Innovation and Commercialization Specialists
Abram Becker
Expertise in commercial strategy for pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical devices, and diagnostics. Start-up, non-profit, & Fortune 500 experience.
Cecily Brose
Expertise in consumer product development and commercialization. Led innovation platforms in the food industry.
David Ertl
Product management and strategy expertise in information technology. Silicon Valley, start-up, and Fortune 500 experience.
Kieran Furlong
Expertise in early-stage company building, venture capital, cleantech, agtech and manufacturing. VC investor & start-up veteran.
Featured Programs
This 5-week course focuses on matching your innovation to a viable market. Learn more »
This 8-week course helps you develop and validate your startup's business model. Learn more »
Entrepreneurons lectures cover the fundamentals of starting a new venture. Learn more »
Upcoming Programs and Events from the Innovate Network
Entrepreneurons: Innovation Roadmap- Ready, Set, Go!
Whether an entrepreneurial idea keeps crossing your mind or you’re refining your prototype, this session is for you! Join the Small Business Development Center’s Michelle Somes-Booher and Discovery to Product’s David Ertl as they introduce you to the business model canvas and the UW-Madison entrepreneurial ecosystem. Plus, chat with WARF, D2P and other members of UW–Madison’s Innovate Network to find the campus resources that are best for your next steps.
- September
- September 18
- Distinguished Entrepreneurs LunchKeegan, River and Ryley Karl, Founders of DarkAeroSeptember 18, 12:15 pm, 5110 Grainger Hall
Come join us to meet Keegan, River & Ryley Karl, founders of DarkAero, a startup that makes & sells airplane kits. Their love affair with flying was captivated by aircraft seen at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh every year and decided they could come up with their own design based on new technology that would travel faster, farther and more efficiently than anything they have ever seen. All three graduated from UW with engineering degrees. Pizza will be served. RSVP to lisa.collins@wisc.edu.
- September 19
- Application Deadline for Innovation to Market (I2M)Apply by September 19 for the Fall 2019 cohortSeptember 19, All day, 1403 University Ave
Learn how to avoid one of the main reasons startups fail: building something nobody wants. Minimizing this risk involves going out and interviewing real people in the field. I2M teams will be asked to conduct 20 interviews over the course of five weeks to refine what’s known as product-market fit.
The course includes 3 classroom sessions and 2 team meetings with a mentor.
Fall dates: Wednesdays, October 9 - November 20
See web link for detailed meeting times.
News from the Innovate Network
Madison AI Startup to Expand with Backing from California Tech Company
GreenBay Technologies, officially founded as a company just last month, is based on work started by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and two PhD students. AnHai Doan, a professor of computer science at UW-Madison and …
WARF investment fund signals new tack in effort to grow adoption of UW–Madison technologies
A six-figure investment in a Wisconsin startup marks the latest effort by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the nation’s oldest technology transfer office, to adapt to the changing innovation landscape. The investment, from the new WARF Ventures project, will help PROMISS Diagnostics in Milwaukee advance a technology to diagnose ovarian cancer from blood samples. PROMISS has […]
Madison home to at least 10 stem cell companies
Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics Inc. is one of at least 10 stem cell companies in Madison, most started by UW-Madison researchers.