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TiE Midwest, the Midwest’s premier entrepreneurial organization, today announced the launch of the “TiE Midwest Mentor Program” to propel the Midwest’s most promising entrepreneurs across the funding gap between angels and venture capital. The TiE Midwest Mentor Program partners start-up CEOs with successful entrepreneurs to build fast-growth, high-tech businesses. The program aims to increase the pool of serial entrepreneurs in the region who will start multiple businesses and pass the mentorship on to other aspiring entrepreneurs in the Midwest. TiE solicited business plans from its network and, with the help of the Midwest venture community, selected the three most likely to create venture fundable businesses. The winners were matched with highly successful mentors, who will guide them over the next six months to achieve significant growth milestones. RevStor, LLC, a Schaumburg-based software development firm, focuses on providing an easy-to-use, scalable data storage, security and disaster recovery system that’s a fraction of the cost of existing data-storage systems. Co-founder Mary Smith said, "The TiE Midwest Mentor Program is going to enable us to garner talent and experience from a deep pool of resources. The wisdom and influence of the group's leaders will exponentially expand our depth and breadth of knowledge dramatically increasing the expertise and level of service we can offer our clients." Lead Mentor: Viresh Bhatia was co-founder and CEO of InstallShield Software Corporation, a Deloitte and Touche Technology Fast 500 Company that was purchased by Macrovision. Support Mentor: Mohan Warrior, president and CEO of Alfaflight, has founded two companies and closed transactions on behalf of several venture investors. Warrior said, "I'm excited to mentor the best and brightest start up companies in the Midwest and provide direction to help them succeed.” Park Whiz, LLC, based in Chicago, provides an online marketplace to connect drivers looking for parking with a range of available spaces, including parking garages, surface lots and private spaces that are currently not on the rental market. Aashish Dalal is Park Whiz’s Founder. Lead Mentor: Sunil Gaitonde, founder of Great Software Laboratory has sold two of the companies that he founded, one to Intel and one to Cisco. Support Mentor: Jai Shekhawat, CEO of Fieldglass, has founded two companies and raised more than $28 million in venture capital funding. PrepMe, Inc., also based in Chicago, is an online test preparation company that aims to boost SAT scores by 305 points–nearly double its competition–by analyzing students’ strengths and weaknesses and delivering tailored lessons, quizzes, tests and tutoring. Karan Goel is PrepMe’s CEO and co-founder. Lead Mentor: Raj Bhatia, senior vice president of Private Wealth Advisor, has created a network of high net worth entrepreneurs and angel investors in Silicon Valley. Support Mentor: Rajiv Patel, general partner of Sitara Partners, LP, has created several companies with highly profitable exits. President-elect and outgoing president to help steer new mentorship program Tom Churchwell, TiE Midwest’s president-elect, and Adarsh Arora, the outgoing president, will jointly oversee the new mentorship program. Arora, who has led the TiE Midwest Chapter as its president for the past three years, is stepping down to focus on his role as President and CEO of Lisle Technology Partners, which has incubated and recently launched Athena Security, an enterprise network security software company. Anjali Gurnani, vice president of business development for Athena Security, will assist TiE’s mentorship program with strategy and relationship building. As a President Emeritus of TiE Midwest, Arora will remain actively involved. "There are so many high-quality, talented and hard working people involved with the TiE Midwest organization at all levels, from those who have already proven themselves in the business community to those who will be the next leaders in Chicago and the Midwest,” said Arora. “The TiE Midwest Mentor Program will be a critical component in helping to identify and nurture these future leaders and make the Midwest a great place to do business and invest in the coming years.” Churchwell is founder and Managing Partner of Midwest Venture Partners, LLC, a venture partnership formed to address the gap in early stage capital by investing in and mentoring promising life sciences and technology companies. He is also Managing Partner of Arch Development Partners, LLC, a very early stage venture partnership that specializes in the creation and funding of high-tech companies. Churchwell serves as a board member for Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, iBIO, the Illinois Venture Capital Association and a number of start-up companies in the Midwest.
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