How do you become the fastest, most successful company in the history of business? What kind of secret formula do you need to thrive in an emerging industry? How does your business feast in an environment where businesses starved; pioneering through uncertainty, resisting rescue and outlasting vicious competition? Few businessmen and women embrace the audacity of risk amongst controversy, succeeding with grit in one of the most controversial times in American history.

It hasn’t been one decade and America has begun to forget about the entire country teetering on the edge of economic crisis. The summer and early fall of 2008 spelled historical drama of the highest order when the global economy entered a massive free-fall. The sub-prime mortgage crisis had become the talk of Wall Street as credit markets dropped massively.

When Lehman Brother filed for bankruptcy, the business world reacted with horror. Famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia sent out a presentation, “R.I.P. Good Times.” The days of emerging, multi-billion-dollar firms were now a thing of the past.

Or were they?

Staking a Claim in an Emerging Market

And yet two brilliant Chicago entrepreneurs – one...more