Kansas Economic Development Conference

Burt Chojnowski

Over the last thirty years, Burt has been a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and investment banker. Burt has experience in the formation and development of successful companies in the telecommunications, computer software, media, alternative energy, government securities, fundraising and oil & gas brokerage industries. In 1998, he founded CoolCall, an international telecommunications company, based in Iowa, with venture capital provided by Samsung America, the Band of Angels and Garage.com.

CoolCall was one was one of the first next-generation telecommunication company deploying Voice over IP services in over 20 countries. He held a senior management position with responsibilities for strategic planning and marketing for USA Global Link, the largest telecommunications reseller in the world. He is currently a co-founder of a Web 3.0 Internet company.

Burt has been an innovative leader of the Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association that is considered one of the leading entrepreneurial development organizations of its kind in the U.S. today. The National Council of Small Communities named Fairfield, Iowa the top entrepreneurial city in 2003. In 2004 Fairfield was named “entrepreneurial community of the year” by the Community Vitality Center. Burt was named “Rural Entrepreneurial Practitioner of the Year” in 2005 by the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the Kauffman Foundation.

Burt is the founding member of Silicorn Valley Investors Fund and has raised over $75 million for Iowa-base companies.

Burt has created replicable entrepreneurship and incubator development systems. He is credited for open-source entrepreneurial development, creating entrepreneurial communities and the Brain-Belt. Burt has organized many successful conferences including the First Iowa Rural Investment Conference, the 2004 Iowa Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs, 2004 Academy on Entrepreneurship and November, 2004 Boot Camp for Art-Preneurs. He has been host for a series of six National Entrepreneurial Gatherings sponsored by the Farm Foundation and Community Vitality Center.

Burt holds the first bachelor’s degree awarded from Maharishi International University, (now Maharishi University of Management (MUM). He was awarded multiple masters degrees in Higher Educational Management and the Science of Creative Intelligence from MIU. He was part of the team that created MUM. Burt grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and graduated from James Madison Memorial High School.

Titles and Affiliations

Founder and General Manager of BrainBelt Consulting
Co-founder of Relevant Connections
Past President, Fairfield Entrepreneur Association
Founding Board Member, Community Vitality Center
Board Member, National Network of Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization
Board Member, Fairfield First!
Adjunct Faculty, Roundtable Consulting Group
Advisory Board, MUM College of Perfect Health
Board Member, Hometown Harvest of Southeast Iowa
Advisory Board, Bootstrap Detroit

Contact Information:

Email: Burt@BrainBelt.com
Phone: 641-919-2163
P.O. Box 117
Fairfield, IA 52556