
Get insights on technology, the economy and politics through "Inside Wisconsin," a weekly column by Tom Still.
Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council and the Wisconsin Innovation Network. He is the former associate editor of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.
Still serves on the board of directors for the Wisconsin Security Research Consortium and “We the People/Wisconsin,’ the UW-Extension Board of Visitors, the UW-Madison College of Engineering Industrial Advisory Board, and the WiSys Technology Foundation Advisory Board, among other civic and business groups. He moderated the Wisconsin Economic Summits (2000-2003) and "Inside Wisconsin" appears regularly in 24 publications. He is a lecturer in the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Still is the co-author of “Hands-On Environmentalism,” published by Encounter Books, New York.
May 10, 2012
Neil Peters-Michaud doesn’t look much like a miner. He doesn’t carry around a pickax or wear a hardhat, but he’s uncovering deposits of gold, silver, copper and other minerals every day.
May 4, 2012
The first thing to recognize about magazine polls on state business rankings is they are all, by nature, subjective.
April 27, 2012
The latest job loss figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics may have been just a snapshot in time, but it wasn’t a pretty picture.
April 19, 2012
Even when his audience isn’t made up of scientists or engineers, David Krakauer usually gets an opening laugh when he warns his after-dinner chat is about the laws of thermodynamics.
April 12, 2012
Back in 1916, when the Marshfield Clinic was founded by a handful of forward-looking physicians, it didn’t seem so isolated. In fact, Marshfield stood at the crossroads of several major railroads – and the passenger lines that passed through were a steady source of people in need of care.
April 5, 2012
You’ve been thinking about starting your own company for quite a while. In fact, the ideas you jotted down on your laptop are haunting you each night as you wonder, “What if someone else does this first?”
March 27, 2012
President Obama endorsed it. The Senate passed it by a 3-to-1 margin. The margin of victory in the House of Representatives was even higher. Interest groups such as the National Venture Capital Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization have praised it.
March 20, 2012
Sun Prairie’s Wind Power Happy Hour is back on the social calendar. Unless you’re someone who follows the wonky ups and downs of the wind energy business in Wisconsin, the return of these periodic get-togethers at Sun Prairie’s Cannery Grill will pass over you like… well, a cool spring breeze.
March 15, 2012
Lisa Johnson, the Madison entrepreneur who is vice president of innovation for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., had a front row seat at a recent gathering of angel investors from across the United States and beyond.
March 9, 2012
Some members of the Wisconsin Legislature wouldn’t vote for streamlined state mining rules if The Lorax himself descended from above to run the drilling rig. Others would vote for any bill that makes it easier to extract ore in Wisconsin, regardless of the risks to land, air and water.
March 1, 2012
It’s no secret that Wisconsin falls well below average among the 50 states when it comes to attracting venture capital, a class of private investment dollars vital to building small startups into jobs-producing companies. However, other building blocks already in place could improve the state’s venture picture over time.
February 22, 2012
When Wisconsin entrepreneurs smell opportunity, it sometimes smells like fish. Or freshly brewed beer. Or a cheese-based protein energy drink.
February 16, 2012
There’s a scene in “The Princess Bride,” shortly after the hero Westley is apparently tortured to death by Prince Humperdinck, in which Westley’s friends bring his body to the cottage of Miracle Max – played by Billy Crystal.
February 15, 2012
You’ve no doubt heard of “out-sourcing” – the practice of American companies moving jobs overseas, often to save money on labor costs.
February 10, 2012
Gordon Gee is president of The Ohio State University, the nation’s third largest in terms of students and a research leader with a reported R&D budget of $828.5 million for 2010-2011. One might think he has better things to do than chastise the UW-Madison’s football coach.
February 8, 2012
In his State of the Union address, President Obama described “an economy built on manufacturing” and outlined strategies to help American industry continue a recent trend of bringing offshore jobs home.
January 30, 2012
While the Internet should be neither above nor below the law, Congress must take care not to undermine a platform rooted in the most exportable of American values – freedom of expression.
January 27, 2012
The numbers behind the rise of Epic Systems, a pioneer-turned-leader in the digital health records business, may surprise even those who are familiar with the story.
January 19, 2012
The announced move of Kestrel Aircraft Corp. to Superior, Wis., may strike some skeptics as a curious landing strip for a company in the business of making small passenger planes. Don’t bail out on this story just yet. Wisconsin has more air and space credibility than meets the eye.
