhaps much of the learning in the Zell Fellows programs comes from students interacting with each other. In some ways, this is born of necessity: Being a student entrepreneur is a completely different experience than what their MBA peers enjoy.

“Entrepreneurship can be a pretty lonely experience,” asserts Schonthal. “Having this community of people who are simultaneously struggling to build businesses and going through the emotional ups-and-downs is tremendously confidence-instilling, particularly as they look at their peers at Kellogg who might be doing more traditional career paths and taking roles in large corporations. This is a group that is deliberately bypassing recruiting. There are a number of different reasons for them to second guess their decision when they see the sizable salaries that their peers are commanding or when people are spending time on the weekends having fun instead of building a business.”

Kellogg School of Management’s Global Hub in Evanston, Illinois. Courtesy photo

That’s why fostering community is such a priority with the Zell Fellows. While the program boasts four tracks, the fellows often engage in experiential learning activities that weave the tracks together to foster what Schonthal calls “a diversity of perspectives.” It is this sense of community, as much as viable startups, that the programs hopes to leave with its graduates. “We’re consciously trying to get them to develop bonds and relationships to support each other long after they leave this program,” adds Schonthal.

GOT EACH OTHER’S BACK

That esprit de corps carries over to the fellows themselves, who often act as their own support network. In fact, many 2018 fellows have established their own informal groups whose members cross the various tracks to offer services such as design reviews. Such group investment, says Michaelek, gives fellows an educated take on each other’s businesses.

“Zell is almost like a miniature version of YPO,” he explains. “Imagine 10 people who know your business intimately well because they’ve heard your elevator pitch honed over the past six months. They know your insides-and-outs, as you give them weekly updates, and they hear what your obstacles are and what you’re working on. They’re able to help you in ways you probably wouldn’t have thought of.”

Students don’t always congregate in groups for support, either. When he needs advice — or just someone to listen — Michaelek often makes a bee-line for Jennifer Barron, whose career empowerment consulting model is almost the inverse of his high-tech veterinary platform. Michaelek also meets regularly with Rei Kawano, whose Heed PetFoods venture dovetails nicely with the veterinary industry. “We actually have our own bi-weekly one-on-one sessions, where we hold each other accountable and problem-solve issues that we’re facing in our businesses. I also think there are ways for our businesses to work well together down the road too.”

ZELL ISN’T KELLOGG’S ONLY ENTREPRENEURIAL PATH

On average, 16 Kellogg MBAs a year have immediately started a business after graduation since 2014. Despite this number, Zell Fellows has emerged as one of the most coveted tickets at Kellogg. According to Schonthal, 160 students showed up for informational workshops about the program at the start of the year. After applications are submitted, roughly one in three candidates are chosen for a spot. To winnow down applications, Schonthal and the advisory councils evaluate the seriousness of candidates using four criteria.

“One, can they bring more than just an idea to the table,” Schonthal posits. “Is this concept a plan for acquisition or a plan for launching a business from scratch? Have they made progress and developed traction? Does it appear that they’ve planned for the Zell program for a while? We’re also looking for someone who has some evidence and data and work behind their concept. Two, are they a founder or co-founder of a business? We’re accepting just one founder from a company at a time, so we want them to execute change in the business and not report up to someone else. Third, we want them to be coachable — are they just here for the resources and money or do they know what they don’t know and they’re looking to develop as both entrepreneurs and leaders? Finally, are they looking to give as much as they get? Because the support for each other is so important, we want them to be a contributor to both the campus community and also be an active Zell alum.”

Go to page 4 to access in-depth profiles of the most promising startups at Kellogg this year.

The 2017-18 Emerging Markets track of Zell Fellows traveled to Mexico City earlier in the year to meet with entrepreneurs and others in an emerging economy. Courtesy photo

Despite the popularity of the Zell Fellows, it is just one piece of Kellogg’s larger entrepreneurial portfolio. Schonthal cites the Levy Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which includes programming ranging from drafting business plans to prototyping to pitching to investors. The Kellogg Entrepreneurship Organization (KEO) is a highly selective group of roughly two dozen entrepreneurs who act similar to a campus YPO. At the same time, Northwestern University operates The Garage, an incubator that’s barely 200 yards from the Global Hub. That doesn’t even count the school’s Design Studio for prototyping or Innovation Lab that acts as another incubator.

