Archive for the ‘Madison News’ Category

Announcing Forward Technology Conference

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Forward Technology Conference is coming on August 27th, 2010 at the Memorial Union.  FTC 2010 is

[T]he summer’s best opportunity to spend a day networking with some of the area’s top entrepreneurs and hearing from experts on a wide range of topics relevant to your technology business. Whether you’re thinking about launching a startup business or you’re an experienced entrepreneur, you’ll find this conference relevant and insightful.

The conference will have interesting sessions including:

Startup 101 – A panel of experienced entrepreneurs will go through the steps to starting a startup and tell stories from the trenches.

All About LLCs – A panel with an attorney, accountant and entrepreneur designed to answer all of your questions about business formation

Pitch your Biz – Presenters have 5 minutes to pitch their biz and then the audience will have 10 minutes to provide feedback

If you’re interested in attending, check out the Forward Technology Conference website and then sign up!  It’s going to be a great way for you to learn while meeting new people and enjoying the beautiful setting that is the Memorial Union.

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Yahoo! CEO, UW Alum Carol Bartz Interviewed in Esquire

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

UW alum Carol Bartz has been the CEO of Yahoo! for just about a year now.  She was just interviewed by Esquire in an article called “I’m Carol Bartz…Are You An Asshole?” which is an incredibly interesting read.  From the article:

On January 13, 2009, Carol Bartz became CEO of Yahoo! One of her first acts was to inform her staff that she would “drop-kick to fucking Mars” anyone who leaked company secrets. Since then she’s been trying to return Yahoo! to dominance, deliberately destroying everyone’s impression of what it actually does. After a deal with Microsoft, Yahoo! is transforming from a search engine to a Web portal — one that, if Bartz is right, will attract new users (and new revenue) by trimming unwieldy Web searches down to personalized streams of information. She has her skeptics. But Bartz is right a lot, and most CEOs of her caliber don’t earn their pay by luck. Neither do cocktail waitresses, and Bartz was once one of those, too. She knows when to give someone a “bunny dip.” And she knows when someone needs a good drop-kicking.

The Esquire piece is a great insight into one of the most impressive UW grads out there in the business world right now.  If you haven’t heard about her story, check it out.

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Sector 67 Launches Website, Initial Meeting

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Capital Entrepreneurs member Chris Meyer started Sector 67, which is a new space for people to work on tomorrow’s technology.  Based off of successful models elsewhere in the world, Meyer hopes that Sector 67 will be the launching pad for more tech and engineering based business in Madison.  From the site:

Sector67 is a start up TechShop / Hacker space / Makerspace / Collaborative Environment in Madison, WI dedicated to providing members the opportunity to work on tomorrow’s technology; to build, collaborate, learn, and teach about next generation devices.

Meyer informs me that Sector 67 had its initial meeting last week and it was well attended.  Sector 67 is an awesome idea and will be a great addition to the Madison entrepreneur community!

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Madison Social Entrepreneurship

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Entrepreneruship comes in all shapes and sizes.  This blog has focused more on the business side, but today’s post will highlight a great story of social entrepreneurship.

Becky Hall is a Freshman at the University of Wisconsin and started Going For 10,000, a campaign to raise money for the MS 150 bike ride this summer.  While some may say that raising money for charity is not entrepreneurship, we disagree.  Hall has created a website, organized resources and persevered through challenges, much in the same way that business owners do.  She has done all of this without getting a direct monetary benefit for herself.  If you are interested in helping Becky toward her goal, you can visit her blog or donate here.  Here’s her story from her blog:

For the last nine years, I’ve spent the first weekend of August at the MS150 Best Dam Bike Tour. I ride for my mom. Doctors diagnosed her with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) ten years ago. Today, she’s doing well. She has her rough patches, but that woman’s a fighter. When she’s hurting, you’ll never know. I ride so someday she may not have MS.

MS attacks your Central Nervous System. Every person is affected with different symptoms at a different rate. It’s nearly impossible to predict what path my mom’s MS will take. That scares me. During the MS150, participants ride their bikes from Waukesha to Madison to advocate for the disease and fundraise for research. The first weekend of August, the weekend we ride, is the most important two days of my year.

My family rides with Charlie’s MS Angels, a team started by Peggy Siewert whose husband Charlie was diagnosed with MS 14 years ago. On January 22, Charlie died. The Siewerts are amazing people, and they were the first family that we really got close to within the “MS world.” Charlie was sick four years longer than my mom. Only four years. That really scares me.

In December, I visited Charlie in hospice care. While there, Peggy jokingly said I should raise $10,000 this year, the amount she raises. So naturally, I made that my goal.  It’s almost ten times as much as I’ve raised before, but I like to go big. This is really important to me, so I’m contacting every person I know. I set this website up so people can track my progress and eventually, make online donations. I’m guess I’m just doing everything I can think of.

This year, my tenth year, I’m going to raise ten thousand dollars for my mom and for Charlie.

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CE Members Testify at EDC Hearing

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Capital Entrepreneurs members Nathan Lustig of Entrustet and Forrest Woolworth of PerBlue attended the Madison Economic Development Commission hearing last night to testify about the tech community’s efforts to bring Google Fiber’s test to Madison.  Lustig testified on behalf of Capital Entrepreneurs and spoke about the CE website, Google Fiber Facebook fan page and the Google Fiber Twitter Account. CE member Matt Younkle is on the EDC as the High Tech representitive.

