In this episode of the Let’s Grab Coffee Podcast, George Khalife sits down with Terry Graunke, Founder and Chairman of Erie Street Growth Partners, to unpack lessons from more than 30 years of building, leading, and investing in high-growth companies.From founding and selling his first company to taking one public and later running a private equity firm, Terry has experienced every stage of the business-building journey. Terry has led more than $1.8 billion in investments, served as Chairman, CEO, or Director of over 36 companies, and now guides Erie Street’s mission to help founders grow in a rapidly changing world.

Brian Wolfe is Managing Partner at Funded Ventures, a private investment firm, and is a retired partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. In addition to his teaching at Booth, Wolfe also teaches courses on private equity and entrepreneurship at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of North Carolina, and previously co-led a SaaS “buy and build” with sale to private equity.Wolfe is on the board and audit committee of Chicago Public Media, the boards of Intersect Illinois, Breakthrough T1D (f/k/a JDRF) Illinois, the Greater Chicago Legal Clinic and the Skandalaris Center at Washington University in St. Louis, and is a member of the Illinois Courts Commission and the Economic Club of Chicago.

Pablo Srugo is a Partner at Mistral, based in Toronto. Prior to Mistral, Pablo was the co-founder and COO of Gymtrack– a VC-backed startup in the FitTech space. Before starting Gymtrack, Pablo co-founded an online tutoring platform, which was acquired in 2014.

Vijen Patel is the Founding Partner of The 81 Collection, a $41 million early-stage venture fund that invests in founders building across "hard industries" like manufacturing, real estate, retail, and construction—sectors often overlooked by traditional VCs.Before becoming an investor, Vijen co-founded Pressbox in 2013 with his Notre Dame classmate Drew McKenna. Starting from a 600 sq ft Chicago office, they revolutionized dry cleaning through proprietary lockers in high-end residential buildings, eliminating traditional storefronts. In just 5 years, Pressbox scaled to 1,200 locations, becoming the world's largest dry cleaner before being acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2018 for an undisclosed sum. Post-acquisition, Vijen led the company's rebranding as Tide Cleaners.Prior to entrepreneurship, Vijen worked in private equity after graduating from the University of Notre Dame. Today, through The 81 Collection—which he calls "The Founders Fund for Hard Industries"—he backs entrepreneurs using automation and AI to transform traditional, capital-intensive businesses that others find "boring" or difficult to scale.Based in Chicago, Vijen brings decades of operating experience to identifying high-margin opportunities hidden within low-margin industries, focusing on founders tackling structural inequities and unsexy but essential work.

Harry Kraemer, Jr. is the former Chairman and CEO of Baxter International, a $12 billion global healthcare company. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Leadership at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches values-based leadership and has been named Professor of the Year multiple times. Harry is also the author of four bestselling books on leadership, including From Values to Action and Your 168. He serves on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards and is widely respected for his work on leadership, ethics, and purpose.

Michael Fassnacht is President of the Chicagoland Region and Chief Growth Officer at Clayco, where he drives business development, marketing, and sales while mentoring the team. Before Clayco, he was the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer for the City of Chicago and CEO of World Business Chicago, where he led more than 400 corporate expansions and doubled the size of the economic development agency. A German native with over 20 years in Chicago, Michael also spent a decade as CEO of advertising giant FCB, launching their creative and business growth globally. Throughout his career — from Lufthansa in Germany to Silicon Valley to Chicago — he has been a passionate advocate for innovation, creativity, and the city of Chicago.

Landon W. Campbell is the General Manager for Drive Capital in Chicago, a $2.3B venture capital firm committed to investing in exceptional founders who are shaping the future of market-defining companies between the Hudson River and the Rocky Mountains. Landon oversees the firm’s $80M pre-seed fund in Chicago.

Edward Woodford is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zero Hash, a leading crypto and stablecoin infrastructure platform based in Chicago. Since founding the company in 2017, Edward has been at the forefront of transforming the global financial landscape, enabling seamless access to digital assets for companies across industries. Under his leadership, Zero Hash has raised over $170M in funding, settled over $20 billion in transactions, and onboarded more than 6 million customers globally.

