The BREW Accelerator. Image via The Water Council
While startup activity in Wisconsin has lagged behind other states, there is an emerging energy around supporting the development of early-stage companies across the state. A critical piece of any startup ecosystem are accelerators and incubators, which help entrepreneurs convert their ideas into successful business ventures and bring them to market.
Accelerator programs are typically fixed-length, structured programs that offer companies access to mentors, business coaching and intensive programming designed to develop different aspects of their businesses. Accelerators often offer financial support in the form of cash grants, debt, equity or other funding.
Incubators, on the other hand, generally do not have a fixed cohort length or program requirements, but instead offer an ongoing support system of coaching and connections as entrepreneurs develop their early-stage ventures. An incubator is more like a coworking space-with-benefits; companies have access to office space (often discounted) and office resources, but additionally to the structured guidance of the incubator’s team and network. Some incubators take equity and make seed investments, while others simply provide the benefit of access to seasoned entrepreneurs and peer startups.
Below is a comprehensive guide to Wisconsin’s accelerator programs, startup incubators, student accelerators and some upcoming ventures that are still in development. We’ve given details where available on location, cohort length, investment, cost or equity taken and target audience.
Accelerators
- Location: Milwaukee, WI
- Length: 6 months, with an option to receive low-cost space for an additional 6 months
- More Information: Founded in 2013 by The Water Council, The BREW is a startup accelerator for companies in the water technology space. The accelerator is in the process of launching its fifth cohort, and past companies include the Water Resources Monitoring Group, which measures and monitors agricultural runoff, and Cadens, which designs and manufactures small and micro-scale hydropower systems. The program accepts up to six companies for each 12 month cycle and offers up to $50,000 per startup as a two year convertible note. More on application criteria and benefits here.
- Location: Madison, WI
- Length: 6 months
- More Information: Bunker Labs offers several programs for veterans. Launch Lab Online gives individuals the tools they need to make their idea a reality. This all-online educational platform is a gamified, interactive way to get an entrepreneurship education – from anywhere in the world at one's own pace. Then, for veterans and military families who have started a business, the WeWork Veterans in Residence program provides veterans space, services, and a community they need to find their tribe and create their life’s work. Lastly, CEO Circle, is a monthly meeting surrounding CEO’s of validated, stable companies with the resources, networks, and mentors they need to position their company for future success (i.e. hiring, expanding to new markets, raising additional financing). Open to successful veteran CEO’s & small business owners on an invitation-only basis.
- Location: Madison, WI
- Length: 12 months
- More Information: The Doyenne accelerator and Doyenne Evergreen Fund are aimed at supporting women and minority entrepreneurs. Three types of funding are available to accelerator companies: grants (up to $5,000) and equity investments (between $25,000-$50,000). The accelerator program takes place over a 12 month period, with periodic commitments for member companies. Doyenne considers applications on a rolling basis, once per quarter. More on application criteria here.
- Location: Milwaukee, WI
- Length: 9 months
- More Information: The Food and Beverage Wisconsin industry group operates a “capacity and capitalization” accelerator for growing food and beverage companies. Now in its second cohort, the organization selects ten companies each year to participate in its business coaching curriculum. The accelerator offers periodic meetings with FaB Wisconsin staff and experts at area food companies, and helps each member company develop marketing, sales, operations and business plans. Participating companies receive $10,000 cash awards at the end of the program.
- Location: Madison, WI and Milwaukee, WI
- Length: 12 weeks
- More Information: Gener8tor is Wisconsin’s most established and well-known accelerator program. With offices in Madison and Milwaukee (as well as in Minneapolis), the organization selects just five companies for each 12-week cohort. Gener8tor considers applications from a wide industry range of startups, including software, IT, web, SaaS, life science, medtech, e-commerce and hardware, and it offers access to a broad network of mentors, investors and corporate partners. Each company receives $20,000 in exchange for 6-7% equity, plus a $80,000 guarantee for follow on capital in the form of a convertible note.
- Location: Beloit, WI, Madison, WI, Milwaukee, WI, Northeast, WI
- Length: 7 weeks
- More Information: gBETA is a seven week accelerator run by gener8tor that is aimed at earlier stage companies across Wisconsin and the Midwest. Similar to the gener8tor program, each cohort accepts only 5 companies per city, but gBETA is free, with no fees or equity required to participate. Companies receive office space for the seven week program, as well as mentoring and coaching at twice-weekly meetings. gBETA’s goal is to prepare companies for either participation in a full-scale accelerator program or to raise a seed round of funding.
- Location: Madison, WI
- Length: 10 weeks
- More Information: This Madison-based seed stage accelerator accepts early-stage companies started by UW-Madison faculty, staff, alumni and students, as well as startups from the greater Madison community. The ten week program requires roughly a 20 hour/week commitment from participating companies. Working with Madworks staff, companies develop a set of weekly milestones to complete throughout the accelerator cohort. Companies can receive up to $5,000 in grant funding.
