What does Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center do?
We work with entrepreneurs to help them grow their business, so we provide one on one advisory services, mentoring, and education. A lot of the work we do is help companies raise money, both debt and equity, and help them find new clients.

What is a typical entrepreneur like?
Entrepreneurs come in all different faces, there is not a real typical one. The ones who are successful have a passion for what they do, they really believe in their business. Everyone is different who we meet with.

How is the Technology sector doing in Chicago?
There is a lot of technology people here. It doesn't get as much recognition as out on the coast, but there is a lot happening here.

There is not as much funding here, so that is part of the problem here is getting the right seed money, but we have a lot of technology people here. And this event showcases that there are a lot of tech people here.

What challenges do entrepreneurs face that you can help them with?
Funding is defiantly a challenge. Funding and sales are the two biggest things that companies need to really grow to survive, so that is some of the challenges. They don;t know the channels, they don;t know the right process to get in front of investors, so we help them thru that process, we help them with their investor pitch. But also sometimes they need help focusing their business, fine tuning their business model and their target market. We help them think thru some of those things as well.

What is your goal at Tech cocktail?
My goal is to let other people know about our organization, that we are a free resource for the entrepreneur in the community, but also to meet some entrepreneurs to see if we can be helpful.