The grind of entrepreneurship, the importance of community among startup founders and the challenge of overcoming mental health struggles were themes throughout the third Milwaukee Founder/Fest event held Thursday evening at the new Eagleknit Innovation Hub in Walker's Point.
See more on the event in the attached slideshow.
For the first time, the event awarded a microgrant to one participating entrepreneur. Montréal Cain, the Milwaukee founder of preventative care mental health app MERA, took home $3,200 after receiving the most votes from attendees — many of whom were other founders.
Of the prize money, $2,500 came from Milwaukee Founder/Fest sponsors and the rest came from ballot purchases. Casting a ballot required a minimum donation of $10 but some people gave as much as $150. Regardless of donation size, each person had one vote and all of the ballot proceeds were added to the cash prize.
The other featured startups competing for the microgrant were augmented reality healthy grocery shopping app Food FiXR, Relatable Health and Peyso.
Former SwanLeap Inc. CEO and founder Brad Hollister was the keynote speaker. Additionally, founders including Nicole Tilot of AppEase, Dominic Anzalone of Rent College Pads, Shayvon McCullum of Secure Bridges and Elizabeth Fowler of Knit Analytics spoke to share their stories and answer questions from other founders.
The event was also a chance for local founders to celebrate. With Madison's DJ Boyfrrriend playing music, Milwaukee's Indeed Brewing Co. serving beer and Milwaukee's Primer Electrolyte Charged Hard Seltzers offering their new line of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, the event had a party-like atmosphere.
Milwaukee Founder/Fest was organized by Milwaukee entrepreneurs Jeremy Fojut, Nick O'Brien and Nadiyah Johnson. The group describes itself as "a decentralized, asynchronous group of founders aiming to gather and support Milwaukee’s startup founders."
