Glenbrook North grad gives business owners 'their life back'

One occasionally hears of a business that has benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic.

ShapeConnect is one of those.

Co-founded in December 2019 by Glenbrook North graduate Brian Zielinski, now living in the River North area of Chicago, ShapeConnect matches small- and mid-sized businesses with vetted software and services vendors to solve challenges and drive growth.

Zielinski and co-founders David Benning and Trevor Darling launched their platform on March 17, 2020, three days before Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order.

Due to all the COVID mitigations at play since, and compounded by people choosing to work from home, the so-called “Great Resignation” and resulting staffing shortages, small business has encountered two major challenges — it's hard to find employees, and in-person events that build trusted relationships with business-to-business software and service providers have been limited.

The traditional mode of businesses networking at chamber of commerce events or trade conventions looks to be disrupted for the foreseeable future.

All this fed into the ShapeConnect wheelhouse.

“I think we actually got a little bit of a boost,” Zielinski said. “I hate to say it that way, but people turned to us and said help us find a web designer.”

Or a marketer. Or help in human resources or accounting.

ShapeConnect serves as an online community and a vetter of any number of firms in accounting, digital marketing, technology, website design and other services for businesses with needs, but not the time, inclination or expertise to investigate and compare outsourced experts.

“It is a hassle to do it yourself,” Zielinski said.

Zielinski brought an interesting background to ShapeConnect.

After earning a bachelor's degree in finance from Marquette University, Zielinski served with the Army Reserves as a signal officer, dealing with communication systems. A company commander for a unit deployed out of Fort Sheridan, as part of his active duty Capt. Zielinski did a 10-month tour in Afghanistan.

As a civilian, he worked for Siemens Medical Solutions, where, among other things, he helped medical practices with software implementation and digital marketing.

What he learned in and out of uniform translated handily to establishing ShapeConnect.

Zielinski said he's seen staffing shortages impact every business with which ShapeConnect works.

It's helped the two-year-old company.

ShapeConnect comes off its best month, having established more than 100 new “winning business-to-business partnerships,” he said. The community user base of businesses and vendors on his company's platform is up to about 2,000.

“We're really focused on helping the small-business community, particularly in the Chicagoland area. We're growing our business locally,” Zielinski said.

“We kind of want to level the playing field for small businesses. Most people go into business with a passion for something, and now all of a sudden they're doing accounting work, marketing and HR (human resources). I think we've really helped a number of local business owners get their life back, in a way.”