TTT is the CEO of Teragonia, specializing in AI-driven analytics and value creation for PE-backed and founder-led middle-market companies. A seasoned M&A strategist with deep expertise in data science, he previously built and led Houlihan Lokey’s financial due diligence and data analytics practices. He has advised corporations, financial sponsors, and sovereign wealth funds across the transaction lifecycle, driving 8-figure EBITDA improvements through enterprise-wide analytics and AI enablement.

Duane is the Co-founder of Author Capital Partners with 20 years of experience advising and investing in public and private companies. He serves on the boards of SilverIP Communications and ESD Global. Previously, Duane was an investment professional at BDT Capital Partners, focusing on founder- and family-led businesses, and a Private Equity Fellow at Vista Equity Partners. His career spans roles at Fireman Capital, Manasota Capital, the U.S. Treasury (TARP), and Merrill Lynch. Duane holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA from George Washington University. He is an Investor-in-Residence at the University of Chicago Booth School and a Board Trustee at Lake Forest Academy.

Shawn Ellis is the Managing Partner of Distributed Ventures. He co-founded and manages the fund. Prior to Distributed Ventures, Shawn built and lead NFP Ventures, a captive early-stage venture fund sponsored by NFP Corp, the diversified insurance brokerage. Shawn’s investment approach leverages diverse operational, strategic and investment experience. Previously, as President and founding team member of Zest Health, he led the company’s growth from concept to over half a million paid subscribers and partnerships with several health plans less than three years. Zest was eventually rebranded as Yaro and acquired by Virgin Pulse. Prior to Zest, Shawn focused on healthcare technology investments at 7wire Ventures. He was a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and began his career at Lazard Middle Market’s M&A practice. Shawn holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and a board member of the Linden Foundation. --

Time stamps: [0:00 - 1:51]: Introduction [1:51 - 12:25]: Lessons from IB, strategy, and consulting [12:25 - 16:07]: How to crack into VC [16:08 - 19:47]: Tips for relationship building/networking [19:47 - 25:17]: Investing in the future of risk [25:17 - 28:33]: Thoughts on corporate venture capital [28:34 - 30:51]: Building Distributed Ventures [30:52 - 34:02]: What makes a stand-out founder [34:02 - 37:24]: Dealing with pressure & mental health [37:24 - 41:10]: Navigating burnout [41:10 - 43:15]: Being bullish on Chicago [43:16 - 45:45]: 2025 outlook

Chris Crawford founded RxSaveCard to make prescriptions more affordable for employers and employees. With over 25 years in employee benefits, including leadership roles at Mercer and experience in pharmacy benefits, Chris created RxSaveCard to offer cash and discount pricing without requiring a switch in benefit providers. His solution ensures compliance with ERISA fiduciary standards while helping companies manage drug costs effectively. For more on RxSaveCard: rxsavecard.com To connect with Sean:   / chris-crawford-0a86424  

Madison was started by Sean Johnson. For 12 years he was a founding partner at Manifold, an early stage venture fund and innovation consulting firm. For 9 years he taught digital marketing at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Sean learned the hard way how difficult it can be to market a professional services firm. Much of the playbook he learned working with startups simply didn't apply. He eventually learned how to turn himself and his team into Trusted Advisors who could build relationships and develop trust at scale. He codified those lessons into the Madison Playbook, and teaches other professional services firms how to do the same.

Madison | We Market Professional Services Firms (hiremadison.com)

Samara Hernandez is the founder of Chingona Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on investing in overlooked and underrepresented founders. Born in Mexico and raised in Rogers Park, Chicago, Samara's early life was marked by her family's hard work and resilience. She earned an engineering degree from the University of Michigan and worked at Goldman Sachs during the Great Recession, gaining valuable experience in finance. Samara later pursued an MBA at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business, which led her to a role at MATH Venture Partners. There, she made significant contributions, including leading the investment in Liveoak Technologies, which was later acquired by DocuSign. In 2019, Samara launched Chingona Ventures, raising $6 million for her first fund and raised $52M in 2022 for her second fund. Her mission is to be the first check for founders and companies that don't fit the traditional mold, with a particular focus on empowering women and minority entrepreneurs.