“Zell is not the only path to do entrepreneurship here,” Schonthal notes.

CLASSROOM SUPPLEMENTS REAL WORLD LEARNING

Michaelek admits that entrepreneurship is a tough topic to teach. While he attributes entrepreneurial success to risk tolerance and confidence, he adds that he is better for the “discovery frameworks, idea processes, and prototyping structures” he learned in classes. In fact, he has already put them to use, sharing a story of how he completed a handout from his negotiations course before meeting with a potential partner to reflect on priorities, target and reservation pricing, and best alternatives.

“It’s not just a one-time thing to do in class,” but something I can carry on and take to my actual business into the real world,” he says. “What Kellogg has done a really good job of is put me in situations and giving me opportunities to test things out in a pretty risk free environment.”

Brooke Vukovic. Courtesy photo

That environment extends beyond the classroom. Outside of Zell Fellows, Michaelek received executive coaching from Brooke Vuckovic, who doubles as a leadership development professor at Kellogg. He found her counsel, along with her self-assessment tools, to be very enlightening. He even jokes that Vuckovic knows him “almost as well as his wife – a virtue that enabled her to introduce Michaelek to her uncle: “America’s Veterinarian” Dr. Marty Becker. Not a bad connection for an entrepreneur working in the veterinary health space. “It’s introductions like that and the network that you have at Kellogg who are always opening up doors to make sure that we are going to be successful,” he adds.

CHANGES AHEAD FOR THE PROGRAM

After five years, Schonthal doesn’t plan to rest on his laurels. Instead, his plan is for Zell Fellows to evolve with the students who are accepted into it. “This program is by no means set in stone,” he admits. “Every year, we take a fresh look at what students are looking for and every year we make changes to how we do the program. My answer to some of these questions next year could be very different. We try to practice what we preach, which is making sure we have the right product for right customer.”

Looking ahead to the Zell program’s sixth year, Schonthal is weighing several wrinkles. Most notably, he is looking at moving the start date up to the beginning of the school year. “Every year, we’ve moved it up because student feedback is that they would’ve loved more time,” he notes. “This year, we moved the startup to November so the application started right at the beginning of school. Next year, we’re kicking around the idea of taking applications for next year’s class in May so they can start Zell programming right from day one.”

The program may also tinker with the composition of the fellows. Currently, the program targets second-year full-time MBAs, though one-years and students from joint JD and MD programs are eligible. Now, Schonthal is looking for ways to better integrate executive and evening MBAs as well. “We’ve also been thinking about how we might create a track to incorporate more experienced students,” he shares. “They are equally entrepreneurial. Their participation would benefit our students because they tend to bring a lot of domain knowledge and real world experience, particularly running and scaling business.”

ZELL FELLOWS NETWORK EXTENDS BEYOND KELLOGG

Not surprisingly, the Zell Fellows program hasn’t ruled out adding new tracks in future years, with media and entertainment and real estate figuring most prominently in discussions. However, the greatest investment will likely be devoted to deepening Zell alumni engagement even further. “After this year’s program is over, we’ll have over a 100 alumni,” Schonthal notes. “How do we keep them coming back to mentor? How do we help keep them involved in the selection of future classes? We’re going to have this tremendous alumni asset. How we can keep them active in the program and how we can continue to support them in their entrepreneurial journey after graduation?”

Galvin Family Design Wing & Conference Center, which (among other things) houses Kellogg’s entrepreneurial initiative where students can work on their startup ideas. Courtesy photo

That alumni support extends beyond Kellogg as well, he adds “The Zell Fellows is becoming a global network, both in terms of our alumni base and our relationship to other Zell programs around the world, whether it is the program Sam funds in Israel or the University of Michigan. We are trying to create a global community and network — and Kellogg is a big part.”

