Seth Kravitz

Seth Kravitz is a Chicago-based serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and business mentor with two exits to public companies. He started a web design firm out of his dorm room at Ohio State University at age 19, then in 2004 (at age 21) co-founded the bootstrapped startup InsuranceAgents.com. As CEO, he grew the company to roughly 65 employees and about $12 million in revenue while keeping it profitable, landing it at #24 on the 2009 Inc. 5000 (and #68 in 2010). InsuranceAgents.com was acquired by Bankrate (NYSE: RATE) in 2012.

In 2010 Kravitz co-founded Technori, an entrepreneurship-focused media company and event series celebrating Chicago's startup community. Beginning in August 2011, Technori hosted monthly pitch events at which founders shared their business plans before live audiences of accredited and retail investors. Technori bills itself as the original startup showcase and the first radio show/event series to let startups fundraise directly from a live audience — a platform its organizers credit with helping channel more than $350 million into startups via equity crowdfunding, angel groups, and traditional venture capital. Kravitz was the first recipient of the "Technori Legends" award.

Since 2016, Kravitz has served as CEO of PHLEARN, a Chicago-based online education company that produces Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography tutorials for creatives. He has also been involved as a co-founder in Chicago consumer ventures including Bow Truss Coffee Roasters and Strange Pelican Brewing.

Beyond building companies, Kravitz has been a fixture of Chicago's entrepreneurship ecosystem, mentoring at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center at DePaul University, the Knapp Entrepreneurship Center at IIT, Excelerate Labs (now Techstars Chicago), and Code Academy (now The Starter League). He was named a Crain's Chicago Business honoree and a Chicago Council on Global Affairs "Emerging Leader" (Class of 2014).

• Invests as an angel at the seed / early stage, primarily backing founders and companies in and around the Chicago startup community.
• Stays in his "lane": he has stated that investors do best when they stick to what they know, and that his strongest returns historically came from the financial marketing and technology space — the domain of his own successful exit (InsuranceAgents.com).
• Values proven operators and repeatable, profitable business models — reflecting his own bootstrapped, cash-flow-positive approach to building InsuranceAgents.com rather than raising heavy venture capital.
• Backs entrepreneurship broadly through Technori's platform, which is built to connect founders directly with both accredited and retail investors.