I had a chance to head into the city proper and peruse all the budding and established companies competing down at Techweek Chicago 2014. I also ran into a fellow Doejo’r who was exhibiting his own idea ScienceBox. Overall I thought it was a very entertaining day full of great talks and great people working hard to get started. A few notable mentions from what I saw. Your interests may very, to each their own. 🙂

Bucketfeet

bucketfeet.com
While not presenting per se, I did run into Josh from bucketfeet. Very cool idea. Think like threadless for shoes. I’m down for any shoes with out laces so I was sold right off the bat.

Taxi Magic

taximagic.com
I suppose I have been under a rock but taxi magic seems to be the rebuttal to uber.com and the taxi industry’s awful phone dispatch service that we have all became painfully accustomed to over the years. Nice to know the taxi companies have decided to leave the 90’s telephone cab dispatch service and attempt an entrance into 2014. Is there a payphone nearby? I need change for a dollar.

Seat Side Service

seatsideservice.com
Maybe not a new and groundbreaking idea, it is definitely a super convenient. They boast a delivery to your seat at the stadium within 10minutes of your order. They have been around a few years and many minor league baseball stadiums. I also found out that the MLB have a mandate to supply good serviceable wifi at all their stadiums by 2015. As a wriglyville resident I can say I’m very much looking forward to decent reception awhile at the game.

Clicktivated

clicktivated.com
One of the most understated tables at the event. I was really impressed by the thought put into this service. They seamlessly layer affiliate links into videos in a way that makes sense. Like that turntable in the background of the last Fargo episode but can’t figure out what its called and where to buy it? Like the dress in that movie but have no idea where to start looking for the designer? Clictivate will add clickable regions to items in the video that link straight to the retailer. They even provide heat mapping to show which items people are clicking for. I want to see this layer as a way to watch netflix for free. Who’s with me?

Science Box

sciencebox.co
Doejo’s own Faraj Khasib was out promoting his own company called ScienceBox. Science box is promising in that it is out to help cut R&D down in the pharma industry by building a platform to facilitate in the testing process and sharing those results to help others fail faster. Anything to help bring down the cost of medicine and speed up the time to create better cures is definitely worthy of a deeper look.