Think Big's Gigabit Challenge Winner Kauzu Launches Kauzu.Biz Application

Think Big's Gigabit Challenge winner, Kauzu, has announced the development of Kauzu.Biz, a new job search application for the Chicago area.  Find out more: 

Alderman Patrick J. O’Connor of Chicago’s 40th Ward will unveil the Kauzu.Biz business application on Tuesday, August 28th, at 10:00am in a press event at Mather High School, 5835 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Alderman O’Connor, Chair of the City Council Workforce Development and Audit Committee, is pleased to support Kauzu, a Chicago-based social venture providing free location-based job tools and free job postings for small businesses.

“In all of my years of working for the people of Chicago,” Alderman O’Connor stated, “I’ve worked with the private sector and kept an eye out for innovative ways to help the community thrive. When I learned about Kauzu and the ease with which their tools can help connect jobseekers and local businesses---I knew I had to get behind it. I encourage all businesses, job seekers, and Chicagoans in general to support Kauzu, and its innovations aimed at promoting job creation and retention.”

Kauzu.Biz is the employer’s portal to the Kauzu.Jobs jobseeker application, a free job search tool that pinpoints jobs by a user’s location. Kauzu.Biz allows small businesses to post unlimited jobs for free. Kauzu.Biz connects businesses with local jobseekers, reducing turnover by hiring employees with shorter commutes. Kauzu.Jobs and Kauzu Kono, a text‐based application that works on any cell phone in Chicago to locate open job listings near a job seeker’s location, were launched earlier in August.

According to Kauzu CEO Mitch Schneider, “We think employers are ready for an application with unlimited free listings, that helps them hire local, cut turnover and generate repeat business, and that creates the sustainable economic development that helps every family and business in the community. And we’ve built it.”

A City of Chicago Proclamation noting Kauzu’s achievements will be read at the event, and Kauzu will present Alderman O’Connor with a certificate of appreciation.

At the event, the Alderman and Kauzu will recognize six local supportive Chambers of Commerce whose members will learn more about Kauzu.Biz-- Edgewater, Lakeview East, Business Partners—the Chamber for Uptown, Lincoln Bend, Lincoln Square, and the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, three nonprofit partners will be recognized—the Albany Park Community Center, where Kono was launched on August 7; Centers for New Horizons, where Kauzu.Jobs was launched on August 15; and Goldie’s Place, a support center for people who are homeless, located in Chicago’s 40th Ward. Additional attendees at the event will include representatives from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Small Business Development Center and from Streetwise, a Chicago area publication assisting men and women facing homelessness.

Looking to learn more?  Visit www.kauzu.com for all of the latest info!

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Chicago Startup Kauzu Announces New Job Search App

Think Big's own Gigabit Challenge winner Kauzu is making exciting announcements about its newest initiatives, Kauzu Kono and Kauzu.Jobs.  

Mitch Schneider, CEO of Kauzu. 

Chicago social venture Kauzu launched its Kauzu.Jobs mobile application at the Charles Hayes Family Investment Center.  Kauzu has partnered with Centers for New Horizons to present the new product, a free job search application that pinpoints jobs by a user’s location, designed specifically for Chicago’s hardest-hit communities.

“Our communities have needed and continue to need more effective tools to find and secure jobs,” says Mitch Schneider, CEO, Founder and Chairman of Kauzu.  “Kauzu.Jobs is our latest tool that offers unique, integrated, and common sense functions for job seekers to be effective, and guess what?  It is free.”

Job seekers can access Kauzu.Jobs from any smart phone, be it iPhone, Android, or Windows tablet or computer--anything with a web browser. The program pinpoints the user’s location to find entry-level jobs such as retail and service opportunities in its immediate area. Finding jobs based on location is essential, because working nearby is critical to job seekers in many communities, as many can’t afford long commutes and often lack reliable transportation.

Kauzu’s marketing materials promise “Great Jobs, Right Around the Corner.”

Andre Kellum, Program Director for the Centers for New Horizons Workforce Development program, touts the immediate benefits Kauzu.Jobs gives job seekers.

“The Kauzu tool allows us to tap into a whole other experience for our ‘dual focus’ workforce development program model and will continue to solidify the skills sets needed for successful job placement services,” he says.  “We are proud to partner with Kauzu and be on the front lines of exposing technological enhancements to our customers."

At the product launch on August 15, 2012, two hundred at-risk youth and 19 employer partners—who recently completed the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program—witnessed a first-hand demonstration of Kauzu.Jobs. 

President and CEO of Center for New Horizons, Dr. Sokoni Karanja, sees the potential of Kauzu.Jobs helping families achieve Kujitegumea (self reliance). 

“Finding a job is an essential step in achieving that goal,” says Dr. Karanja.  “As always, we search for every opportunity to achieve our purpose, we thus partner with Kauzu as they create a new tool they believe will increase the likelihood that residents of Bronzeville are better able to locate and achieve employment.”