What advice should prospective fellows heed before applying to the Zell program? Schonthal urges students to separate the “sizzle” of entrepreneurship from the sweat, strain, and stress behind it. “There are a number of students who come in thinking it would be great to be my own boss — that’s en vogue right now — without truly understanding what the emotional arc of being an entrepreneur is all about. Entrepreneurship is a calling. If you’re viewing it as a career choice, I find that students are a little shocked by the reality of how difficult this can be.”

SECRET TO SUCCESS: DO LESS

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, Schonthal adds. “What we try to do in entrepreneurship education at Kellogg is give them a pretty authentic emotional experience of entrepreneurship. If they decide halfways through the year that this isn’t for me and choose a more traditional path, that’s a good outcome. What we don’t want is for someone to realize a year after they graduate that they weren’t equipped for this. We want to push that experience as forward as possible so they can realistically evaluate if entrepreneurship is for them.”

In contrast, Michaelek urges a strategy that’s counterintuitive to the spirit inherent to most MBA entrepreneurs: Do less, not more.

“Be incredibly intentional when you’re at school. Many times, my peers have this big list of things they want to do in school – and then school gets in the way. Their list gets longer and they get lost. They end up following the crowd or really not accomplishing their goals. I shortened my list. My goals were to focus on real estate and entrepreneurship and get into Zell Fellows. I’ve done a good job of accomplishing each of them. When you come into a full time MBA program or entrepreneurship, you have a short, finite opportunity to do some pretty cool things that go outside your normal comfortable ways. Take advantage. Be intentional. Put yourself out there.”

To access information on the most impressive startups from the Zell Fellows in 2017-2018, including funding, achievements, and long-term goals, click on the company links below. 

Company	Industry	Founding students
BackWave Technologies	Healthcare – Medical Devices	Andrew Cabodi, Dr. Doug Clarke, Josh LeVay
reBLEND	Food Justice/Natural Foods	Kathryn Bernell
Hilltop Health	Healthcare / Consumer (Veterinary Services)	Chase Michalek
stay.EAT+DRINK	Hospitality	Milan Raj
Qualtrium	Financial Services / Fintech	Alejandro Orvañanos and Sebastián Velásquez

DON’T MISS:

HOW KELLOGG TEACHES ENTREPRENEURSHIP

KELLOGG DOES ITS OWN BAY AREA STARTUP

MEET KELLOGG’S MBA CLASS OF 2019

MEET THE CLASS OF 2018 AT KELLOGG

Andrew Cabodi. Courtesy photo

BackWave Technologies

Industry: Healthcare/Medical Devices

Founding Student Names: Andrew Cabodi, Dr. Doug Clarke, Josh LeVay

Brief Description of Solution: BackWave Technologies is developing the BackWave Hero, a non-invasive cardiac output monitor that measures the deadly progression of heart failure. Patients use the Hero once daily at home after a heart failure hospitalization. When heart output declines, the Hero wirelessly alerts the patient’s physician. With the use of the Hero, physicians can intervene and adjust treatment well before a re-hospitalization occurs.

Funding Dollars: $11,500

What Led You To Launch This Venture? I worked in healthcare prior to Kellogg and saw that many of our patients were being hospitalized for heart failure. I was shocked to find that millions of people are affected and that there isn’t a great monitoring solution to help them track the progression of their disease. This inspired me to figure out a better way to help all those suffering.

Biggest Accomplishment So Far with Venture: We started with a simple, yet very challenging question: “How can we non-invasively measure heart failure at home?” After many months of research and ideation, we determined a very feasible approach. Currently, we are prototyping the solution. This is very exciting seeing a question turn into an idea turn into a product.

How Has Kellogg Helped You Further Your Venture? One of the main reasons I came to Kellogg was for the breadth of entrepreneurial programming. Coursework covers the full spectrum of the entrepreneurial journey: NUvention Medical gave me the opportunity to learn how to take a medical problem and determine if there’s a feasible solution space; Launching and Leading Startups helped me better understand how to manage my start-up from early-stage concept validation to commercialization; Selling Yourself and Your Ideas provided invaluable frameworks for getting my product into the hands of those that need it most.

