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A software solution for a pressing engineering problem
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Dr. Tim Hunter is the founder of Wolf Star Technologies. Launched in 2010, the bootstrapped company has created software that helps engineers take the guesswork out of product testing, while significantly cutting down on the time and cost associated with product development. Hunter has an impressive resume. The founder holds…
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AI goes underground with Infrastructure DL
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Bob Muchka knows sewers. For more than a quarter of a century, Muchka worked in sewer maintenance and rehabilitation. When he retired, his passion for the industry continued. Restless in retirement, he began to consider opening a business. Inspiration struck Muchka when he viewed a TED Talk led by computer…
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Spotted: WTC’s WI Tech Summit
The Wisconsin Technical Council (WTC) hosted its 10th annual Wisconsin Tech Summit today at Lambeau Field. Funders, founders, and other key members of Wisconsin’s startup ecosystem converged in Titletown to connect emerging companies with the resources needed to thrive. According to the WTC, the goal of the Wisconsin Tech Summit is to bring together major…
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Octane Coffee prepares for grand opening
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Octane Coffee founder Adrian Deasy launched his startup in 2018. After years of development, in just a few weeks his app-driven, fully automated, drive-through contactless coffee shop will serve its first customers. The first of its kind in the world, the automated shop is piloted by a robotic barista. The…
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UWMRF awards $100,000 in grants to Milwaukee startups
The University of Milwaukee Research Foundation (UWMRF) Bridge Grant Program was created to support commercialized innovations developed at UWM and foster the development of startup companies that strengthen Milwaukee’s and the state’s economy. Backed by support from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) Capital Catalyst Program, the UWMRF Grant Program recently awarded four $25,000 grants…
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AnitMussel attacks invasive zebra mussels
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller The Great Lakes have always been a key asset to the growth and development of Milwaukee. Now, as the world struggles to find the freshwater needed to support growing populations and economies, the Great Lakes have become even more essential. But, there is something lurking beneath the water’s surface that…
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Neostella shines on Forbes list
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Forbes Magazine recently released its list of America’s Best Startup Employers of 2023. The list of 500 companies is dominated by coastal startups, with a few exceptions. And one of those is Milwaukee’s own Neostella, and Wisconsin’s sole representation on the list. Forbes ranked more than 2,600 startup businesses based…
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RealityBLU makes AR accessible to small businesses
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Augmented Reality (AR) in marketing sounds futuristic, but you’ve probably already used it. If you’ve used a virtual model to try on clothing, scanned the QR code on a brochure to get additional information, or taken a virtual tour, you are an AR user. AR provides interactive ways for brands…
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Rex Academy partners with UW-Milwaukee
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Milwaukee-based Rex Academy is leading the way in providing accessible STEM education. The company has created a partnership with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) that will allow Rex Academy students to transfer up to six credits of coursework toward a Bachelor of Science in Information Science & Technology degree at UWM.…
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Wisconsin VC Funding: January 2023
January was a slow month for venture capital funding in Wisconsin. According to Pitchbook data, six Wisconsin-based startup companies raised venture capital in the first month of 2023. Milwaukee Region Company Name HQ Location Year Founded Funding Amount Distribution Depot Brookfield 2020 $950,000 Forj Waukesha 2020 $15 Million Joystik Milwaukee 2022 Undisclosed Madison Region Company…
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West Coast company finds new home in Milwaukee
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller StickyLickits could be Wisconsin’s next great startup success. Company founder, Linda York, has developed a product that supports healthy eating in kids while encouraging kids to have fun with their food. The company makes edible stickers featuring some of the hottest stars in the Pre-K universe, including PAW Patrol, Elmo…
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Local startup honors and supports veterans
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller For many, Memorial Day signifies the un-official start of summer. The long weekend is celebrated with parades, cookouts, and ice cream cones. But the holiday has much greater significance. Established in 1868, the holiday, originally known as Decoration Day, was designated as a time to decorate the graves of fallen…
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Find joy with Joystik
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Stress is a growing problem worldwide. According to a 2022 study by the American Psychological Association (APA) 76% of Americans reported that stress impacted their physical health. Work related stress is estimated to cost the U.S. more than $300 billion in losses due to absenteeism, diminished productivity, and accidents. Meditation…
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EVEN is ready to revolutionize the music industry
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Music industry veteran and startup founder Mag Rodriguez is introducing technology that will directly connect musicians with their fans, and the money those fans spend on the artists’ work. Rodriguez’ origin story is a uniquely Milwaukee tale. It begins in the halls of Messmer High School where he met a…
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Spaulding Medical: On the rise
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Spaulding Medical CEO, Amanda Baltz, is getting ready to showcase what the Menomonee Falls based MedTech company has been working on behind closed doors. “The last couple of years we’ve been heads-down, developing our next-gen product and we are so excited about what we’ve developed to help our clients,” Baltz…
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FOR-M winners announced
