How a Chicago Startup is Getting Big Competitors to Collaborate and Democratize Data with Jimmy Zollo of Collaborata

Jimmy Zollo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Collaborata, a Chicago-based company serving the insights and marketing-research space. Collaborata helps companies find, shape, and buy expert-led multi-client research projects. It helps companies get expert market research that can help a company grow and innovate, and they connect research clients and suppliers to market research. They are the first-ever platform that allows brands to share research costs and insights, and they have been featured in Business Insider, BuiltInChicago, Greenbook, Market Research World.

Jimmy is also the Co-Founder of Joe & Bella, a service that provides older adults with the full array of products they need, and they offer their services for residents of care communities, their families, and caregivers. 

Previously Jimmy helped drive the initial growth of Grubhub, one of Chicago's most successful tech startups ever. He helped develop Grubhub's industry-leading restaurant network, traveling across the country to launch new markets and grow existing ones.

Before Jimmy focused on tech, he worked in the sports industry, having worked for the Chicago Sky, then the Bulls, selling his favorite sport in his favorite city.

In this episode…

While sitting in a meeting where the new rules on how Grubhub would operate after completing a successful IPO, Jimmy Zollo knew it was time to move on to do something different. He had worked hard at helping Grubhub expand into new cities but Jimmy wanted to remain in the startup ecosystem and had always wanted to build something of his own. So he dived into the entrepreneurial deep blue sea and founded Collaborata. 

Ten months down the line, no client, no paycheck, it looked like Jimmy’s Collaborata was going to fail. But after multiple iterations, they struck gold and were able to bring on marquee clients such as the NBA, Reebok, and Ford to collaborate on a project and share data. That breakthrough became the start of many significant research collaborations enabled by Collaborata.

Join Dr. Jeremy Weisz and Jimmy Zollo, the Co-Founder and CEO of Collaborata, on this episode of Inspired Insider Podcast. They talk about Jimmy’s entrepreneurial journey, why he started Collaborata, and how they enable big competitive corporations to collaborate in research projects and democratize data for growth and innovation. They also talk about Jimmy’s other company, Joe and Bella, and how both of Jimmy’s companies best serve their clients. Stay tuned.