Additionally, the Zell Fellows program has provided me a wealth of industry specific mentorship and leadership development resources. My mentors have provided introductions and connections within the healthcare community that I would never have organically come across. My leadership coaches have made me a better person and leader of my team. Managing a team of 5, who are all in various stages of life and careers, has been a wonderful growth opportunity for me.

Long-Term Goals with Your Startup: BackWave plans to raise a seed round in the late spring / early summer and convert two teammates to full-time employees. Our long-term vision is to fully develop the Hero, achieve FDA compliance, commercialize the Hero, and give the millions struggling with heart failure better lives.

Kathryn Bernell. Courtesy: Sean Su

reBLEND

Industry: Food Justice/Natural Foods

Founding Student Names: Kathryn Bernell

Brief Description of Solution: reBLENDs are functional smoothie cubes that source delicious but misshapen produce for the on-the-go customer who is seeking more real food in their diet at a time when customers are demanding food that improves their well-being and that of the world around them. Our mission is to make sure every piece of misshapen produce ends up in someone’s mouth and that each product we produce helps our customers better win their day. reBLENDs radically tackle food waste and increase Americans’ fruit and vegetable consumption by targeting occasions when a customer wants #realfood but is also seeking convenience.

Funding Dollars: $45,000

What Led You To Launch This Venture? I’ve spent my entire career in the food industry. Early on, I recognized a deep passion for furthering proactive health and food justice. The rise of inflammatory disease plaguing Americans can be traced, in large-part, back to the shifts in diet that have been made over the past century from real food to processed substitutes. Presently, 90% of Americans don’t get enough fruits and vegetables into their diet on a daily basis. The tragedy is that, concurrently, 50% of all food produced in the United States will never reach a plate; this amasses to over 15 Billion dollars of produce wasted on an annual basis. The dire need for Americans to find convenient and delicious ways to get more real food into their diet alongside the challenge to tackle a broken supply chain system caught my attention. I dove deep into research with farmers, distributors, restaurants, grocers, and customers to better understand the points of tension that have spurred the astronimal waste stream. My ultimate insight was that consumers live at the crux of the waste problem: farmers only harvest and retailers only purchase what they believe consumers want.

The goal of shifting consumer behavior around misshapen produce ultimately drove me to launch reBLEND. By way of crafting delicious fruit and vegetable smoothies that are sourced with misshapen produce, I’ve found a way to tackle two of the countries most pressing issues plaguing our food system and our overall health and wellbeing.

Biggest Accomplishment So Far with Venture: This year, I was honored as a Zell Fellow, Yuon Impact Scholar, and Project Impact Fellow. These enabled me to build recognition within the Kellogg community. The support within Kellogg enabled an overwhelmingly positive response to my initial pilot that took place in the Fall quarter. reBLENDs received an 86% satisfaction score on the smoothies, but the noted shortcomings of the product were around the bulky nature of the package and the consumer’s difficulty achieving a smooth and consistent blend with the product. The feedback I heard from consumers informed my decision to overhaul my initial packaging so that I could move to the smoothie cube form. The smoothie cube packs deliver a space saving package and superior blending experience. I am unveiling the newest packaging iteration in two weeks for our upcoming Beta2.

How Has Kellogg Helped You Further Your Venture? The guidance that I have gained from the Social Impact department as a Project Impact Fellow and Yuon Fellow has exposed me to the necessary resources and insight I’ve needed to build a mission-driven business. Concurrently, I have been able to navigate the business development of reBLEND by leveraging the professors, mentorship opportunities, and curriculum through the Kellogg Initiative for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

One of the most impactful contributions to the growth of reBLEND has been the Zell Fellows program that I am currently in. Our small cohort meets weekly to discuss everything from personal leadership development to tax code implications of our company filings. The balance between personal development and access to tactical support has been a game changer for my company.