FOR-M alumni, mentors and supporters gathered Monday evening at the Global Water Center to congratulate FOR-M Grant Recipient Winners. Each winning company received a $10,000 grant to support the growth of the business. FOR-M has graduated more than 200 emerging businesses through the program. With support from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and Bader Philanthropies,…
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P4 Infrastructure: Digitizing stormwater infrastructure
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller P4 Infrastructure is one of a growing list of local water tech companies shaping the future of water management. Founded in 2018 by PhD level Civil Engineers Christopher Foley, Nicholas Hornyak, and Joseph Diekfuss, the company has created a way to track and monitor the function and health of the…
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HeyGov helps municipalities modernize
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Serial entrepreneur, Dustin Overbeck, got the idea for his company, HeyGov when he was struggling to receive payments from government municipalities in the early days of the pandemic. Overbeck is also the owner of Town Web Design, a company that creates websites for small municipalities across the country. Founded in…
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Lillipad leaps into home offices
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller The inspiration for Lillipad struck just months before the demand for the unique portable workstation exploded. In January 2020, Colin Dowdle had a dilemma. The Marquette University graduate lived in a small space with a number of roommates. He began working remotely several times a week and found his at…
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Milwaukee’s Movers & Shakers, by the Numbers
MKEStartup.News took a snapshot of the top founders and funders in the Milwaukee startup ecosystem. Using PitchBook, we examined the venture capital deals in the region from January 1, 2019, through January 13, 2022, looking exclusively at data from companies that are headquartered in the Greater Milwaukee area. In that time, Milwaukee companies were involved…
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DroneAdair takes flight with launch of software
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller According to Cody Retlich, he has two passions: drones and helping people. Retlich became professionally involved with drones while studying Entrepreneurship at UW-Whitewater. During that time, he worked for a firm that used drones to conduct surveys of agricultural land. The technology fascinated him, and he began to explore its…
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Nano Affix: Water safety innovators
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller A great place on a Great Lake is more than just a slogan when it comes to freshwater research and stewardship in Milwaukee. The city has become an international destination for the study and development of freshwater innovations. Leading the development of this increasingly influential ecosystem are the University of…
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HealthLX on fire with FHIR
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller One of the nation’s most influential businesses in healthcare application integration protocols is headquartered in Grafton. HealthLX, founded in 2014 by CEO Will Tesch, is at the forefront of developing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR). FHIR are international standardization guidelines designed to enable health data, including clinical and administrative data,…
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Sensia Tech supports the business of medicine
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Dr. Andrew Seter launched the healthcare software company Sensia Tech in 2016- but the story of this Milwaukee-based tech startup began in 1996. Seter, a physician who specializes in Occupational Medicine, determined early in his career that traditional medicine did not serve its business clients. “The dichotomy is that the…
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Introducing Pursesuitz Pocketwear
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Barbara Zabawa has an impressive resume. She is a lawyer who specializes in the health and wellness industry, a professor at UW-Milwaukee, an entrepreneur, and a podcast host. Now, she has also added ‘designer’ to her list of accomplishments. Nearly a decade ago, Zabawa was trying a case in federal…
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The year in review
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller 2022. What a year it has been! After a few years dominated by pandemic shutdowns and a paralyzed supply chain, 2022 was noteworthy for the gradual reopening of the Milwaukee ecosystem. Crowds heralded the return of in-person events, filling seats for Summerfest Tech Week, MKE Tech Week and Wisconsin Technology…
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Altruize modernizes volunteer data
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Nicole Sdao describes herself as a “faith driven entrepreneur.” “I’m a recovering volunteer addict is what I am,” she said. Over the years she had learned the key value of volunteerism, both to the organization that receives the work being done, and the world outside of the organization. An ever-increasing…
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2023 WI Governor’s BPC applications are open
Applications are now open for the 2023 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest. The mission of the Governor’s Business Plan Contest is to encourage entrepreneurs in the startup stage of tech-enabled businesses in Wisconsin. Produced by the Wisconsin Technology Council and a growing list of partners, the Governor’s Business Plan Contest engages contestants in a five-month…
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RaritiesMarket pivots in gBeta
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller UW-Whitewater sophomore Chad Tjugum started collecting coins when he was five years old. By the time he was in eighth grade, Tjugum had his own LLC and was buying and selling coins online. Born with a passion for entrepreneurship, Tjugum enrolled into the gBeta Beloit to develop RaritiesMarket, an online…
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CAREDirect in growth mode, welcomes new CEO
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller According to a study published by the healthcare analytics firm Protenus, over 47 million doses of medication were stolen by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers in 2018. Opioids were involved in 94% of the incidents, with oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl the most common drugs stolen. Stealing controlled substances…
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Belling joins Geno.Me as CTO
