Up until recently there really hasn’t been a dedicated resource in Milwaukee for early stage innovative businesses with potentially high growth ideas.
BizStarts Milwaukee was formed two years ago out of a task force established by the Greater Milwaukee Committee designed to study innovation. BizStarts is dedicated to assisting entrepreneurial startups in southeastern Wisconsin. The BizStarts Venture Track Program, a program formed a year and a half ago is making significant strides in fostering the region’s entrepreneurs and startup ventures.
“We are filling a niche,” said Chelsea Krause, executive director of the Venture Track program. “The program works with entrepreneurs with innovative ideas or products with high growth potential on a regional and statewide basis.”
The program is divided up into three tracks and is free to participating entrepreneurs, Krause said.
The three tracks, basic, classic and premium, are designed to help entrepreneurs in varying stages of the startup process, Krause said.
“What we found was that a lot of entrepreneurs aren’t sure where to begin or what to pay attention to first,” she said. “We evaluate where they are in the process and then help them move forward based on their progress and ideas.”
The basic track is for entrepreneurs at the very early stages of development. It focuses on whether or not they have a concept that’s feasible, that can actually grow.
“From there we help them design a business plan and have them go through an education program,” Krause said.
The classic stage entrepreneurs just want to be a part of what BizStarts and Venture Track are doing, Krause said.
“Peer networking is a large component of this stage, and if they need to be introduced to a connection I help them do that.”
Premium Venture Track entrepreneurs have a higher threshold of responsibility, Krause said. They are open to the mentoring process and can be advised on business decisions and investor relations. These entrepreneurs are matched up with mentors and coaches from the business world.
“The mentors for the program are serial entrepreneurs and the coaches are usually subject matter experts,” Krause said. “The coaches tend to be people like patent attorneys or reliability experts, people with expertise in a certain area.”
According to Krause, in its first year and a half, Venture Track had 51 entrepreneurial companies in the program.
Amy Reno and her husband Todd launched Speechtails.com in January and became a part of the Venture Track program in March.
According to Reno, Speechtails.com has grown tremendously since joining the program and the company would not be in the same position if it weren’t for Krause’s help.
“Chelsea matched us up with a great mentor,” Reno said. “But it is so much more then that. We are so plugged into a variety of different experts and resources that can help us out if we have questions. We’ve gained so much momentum since joining the program.”
“Prior to BizStarts and the Venture Track Program there really wasn’t another place for these kinds of companies to go to get help with a business plan, a go to market strategy and be mentored by people who’ve been there and done that,” Krause said. “To grow this region, we know it has to start with the entrepreneurs, and BizStarts is helping with that.”
August 6, 2010 BizTimes Article by:Eric Decker and Alysha Schertz