In 2013, my family and I moved back to Milwaukee from Chicago and as a result, I have become involved with the venture capital community here in the state. This work has taken many shapes: serving as a mentor and investor within the gener8tor ecosystem, vetting and investing in Wisconsin venture capital fund managers and forming bonds with bright entrepreneurs in the Wisconsin VC community.
As an investor— as a risk taker — and to an extent as an outside perspective, I would like to share my holiday wish list for the Wisconsin venture capital community in 2017.
Applied Venture Capital Management Program: In 1970, Professor Stephen Hawk founded the Applied Security Analysis Program (ASAP) in Madison with funding of $100,000 (2016 dollars = $675,000) from the Brittingham Foundation. It was a unique program, a pioneer in the education of real-life security analysis for young investors and is today a common pillar in most regarded universities around the country.
Could Wisconsin academic institutions be more proactive with donor or corporate support and form similar programs with substantial dollars for venture capital investment management? The UW Business School currently has a program for entrepreneurs, why not court student VC investors in the same manner as ASAP? Marquette currently has a small program run by student investors called the Dorm Fund. Can we scale these initial endeavors and attract national VC student investing leaders to the state’s universities and communities? Read the full story here.
;
