Humanized + Aza Raskin + Jono DiCarlo + Atul Varma + Andrew Wilson

Humanized is a small start-up on the north side of Chicago that is re-thinking the way you interact with your computer. Their product, Enso, takes simple tasks you do every day, in lots of your applications, and makes them easier. If you are writing an email and need to multiple two numbers, with Enzo you can just multiply, no need to launch a separate calculator program. You have to watch the video to appreciate the program, but dozens of other tasks, like capitalizing a sentence, defining a word, checking spelling--all are made easier.

It's not every day a Chicago start-up launches to a praise from Walt Mossberg in the WSJ and interface guru Don Norman (among others). The team of four co-founders is a smart bunch with quite a varied background. One interesting anecdote, the President of Humanized, Aza Raskin, is the son of Jef Raskin, the inventor of the Macintosh.

Dimensions: 4 people people x ~1 year (2006) x $NDA
Funding: Angel funding
Customers: Anyone who uses a computer
Location: Chicago + www.humanized.com