Check out the story on Dane 101 or in The Badger Herald for more information.

If you are interested in helping out, contact us or post in the comments!

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Help Bring Google Fiber to Madison

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Help Bring Google Fiber to Madison

Google is launching an experiment to bring “ultra-high speed broadband” to a trial city in the United States.  The Google Fiber trial network will allow people in the test city to experience Internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second or “more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today” at “a competitive price.”  Google intends to test this ultra-high speed Internet in a city with a population between 50,000 and 500,000.

With a population of just under 225,000, we believe Madison is a perfect fit as Google’s trial city.  Madison has a strong research and technology base, augmented by the 40,000 strong University of Wisconsin student population.  Madison is also home to a growing high tech entrepreneur community and is home to many young professionals, who along with college students, make up a large percentage of the demographic that loves to consume large amounts of bandwidth.  Madison’s city government is also a strong supporter of helping bring Google Fiber to Madison.

Many have grown frustrated with Madison’s main high-speed Internet provider, Charter Communications because of frequent outages and poor customer service.  Madison residents would benefit from the increased competition that Google Fiber would bring to the city.

How You Can Help

We have until March 26th to show Google that Madison is a great fit for their experiment.  You can get involved by filling out the Google Fiber Nomination, becoming a fan of the Facebook page and following us on Twitter. When you fill out the nomination, be sure to mention Capital Entrepreneurs and link this webpage.

You can also get involved in Capital Entrepreneurs.   Send us your logo and a link to your business and we will include it on this page as someone who supports bringing Google Fiber to Madison.  Don’t have a business…No problem.  Post a comment on this entry and include a short reason why you’d like Google Fiber in Madison and we will add you to this page.

Capital Entrepreneurs members in support of bringing Google Fiber to Madison:

perblue.logo.200widthJustin Beck, Forrest Woolworth

add the flavorCorey Capasso

brazen careerist logoRyan Paugh

Copy of CityDictionary-LogoThomas Carmona

smoke skreen cap entrepreneurs Nathan Lustig & Alex Freylikhman

student spill logoHeidi Allstop

flatt cola logo Dave Kruse & Paul Pucci

project youthanize Mark Korshak

PosiPair Logo Green and Blue (1)Sarah Manski

sconnieTroy Vosseller

hardinddScott Resnick & Jon Hardin

Sharecipe Logo2Katie Colbert and Alex Colbert

ProactiCare LogoTyler Leeper

Chris Meyer

Lydie Hudson

the college shack Andrew Ferenci

networked insightsDaniel Neely

PG_logoBrandon Gador & Ted Durkee

wisconsin relicBryon Shannon

cumulus codeJason Strutz

unviral logo Ilya Lichtenstein

badger tripsAlex Goldstein

health finchAsh Gupta & Jonathan Baran

logoBLACK.jpgTyler Leeper

entrustet logoNathan Lustig & Jesse Davis

guru-logo2Tyler Marcus

Max Lynch & Dan Voell

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Former Badger Leading Private Rescue Mission to Haiti

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Former UW football player and former US Marine is leading a humanitarian mission to Haiti providing emergency medical relief.  He was fed up with the beaucracy and red tape involved with helping Haitians, so he formed his own effort, Team Rubicon, comprised of doctors, nurses Milwaukee firefighters, former Marines and other aid workers.

Team Rubicon, a truely entrepreneurial relief effort, is currently working in Haiti, providing medical relief to Haitians who need it.  The entire mission is privately funded, so if you have extra cash you can donate here.

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Governor’s Business Plan Entry Deadline Approaching

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

The Govorner’s Business Plan Competition is an annual business plan competition run by the state of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Technology Council.  With a grand prize of $50,000, it is a great way for Wisconsin companies to get exposure and potentially win some money. Approaching

The deadline for entries is January 31, 2010 and it is fast approaching.  For the first phase, simply submit at 250 word abstract on their website and you are good to go.  For more information please see the Governor’s Business Plan website:

The mission of the Governor’s Business Plan Contest is to encourage entrepreneurs in the creation, start-up and early-growth stages of high-tech businesses in Wisconsin. Participants have the chance to win seed capital, valuable services that will help them launch their businesses and a Grand Prize worth $50,000. Since its inception in 2004, more than 1,500 entries have been received and $1 million in cash and in-kind prizes has been awarded.

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Madison Rated A Top 10 Entrepreneur Friendly City

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

From Entrepreneur Magazine:

“It certainly hasn’t been by accident,” says Matthew Mikolajewski, manager of the city’s office of business resources. “It has taken lots of concerted effort to grow that entrepreneurial spirit.” That includes a renewed focus on entrepreneurship by the University’s business school, the establishment of a fast-growing University research park, half a dozen business and arts incubators, and plans for a new food science lab and incubator developed with the Environmental Protection Agency. The fact that Madison has the second most educated work force in the country and one of the best quality of life ratings makes it attractive to business owners of all stripes. “If you walk through one of our incubators, you’ll find everything,” Mikolajewski says. “You’ll find a software engineer right next to someone making crackers.”

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