At least 275 Wisconsin startup founders and members of the local entrepreneurship community packed into Milwaukee's Ward4 coworking space Wednesday evening for the seventh Founder/Fest event hosted by the growing Milwaukee Founders Community organization.
The event attracted founders from beyond Milwaukee, with attendees also hailing from Madison and Racine, among other places. Organizers report receiving more than 400 RSVPs for the event, including several from out of state.
“It’s definitely having a bit of a ripple effect outside of Milwaukee," Milwaukee Founders Community co-founder Nick O'Brien said.
The Milwaukee Founders Community was formed in 2021 when local startup founders including O'Brien hosted the first Founder/Fest event designed to create connections among local entrepreneurs. Seeing that their efforts have resonated, they're raising money to sustain and grow their operation.
The group is looking to raise around $250,000 through grants, corporate donations and community partnerships. As it grows, it plans to bring in venture capital investors from outside the state and locally to help founders raise capital, and it also envisions hosting pitch competitions where entrepreneurs could win non-equity financing and pilots with corporate customers.
Additionally, the Milwaukee Founders Community is also looking to organize an angel investing network largely consisting of founders who have successfully sold their businesses or taken their company public, O'Brien said. That network would provide both capital and advice for earlier-stage entrepreneurs.
Leaders of the Milwaukee Founders Community also include Jeremy Fojut of Rivet, which was formerly Like|Minded; Nadiyah Johnson of the Milky Way Tech Hub; Tán Ho of Fiveable; Angela Damiani of NEWaukee and Molly Mattefs of Charcuter-Me.
The well-known startup accelerator and venture capital firm gener8tor helped host Wednesday evening's event, and gener8tor co-founders Joe Kirgues and Troy Vosseller shared lessons from 10 years of expanding from the firm's Wisconsin roots to having a national and international reach.
As attendees networked in a party-like atmosphere at Ward4 in Milwaukee's Pritzlaff Building, four founders shared their stories in a quieter setting down the hall in gener8tor's office. Scroll through the slideshow above to see photos.
Paul Stillmank, the founder and former CEO of the technology services firm 7Summits, shared the backstory of starting the company and eventually selling it to IBM in early 2021. He also said he's starting a new company in the field of artificial intelligence and data.
Richard Yau, co-founder of the growing personalized wine subscription company Bright Cellars, talked about growing that Milwaukee-based startup and stepping back as CEO last year. He also discussed his latest venture, a positivity-focused email newsletter startup called Revel Media.
Rex Academy co-founder and CEO Sandhya "Sandy" Padala talked about launching her computer science education startup after struggling to hire software experts when she was a technology design director at Harley-Davidson Inc.
Wellacy Health co-founder Marlon Ross, who recently relocated to Milwaukee from Dallas, shared details about the patient engagement platform he's building with the goal of reducing health disparities and improving care for chronic conditions. The startup is launching a paid pilot this summer with a Pennsylvania medical provider, he said.