- Location: Milwaukee, WI
- Length: 6 months
- More Information: Scale Up Milwaukee has two accelerators that provide access to expert faculty, tools and other other resources to stimulate growth for businesses in the region. These accelerators are hosted by the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center at UW-Milwaukee. Their Growth Accelerator is a high growth training program for businesses with approximately $1M-$10M in annual revenue. Led by UWM faculty and industry experts, sessions focus on increasing growth ambition and capacity by improving sales and marketing, organizational development and finances. Their second program, SPARC, provides growth training program for ambitious minority- and women- owned businesses in the Milwaukee area with annual revenue between $100,000 and $1M.
- Location: Milwaukee, WI
- Length: 16 weeks
- More Information: WERCBench Labs Accelerator is a program for start-up companies in the Energy, Power and Controls sector with innovative products and services to advance technologies. Their accelerator uses the lean startup method and helps companies advance to investor readiness. Each business receives up to $40,000 in grants and royalty-based financing. The 16-week program, gives energy industry entrepreneurs access to advice from seasoned professionals, laboratory and testing space, small scale production equipment and the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Rapid Prototyping Center. It also offers connections to top engineers and researchers and culminates with a “Demo Day” featuring a $10,000 top prize.
Student Accelerators
The Commons Skills Accelerator
- Location: Milwaukee, WI
- Length: 3 weeks
- More Information: The Skills Accelerator is an educational student accelerator run by The Commons, and initiative of the non-profit Greater Milwaukee Committee. For each cohort, university students are divided into groups and challenged to create a company or new product from scratch. The program runs on a semester cycle and each semester, five student startup ideas are chosen to run through the program. Students commit roughly 8-10 hours/week to The Skills Accelerator and can often receive internship credit from their universities. The program is free.
- Location: Whitewater, WI
- Length: Semester-length
- More Information: The UW-Whitewater Launch Pad accelerator is open to undergraduate and graduate students at UW-Whitewater. The accelerator does not take any equity in student startups, and while it doesn’t offer funding, participating companies will have access to the Launch Pad network including to potential investors. Startups are given space at the Whitewater Tech Park Innovation center and participate in weekly meetings and workshops to develop different aspects of their businesses.
- Location: Oshkosh, WI
- Length: 12 weeks
- More Information: The Alta Resources Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UW-Oshkosh offers a 12 week program for student startups called the Titan Accelerator. Five to seven student teams are selected each semester and receive up to $5,000 to put towards their ventures. The two most rapidly-scalable, high-growth startup business will have an opportunity to participate in the Summer Incubator Program, which gives teams an additional $5,000, a weekly stipend and space to work through the summer.
Incubators
- Location: Janesville, WI
- More Information: The Janesville Innovation Center is owned by the City of Janesville and operated by a non-profit entity, Janesville Innovation Inc. The space is meant to serve young enterprises in Southeast Wisconsin, ideally companies established in the last three years. The JIC provides affordable turnkey office space, business coaching and mentoring, and access to the JIC Tenant Loan Fund, which provides startups with working capital to scale their ventures.
- Location: Madison, WI
- More Information: The Madison Enterprise Center is a joint venture between Madison Gas and Electric and the non-profit Common Wealth. Young businesses, if accepted, can remain a part of the incubator for three to five years, accessing affordable rent, business assistance and resource-matching. Current member companies range from a recruiting firm to a hot sauce company.
Technology Innovation Center at Research Park
Location: Milwaukee, WI More Information: The Technology Innovation Center features 20,000 square-feet of state-of-the-art wet laboratories, 50,000 square-feet of office and IT space and 10,000 square-feet of recently renovated common areas, light manufacturing space and office suites, with two board rooms, two conference rooms and two classroom facilities with the latest AV technology. More here.
Whitewater Tech Park Innovation Center
- Location: Whitewater, WI
- More Information: The Whitewater Tech Park Innovation Center is a startup incubator offering office and lab space, mentorship and business consultation and workshops for member companies. You can apply to gain access to their services and resources here.
- Location: Madison, WI
- More Information: StartingBlock’s 50,000+ square foot entrepreneurial hub is a place for entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and community members to connect, share innovative ideas, and create next-generation businesses. They provide affordable and flexible workspace, access to investors, a centralized network of existing and emerging industry players, professional advisors and mentors, accelerator programs, and education and community programming.
- Location: Green Bay, WI
- More Information: Formed out of a partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft, TitletownTech builds and funds early-stage high-growth businesses. They create solutions, build startups, and invest in entrepreneurs across five key verticals: sports/media & entertainment, digital health, agriculture/water & environment, advanced manufacturing and supply chain technology. Through their three-part structure (The Innovation Lab, The Venture Studio and The Venture Fund), they enable innovation, exploration and disruption to address industry challenges.
For more accelerators visit in Wisconsin.
Updated on April 3, 2020.
