2020 has been a challenging year for many. The coronavirus has disrupted nearly every aspect of our lives, and in many ways is changing how business gets done.
Some businesses have struggled to navigate the market conditions caused by the pandemic, while others have been buoyed by it. Companies will fail. Others will emerge stronger than ever.
Time will tell how the Covid-19 pandemic impacts Wisconsin's tech startups, but one thing's certain: For the state's startups to follow on its record year of VC funding in 2019, it will be up to the next generation of founders and builders to create the companies of the future and drive the state's economy forward.
To get a sense of some of the state's top young entrepreneurs, techies and startup community leaders, Wisconsin Inno has unveiled its third-annual Inno Under 25 list (you can check out last year's list here). Dive in to this year's list below.
Max Fergus, 25
Co-founder and CEO of LÜM
A two-time honoree on our Inno Under 25 list, Fergus is the co-founder of LÜM, a Madison-based startup creating a streaming music platform and social network that helps up-and-coming artists grow their fan base. Since his appearance on our 2018 list, Fergus' startup has steadily grown as now 70,000 artists have uploaded more than 200,000 songs to the platform. Around 100,000 consumers are using the service. Founded in 2018, LÜM has built a music streaming app that allows any and all artists to upload their songs and create a fan base. The service is free for consumers, and artists make money through direct-to-artists subscriptions and a virtual gifting feature.
LÜM raised $3 million in August in a seed funding round led by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. In addition to the funding, LÜM revealed that NE-YO, the Grammy award-winning R&B artist, joined the startup as an ambassador.
Shawn Michels, 25
CEO and founder of SteadyShot
Michels' startup SteadyShot is helping people ease the pain of daily insulin shots. Founded in 2018, the startup has created an add-on for diabetes insulin pen needles. The device connects to standard pen needles and holds the needle steady during the injection process, offering users the ability to reach more injection sites and control their blood glucose levels.
Michels, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2012, came up with the idea for the SteadyShot following his own struggles with injecting. Michels was accepted into UW-Madison’s Discovery 2 Product program, which provided him with funding and mentors to finalize his product design, and he recently received additional grant funding as one of the 12 startups that pitched at this year’s annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.
Claire Friona, 21
Co-founder and lead engineer of Agricycle
Friona is the co-founder of Milwaukee startup Agricycle, a company that uses solar dehydrators to make sun-dried fruits that are grown by women farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. The startup's mission is to empower rural women farmers, and Agricycle pays farmers up to seven times their average daily wage, the startup says. Friona created the dehydrator as part of a class at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
Agricycle’s solar dehydrators dry natural fruit from more than 35,000 rural farmers, and it recently launched a new brand of sun-dried fruits called Jali Fruit. Last year the startup, which was previously called Blue Mangoes, was one of eight startups selected to the Target Incubator program. It also recently closed a $1.5 million funding round and received $10,000 for winning first place at the WERCBench Labs Accelerator Demo Day.
Ruhongeka Ntabala, 24
CEO and founder of Okayge and business intelligence analyst at Johnson Controls
Ntabala started Okayge in 2018 as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The West Allis-based startup recently launched a smartphone app called Dityer that aims to help small businesses sell and deliver their items during the Covid-19 pandemic. The app serves as both a digital marketplace where small businesses can sell their goods to customers, and a delivery service using independent drivers to ship those goods around Milwaukee in the same day.
Through the app, consumers can shop and purchase items in a "virtual mall." Once an item is purchased, a Dityer driver goes to the store, picks up the package, and delivers it to the consumer that day. Dityer so far has around 120 drivers in its delivery network. Ntabala is also a business intelligence analyst at Johnson Controls.
Aditya Parihar, 21, and Kit Chow, 20
Co-founders of BoostedChews
Parihar and Chow are UW-Madison students and the founders of BoostedChews, a Madison startup that makes caffeinated chocolate chew candies. Launched in 2019, BoostedChews set out to create a caffeinated snack that could give you a boost of energy when you need it throughout the day. Each chew has 33 mg of caffeine, with three chews equalling about one cup of coffee. BoostedChews sells its products online, including through a subscription service, and can also be found at the Fresh Cool Drinks food cart and at Sencha Tea Bar on State Street in Madison.
