James Janega

PayPal co-founder and former CEO Peter Thiel speaks about the progress of scientific innovation at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Pritzker: Chicago Venture Summit recruiting coastal participation

May 21, 2019 at 1:24 a.m.

Chicago investors and successful entrepreneurial alumni have been calling out-of-town co-investors from deals past to invite them to October's Chicago Venture Summit, organizer and billionaire investor J.B. Pritzker said. Meanwhile,...

Motorola announces Sept. 4 event in Chicago, hints at expected products

May 21, 2019 at 1:24 a.m.

Motorola sent an invitation to reporters Wednesday for an unspecified Sept. 4 event at their Merchandise Mart headquarters, with an animated invitation hinting at expected products including a smart watch....

Study: Venture capitalists confident about U.S. startup landscape

May 21, 2019 at 1:23 a.m.

Venture capitalists in the U.S. are bullish on the startup landscape, thanks to an economy that buoys IPO markets, drives companies to innovate and reassures investors that they'll be able...

New Hyde Park Angels leader emphasizes investors’ marketplace wisdom

May 21, 2019 at 1:23 a.m.

From Peter Wilkins' new chair as managing director of the Hyde Park Angels, Chicago's startup scene has two problems that the area's largest angel network can fix: Startups need to...

25 top Chicago innovations that changed the world

May 14, 2019 at 1:56 p.m.

LATEST: MEATPACKING | The forefathers included a Detroit butcher convinced meat would ship fresh if refrigerated like fruit, a child of Cape Cod farmers who followed the cattle-buying market West...

Meatpacking

May 14, 2019 at 1:56 p.m.

Before the Civil War, Americans knew where bacon came from. They saw the pigs, knew the farmers and chatted with the butcher who killed them. Chicago mechanized that picture in...

The birth control pill (1960)

May 14, 2019 at 1:56 p.m.

The company was G.D. Searle. The product was Enovid. And the most significant year was 1960. But according to a narrative by the archivists of proponent Margaret Higgins Sanger's official...

First U.S. blood bank (1937)

May 14, 2019 at 1:56 p.m.

Little modern medical innovation would be possible without this fundamental Chicago invention: the blood bank. The hero of Chicago's portion of the story was an immigrant Hungarian doctor, educated at...

How Chicago can play a big role in a coming manufacturing ‘shift’

May 21, 2019 at 1:20 a.m.

Consumption patterns show the world will want more manufactured goods in the next 15 years, and Chicago is well positioned to play a role in demand for more specialized, short-lived,...

Playboy (1953)

May 14, 2019 at 1:56 p.m.

When Hugh Hefner launched Playboy in 1953, the Chicago publication and the lifestyle it depicted danced around one another in an innovative business relationship. Which supported which? Hefner knew. His...

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