 “We are so thrilled to work with community leaders to get the most innovative mobile job app into the hands of the people who need it most,” adds Schneider.

The Chicago metropolitan area unemployment rate remains nearly 10 percent, nearly two percent above the national average.  In some demographic groups in particular, the unemployment rate is as high as 35 percent. 

Kauzu recently released Kono, a text-based application where a user can access the same job listings on basic cell phones. Small businesses can post job openings and opportunities to Kauzu’s system for free, saving money and reducing turnover by hiring employees with shorter commutes.  Kauzu is continually adding features to Kauzu.Jobs, linking to the Kauzu.Biz launch on August 28.

To learn more about Kauzu.Jobs and Kauzu Kono, please visit www.kauzu.com. 

About Kauzu:

Kauzu (kawz-ooh) is the Esperanto word for “cause” and reflects the company’s focus on creating social change by transforming how jobseekers and employers connect.  Kauzu was the 2012 winner of Think Big Partners’ Gigabit Challenge “Born Global” Award in Kansas City, Missouri.  To learn more about Kauzu, please visit www.kauzu.com.

About Centers for New Horizons:

Centers for New Horizons’ mission is to develop the capacities of families to become self-reliant, to improve the quality of their lives and to participate in rebuilding their community.  The Center for New Horizons’ Workforce Development program is a “dual customer” program providing area employers with expertly matched job candidates and assists job seekers in qualifying for such jobs.  To learn more about Centers for New Horizons, please visit www.cnh.org.

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Chicago Startup Puts Health in Your Own Hands (and Stomach)

By now, we are all aware of the evils of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavoring. These ingredients plague virtually everything in our diet, contributing to widespread health issues such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

But you wouldn’t expect these unhealthy ingredients to be in nutrition bars—but shockingly, they often are.  The number of big-name energy and nutrition bars brimming with complex sugars, saturated fat and unnecessary calories is higher than you might think. 

Luckily for us bar-eaters, the founders of Element Bars couldn’t stand it anymore. After experiencing disheartening bouts with mid-morning energy crashes and not-so-natural flavors, Chicago natives Jonathan, Jonathan and Marie decided to take matters into their own hands.  Say hello to new Chicago startup Element Bars. 

Bye-bye Frustration:

The three creators of Element Bars began a business that not only ensures natural food products, but also caters to each and every particular human body it serves. Understanding that nutrition is deeply personal and dependant upon individual bodily needs, the brains behind Element Bars give their clients the tools they need to devise nutrition bars that best meet their own tastes and requirements.

By visiting elementbars.com, clients are able to discover what sorts of nutrients their bodies need, creating bars that contain these ingredients.  Then, customers can order them to be delivered right to their doorsteps.

The website gives its visitors a wide range of options and provides them with a set of tools that help produce the perfect bar. Through a variety of questionnaires, clients are able to discover what sort of nutrition bar they need for how they want to look or what type of exercise they want to pursue.

There’s a bar for everyone—whether you want a little sustenance to last you until your lunch break or you need nutrients to get you through a marathon. The website guides you through a step-by-step process that lists ingredient options and informs you on what components would be best for whatever your purpose may be.

Behaving Naturally:

What makes Element Bars so great is the company’s wide variety of tasty and healthy ingredient options. Clients have plenty of selections to create their ideal bar and every one of these options is completely natural.

The excellent ingredient choices make for a delicious bar and there’s no need to worry about hidden calories or strange additives you can’t even pronounce. As you create your bar, the website informs you about the nutritional content of each and every component you add. It even goes so far as to inform you when your bar is taking a turn in a less healthy direction.

As you would imagine, complex sugars are not part of the equation with Element Bars. If you do choose to add something sweet to your bar, you have nothing to fear. Element Bars offers sweeteners such as honey, agave syrup, and brown rice syrup, which are not only healthier for you but are also crash-proof. The options you have to choose from ensure that your body absorbs the sugar at a slower rate, giving you more energy for a longer period of time.

If you feel like adding a little further punch to your recipe, there are also extra all-natural supplements to choose from that give you anything from an energy boost to large dose of protein. With ingredients such as egg white and chicory root, you can add protein and fiber to your bar in a purely natural and simple way.

Element Bars seem like such a great idea that you might wonder how no one had come up with the concept before this Chicago team did. Your body deserves all-natural excellence and with new startup Element Bars making waves in Chicago and beyond, you can finally have it.   

Is Google Fiber Fostering a New "Research Triangle"?

Photo: Lucie Debelkova, Business Insider

In the 1950s, three cities distinguished themselves as the Research Triangle—Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina became a hub for numerous high-tech companies and enterprises. The Triangle was also born from North Carolina State University, Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Companies within The Triangle include American Airlines, Cisco Systems, General Electric, IBM, Toyota, Verizon and many others, making it one of the most high-tech areas of the country.


