Tom Still's - Inside Wisconsin

Four Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors with Wisconsin ties returned to the state this month for the annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Conference. Their message: Don't try to be Silicon Valley, but don't ignore what made it successful, either.

Like it or not, health-care reform is here to stay. A major tool being applied to health care’s challenges is wider adoption of health information technologies, which collectively help patients, providers, insurers and medical practitioners as they come to grips with change.

The 91-2 Assembly vote in support of a bill to create a state-leveraged venture capital program may represent the beginning of a less rancorous era (or, at least, a brief respite). Democrats and Republicans will continue to disagree on many issues – school vouchers and tax cuts being current examples – but it may now be OK to occasionally agree without penalty.

The challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs, who are increasingly a part of Wisconsin’s business landscape, are the focus of next week’s Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in Middleton. They are also at the heart of a continuing series, “The Entrepreneurs’ Edge,” which began in Green Bay, Milwaukee and DeForest and which continues June 17 in Racine.

In many ways, Michigan looks a lot like Wisconsin. It shares hundreds of miles of the same Great Lakes shoreline, and usually votes “blue” in presidential elections and “red” when it comes to choosing governors and members of its state Legislature. It also boasts major research universities that rank among the nation’s best. Unlike Wisconsin, however, Michigan began investing in its emerging economy years ago – even as the state’s automobile manufacturing base was teetering on the edge of collapse.

Held under the title of “Change Your Mind, Change the World,” the event brought together experts in neuroscience, health care, psychology, economics and the environment to talk about global health and emotional well-being. Speakers made a compelling case that physical health is often linked to emotional or mental health, yet health-care systems in most countries don’t often see the connection.

Google Glass, a wearable computer that looks like a pair of eyeglasses, has sparked the latest chapter in a debate that is older than you might imagine: How does technology test the boundaries between privacy and the First Amendment?

Wisconsin has always had trouble getting economic development right. It spends less than comparable states, generally focuses on yesterday’s trends versus today’s, and allows partisan politics to color what should be a statewide concern: Smart policies to enhance company and job creation.

Entrepreneurs from a broad spectrum of Wisconsin’s startup economy told their stories at a news conference announcing bipartisan agreement on the bill, which would match $25 million in state dollars with private investment, and at a public hearing a week later. An Assembly committee is expected to vote on the proposal next week. 

Striking a balance between the immediate benefits of the nation’s oil-and-gas bonanza and adopting new conservation and generation technologies is the crux of a new report by Gary Radloff, director of Midwest Energy Policy Analysis for the Wisconsin Energy Institute. A public presentation on the report is set for Monday at the Fluno Center on the UW-Madison campus.

Metro Milwaukee lost almost twice as many private-sector jobs in the decade of 2000-'10 as the average for the nation's 100 largest metro areas. What hurts most is not that metro Milwaukee's 6.8% job loss was well above the national average of 3.9%, but that a large share of those jobs were good jobs - with decent wages, benefits and some sense of security and opportunity until the bottom fell out. In short, they were middle-class jobs and increasingly difficult to replace in today's jobless recovery.

For Wisconsin, a growing supply of undergraduate researchers across Wisconsin means a better-trained workforce and more opportunity for investment and company startups.

Now in its 10^th year, the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest has always been a canary in a high-tech coal mine. It provides an annual overview of the kinds of businesses emerging in the state’s tech sectors – as well as areas of relative decline. The list of 21 finalists for the 2013 competition, which will grow to two-dozen when top collegiate contests feed into the mix, is no exception to the rule. For state policymakers who are weighing how to best target a $25-million early stage fund envisioned by Gov. Scott Walker, the list is a harbinger of emerging opportunities.

Young, small companies create jobs by definition - even if most of them are one-person shops. While the five- and 10-year survival rate for young companies isn't high, there are enough new companies created every year to keep the process of "creative destruction" humming along. All small businesses are not created alike, however. There are four basic categories - three of which are not large-scale job creators, nor ever intend to be, and one that more than pulls its weight when it comes to churning out jobs.

Wisconsin ranks below average among the 50 states when it comes to high-speed Internet access, according to recent reports. A major reason for the state’s lackluster ranking is access in rural Wisconsin, where many telecom providers are trying to swap their historic commitment to land-line service to investments in broadband. Much like other communities across the United States, rural Wisconsin would benefit from enhanced broadband connections.

