Jacob Babcock is the founder and CEO of NuCurrent, a wireless power company that has designed the world's fastest, smallest, and most efficient wireless power antennas. If you have ever wondered why we still have to deal with all these charging cables, this is the podcast for you.

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In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How Jacob made the transition from law school to founder of a very technical startup?
• What a future with wireless power will look like? 
• How NuCurrent is stealing business away from multi-billion dollar competitors? 
• Chicago's storied history as the birthplace of wireless power
• How to test if someone will make for a good startup employee? 
• The one big thing he wishes he knew when he started NuCurrent

Favorite Books:

• Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing 
• Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read

Jeff Carter is a co-founder of Hyde Park Angels, one of the most active angel groups in the United States, and he is currently raising a VC fund, named West Loop Ventures. Before becoming an angel he was a trader for over 25 years and he continues to trade independently. 

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In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How Hyde Park Angels started?
• Why traders make for good angel investors?
• Why having pornographers and money launderers latching on to your product early is a great sign? 
• Why it has been easier to find LPs for West Loop Ventures outside of Chicago? 
• Why you have to be a great analyzer of people and not just ideas for seed investing?
• Why it's important to have a vision for the future as a seed investor?
• Why VCs can bet on ideas, but angels have to be on people?
• Why being coachable is so important for entrepreneurs?
• How an entrepreneur/investor relationship is like dating? 
• Why he makes a point of blogging everyday?
• What we have to do to keep growing the Chicago tech scene? 

Favorite Blogs:

• Streetwise Professor by Craig Pirrong
• AVC by Fred Wilson
• Feld's Thoughts by Brad Feld
• The Musings of The Big Red Car by Jeffrey Minch

Favorite Books:

• City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America by Donald Miller
• The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer 
• Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer 
• The Doolittle Raid: America's Daring First Strike Against Japan by Carroll V. Glines  
• High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
• Personnel Economics in Practice by Edward P. Lazear, Michael Gibbs

Selected Links From The Episode:

• Kenny Estes, VC at West Loop Ventures
• Vishal Verma, Co-Founder of Hyde Park Angels
• Steve Kaplan, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Kathleen Swan, startup attorney
• Raman Chadha, Co-Founder of Junto Institute 
• Irish Angels, Notre Dame inspired angel group
• Jason Kunesh, CEO of Public Good
• Dan Ratner, COO at Public Good
• Marc Halpin, CEO of Kapow Events
• Daniel McCormick, COO of Kapow Events
• Sam Rosen, Founder of Deskpass
• Jay Swoboda, CEO of Dabble
• Robert Rosenberg, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Mark Tebbe, Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• PJ Media, conservative news site
• Rick Santelli, Editor at CNBC
• Sean Chou, Founder of Catalytic
• Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision
• Dick Costello, former CEO of Twitter
• "The Nature of the Firm" (1937), an influential article by Ronald Coase
• Merton Miller, deceased Professor from University of Chicago Booth School of Business
• Bryan Johnson, Founder of Braintree and OS Fund
• Matt Maloney, Founder of Grub Hub

Katlin Smith is the founder of Simple Mills, a food startup that only uses simple, whole food ingredients. While working as a consultant, Katlin discovered she had a gluten-sensitivity and started experimenting with her almond-flour baking mixes on the weekends.  Shortly after launching her almond flour muffin mix, it became the best selling muffin mix on Amazon. Simple Mills is now in over 2,000 stores nationwide, including in Whole Foods and Mariono's in Chicago. 

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In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How she came up with the idea for Simple Mills?
• Why it's important to be the "chief sales officer" as the founder of a startup?
• Why she started with baking mixes?
• Why nuts are so expensive?
• What she loves about being an entrepreneur?
• What the process is like to bring a new food product to market? 
• How she has found and cultivated her advisors? 
• How the challenges of being a founder change as your startup grows?
• How she approaches getting into new stores?
• Why she thinks Chicago is the easiest city to network in? 

Favorite Books:

• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith

Miscellaneous Things Mentioned:

• Simple Mills Pancake & Waffle Baking Mix
• Simple Mills Sea Salt Almond Flour Crackers
• John Foraker, CEO of Annie’s Homegrown