The company, which has five medical devices that drive precision, efficiency and safety in surgical procedures, will collect prizes worth $50,000 as a result of winning the contest. This was Vector Surgical’s third year in the contest, which this year attracted nearly 300 entries from across
Sixty-five judges took part in a process that progressively narrowed the field to 50 semi-finalists, 26 finalists and four category winners in Advanced Manufacturing, Business Services, Information Technology and Life Sciences. Vector Surgical was the winner in the Life Sciences category.
“The third time was the charm for Janet Phillips and Vector Surgical. This company exemplifies the importance of writing a business plan and constantly improving it over time,” said
Vector Surgical’s first three products, MarginMarker, CorrectClips and MultiView, establish a higher standard of accuracy for marking the margins of cancerous tissue. MammoShield is used in breast cancer surgery, while LapMarker targets laparoscopic surgery. The company was founded in early 2005 and projects being profitable by 2009. Winners in other categories were:
Advanced Manufacturing: Kimberly Trygar, Dossette LLC. This Pleasant Prairie company designs and manufactures pharmacy automation equipment that includes a package filling system that requires no tooling changeover between drugs. Dossette had two other plans that made the list of finalists.
Business Services: Susanne Kufahl, Fahlgreen Solutions. This Montello firm is a biometric integration and security company that specializes in turnkey solutions for positive identification of criminal history.
Information Technology: Dave Rasmussen, Extract Systems. This
Winners in the contest were announced Tuesday at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference in
The 26 finalists included ideas for products or services in energy generation or conservation, “green” building, disease management, information technology systems and security, drug research and production, nanotechnology products and personal safety.
Finalists submitted a 20-page business plan for review by a panel of 65 judges established by the Tech Council, which is the independent, non-profit and non-partisan science and technology adviser to the Governor and the Legislature. The finalists’ executive summaries as well as those filed by semi-finalists are available for inspection by accredited investors through the Wisconsin Angel Network, which has 25 member angel networks, private equity funds or corporate strategic partners.
Finalists are:
AMW NF Nonwovens (nanotech products)
Bob Waldron Appleton
DLJ Solutions/Benequant (health data)
Deb Matz Appleton
Bayland LLC (green building materials)
C.J. Schmidt De Pere
LogCentric (data “mining” and analysis)
Dan Nickchen Greenville
Household Energy Use Monitor
Brad Rake Hubertus
Elimanure (turning manure to energy)
Paul Schneider Kaukauna
Staff Management Systems (web-enabled scheduling)
Cheryl Vickroy
Extract Systems/ID Shield (identity theft protection)
David Rasmussen
Health Innovation Technologies, Inc. (optometry)
Scott Jens
JotChat(personal information manager)
Karen Blaedow
ProSentinel Prostate Cancer Vaccine
Benjamin Lap
Stemina Biomarker Discovery (drug screening)
Elizabeth
WindLift LLC (wind energy)
Robert Creighton
10H Inc. (microscope sample handling)
Mark Nelson
SiteHound Inspection Software (building inspection)
Dave Neuman Menomonee Falls
Promentis Pharmaceuticals (anti-psychotic drugs)
David Baker Milwaukee
Donate A Card (redeeming unused gift cards)
George Holtz Milwaukee
Fahlgreen Solutions (biometric identification)
Susanne Kufahl Montello
Vector Surgical(cancer surgical tools)
Janet Phillips Oconomowoc
Stealth Therapeutics (cancer surgery access port)
Bradley Glenn
NIR Inspection System (pharmaceutical process)
Joseph Trygar Pleasant Prairie
Package Filling System (pharmaceutical process)
Kimberly Trygar Pleasant Prairie
Medication Liquefier Manufacturing System
Kimberly Trygar Pleasant Prairie
Muth Global Vision (night driving aid)
Kristi Lawrence Sheboygan
JunTech (video surveillance tracking system)
Jun Zhang Shorewood
Cardiopoietis (heart disease drugs)
John Baker Wauwatosa