Wisconsin may not be known for its entrepreneurial spirit, yet some investors are convinced the state holds potential.
On Monday, one national investment firm will visit Madison and stage a competition. It will award $100,000 to the budding business that appears most promising. Nine companies are in the running.
A lot of investors don’t think about the Midwest, according to Donn Davis.
“Over half of the investments in startup companies is done in Silicon Valley. And when you add New York and Boston $8 out of every $10 goes into just three cities funding startups in America,” Davis says.
Davis and his business partner founded Revolution Growth. It invests in startups across the country, and companies looking to grow exponentially. Davis says his firm is on the second leg of what it calls its Rise of the Rest Tour. It hits the mid-sections of the country.
“Cincinnati and St. Louis and Pittsburgh, Detroit and like, Madison, those cities have smart people, great university support, interesting fortune 500 companies,” Davis says.
As for what his firm will look for in the nine competing start-ups in Madison today.
“We want to just go meet entrepreneurs who have one, a big idea and two, the passion and drive to execute against that idea,” Davis says.
Davis says it also helps if the company is changing the way things currently work. Just one Milwaukee company is in the running - Project Foundry. Shane Krukowski started it in 2006.
He says it uses software to facilitate individualized learning.
“Essentially, it’s an organizational dashboard for students that outlines the different learning experiences that they’re working on. So students can propose projects,” Krukowski says.
The company then helps link students with sophisticated training to help them advance their projects. Krukowski says Project Foundry is now working with dozens of schools across 24 states.
“We’re going to transform education to make it more engaging and to produce people out of middle school and high school that can actually produce things, that can be creative, that can critically think,” Krukowski says.
Among the other Wisconsin start-ups that will compete today in Madison for $100,000 are a company that tests for birth defects and another that builds things out of unwanted trees.
