Like almost every large metropolitan area across the globe, Milwaukee's economy has been impacted by shutdowns forced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a recent report by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., helping the local, and statewide, economy recover will require supporting innovative startups and entrepreneurs.
During the Milwaukee Business Journal Technology Roundtable Thursday, some of the most notable members of the region's tech industry offered perspectives on how that can be achieved.
To set itself apart, Milwaukee leaders need to think of a way in a manner that "has a higher rate of acceleration than say Minnesota, or Illinois, or Michigan," said Troy Vosseller, co-founder of nationally-ranked and Wisconsin startup accelerator gener8tor.
One way is to increase the amount of venture capital dollars flowing throughout the state, which lags behind most neighboring states.
The WEDC's report shows Wisconsin’s tech startups will require about $200 million in new funding over the next 12 months, which will be a challenge as overall investment activity "appears to have slowed as many investors showed skittishness amid economic uncertainty," per the report.
"Minnesota, as a state, still raises almost twice the amount of venture capital into their state, and most of that is imported," Vosseller said. "And when you compound that over a decade, you're looking at about a billion dollars of capital that our next door neighbor gets over 10 years that we're not getting — and when you think about just the trickle down effects of that, the multiplier effects of that within the economy.
"I frankly think we're missing out and so whatever mechanism we can do, whether it's government chipping in, whether it's folks like SWIB (State of Wisconsin Investment Board) or other private institutions be it foundations, endowments, corporations getting involved by investing in their local community via the venture capital vehicle, I think that's going to be key to us pulling out of this."
Other solutions include closing the broadband and connectivity gap for students in Milwaukee. Tina Chang, CEO of Brookfield-based SysLogic, said about 15,000 elementary-age students have no internet connectivity, most of them minorities.
"Fifteen thousand students, without even doing some heavy counting, are not going to be ready for that tech job," she said. "That's just general learning, not ready to do that tech job 15 years from now. That's not OK, so we need to jump on this one right now. We need to make it our priority, but then, we also have to commit and recognize that connectivity is just getting people over that technology poverty line. We've got to do better than that."
The WEDC recommends pilot programs and funding innovative ideas, incentivizing firms to work with seed accelerators, mentoring, investing in a Wisconsin-based venture fund that is solely focused on supporting Wisconsin entrepreneurs, and identifying trends in innovation that can be supported through entrepreneurship.
John Zeratsky, a Wisconsin native and former product and project designer at Google and YouTube now living in Milwaukee, says for innovation to flourish within an economy, it has to be community driven.
"There's a lot of examples of how when communities, when cities, regions, try to build entrepreneurial ecosystems by focusing on one thing, and they say, oh, we need this, and we need more of that. Or this is the missing piece, especially when it comes from the top-down, or when it's purely from government or public funding sources," he said. "Those things might have a short-term effect, but they tend to not be sustainable."
Zeratsky co-authored the book "Sprint," which teaches innovators how to test their ideas in five days. Originally from Green Lake, Zeratsky attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He spent six years as design partner at Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Google, where he worked with Google's portfolio of invested companies.
"I think that the most important thing is to develop a community-driven, kind of a tight-knit level of energy and enthusiasm that is by the community and for the community, and in support of the community of entrepreneurs," he said.