January 12, 2012
The debate over venture versus vulture capital is a distinction between Wall Street and Main Street. The buyout funds that sometimes eliminate jobs are a far cry from the angel, early stage and venture groups that work with young companies close to home.
January 6, 2012
It’s a foregone conclusion that Gov. Scott Walker won’t hit his goal of 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin by 2015.
December 29, 2011
By Tom Still
So long, 2011, a year in which the economy flirted with recovery, and welcome to 2012, a year that may spring out of the blocks but encounter hurdles down the track. Here are some trends worth following.
December 21, 2011
A source close to the toy industry has once again leaked a copy of Santa’s perks list for Wisconsin politicians and newsmakers. Here’s what the good boys and girls in Madison and Washington will reportedly find in their stockings this Christmas. But they better not pout and they better not cry if an alert district attorney asks why gifts were delivered down chimneys after midnight.
December 15, 2011
The 250 or so people who gathered this month for the 40th annual meeting of the La Crosse Area Development Corp. aren’t without their differences. The crowd included business leaders and educators, Republicans and Democrats, “townies” and academic gowns, and even a few politicians who have butted heads in recent elections.
December 5, 2011
Click here to read Tom Still's Dec. 4, 2011, column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in which he describes the phenomenon of business clusters in Wisconsin.
December 1, 2011
The decision by a California company to halt its study of a stem cell-based treatment for spinal cord injuries is less about whether such therapies will work than the monumental regulatory and financial hurdles that stand in the way.
November 29, 2011
One study after another has lamented the fact that America is producing fewer scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians than our competitors in Europe and Asia. As the baby boom generation begins to retire, that’s a threat to the economy and to national security.
November 21, 2011
Instead of “Forward,” perhaps the state motto should be amended to “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back and One Sideways.”
November 11, 2011
This month’s announcement that Thiel Cheese & Ingredients of Hilbert has been acquired by the Irish Dairy Board might have struck some people as a bit odd. Have the Irish run out of dairy farmers or lost their historic knack for making cheese? Read full Tom Still commentary on the rise of foreign direct investment in Wisconsin
here.
November 7, 2011
Click
here to read Tom Still's latest column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in which he writes about the success of two Wisconsin companies locked in a national race to produce a commonly used medical isotope -- and how their presence here exemplifies the state's start-up sector.
November 1, 2011
Stratatech is a Wisconsin company at the forefront of efforts to develop substitute skin. It’s also a prime example of how emerging companies with innovative technology can compete for, and win, federal research grants that speed discoveries into the marketplace.
October 28, 2011
With the Wisconsin Legislature huddled in the Capitol to debate ideas for improving Wisconsin’s economy, it’s only fitting that some of the companies actually shaping the state’s future will be gathered two blocks away next week.
October 25, 2011
Click
here to read Tech Council President Tom Still's latest column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in which he compares the advantages of investing in a state-leveraged venture program to other successful economic development strategies.
October 20, 2011
Delore Zimmerman likes a lot of what he sees in Wisconsin’s economy: its tradition of high-performing, globally competitive companies; its above-average export growth; and what he describes as a “robust” tech-based ecosystem driven by business, university and government.
October 14, 2011
Darin Buelow of Deloitte Consulting’s Chicago office is a Badger in almost every way that counts. He’s a Madison native, married a Madison native, graduated from UW-Madison and describes himself as a “proud Green Bay Packers shareholder” – an attribute he may not flaunt every day while strolling down on Wacker Drive.
October 14, 2011
Click
here to read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story on continuing efforts in Wisconsin to create a state-leveraged plan to foster creation of more angel and venture capital. The discussion took place at a meeting of the Wisconsin Innovation Network in Milwaukee.
October 3, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. – At first glance, it’s an unlikely collection of people: Ranchers, farmers, economic development professionals, technologists and small business owners, all descending on the nation’s capital to talk about an issue that might easily get lost among other priorities in Congress.
September 26, 2011
Connecticut launched the nation’s first state-leveraged venture capital program 35 years ago. Today, more than 30 states have similar funds, including many of Wisconsin’s neighbors and peers.
The story of Connecticut’s success in building its supply of venture capital is among the reasons why Wisconsin should also embrace a bipartisan approach to developing sources of capital for its high-growth, early stage companies.
September 20, 2011
Google has acquired 103 companies in roughly 10 years, including three – Zave Networks, Zagat and Daily Deal – this month alone. Does that make Google a menacing threat to consumers, or a wildly successful company that knows innovation when it sees it?