I would say, however, that the most powerful part of my Kellogg experience has stemmed from the professors who have gone above and beyond to support me each step of the way. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by the likes of Carter Cast, Rick Desai, David Schonthal, Megan Kashner, Linda Darragh, and Craig Wortman. These professors not only have a wealth of industry experience, but they also have a deep dedication to taking on a role that is much more than an 8-5. I’m consistently blown away by the ethic of care each of these professors extends to their students; I think that this is what really sets Kellogg apart.

I never imagined coming to business school and starting my own venture; it simply wasn’t something that ever crossed my mind. The community and overwhelming support that Kellogg offers ultimately re-oriented my path and enabled me to think more broadly about the type of career and impact I want to be making in the world.

Long-Term Goals with Your Startup: Upon graduating, I am looking to obtain initial seed funding to transition manufacturing over to a co-packer and build out my founding team to support accelerated growth. Our team wants to own the occasions where someone is looking for more than a granola bar, but needs a convenient option that fits into the demands of their on-the-go lifestyle. We plan to expand beyond smoothies as a part of reBLEND’s vision to build a company that delivers professional grade products while also radically tackling systemic issues with food waste.

Chase Michaelek. Courtesy photo

Hilltop Health

Industry: Healthcare / Consumer (Veterinary Services)

Founding Student Names: Chase Michalek

Brief Description of Solution: Hilltop Health offers a unique solution for both consumers and veterinarians:

In an era where technology makes so many services personal, on-demand, and well-designed, the contrast is especially apparent when interacting with our vet. Hilltop Health is changing all that. Hilltop Health offers tech-based, patient-centric care with simple but revolutionary benefits. Patients can access vets for same-day appointments, visit convenient, modern, and beautifully-designed offices, and even use our technology to receive continuous care for their pets.

For veterinarians, managing a practice has been never been more difficult with increased competition and an ever-changing group of pet owners with complex needs. What if a trusted, smart, tech-savvy company could come in and be their partner — their foundation? Hilltop Health is that company. Hilltop Health takes care of those infinite details, so vets can focus on pets and their owners. Hilltop Health can be the management and marketing solution — giving vets access to a world of young new owners and their pets. This allows vets to breathe a sigh of relief – and look down and greet that new dog who’s come in for his first checkup.

Funding Dollars: Undisclosed

What Led You To Launch This Venture? Before Kellogg, I worked for a private equity firm in Chicago where we invested exclusively in the healthcare services sector. I began learning from the best management teams that were leading high growth businesses and disrupting the human side of healthcare. Frankly, managing a physician practice in today’s environment is more complicated than ever. For providers, the value proposition offered from practice management companies is really compelling… and so we tried to back the best management teams that we believed were doing something truly unique in healthcare.

As an associate, I was also responsible for our investment in a leading animal hospital management company. I quickly saw that many of the provider pain points and inefficiencies I saw in human healthcare also existed in animal care… but animal care lagged about 5-10 years behind some of the advancements that were occurring in human health.

So as lifelong pet owner, I applied some of these insights and founded Hilltop Health with the goal of bringing animal care up-to-speed with advancements in care quality and technology seen across our human care counterparts.

Biggest Accomplishment So Far with Venture: We are still in very early innings and I am completely ok with that. My main accomplishment has been developing ways to de-risk my business. I have done this by interviewing countless veterinarians to assess need for enhanced practice management and appetite for a new clinic concept that looks and feels different than most other hospitals. Equally important, I have surveyed pet owners to better understand pain points of the pet-owning / veterinary relationship to identify key areas of differentiation. Furthermore, I have developed advertising campaigns and marketing strategies to test various customer acquisition strategies to improve the customer ramp for when a clinic first gets started.

All of these means, among others too, have helped me gain a comfort with my business model and its viability in the marketplace. There will always be development areas to refine and further testing to complete in my business – this has just been the start of it. I believe that no matter what stage a company is in during its life cycle, it should always be testing concepts to find ways to do things better or different. Something also really exciting is that I am working with a team to develop a few key pieces of technology that we think will give us competitive advantages both in management strategies and customer engagement.

