Our Founders
LAURA KREBS ILLIG
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Having attended Williams and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and with an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business, Laura has lived and worked on three continents. After beginning her career at Citibank in New York and London, Laura relocated to Oregon in the wake of 9/11 and ran her own strategy and marketing consulting firm.
ROBERT ILLIG
Founder & Chief Operating Officer
A graduate of Williams College and Vanderbilt Law School, Robert is a tenured professor and national expert on the regulation of venture capital and other private equity funds. Having spent the first half of his career as an M&A lawyer based in New York and London, he now writes and teaches courses about business and sports law.
Laura enjoys:
- Painting and making art, especially abstract acrylics and collage. You can see her work at LaWomanStudios.com.
- Reading, particularly contemporary and historical fiction. Her most memorable read of 2022 was The Milkman by Anna Burns.
- Travel, anywhere and everywhere. Currently at the top of her bucket list are Turkey and Greece.
Robert enjoys:
- Jigsaw puzzles, Sudoku and the NYT Sunday crossword.
- Squash (the sport, not the vegetable).
- Collecting vintage vinyl records from the bands he listened to in the late 70s and early 80s (e.g., Dire Straits, Blondie, Talking Heads, Billy Idol).
- Geeking out on history, especially new ideas about how weather and disease impacted ancient civilizations.
Our Story
We founded Sidekick as a husband–and–wife team of thirty years because, as Laura put it, we “want to heal the universe.”
Having lived and worked everywhere from New York to Nashville, Oregon to Osaka, and Missouri to London, we have seen how growing divisions have overtaken our world. Too many people are sad or lonely, and too much of our online discourse is divisive and toxic. We worried that social media companies were throwing away a historic opportunity to use technology to bring people together. And we had always wanted to find a way to give something back.
That opportunity presented itself during the COVID-19 lockdown. While driving through Montana, we had the idea to build a mobile app that could act as a social catalyst, rather than just another form of entertainment. We had heard our daughter speak of unsuccessful attempts to make new friends through dating apps such as Tinder, and we knew the struggle of finding people nearby who share our niche interests (such as Rob’s love of old Hollywood horror movies). We couldn’t stand the thought of folks suffering because they hadn’t yet “found their people”. Our idea was to provide users with the tools to make authentic and meaningful human connections. We knew that the reason people get together isn’t important. What matters is they get together, regardless of the reason.
We may not be traditional Internet entrepreneurs, but we believe that the key to re-imagining social media doesn’t lie in new or better technology. Instead, we want to target the social and cultural issues that plague social media — the kind of issues that could best be solved by a history major and literature lover.
Pledging wholehearted commitment to our idea, Laura resigned from her job, and we sold our house to use the proceeds to fund our start-up. Initially, we called the company “RedE” in the belief that everyone would be “ready” to return to the real world following the COVID-19 pandemic. Alas, the name turned out to be too clever. We quickly discovered that “RedE” was difficult for folks to spell or pronounce, and it would have to change.
We chose “Sidekick” as a new name because who doesn’t want a buddy to join them on adventures? We renamed the company in August of 2022 and began soliciting funds from investors. Having conducted extensive market research, our team is now engaged in the design and development of the Sidekick app itself.
OUR TEAM
GREG SIEMBOR
Having begun his career in as an auditor in public accounting, Greg Siembor is a financial executive with over 30 years of diversified experience helping grow both large and small companies, from start-ups to those with in excess of $600 million in revenue. His specialties include strategic planning and fiscal management.
LISA WOLVERTON
Executive Vice President
Lisa Wolverton is a graduate of Georgetown University, the University of Notre Dame, and the Harvard Society of Fellows.
OUR BOARD OF ADVISORS
SUSMITA C. BURNETT
Consumer & Marketing Insights
JOHN CAREY
Artegis Law Group
IP Attorney
PAUL KREBS
Koch Industries
Technology Executive
IAN McNEELY
University of Oregon
College Administrator
SABRINA PARSONS
Palo Alto Software
JOHN STAUDENMAYER
University of Massachusetts
IT Professor
OUR STUDENT CO-CREATORS
Every step of the design process has been undertaken with the input and advice of current college students. In addition to extensive market research and feature testing, these students and their ongoing insights ensure that the final product will appeal to our initial target market.
ANDREW
AUGUST
BISOLA
EMMA
LILY
MARGOT
SAMANTHA
SHAE