On the other side of the country lies Silicon Valley—an obvious hub for tech startups, investors, entrepreneurs, coworking spaces and technology. The East and West coasts seem to be covered. The same goes for the North and South with booming hubs such as Boston and Austin.

But what about the middle of the country? What does the Midwest bring to the technology table?

Kansas City may be the answer.  After being selected as the city that Google Fiber is to build its 1 Gigabit Fiber network on, the city seems to be exploding with entrepreneurship, startups, innovation, new business and technology.

But the city doesn’t have to go at it alone. Silicon Valley is made up of multiple locations, as is Research Triangle. But what cities will help Kansas City become a hub for tech startups? Could we build a Triangle of our own?

Could the next city be Council Bluffs? According to the Des Moines Register, Council Bluffs, Iowa is undergoing a major Google Fiber makeover. Google is currently seeking federal permission to put a satellite antenna farm near the Council Bluffs data center, a move that experts speculate would enable the company to receive movies and TV shows that could be bundled with the super-fast Internet services in Kansas City.

Could it be Omaha? With major entrepreneurial initiatives such as Big Omaha, Silicon Prairie News and many others, Omaha seems to be taking the startup world by storm. It wouldn’t be too surprising if Kansas City’s next-door-neighbor, Omaha, continued to make major Midwest moves when it comes to entrepreneurship—especially being so close to Google Fiber.

Could it be Chicago? There are so many entrepreneurial initiatives going on in Chicago, it’s hard to keep up. And Kansas City already has made great ties to the Windy City’s initiatives—OfficePort CHI, Entrepreneurs Unpluggd and Kauzu (winner of the Born Global Award of Think Big Partners’ Gigabit Challenge). Chicago would greatly benefit from the Google Fiber network and could help to strengthen the Midwest with its big-city approach.

What do you think? Are there other cities in the Midwest that should strive for entrepreneurial success like Kansas City? Could the Midwest become a hub of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology? We can’t help but say yes—after all, anything seems possible with Google Fiber!

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Kauzu Kills It at the Gigabit Challenge and Leaves the Résumé for Dead

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR

Since Kauzu walked away with a $250,000 convertible promissory note courtesy of Gramercy Private Equity at The Gigabit Challenge Finale, the Chicago-based startup has been developing new plans for 2012 including partnership development, product development, fundraising and hiring.  

Think Big Partners’ Gigabit Challenge was a global business plan competition looking for new applications to disrupt technology on the Google Fiber Network.  Prizes included the People’s Choice Award, a $100,000 Grand Prize and the $250,000 Born Global Prize, which was given to Kauzu by Michael Gale of Gramercy Private Equity.

As one of the most energetic and creative pitches during The Gigabit Challenge Finale on January 18, 2012, Kauzu captivated the audience and the judges with its unique spin on changing the US employment industry.  Kauzu seeks to innovate the $170 billion industry by providing a dynamic, digital online environment with unique tools to create timely connections.

“This was a win for our team, and that’s all I really care about,” said Mitch Schneider, CEO, Founder and Chairman of Kauzu.  “This gives my team a pat on the back.  It also creates visibility and exposure.  Gramercy, Silicon Valley Bank, Microsoft—they all want to see us succeed.  The validation is amazing.  It only propels our chance to succeed.” 

Kauzu was one of the 17 Finalists to present at The Gigabit Challenge Finale in front of 17 esteemed judges from Kansas City and from across the nation. 

“This was another company that did a fantastic job with their pitch and connecting with the audience,” said Chris Bernard, Gigabit Challenge judge, in a recent article in Silicon Prairie News.  “I’m super eager to see what these guys do.  I think they have some unique ideas and a fantastic team.”

Mitch Schneider, CEO of Kauzu.

Post-Gigabit Challenge, Kauzu hopes to continue to develop more partnerships both in and outside of Chicago.  With these partnerships, Kauzu hopes to fund raise more effectively and more quickly to allow for cross-generating revenue.  The startup also hopes to start the hiring process in May.

“This experience has helped us form new partners and has allowed us to provide value back to new startups,” said Schneider.  “We are going to use other startup products so we can connect them with others too.  We want to open doors for others just like people have done for us.” 

In addition, Kauzu is planning another trip to Kansas City to connect with Think Big Partners’ accelerator and collaborative workspace and to strengthen more partnerships in Silicon Prairie.  Schneider also mentioned a two-location startup launch in both Chicago and Kansas City.

“Not every day is fun,” admitted Schneider.  “But at the end of the day, we all want to do this.  If I had a million dollars in my pocket, I’d still do this.  We do it because we believe in it and we think it’s fun.”


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