By William LeValley

Cal State Fullerton alumna, Daniela Bolzmann, has had some major changes in her life over the past year. Bolzmann, an Entrepreneurship Graduate from CSUF in 2010, picked up her life here in Southern California and went east to the windy city of Chicago.

While maintaining her job in California by working from Chicago, Bolzmann was interested to get her hands on something local. After one month living in Chicago she participated in a Startup Weekend event where people come together to pitch ideas and build a product in one weekend.

It was there that she would form a team with other entrepreneurs and create the same-day delivery business, now known as WeDeliver. WeDeliver was born and took first place at Startup Weekend Chicago at the end of 2012. After the win, Bolzmann made the leap and quit her job to build WeDeliver full time with her new found team members.

“My experiences in the Entrepreneurship Program at CSUF exposed me to many transferable skills that I am using today. Instead of struggling to find a job after college I created my own opportunities for myself by starting my own companies, first as Founder of SocialSkoop and now as a Co-Founder of WeDeliver,” Bolzmann said.

Headquartered at 1871, a tech hub housing hundreds of start-ups in Chicago, WeDeliver  provides a modern take on same-day delivery for brick and mortar businesses. The company is using a crowd sourcing model for their deliveries and is in the same industry as companies like airbnb and lyft.

At this time, WeDeliver is in Beta and available by invitation only. They are creating jobs in the community and are on track to have over 250 merchants and well over 100 delivery specialists by the end of the year.

The company has caught fire with the people of Chicago too, calling them the “Über-for-deliveries.” Recently, they were featured on the front page of the Chicago Tribune showcasing their efforts in same-day delivery. WeDeliver was also named one of the hot up and coming start-ups in Chicago having won: Startup Weekend Chicago, IBM Global Entrepreneurship Mentor Day and TechWeek Launch 2013. The accomplishments, which include over $100,000 in cash and prizes, have allowed Bolzmann and her co-founders Kirk Lashley and Jimmy Odom to continue to grow the business.

There is still no telling as to when the company will branch outside of Chicago but at the rate of success they are on, it could be in the foreseeable future. Bolzmann is thriving in Chicago with the tools she learned as a student at CSUF. Implementing them with her passion to build a business of her own has led her to the success of WeDeliver.

Bolzmann said: “Moving to Chicago has been a great adventure; we are doing great things for the community here and I cannot wait to bring WeDeliver to California. We have no plans as of yet, but talk to us in 6 months and we may have a different answer for you.”