Growing up the middle of five children in Western Massachusetts, Brendan Ciecko didn’t spend his early years going to museums. Nor does he have a formal education in art. Ciecko, whose Boston-based company Cuseum connects museumgoers through technology, says his unique perspective comes from his background as a self-taught technologist and entrepreneur. “I started to design and […]

When special education teacher Aviva Rosman decided to run for local school counsel in Chicago, she called Alex Niemczewski to ask for her support. Her friend, who had always considered herself a well-informed voter, was caught off guard by the upcoming midterm elections. “I didn’t even know there was an election going on,” she recalls. […]

I arrived at Chicago’s WeWork Fulton Market this morning at 3:30 AM. I swiped my digital key card to get into the building, walked up the stairs to my two-person office on the third floor, and worked peacefully until the rest of my nine-person team arrived at 8:30 AM. I moved to Chicago from Mumbai, […]

These days, Argentine couple Gastón Frydlewski and Mariquel Waingarten work tirelessly day in and day out on Hickies, a set of adjustable straps that replaces the strings of shoelaces, revamping the look and feel. Fully immersed in a “life without laces,” there was a time when Frydlewski’s futuristic shoe accessory seemed far from a reality—as […]