More than a year in the making, the 4490 Ventures Fund is a 50-50 partnership between Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and State of Wisconsin Investment Board, two organizations well-versed in the venture capital asset class. This fund is a breakthrough step for both organizations. It's not intended to replace anything WARF or SWIB is doing now in terms of early-stage investments. Instead, it has been established to invest in the kinds of promising information technology companies that can be found across Wisconsin.

Some observers wanted the UW-Madison to hire a business CEO, but that wasn’t likely to happen because of the internal constituency. Others wanted a pure science and tech chancellor, which speaks to the power of the UW-Madison’s $1-billion research budget. As an economist who understands the value of “big science” and the humanities, Becky Blank may walk the fine line needed on campus and beyond.

Across the nation, at least 34 states have either launched venture capital funds, created investment tax incentives or both to leverage private investments in startups and emerging companies. If the Wisconsin Legislature embraces an early stage capital plan at least as large as what has been proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, it would not be plowing new ground.

While there are some who would turn Mayer's decision to abolish Yahoo's work-at-home policy into a national referendum on workplace flexibility, it's not. Mayer was simply doing what was right for Yahoo at the time. Her decision offers a lesson for executives everywhere about striking a balance between allowing employees to keep flexible hours to balance their own lives and blanket policies that practically invite productivity and morale problems.

The war against cancer has many fronts. One of the emerging battlegrounds is location: Bringing cancer-fighting technologies to people regardless of where they live. That’s the thinking behind the creation of the Wisconsin Oncology Network of Imaging Excellence, a project that promises to bring the latest work of the UW-Madison Carbone Cancer Center to a network of treatment centers across Wisconsin.

Embedded in the national debate over automatic cuts in the federal budget – the so-called “sequester” – is a question that could hit Wisconsin harder than many states: What is Washington’s role in fostering innovation? The answer is vital to the state’s academic research institutions, many of its entrepreneurs and the larger goal of making Wisconsin more competitive in the global economy.

Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to create a $25 million "capital investment program . . . for co-investments in business startups and investment capital projects" was deliberately vague. As he told reporters and others last week in unveiling the state's $68 billion budget plan for the next two years, it's because he wants the Legislature to have a hand in shaping the details.

The Feb. 18 release of a private report that tracked 141 corporate data thefts to China, perhaps even to units of the People’s Liberation Army itself, has heightened government and private concerns about cyber-attacks. Increasingly at risk are some of America’s lifelines – including its energy pipelines, its water supply, its health-care networks and its financial institutions. Strategies for guarding against cyber threats will be explored Feb. 26 during a Wisconsin Innovation Network luncheon meeting in Madison, where two experts on the front lines of defense will discuss how state expertise is being tapped.

One proposal that would go a long ways toward rounding out the budget strategy is a state-leveraged investment capital fund. If Walker adds this idea to the list to be announced Wednesday, it would attract private dollars to Wisconsin while helping to jumpstart a whole generation of emerging companies.

A recent report from the Brookings Institution, which dwelt on patenting and innovation in metro America since 1980, should be instructive for Wisconsin as its policy-makers ponder what it takes to create companies, jobs and wealth.

Over the past 40 years, Waisman scientists have discovered some of the causes of autism, disclosed the genetic roots of rare neurodegenerative diseases, manufactured cell- and gene-based pharmaceuticals to cure diseases, found ways to use medical imaging to “see” the brains of people with autism, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders, discovered how infants learn language and even shown how meditation can change the brain.

Immigration is good for the U.S. economy and Wisconsin shouldn't miss the chance to attract talent it needs to remain competitive.

Gov. Scott Walker told the Wisconsin Technology Council board of directors last week that the key to passing an investment capital program is persuading lawmakers that such an investment will help Wisconsin as a whole, not just the start-up hubs in Milwaukee and Madison, and doing so in a way that spreads the risk and builds in safeguards.  

It appears the mere idea that Wisconsin might create a state-leveraged seed, angel and venture fund is attracting some much-needed attention. That was the underlying message this week when the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., responding to an open records request, disclosed that 12 groups have expressed interest in managing a state investment capital program if such a fund is created soon.