How Has Kellogg Helped You Further Your Venture? Kellogg has been foundational for developing my venture. I came to school with an idea and was able to gather feedback from faculty and students to further refine and pressure-test my concept. It’s a total win-win when you can be in a class that is led by a leading VC Partner in Chicago that is solely-focused on helping you test and develop your business. The time, mentorship, and overall support across the Kellogg community has been immeasurable. I think Kellogg even takes it beyond other business schools by offering the Zell Fellows Program. Being in a group of like-minded students who are taking risks, experiencing similar struggles, running hard to test product-market-fit, raise funds, or launch their business is incredibly rewarding to be a part of. You know people have your back and will take a “No BS” approach when seeking feedback. The funding dollars, faculty/industry mentorship, and business resources have helped develop my executive presence and given me a leg up in launching my venture.

Long-Term Goals with Your Startup: The long-term goal is to create a company that has both an amazing culture of innovation and is considered the gold-standard for care quality. We will do this by taking a people-centered approach to design, investing in the smart application of technology, and enabling our vets to be on the forefront of care quality. I believe by doing-so, we will create on a self-fulfilling prophecy, attracting the best and forward-thinking talent, retaining our people and customers, and building a brand that raises the bar on what people should expect from their animal care provider.

Milan Raj. Courtesy photo

stay.EAT+DRINK

Industry: Hospitality

Founding Student Names: Milan Raj

Brief Description of Solution: stay.EAT+DRINK is the first ROI-centric social engagement platform for the hospitality industry. While nearly 75% of the consumer base will soon be Millennial or Gen Z, hotels continue to cater to an aging demographic on the brink of retirement. To make matters worse, hotel occupancy rates are hovering at just 60%. stay.EAT+DRINK finally allows properties and hotel owners to take direct action and boost utilization across restaurants, bars, and spas in real-time by proactively engaging using the official language of Millennials and Gen Z: social media.

Funding Dollars: $12,500

What Led You To Launch This Venture? As a MMM student at Northwestern University who is earning both an MBA from Kellogg and a MS in Design Innovation from the Segal Design Institute, I was given an early first year crash course on leveraging design thinking and ethnographic research to mine critical pain points. This dynamic way of thinking set the foundation for me to be able to take full advantage of my time back in school to think about business differently.

Further, Kellogg’s full embrace of experiential learning has been an incredible opportunity for me. For example, I embarked on a quarter-long course called Global Immersion in Management: The Frontier Markets led by Dan Keeler, an Editor for the Wall Street Journal. Not only did Dan bring in an incredible network of speakers from around the world throughout the quarter, but the 25 students then embarked on an on-site immersion venturing across Myanmar and Vietnam. Each student group dove into a specific vertical, with mine being focused on the Hospitality and Tourism industries. Being on the ground in these vastly diverse countries and interviewing executives, operators, entrepreneurs, and managers shed light to a utilization problem across the industry. While it may sound bizarre to discover an unmet business need thousands of miles away that also exists in the US, I’m not so confident it would have been as obvious.

Lastly, a summer internship supporting innovation efforts for Hilton Honors allowed for industry-specific immersion including the opportunity to gain mentors across the organization and the chance to try things outside my comfort zone like working the front desk at the Washington Hilton. What better way to discover pain points than to feel them first hand?

Biggest Accomplishment So Far with Venture: It was earning first place in Northwestern University Pitch Night (where entrepreneurs across undergraduate and graduate programs at Northwestern pitch their ventures in under one minute) and second place at Kellogg Venture Challenge (where eight startups are selected to pitch ‘Shark Tank’-style to staple Chicago Venture Capital firms).