Andrew Sykes leads the Habits at Work team and is a Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He is also part of the Kellogg Sales Institute Executive Education Team, where he teaches the award-winning course "Entrepreneurial Selling," ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the "Top Ten" courses in the United States. With a 30-year career as a salesperson, entrepreneur, speaker, and behavior change expert, Andrew began by building one of South Africa’s largest healthcare consulting companies. He co-authored "The 11th Habit," a book that distills the work of the Behavioral Research and Applied Technology Laboratory (BRATLAB). This research aims to understand which habits are crucial for sustained high performance, competitive differentiation, trust building, and organizational growth, and focuses on helping people practice these habits.

As an executive at Zest AI, Mike has made it the company’s mission to leverage AI in consumer credit underwriting to build financial equity and create a better, richer, and fuller life for all. In his 25 years prior experience to Zest AI, Mike focused on amplifying the voice of consumers to governments and businesses through organizations like Nielson, Harris Interactive, and JD Power. His experiences converge to show his capacity to lead organizations in translating data into insights that enable the betterment of consumers’ lives.

Vic is a successful venture capitalist with 19+ years of broad professional experience. Top decile performing track record. Extensive ESG, digital transformation, fintech and Insurtech investing experience. Diverse background with Fortune 130 and early-stage venture companies. Complementary leadership roles in corporate strategy/ transformation and as general counsel. Specialties: Energy/ utilities, natural gas, green molecule innovation, fintech, insurtech and financial services technology. Over $650M in venture capital and M&A transactions. Created and executed corporate development function including $330M strategic venture capital program. Led the design and implementation of enterprise wide strategy and transformation programs. To connect with Vic: LinkedIn To learn more about ECV: Website --

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Gale Wilkinson is the Managing Partner at VITALIZE, early-stage fund & angel community investing in WorkTech startups. Gale is also revolutionizing angel investing through VITALIZE Angels, the largest inclusive angel group globally. She actively supports emerging talents in the VC sector via The VITALIZE Podcast and contributes to diversity in tech and VC as a board member of Chicago:Blend. A Kauffman Fellow and member of prestigious networks like OnDeck, Recast, and Oper8r, Gale resides between Chicago and Nashville, alongside her husband and two dogs. For more on VITALIZE: https://www.vitalize.vc/ For more on Gale: https://gale.vc/

Throughout her entire adult life, Allison has been intensely focused on her career, always ensuring that her current role is not only a stimulating challenge but also a stepping stone towards future growth. In 2017, while pregnant with her first child, Allison nearly resigned from a sales leadership position she was passionate about. This inclination stemmed from the significant disruptions caused by her 3-month maternity leave. It became clear to her that there exists a substantial gap in how companies support working parents before, during, and after parental leave, particularly in ways that do not hinder their career progression. Seizing this realization as an opportunity, she dedicated herself to helping other working parents navigate the challenges she encountered. This mission led her to her current role as the co-founder and CEO of Parentaly, a company committed to bridging this gap for working parents. Website: https://www.parentaly.com/

Samir Mirza is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Fifth Star Funds - a venture philanthropy fund investing in Black tech entrepreneurs at the pre-seed / "Friends & Family" stage in Chicago. He was formerly the Co-Founder and CTO of TapCommerce (acquired by Twitter for $100M).  

He began his career in Chicago consulting for Fortune 500 clients while building robust content management applications, APIs, and backend distributed systems. In 2012, he co-founded TapCommerce in New York and created the industry's first mobile ad retargeting solution. As the Chief Technology Officer, he led the engineering team and built a backend platform that processes over 40 billion ad auctions per day with the ability to show ads to over 1 billion mobile users for the world's top mobile brands.   

Samir then lived in Berlin, Germany where he served as a coding instructor at the ReDI School for Refugees and worked as a consultant for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Digital Transformation Team.  Samir has a Computer Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.  

To connect with Samir: https://www.fifthstarfunds.com/