The Windy City is a great location for tech, and as we roll into the holiday season, Built In Chicago is here to highlight six exciting companies that have doubled down on innovation and growth. Whether they’re doing something interesting with machine learning, cryptocurrency, cloud computing or finance management, each of these companies brings something special to the table for the City of Big Shoulders.
The best part? Many of them are hiring right now.
What they do: ServiceNow is a cloud computing platform that delivers digital workflows to help improve business productivity. To help companies use its product to its full potential, ServiceNow offers expert services, training and technical support for its customers — a base which includes 80 of the Fortune 500.
Jobs now: ServiceNow currently has hundreds of job openings, with over a hundred open positions in both their operations and sales departments — and nearly as many available in development and engineering. The opportunity is open to join a team that provides services to thousands of business clients across the country.
Tech stack: ServiceNow's VP of cloud infrastructure and engineering services, Manoj Shende, laid out for Built In some of the specific technology they use as a team. Their tech stack includes a variety of open source tools like LAMP stack, Java and Javascript, SonarQube, Jenkins and Git. This is in addition to using their own cloud technology for workflow management.
What they do: Nordstrom is a department store chain offering a variety of branded clothing. They are also responsible for Nordstrom Rack, its off-price branch, and Trunk Club, a remote styling service for men and women.
Fashion machines: Though they have been in business since the early 20th century, this company shows no signs of living in the past — in fact, they’re pushing forward with new technology to support their customers in the digital age. Nordstrom’s online store and Trunk Club services use machine learning to provide curated recommendations and advanced searches for its users. Their Nordstrom Analytical Platform (NAP) collects, organizes and analyzes consumer data for the benefit of the shopper.
An attention to diversity: Nordstrom takes diversity, equity and inclusion seriously, and it shows in their work policies. In a conversation with Built In, current Senior Technical Program Manager Lauren Daniels pointed out small “quality of life improvements” that the team is taking, including normalizing stating pronouns in their Slack bios and transforming their binary restrooms into all-gender ones. On the larger scale, Nordstrom implements unconscious bias training and offers adoption assistance as an employee benefit.
What they do: Bento for Business helps small and mid-sized businesses streamline their expenses. They offer debit cards for employees with the ability to track purchases, designate approved merchants and set spending limits. These restrictions can be different for each card, allowing businesses to manage company funds with significantly less micromanagement.
Expanding with U.S. Bank: In August 2021, U.S. Bank acquired Bento to partner their easy business expense system with banking tools to simplify money management further for businesses. With U.S. Bank’s support, Bento for Business will be able to further expand its services to companies across the country.
Chicagoan at heart: CEO and co-founder Farhan Ahmad told Built In in 2019 why he set up shop in Chicago: it suits the company’s values and has a special place in his heart. Chicago combines the opportunities of a big city with the distinct vibes of the midwest.
“Chicago really reflects the Midwest ethos of substance over style, and that’s the mold we’re building our company on,” said Ahmad. “Having worked and lived in Chicago for many years, this city has always been close to my heart.”
What they do: DigitalMint is bringing cryptocurrency to underbanked populations through their installation of Bitcoin ATMs and teller locations. Customers can use cash, debit or credit at these locations to purchase fractions of Bitcoin worth $1 and up, giving them much easier access to a rising currency market without breaking the bank — or even needing one.
Customer protection: Cryptocurrency is a promising technology, but it is also open to misuse and manipulation — so DigitalMint, along with other cryptocurrency companies, banks and cybersecurity groups, are doing something about it. DigitalMint is one of the founding members of the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative, an organization dedicated to enforcing compliance standards, supporting intelligent regulation and preventing money laundering and human trafficking.
Employee flexibility: DigitalMint supports its employees in their desire for work-life balance. They offer a flexible remote work schedule and unlimited PTO, as well as a CTA benefit for those who want to come into the office.
What they do: Magma Capital Funds combines human research and AI decision-making to provide its hedge fund customers with effective money management results. The AI uses the data from research to make smart portfolio decisions in real time — its machine learning parameters allow it to respond to volatility in the market.
Keeping the data pipeline flowing: Data scientists at Magma Capital Funds need to be familiar with a wide variety of data collection tools, due to the nature of their business. In a conversation with Built In in July, Director of Algorithmic Development Peter Peluso observed that they are often beholden to the technology their vendors use.
“In some areas, we choose technology that fits our needs, and in other areas we choose what our vendors use,” said Peluso. “We are often restricted in how we access the data by the vendor’s choice of technology.” For storage of data, they use a combination of files and SQL databases.
Financial education: Magma Capital Funds uses the blog page of their website to post easy-to-understand educational articles about financial topics. The blog already contains articles describing concepts like short selling and VIX in a style that is understandable to anyone.
What they do: Tall Ridge is an e-commerce consulting company whose purpose is to help brands grow their retail presence on sites such as Amazon and Wal-Mart. It also works as a certified seller on Amazon to help brands reach further up the search rankings.
Doggone fun: As many businesses begin their return to the office, Tall Ridge is making sure that their space is one worth entering. In addition to provided meals and drinks, the office is completely pet-friendly, up to and including giving the employees’ dogs their own calendar.
For those who aren’t ready to go back to the office — or just want flexibility — Tall Ridge is also happy to provide. The company offers a remote work program and a minimum of 15 days of PTO, with senior employees getting up to 25.
Notable clients: Tall Ridge has a variety of brands as clients, including Gerber Gear, SOLE, Boll & Branch, Hydroflask and After Bite. They are equipped to consult for all sorts of products, from outdoor gear to shoes to bedding.
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