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Category: Business/Technology

A look back at 2016’s startup sector

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WISC-TV 3

Noted: The University of Wisconsin–Madison professor and developmental biologist Jamie Thomson had recently made history by isolating the first human embryonic stem cell line. It was among the many notable achievements pushing UW–Madison to the forefront of what Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s former director Carl Gulbrandsen liked to call “the new economy.” Lauded on the cover of Time magazine in 2001 for his revolutionary science, Thomson founded Cellular Dynamics International to produce stem cells used in drug discovery and toxicity testing. That same year, the Wisconsin Technology Council was created by a bipartisan act of the governor and Legislature.

Let there be light!

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In Business Madison

Dimming or turning out the lights seems like a good idea for a magic trick or scary story, not surgery.However, performing surgery in the dark is actually what surgeons are forced to do for some procedures, where darkened operating environments are optimal for utilizing fluorescent compounds that highlight specific tissues — think cancer — in patients’ bodies.OnLume, a Madison company founded in 2015, is aiming to change that with technology designed to shed new light on complicated surgical procedures.

Multiplayer game: Video game companies join forces to level up the Madison scene

Posted on
Capital Times

On an August evening in 2015, a group of about 80 video game industry insiders and tech gurus crowded into a lounge on the top floor of the former AT&T Building in downtown Madison. The goal of the meetup, organized by the Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP), was to bring all the key players in Madison’s video game scene — from studio executives to independent developers to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers — together in the same room.

Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta Hartsfield and Los Angeles International Named Three Busiest Airports for Thanksgiving and Christmas, According to Orbitz.com

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Yahoo Finance

Noted: From the September 2016 Orbitz University of Wisconsin US Traveler Compass study. Orbitz and the University of Wisconsin Business School’s US Traveler Compass Study surveyed 711 adults 18-64 who are leisure travelers about their future travel intent. This study is done using Google Consumer Surveys.

Former MillerCoors chief goes craft

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Ryder will help host dinners that pair foods with beer at the brewery. He continues his work as adjunct professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he hopes to elevate fermentation sciences by making students consider careers in that area.

Wisconsin puts inventive art on display

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Big Ten Network

Since 1925, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has racked up quite a roster of patents. That’s kind of the point. A nonprofit institution, WARF exists to support scientific investigations and research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by stewarding a “cycle of research, discovery, commercialization and investment.”

Builder of the Week Homes by Towne, Jim Doering

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: I’m a UW grad, so I’m a contributor to the UW-Madison Foundation. We also contribute to Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls, where my father received outstanding care. As a company, we are involved with United Way and United Performing Arts Fund along with many other organizations through our Zilber Family Foundation.

Not only sunlight, even your footsteps can be converted into usable electricity

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Gizmodo

Since a long time, the world has been going gaga over the benefits of generating electricity from sunlight and water. But if we tell you that even your footsteps can be converted into usable electricity, wouldn’t that surprise you? Thanks to a green flooring invented by University of Wisconsin-Madison materials engineers. It is with the help of this flooring that footsteps can be converted into usable electricity.

EatStreet, Titan Spine raise millions

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: EatStreet’s funding round follows the company raising $15 million in December and brings to more than $40 million the total amount of outside capital Madison-based EatStreet has raised since it was founded in a dorm room at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009. The company will use the money for general corporate purposes, according to the filing.

PerBlue game acquired for $35 million

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: PerBlue, which has about 40 employees, was founded by Beck and Andrew Hanson in June 2008. They funded it themselves, then raised $72,000 from family and friends in July 2009. Both graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with computer engineering degrees in 2009.

Investing in change: Diversifying the world of funding startups is a work in progress

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Capital Times

Quoted: Would increased diversity among investors result in more parity for women and people of color? In terms of peer reviewed research, there’s not enough robust literature on the subject to really say, said Sarada, a professor with the University of Wisconsin-Madison who goes by one name. In fact, there isn’t even a clear understanding of why certain groups are so underrepresented in the realm of entrepreneurship, let alone private equity.

gener8tor forges Minnesota partnership

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: The partnership is the first gener8tor has forged with a university outside of Wisconsin. About a year ago, gener8tor partnered with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which provided an undisclosed amount of funding for gener8tor to provide coaching and other services to startups.

Getting down to business with a business consultant

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Madison Magazine

“You’re making the face,” said a client to Michelle Somes-Booher, business consultant and director of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. According to Somes-Booher, it’s the tough love face, the one she puts on when she says something that a client doesn’t want to hear.

Tech and Biotech: Virent tabs high-level consortium to get its biofuels to market; Cellectar to hold study with UW-Madison

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Wisconsin State Journal

Virent — the Madison company with a process to turn sugars from corn stalks into the makings for jet fuel, polyester t-shirts and recyclable plastic bottles — will become part of a consortium of high-level, international companies that will work together to bring Virent’s biofuels and chemicals to market.

On Retail: Some suggest co-op model for Room of One’s Own bookstore

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Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: Sandi Torkildson, who helped found A Room of One’s Own in 1975, has invited a representative from the UW-Madison Center for Cooperatives to give an informational presentation Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the bookstore, located at 315 W. Gorham St. Torkildson, who announced in June that she was putting the store up for sale, said she has had several customers inquire about the feasibility of a co-op, but there was no organized effort. The meeting is simply a way to bring those interested in a co-op model together and to learn about that type of business model.

StartingBlock Reaches Funding Goal, Moves Closer to Groundbreaking

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Xconomy

StartingBlock Madison, a still-to-be-built entrepreneurial center just east of downtown in Wisconsin’s capital city, took another major step forward this week. The nonprofit organization says it has met its $3 million fundraising goal and, with that piece in place, can continue working toward a groundbreaking planned for later this year.

Carbon nanotube transistors promise faster, leaner processors

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Engadget

The computing industry sees carbon nanotube transistors as something of a Holy Grail. They promise not just faster performance and lower power consumption than silicon, but a way to prevent the stagnation of processor technology and the death of Moore’s Law. However, their real-world speed has always lagged behind conventional technology… until now, that is. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have created what they say are the first carbon nanotube transistors to outpace modern silicon.

All Facets of Faculty

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BizEd Magazine

Few professors can be devoted to research, inspired by teaching, committed to service, and driven to lead—but all have different talents to contribute to an institution’s mission. That’s why business schools are adopting more formal, flexible, and comprehensive frameworks that enhance and reward all of the strengths they bring to the table.

The 10 Best Universities on Twitter

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Universities.com

Ranked No. 10, UW-Madison: This university has pride like none other. While many fail at the art of bragging modestly, UW-Madison proves through retweets from current students and big name publications like TIME, that whether it be their gorgeous sunsets or their outsourcing of the top CEOs, they are proud of their accomplishments.