The startup was recently chosen to participate in the gBETA Madison Fall 2020 cohort, which kicks off in October.
Jack Ryan, 25
CEO and founder of LastLock
Founded in 2019, LastLock is a smart lock system that allows for easy installation into any door’s existing hardware. Electronic sensors are placed in the startup's smart cylinder, which scan and store the physical key’s profile, allowing owners to digitally manage, track and grant access. Led by Ryan, a UW-Madison graduate, the startup was one of four companies to receive a $100,000 investment from gener8tor as part of its inaugural Accelerator Studio, a program designed to build startups from scratch using only Wisconsin-based entrepreneurs. The startup also took part in the Wisconsin Governor’s 2020 Business Plan Contest, where it finished first in its category.
Patty Newby, 24 and Ellie Pearl, 25
Project manager and in-house counsel intern at gener8tor
Newby and Pearl, a project manager and in-house counsel intern at gener8tor, respectively, both played large roles in the firm's Covid-19 response programs earlier this year. As the coronavirus began to take hold in March, gener8tor almost overnight spun up an Emergency Response Program (EPR), which consisted of one-week virtual programs for small businesses, nonprofits, startups, freelancers and artists affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. The firm provided free, one-on-one consultations to companies struggling to stay alive during the early days of the outbreak.
Newby was one of the key people on the gener8tor team who made the ERP happen, from identifying webinar speakers to hosting office hours with participants, gener8tor said. Pearl's focus was on the financial assistance side, working with gener8tor staff and ERP participants on Paycheck Protection Program loans, state and county-specific grants, and more.
Ian Buchanan, 25
CEO and co-founder of Helium Books
Buchanan is the co-founder of Helium Books, a startup that offers library-sourced book delivery to residents of Milwaukee County. The startup essentially digitizes the library book checkout process and delivers items within 48 hours or less.
The service is currently free, but the startup says it plans to eventually charge a service fee. The goal is to make renting books from the library more efficient, and provide a more cost effective option than purchasing a book that you'll only read once.
Loren Nelson, 21
Founder and CEO of Lëvor
Nelson founded Milwaukee hair care startup Lëvor in 2018 to provide organic beauty products for people of all hair types. Designed for both women and men, Lëvor's products include hydration therapy oil, style cream and the company's signature hair mask. The company also offers beard butter and oil for men.
The startup, which finished in second place in the Wisconsin Big Idea Tournament in June, says its mission is to "desegregate the haircare industry." The company won more than $18,000 through business plan and pitch competitions in the last eight months and recently expanded operations internationally, now selling products wholesale in both Chile and Algeria. Next year, the startup plans to bring its product into more than 20 new retail locations.
Alycia Doxon, 25
Board member of Frontdesk
Doxon is another familiar face on our Inno under 25 list. After rising to the role COO of Milwaukee startup Frontdesk, she was appointed to the company's board just last month. Doxon, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, started with Frontdesk in 2017 as a city manager.
Frontdesk, a startup that offers short-term apartment rentals for business and vacation travelers, raised $6.8 million in April in part to help weather the coronavirus storm. The company operates in dozens of cities with hundreds of apartment suites for business and vacation travelers.
James Kardatzke, 20
CEO and co-founder of Quiver Quantitative
After an internship at a Boston hedge fund, Kardatzke founded Madison-based Quiver in January as an investment research platform that bridges the information gap between non-professional investors and Wall Street. Since launching the platform with his twin brother Chris in February, the site has grown to over 17,000 registered users who use it to make better investment decisions.
The list is based on nominations and Wisconsin Inno’s editorial selection process. Want to connect with Inno? Give us a shout: WisconsinInfo@AmericanInno.com
