More than a dozen Milwaukee-area and Wisconsin-based startups showcased their early-stage companies to angel and venture investors at the Startup + VC Showcase Thursday evening in the Husch Blackwell office at 511 N. Broadway.
Click through the slideshow above to view scenes from the showcase event.
Participating startups included MediCardia, which recently announced it raised $3 million from angel investors and Northwestern Mutual's Cream City Venture Capital; community co-working app WorkAround, which has been popular among local startup founders; and Where to Hunt, a mobile GPS app aiming to help hunters identify occupied hunting land throughout the U.S.
In a panel discussion during the event, Dana Guthrie, managing partner of the Milwaukee-focused early-stage venture capital firm Gateway Capital Partners, and Matthew Friedel, co-founder of local angel investing group Milwaukee Venture Partners Inc., shared tips for startups seeking equity investment.
"We will invest in pre-revenue startups, but we do look for signals," Guthrie said. "We don't invest just in any idea. There has to be some substance there."
For example, Guthrie said her firm invested in its first portfolio company, Tip a Scrxipt, in part because the startup has a pilot customer waiting for the product to be built, as well as a sales pipeline with other potential customers. Friedel agreed that having a clear target customer is key.
"I see a lot of entrepreneurs who are, 'Build it and then the customers will come,'" Friedel said. "Unfortunately, I don't think that's the right mindset to have."
The event was one of more than 40 virtual and in-person gatherings hosted as part of MKE Tech Week. Other companies that showcased included:
- Agricycle Global: A food upcycling startup that announced last month it raised $2.4 million in seed financing.
- BoothCentral: An events management and virtual events hosting platform.
- CrossKudi: A startup building a global money transfer platform. It participated in the Milky Way Tech Hub accelerator this summer.
- Investii: A startup creating a financial technology platform designed to help boost personal savings. It recently placed second in the Summerfest Tech Pitch Competition.
- MuSample: A business consulting service for musicians. It was among several companies that received a $10,000 grant in August through FOR-M, an early-stage startup incubator.
- Plas-Tech Engineering: A medical device manufacturer.
- Simplifeye Systems: A security integration company.
- STEAM Milwaukee: A company that provides kits for teachers to teach hands-on classroom lessons about technology and engineering.
- Unytus: A company building an educational entertainment app designed to help kids embrace diversity. It also received a $10,000 FOR-M grant this summer.
- Vaia: A group travel planning app that placed third in the Summerfest Tech Pitch Competition.