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Shawn Belling has been named the Chief Technology Officer of health tech startup Geno.Me. Founded by Britt Gottschalk, the new company has generated headlines since its launch in 2021. Geno.Me, which allows individuals to share their health data for use in medical research, was the first investment of the Milwaukee…
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DataTool update released
The Wisconsin Policy Forum, in partnership with MMAC and a working group of startup company funders and founders led by former Milwaukee County Executive and MMAC board member Chris Abele, is pleased to announce the release of the newly updated Metro Milwaukee Innovation DataTool, a database that shows Milwaukee’s economic progress. In October 2022, a…
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Comfyist update: Prototyping toward perfection
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Comfyist founder, Amy Fallucca, is the portrait of perseverance. When Fallucca launched her luxury clothing line in April 2021, the serial entrepreneur knew little about the business of fashion. Weary of wrestling athletic camis with removable bra cups that provided inadequate breast support, Fallucca set out to solve the problem.…
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Spotted: Panther Partnering Luncheon
The Tech Council Innovation Network invited the UW-Milwaukee Research Foundation to introduce the newly launched “Panther Partnering,” program at its monthly luncheon. The program aims to increase research funding in the form of industry sponsorships and to boost the number of university innovations that break into the marketplace. “Panther Partnering” will make research deals and…
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VocaTone Studio gives a voice to the world
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Kenosha-based tech startup VocaTone Studio was among the most talked about startups at this year’s Early Stage Symposium. The company won over the audience while competing in the Elevator Pitch Olympics at the event, capturing the coveted People’s Choice Award for its presentation of an AI-based audio tool the founders…
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AdventureCast makes outdoor excursions weatherproof
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Dr. Eric Compas and Steve Muller met while in college. The pair shared a passion for geography and outdoor adventure. They developed a lifelong friendship while scaling mountains and battling currents in their kayaks. Life took them in different directions. Steve relocated to the Rocky Mountains and became a mountain…
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Quadruple-digit growth for Managecore
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Managecore, a provider of SAP Technical Managed Services, might be the biggest Milwaukee success story you’ve never heard of. In August 2022, Inc. Magazine released its annual list of the fastest growing companies in the nation. Managecore was the highest-ranking company in the metro Milwaukee area, and the second-fastest growing…
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The can is king at WilCraft Can
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller There is nothing like popping open a cold one on a hot, humid summer day in Milwaukee. From the satisfying crack of the can’s seal to cool heft of the aluminum in your hand, it is the perfect way to beat the heat. All of the kudos go to the…
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ZYN: modern product with an ancient ingredient
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Qasim and Asim Khan were raised to think of food as medicine. While their friends fought coughs with cold syrup and treated sports injuries with splints and prescription medications, the brothers were treated with remedies from their mother’s kitchen cabinets. The family, originally from Pakistan, embraced the natural remedies that…
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LeaseCrunch Eases Lease Accounting Changes
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller To understand the runaway success of Milwaukee-based LeaseCrunch, you have to know a little bit about accounting. Most businesses are required to follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Commonly known as GAAP, these standards are put forth by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Recently, the FASB changed the lease accounting…
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Local potato chip company rooted in Milwaukee
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Milwaukee Chip Company has grown tremendously since it was established as a limited liability corporation in the spring of 2020. Within a year, the company was renting kitchen space by the hour at Upstart Kitchen to create its hand-crafted potato chips. This spring, the company opened its own 2,500 square…
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SYSTEM Seltzer offers solution for modern drinkers
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller SYSTEM Seltzer knows how you like to drink, even if you don’t know the brand, yet. Matt Sievers and Anthony Spina noticed that over the course of a backyard barbeque or a gathering at the beach, their friends would instinctively change the ABV (alcohol by volume) of the drinks they…
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Rebel Green cleans up nationwide
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller Ali Florsheim’s journey to entrepreneurship was sparked by her love of produce wash. The family court mediator and arbitrator and mother of four keeps her kitchen stocked with fresh produce. She prioritizes feeding her family healthy food, and doesn’t want them to ingest pesticide residue, wax, preservatives or any of…
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Latino Founders Fund chooses The Way Out
Latino-led businesses are the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses, but as an aggregate they only receive 2% of total U.S. venture capital funding, despite comprising 20% of the U.S. population. To help correct this disparity, Google has allocated $5 million to its inaugural Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund. Google announced the names of…
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Stellar Tech Girls opens doors for future STEM career
By Anna Lardinois, Startup Storyteller The U.S. Census reports that 15% of engineers working in the nation are women, despite women making up 48% of the total U.S. workforce. Aerospace Engineer Marina Bloomer started experiencing this disparity in high school when she was the only girl enrolled in her AP Computer Science course. In college,…
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LeaseCrunch Experiences Record Growth
Milwaukee-based LeaseCrunch, under the leadership of co-founder and CEO Ane Ohm, announced last week that “the company has nearly doubled its team as the company achieves record growth.” Launched in 2016, the SaaS (Software as a Service) company created an intuitive, scalable solution so accounting firms can easily collaborate with their clients to the new…