While no one can deny that raw job creation is one vital sign for Wisconsin’s health, the debate shouldn’t overlook other measures that help quantify and qualify how the state is doing. Here are a few examples of other economic indicators that can assist policymakers – and citizens – in taking the state’s economic pulse.

When David Westlake entered the Governor’s Business Plan Contest a year ago, Print Command had one employee – him. Today, it has 16, and the Delafield resident credits part of the cybersecurity company’s growth to his successful journey through the contest. Entering its 10^th contest year, the Governor’s Business Plan Contest has provided that kind of head start for hundreds of companies.

The latest federal government data shows Wisconsin’s job growth is still lagging the U.S. average. Wisconsin needs more people who are willing and able to create their own jobs. The 2013 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest offers a proven pathway for entrepreneurs to get started.

The “fiscal cliff” deal reached over the New Year’s holiday in Washington wasn’t the political grand bargain envisioned just after the November elections. In fact, it was more of a stopgap measure that kept federal income tax hikes from falling on middle-class taxpayers and which called a two-month time out on automatic spending cuts.

Immigration is good for the U.S. economy and Wisconsin shouldn’t miss the chance to attract talent it needs to remain competitive.

With 2013 perched like a nestling on the side of the nation’s fiscal cliff, it’s hard to know what factors could give the new year its wings – or force it to tumble helplessly into the abyss.

So long, 2012, a year in which the economy took two steps forward for every one step back, and welcome to 2013, a nestling born on the edge of a cliff. Here are some trends worth following.

At the Dec. 13 meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network meeting in Wauwatosa, the deputy secretary of Wisconsin’s economic development agency said the odds are “a little better than 50-50” that a $200-million, six-year plan to spur investment capital will pass the state Legislature next year.

The Dec. 11 “Talk with Walker” stop at Virent Energy, a Madison-based company that has grown from a handful of employees to more than 120 workers, provided a natural backdrop for a sneak peak at how Walker is approaching the state’s 2013-2015 budget bill, especially as it relates to economic development.

The United States is well on its way to becoming virtually energy independent in less than two decades, in no small part because “fracking” and other technologies are unlocking new supplies of oil and natural gas within our borders. That’s great news for an economy that seems permanently stuck in neutral. However, it’s unnerving for those who believe prolonged reliance on fossil fuels will curb conservation, reduce innovation and accelerate potentially disastrous climate change.

Somewhere along the evolutionary path from startups to mature businesses, many companies stop innovating. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, especially in big companies that are learning how to strike a balance. A ready example of a major company striving to remain innovative was on display in Madison last week when Jay Singer, a New York-based executive for MasterCard Worldwide, spoke to the Wisconsin Innovation Network.

If you mention “toll roads” to the typical Wisconsin motorist, chances are good the reply will include an unflattering reference to Illinois and its 286 miles of pay-as-you-go interstate highways. Read the full column here.

Welcome to Wisconsin’s evolving startup economy, where traditional powerhouses such as medical imaging and biotechnology are making room for companies in other sectors.

Wisconsin's start-up economy is beginning to look like its parents . . . all of them. For years, most babies in the state's entrepreneurial crib were named "Bio-this" or "Gen-that," a reflection of the fact that emerging biotechnology companies were the darlings of angel and venture capitalists. Young life science companies are still being born in Wisconsin, but the nursery is making room for start-ups that resemble other fathers and mothers in the state's economic family. The company lineup at the upcoming Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium reflects that trend.

It’s safe to say Wisconsin has a mixed record when it comes to slogans and brands.

Paul Ryan’s selection as the running mate for Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Party nominee for president, doesn’t especially surprise those who have known the Janesville native since his years as a young policy wonk in Washington. In fact, they agree, the Paul Ryan they knew 15 or 20 years ago is the same Paul Ryan they know today.

Ankit Agarwal is a two-time finalist in the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest and a biochemical engineer whose work promises to help doctors treat patients with slow-to-heal skin wounds. He’s even started a Madison-based company, Imbed Biosciences, to commercialize his discoveries.

Jeff Helgesen, one of Rock County’s largest developers, doesn’t parse words when he’s asked if the Janesville area is better off today than it was when General Motors Corp. was the 800-pound gorilla in town.