Ventures by the Lake

Anthony Alepra & Mike Sundermeier
  • 5.0 (1)
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Do you have an idea for a startup, or do you have a side hustle that you're hoping to go full-time on? We sit down with early-stage founders, investors, and entrepreneurship community leaders in Chicago to shed light on real stories about real ventures by the lake. You'll find a range of perspectives that we hope will give you marching orders & inspire you to turn your part-time side project into a full-time startup. We also talk about events, resources, and cool things happening in the growing Chicago tech community. It's fine if you're not from Chicago, we'll just love you slightly less.

  1. 09/30/2025

    S2:E7 Reinventing the Water Bottle with Manuela from Kadeya

    In this episode of Ventures by the Lake, we sit down with Manuela Zoninsein, founder and CEO of Kadeya, to talk about reinventing bottled water, dialing in on deep customer needs, and scaling hardware in overlooked markets. Manuela shares how Kadeya evolved from a homegrown experiment to a full-fledged closed-loop beverage system, complete with smart, self-sanitizing vending machines and reusable bottles. What started as a pilot in a tech office kitchen has since found product-market fit on construction sites, military bases, and industrial campuses - where hydration, waste, and logistics collide. We discuss how her background shaped her entrepreneurial lens, and why she believes industrial infrastructure is the most overlooked climate opportunity today. Manuela also talks through early pivots, the challenges of being a hardware founder, and how she built a team culture rooted in transparency, curiosity, and speed. Check out Kadeya here!

    43 min

  2. 08/26/2025

    S2E6: Building Tastytrade with Tom Sosnoff

    In this episode of Ventures by the Lake, we sit down with Tom Sosnoff - founder of Thinkorswim, Tastytrade, and Tastylive - to talk about grit, trading floors, and building billion-dollar companies. A pioneer in options trading and fintech, Tom shares how he landed in Chicago with $5,000 and ended up creating some of the most influential platforms in retail trading.

    37 min

  3. 08/05/2025

    S2E5: Building Chicago's Startup Community with Kevin Willer

    We sit down with Kevin Willer - the founding CEO of 1871, founding partner at Chicago Ventures, and a driving force in building Chicago’s startup community. Kevin shares stories from launching Google’s Chicago office in the early 2000s, to helping create 1871 as a hub for entrepreneurs, to investing in the city’s next generation of founders. We explore the evolution of Chicago’s tech scene, lessons from two decades of growth, and why the next wave of big bets - from hard tech to quantum computing - could define the city’s future.

    1h 2m

  4. 05/06/2025

    S2E4: Landon from Drive Capital

    Landon Campbell from Drive Capital joins us to talk about how he got started in venture capital, what makes Chicago a great place to start a company, and what he's looking for in the next wave of founders. Check out Landon's Loop

    41 min

  5. 04/29/2025

    S2E3: Josh from Incued

    Josh Furstoss joins us to reflect on his journey of building Incued, an investor relations platform for private markets. We dive deep into his story: his initial idea, prototype, fundraising, go-to-market, and ultimately acquisition.

    54 min

  6. 04/22/2025

    S2E2: Bill from mHub

    Bill Fienup is a co-founder of mHub, Chicago's hardtech innovation center. We sat down with him to discuss how he's made a career out of inventing hardtech products ranging from ketchup dispensers to medical devices. Bill also shares the story behind mHub's beginning and how the next wave of aspiring inventors can get started building.

    43 min

  7. 04/15/2025

    S2E1: Daniel from Coinflip

    We're back in action with season 2 of Ventures by the Lake! Coinflip founder Daniel Polotsky tells the story of how he went from selling his first Bitcoin ATM to growing Coinflip to be the largest network of cryptocurrency kiosks in the world. For context: We recorded this episode with Daniel in 2024, so there may be some outdated comments (the Coinflip app is now live on both the iOS App Store and Google Play). Check out Coinflip here

    43 min

  8. 12/05/2023

    S1E10: Smart Batteries with Sophia from Blip

    Join us for our conversation with Sophia Wennstedt from Blip Energy! Blip is making energy equity accessible to accelerate the clean energy transition by building a new category of smart, affordable energy storage to add homes to the smart grid network. Listen to learn about Sophia's journey from engineer to business school, to founder. Check out ⁠Blip Our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-by-the-lake/

    47 min
See All (17)

Ratings & Reviews

About

Do you have an idea for a startup, or do you have a side hustle that you're hoping to go full-time on? We sit down with early-stage founders, investors, and entrepreneurship community leaders in Chicago to shed light on real stories about real ventures by the lake. You'll find a range of perspectives that we hope will give you marching orders & inspire you to turn your part-time side project into a full-time startup. We also talk about events, resources, and cool things happening in the growing Chicago tech community. It's fine if you're not from Chicago, we'll just love you slightly less.

Information

  • Creator
    Anthony Alepra & Mike Sundermeier
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Anthony Alepra & Mike Sundermeier
  • Show Website
    Ventures by the Lake