How Has Kellogg Helped You Further Your Venture? Kellogg has an incredibly robust entrepreneurship strategic initiative and offering that has no doubt played a pivotal role in my development as an entrepreneur. It ranges from an incredible departmental team that orchestrates the menu of unbelievable resources, alumni, and programming to a phenomenal cast of faculty who have lived and currently live in the real world launching their own businesses and brands. The impact these faculty and initiatives are having on entrepreneurs at Kellogg is undeniable. For example, New Venture Development led by serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist Troy Henikoff, drove home the ability to execute via a series of the narrowest of minimum viable products to test specific and crucially important hypotheses. Meanwhile, sales guru Craig Wortmann’s Selling Yourself and Your Ideas embraced the curation and leverage of one’s unfair competitive advantages to become a thought leader capable of making change.

The capstone hallmark of entrepreneurship at Kellogg is the Zell Fellows program spearheaded by David Schonthal, with its New Venture track shepherded by Gregg Latterman, who founded Aware Music while studying at Kellogg. Zell Fellows serves as an incubator of entrepreneurs who are determined to utilize their second year at Kellogg as a launching board to create, develop, and launch their ventures. In just a few months, Zell Fellows has offered me an incredible safe haven for ideation, dealing with typical founder struggles, and rapid iteration in the comfort of a nine person cohort all working symbiotically to go-to-market.

In addition to the welcomed seed funding supported by legendary businessman Sam Zell, there is the network of advisors and resources that is made available. From a design firm on retainer to monthly check-ins with business leaders (such as Ellen Havdala) to treks meeting with diverse businesses across industries, these opportunities have shaped how I think about targeting real customer pain points and how to build with a focus on scalability. To launch a business side-by-side with other dedicated students who are launching their own disruptive businesses which solve unique challenges across industries has been the ultimate confidence booster.

Long-Term Goals with Your Startup: I am fully committed to launching my business before graduating from Kellogg. While the uncertainty of any startup requires a certain degree of risk tolerance, I am far more confident in my ability to make entrepreneurship a viable profession post-Kellogg thanks to the resources, network, and skillset Kellogg’s entrepreneurship offering has afforded me.

Alejandro Orvañanos. Courtesy photo

Qualtrium

Industry: Financial Services / Fintech

Founding Student Names: Alejandro Orvañanos and Sebastián Velásquez

Brief Description of Solution: Qualtrium is an online platform that connects private companies in Latin America with investors such as private equity/credit funds and banks. Through our platform, private family-owned companies can improve their institutional structure, gain access to the right type of growth capital, and interact with other business over a secure network. Investors use the platform to efficiently generate quality pipeline.

Funding Dollars: $15,000

What Led You To Launch This Venture? I was considering raising a search-fund to acquire and operate a medium-sized company in Mexico. However, I realized that there is a huge disconnection between both sides of the market, even though there are billions of dollars ready to be invested into the private sector and there are tens of thousands of companies in need of growth capital and with sub-optimal institutional and operational structures. I had a hard time understanding why, if there was enough money and so many opportunities, there were so few deals that were actually taking place. It was then that I realized that this was not only an incredible market opportunity, but also a way to generate positive impact in Mexico and Latin America, where private companies provide around 70% of jobs and 40% of GDP.

Biggest Accomplishment So Far with Venture: Being selected as a Kellogg Zell Fellow in the Emerging Markets track, and getting four companies in Mexico to come on board our platform.

How Has Kellogg Helped You Further Your Venture? First, Sebastián and I enrolled in the New Venture Discovery class with Professor Gabe Vehovksy and this helped us tremendously to understand our target market and sharpen our value proposition. Then, we were granted one of the Kellogg Summer Stipend awards, and that allowed us to stay on campus over the summer to work on our venture. Finally, I was selected as a Zell Fellow for the 2018 cohort and that has provided us with invaluable mentorship opportunities, technical and leadership workshops, and funding to actually develop our product.

Long-Term Goals with Your Startup: It would be to become the premier pipeline-generating tool for investors across Latin America and other emerging markets. Another goal is to become the go-to business platform for hundreds of thousands of business owners whose companies have amazing products or services but are under-institutionalized and lack access to the right type of growth capital. We want to provide these companies with the opportunity to secure their family legacies and improve their generational transitions and growth strategies.

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