June 19th  - Tonight's session:  Make Your Passion Your Next Startup.  How do you turn something you’re passionate about into the Next Big Thing? This Entrepreneurs Unpluggd  features three entrepreneurs who did just that. Instead of going for “traditional” careers or business models, these entrepreneurs took a hobby or passion and turned it into a wildly successful company. 

Tonight's guests - Jack Nickwell (Threadless); Desiree Vargas Wrigley (GiveForward) and Josh Hernandez (Tap.Me).

Jake Nickell - Co Founder, Threadless.  Jake loved awesome t-shirts and hated that customers had no voice in the design process. He  founded a tshirt company with the premise that people should decide what t-shirts should be made. Threadless started in  the year 2000 with $1000 in startup capital, and is now a globally recognized leader in crowdsourcing design with millions  in annual revenue. Currently, he's focused on running the worldwide, hugely successful business  that Threadless has become.

Desiree Vargas Wrigley  - Co Founder and CEO, Give Forward.  Desiree shares the story of GiveForward, the number one fundraising site for out of pocket medical expenses.   She founded the company to help families raise money using growing social media platforms.  To date, GiveForward has raised over  $14 million to help families battle the cost of expenses like chemotherapy. Their mission to inspire people to help each other
 through generosity and compassion.  Desiree has been named part of Inc’s 2011 15 Women to Watch in Tech; CNN’s 12 Entrepreneurs Reinventing Health Care; Crain’s 40 under 40 and 2011 Women to Watch, and one of Forbes’ 10 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2011.

Josh Hernandez - Founding Member and EVP, Tap.Me! - Josh will share how he turned his passion for gaming into a multi million dollar in-game advertising company.   Tap.me connects games to brands and brands to gamers with the next generation of in-game advertising that is easy, scaleable and  effective. The company recently raised $3.2 million in venture funding with big plans ahead.   Josh represents an extraordinary fusion of creativity and passion for  community development and interaction. A seasoned leader, designer and developer, Josh has formal training in the video game development pipeline from Tribeca Flashpoint Academy in Chicago, IL. and has transitioned years of experience to become a strong producer of talent.

In 1999 Joshua founded SectionZ.com a peer-to-peer musicians community branded the "Original Electronic Music Underground" where musicians would  swap music projects with each other, collaborate and review iterations. Over time the quality of the community spawned SectionZ Records and helped  launch the careers of some very well known electronic musicians including Deadmau5.

Tix - $20-25 in advance; $30 at the door.

Entrepreneurs Unpluggd is a unique event series created by Stella Fayman and Tim Jahn.  The events seek to create an intimate, engaging environment for entrepreneurs to learn actual lessons from actual experiences. You can expect the following from your experience at Entrepreneurs Unpluggd:

• Valuable networking with fellow entrepreneurs and innovators
• Great speakers sharing actionable information in an intimate setting
• Exposure to resources and tools you can use to grow your business