Wednesday night we hosted our State of Innovation: Wellness Inno event. We had a packed house full of local startups and folks from Wisconsin tech ecosystem. Thank you to our amazing founding partner, the Medical College of Wisconsin for powering the event last week.
The night was centered around a panel discussion moderated by Jim Dallke, senior editor for Wisconsin Inno. The panel featured: Bob Kebbekus, CEO of OnKol, Kalpa Vithalani, Assistant Director at the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Office of Technology Development and Sherry Zhang, founder and CEO of GenoPalate.
We discussed building a healthcare/wellness startup in Wisconsin, the challenges involved and why the area is a good place to build such a business. Our top takeaways are:
- Wisconsin is a good place to start a healthcare or wellness company because the state has a strong history with biohealth sectors
- Wisconsin’s health and wellness startup community is growing because more angel investors and venture capitalists are providing resources to help them scale
- Wisconsin’s healthtech sector is largely supported by the local universities, such as University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette, which provide research and talent
- The Medical College of Wisconsin works with more than 100 partners, many of whom are tech startups. MCW helps provide the research and scientists to spin out companies.
- The panelists advice for hiring: Find people that love startup culture and can operate efficiently. To find them, connect with the local universities and attend networking events. Try to hire as organically as possible.
- To move a startup from the academic space to the business world, first make sure there’s a market need for your product. Then find the right executive team and funding.
We also heard startup pitches from Randy Nagy, CEO of Gentueri and Russ Rymut, CEO of Nobo, Inc.
A big thank you to everyone who attended, participated and helped make last week successful! Be sure to check out the photo gallery below, plus more about our panel and startup pitch companies.
Wellness Innovation Panel
Dr. Sherry Zhang, founder and CEO of GenoPalate Zhang is a mother, a scientist and an entrepreneur. Her passion for life has taken her from researching obesity genetics as a Medical College of Wisconsin professor to founding GenoPalate, a company that provides a direct-to-consumer solution for eating uniquely based on genetics for a healthier life.
Bob Kebbekus, CEO of OnKol Bob Kebbekus is the CEO of Always In Touch, Inc. d/b/a OnKöl. Bob is responsible for the design and execution of corporate strategy and is also the Chief Fundraising Officer of AIT. He has owned and operated healthcare related companies for over 15 years. OnKöl provides Remote Patient Monitoring service and software solution that enables individuals through the continuum of care, to effortlessly communicate with relatives, health care givers and healthcare providers their medical information and health conditions in real-time. The company has created a unique niche in a crowded marketplace that can help bend the cost curve on healthcare expenditures. Bob also serves as an advisor to MedFuse.io a IoMT conference – “uniting connected medical innovation pioneers”.
Kalpa Vithalani, Assistant Director in the Office of Technology Development at MCW Kalpa facilitates the transfer of technology generated from research and clinical practices into commercial products that benefit the public. She brings over a decade of broad experience to the Medical College of Wisconsin in the intellectual property (IP) management life cycle, from conception through commercialization. She identifies and evaluates novel MCW inventions, manages IP protection and negotiates win-win commercialization agreements to bring research to life. Kalpa teaches courses on IP and commercialization at MCW and has taught in Milwaukee’s NSF I-Corps program. Kalpa was a scientific evaluator for Karolinska Innovations at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. She is a 10-time judge for the WI Governor’s Business Plan Contest, a current judge for the Foxconn Smart Cities Competition and an executive Board member of BioForward.
Startup Pitch Showcase
Gentueri The Future of biological sample collection. Our patented non-invasive sample collection and preservation devices make sample collection as easy as possible in about one minute. Samples are processed in the collection device for efficiency and to minimize transfer error. They currently provide the WI crime laboratory sexual assault kits and are now expanding into the personal genomics market.
Nobo, Inc. Nobo provides new insights into the human body. They are developing innovative new ways for trainers to understand their athletes, clinicians to understand their patients, and people to understand themselves.
Thank you to our Founding Partner, the Medical College of Wisconsin.
