Jeffrey Eschbach
Professor at Kellogg
Greater Chicago Area
Overview
Work Experience
Clinical Assistant Professor, Strategy & Entrepreneurship / New Venture Discovery
2017 - Current
* New Venture Discovery, teaching 2017 - 2025 - Avg. Instructor Rating 5.7/6.0 (scoring by students). International program assignments: KHUST (Hong Kong), Sasin (Thailand) * Executive MBA, Early-Stage Investing & Fundraising, taaching 2023 - 2025 * MBAi (AI-focused degree), Advanced Product Management, teaching 2022 - 2025 * Invited Lectures: fundraising, product management, startup strategy, entrepreneurship, corporate intrapreneurship * Article: 5 Ways Established Companies Can Overcome Internal Hurdles to Innovation (Kellogg Insight Manazine: https://bit.ly/3W91ub7)
Kellogg Entrepreneurship Program: Outreach Lead - Executive/EMBA and E&W Programs
2018
* Lead contact for students and alumni of Kellogg Executive/EMBA and E&W programs seeking support for their new ventures. * For Kellogg-founded startup companies, provide mentoring and connections to appropriate resources. * Develop relationships with key organizations, especially within the Chicago ecosystem, to support Kellogg students and alumni with entrepreneurial ventures.
VCIC - Venture Capital Investment Competition, Faculty Advisor/Mentor
2019
Faculty advisor/mentor for Kellogg teams, including the 2024 and 2021 Grand Prize winners. Global VCIC is the world's premier MBA venture capital competition with over 120 university and graduate school teams competing. Students function as VCs to evaluate real startups throughout the year-long competition. https://www.vcic.org/ Kellogg 2021 Global Winners: https://bit.ly/3WgO8ut
Managing General Partner, Workbox Ventures
2025
Managing General Partner of Workbox Ventures. Investing in early-stage startups with initial traction -- finding venture-backable companies before their venture-high valuations. www.workboxventures.com
Designated Portfolio Company Advisor
2019
Founding Partner & Principal / Angel Investor
2018
Completed over 100 investments as of 2025 . Chicago Early Growth Ventures (CEGV) is based in Chicago and invests in early-stage startup companies from across the country. We consider investments in almost any sector or demographic, typically at the seed-stage. Because of our presence in Chicago, we frequently engage with companies that are based here, have lead investors with a Chicago presence, or were founded by students or alumni of Chicago-based universities. However, we enthusiastically invest in companies from any location across the country or the world, so a Chicago presence is not a requirement. www.chicagoearly.com
'Chicago Early' invests in pre-seed and seed-stage startup companies in and around Chicago.
Founder and Former CEO - Successful Exit, 2022, Current Advisor
2012
Successful exit from Page Vault in the summer of 2022. Grew the company from concept to an Inc. 5000 company. --- PAGE VAULT captures web-based content for legal use. Our software captures webpages exactly as they appear online, includes key metadata, and provides easy-to-print PDF output files. Page Vault offers both do-it-yourself software and vendor services to archive websites and social media profiles of any volume or complexity. Affidavits are also available that attest to the preserved chain of custody and content authenticity. Learn more at www.page-vault.com.
Page Vault enables legal professionals to easily capture web content for use as evidence in the U.S. courts.
Raised $3,475,000.00 from Gelman brothers.
Member, Economic Club of Chicago
2024
"Thinkers. Doers. Leaders." That’s the common thread that ties the 2,400 Economic Club of Chicago members together – and its north star for nearly 100 years. Top business and civic leaders, with an unrelenting drive to learn more, discuss more and connect more with a diverse set of peers across every industry. The ECC strongly believes that leaders benefit from hearing both sides of an issue – from people they may or may not agree with. For this reason, the Club provides a forum for discussion and debate but remains an independent non-partisan voice. https://econclubchi.org
The Economic Club of Chicago fosters meaningful connections among Chicago leaders to encourage dialogue on important economic.
CORPORATE PRESENTATIONS: Lean Startup, Digital Tech
2016
COMMON TOPICS - Applying Lean Startup Methodologies for Corporate Innovation - Digital Tech Bootcamp for Non-Tech/Business Professionals: Internet & networking, 5G & wireless, computer architecture, software/code/programming, world wide web, encryption, cloud computing, and more.
STARTUP PRESENTATIONS / PANELIST: fundraising, strategy, lessons learned, early ops, team formation
2016
COMMON TOPICS - Fundraising & Pitch Decks - Practical Advice and Strategies - So You're NOT Steve Jobs? Startup Strategies that Work for the Rest of Us - Failing Fast / Lessons Learned from the Startup World - Early stage Operations and Team Formation - Growing from 1 Employee to 10+
Illinois Tech, Stuart School of Business: Board of Advisors
2022
Board Member, 2022 - 2024: "The Stuart School of Business Board of Advisors offers vital perspectives on aligning the school’s research programs, educational goals, and professional and development activities with the needs of the business community. Board members strengthen the curricula, expand faculty linkages to the business community, enrich the student learning experience, develop financial resources, and assist with the advancement activities of Stuart."
Advisor
2023
iAsk is an AI search engine that delivers the fastest and most accurate responses in seconds.
Raised $4,200,000.00 from Sean Chou, Motivate Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures, Eddie Lou, Raymond S Cahnman, Octava, Starting Line, Chingona Ventures, Corazon Capital and Chicago Early Growth Ventures (CEGV).
Advisor
2019
UptimeAI specializes in AI-based predictive maintenance software for heavy industries.
Raised $19,006,791.00 from Aditya Birla Ventures, Westbridge Capital and Emergent Ventures.
Advisor
2018