September 11, 2011
Ten years ago, America was under attack from suicidal zealots who turned hijacked airplanes into bombs. Today, the threats to the nation’s security might just as easily come from cyber-terrorists or biological weapons no larger than a few molecules.
September 2, 2011
For 50 years or more, researchers in Wisconsin and around the world have used cells derived from human fetal tissue to pursue cures for chronic diseases, to develop and produce vaccines and to conduct basic research on a wide range of human health issues.
August 25, 2011
Toni Sikes delivered more than 100 investment pitches on behalf of early stage companies – including her own – to venture capitalists over the course of a dozen years. During that time, Sikes recalled, she met two women venture capitalists, one in New York and the other in Seattle. “All the others were men,” said the Madison-based entrepreneur. Today, Sikes is just another one of the boys.
August 17, 2011
If you didn’t know that Exact Sciences was on the verge of a breakthrough in the war against cancer, you might conclude it’s a company on the ropes. The Madison-based firm reported earlier this month that it lost about $6.6 million in the latest quarter and about $11 million for the first six months of 2011, numbers that could signal trouble for most publically traded companies of its size.
August 10, 2011
The high-stakes fight for control of Wisconsin’s state Senate is over. The even higher stakes debate about securing the state’s economic future should resume now. With Tuesday’s recall elections keeping Republicans in control of the Senate, albeit with a thin 17-16 margin, an opportunity exists in Madison to get back to the business of governing and rebuilding Wisconsin’s economy.
August 1, 2011
MADISON – Even after the federal debt ceiling is raised, one thing is certain about federal spending over the next decade: There will be less of it than expected. To be precise, federal spending will drop by about $2.4 trillion from current estimates. That means a full range of programs, from social services to defense to academic research, are likely to feel the pinch.
July 27, 2011
It’s hard to fault GE Healthcare for wanting to expand its reach into China, where more than 1.3 billion people account for nearly one of every five human beings on the planet. There’s no bigger emerging market for medical equipment in the world.
July 15, 2011
Name the industry in which you would expect to find the following science and technology professionals: Chemical engineers, computer programmers, computer systems analysts, electrical engineers, environmental scientists, geochemists, geo-engineers, geophysicists, drafting technologists, metallurgical engineers and quality control engineers.
July 15, 2011
President Barack Obama recently hosted the first-ever White House “Twitter town hall” and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has shown himself to be a social media junkie, as well. This means it’s only a matter of time before they engage in their own bipartisan Tweet-a-thon, complete with hash tags.
July 3, 2011
He may be nearing the end of his career on Capitol Hill, but U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl is playing a key role in the Federal Trade Commission’s inquiry into the Internet search practices of technology giant Google.
June 20, 2011
Click
here to read a June 19 column by Tom Still on why the search for a replacement for UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin should include business leaders with knowledge of how higher education can help build an economy.
June 10, 2011
It’s hard to think of an academic research field today that isn’t driven by the ability to analyze, send and receive huge sets of data. From genomics to astronomy, and from biotechnology to medical imaging, scientific research today is inexorably linked to high-end computing and network connections.
May 31, 2011
By Tom Still
San Francisco tech tycoon Peter Thiel is paying people not to go to college. He may be on to something. Thiel isn’t paying just any bunch of slackers to avoid ivy-covered walls, however. He’s awarding $100,000 each to two-dozen young entrepreneurs whom he believes will help society more by chasing their dreams than by chasing a diploma.
May 24, 2011
By Tom Still
The numbers are hard to dispute: Kids who attend organized but relatively inexpensive pre-school programs are more likely to graduate from high school, to earn more as adults, to stay off welfare and to avoid spending time in jail.
May 19, 2011
By Tom Still
MADISON – Here’s a quick geography quiz. Where is the “Valley of Death” located?
(a) Some place faraway and biblical
(b) Some place in southern California
(c) Someplace in Wisconsin
If you’re a Wisconsin entrepreneur in search of venture capital, the “Valley of Death” is a bit too close to home. That forbidding term describes the funding gap for early stage companies caught between their initial rounds of investment – family, friends, founders and angel investors – and follow-up rounds from venture capitalists.
December 27, 2010
If the bill reauthorizing federal Small Business Innovation Research grants doesn’t pass before the 112th Congress takes office Jan. 4, the whole process starts from scratch and the program will expire Jan. 31, 2011.