Three engineers, a physicist, an experienced CEO, patent attorney and a physical therapist walk into a bar…. sounds like the beginning of a great joke, but that was Monday’s Founder Factory Innovation Bootcamp!
Technology alone does not create startups. Teams do.
That spirit was on full display at the recent Founder Factory Innovation Bootcamp, where entrepreneurs, researchers, and innovators gathered at the UWM Lubar Entrepreneurship Center to explore what it takes to transform promising technology into a real company. Participants spent the day road mapping milestones, identifying assumptions, planning customer discovery, and learning from experienced founders. At its core, however, the bootcamp was about something even more important, Building Teams.
Steve Visuri, serial entrepreneur and biotech leader said, “A team that works really well together is as critical in a startup as technical background when hiring.”
Throughout the day, participants worked through practical exercises designed to help them think about the future of their ventures, what success might look like one year from now, what decisions need to be made along the way, and who they need beside them to make it happen. The conversations repeatedly came back to a simple reality: great founders rarely build great companies alone.
Three Bootcamp teams were formed through May’s Founder Factory’s IP Pitch Night event where tech transfer leaders pitched available University technology to nearly 100 attendees, with the goal to get these techs out of the university and commercialized!
Brian Walsh, Founder Factory Director, said, “There’s something uniquely exciting about watching a technology move beyond the lab and begin attracting a team of people who believe in its potential. A scientist, an entrepreneur, a business strategist, an engineer, or a future CEO may all see the same technology through a different lens.”
Good news for those wanting to get in on this unique opportunity – another IP Pitch Night is scheduled on October 14th for founders, innovators, and future team members to connect around technologies with real commercialization potential.
Funding an Ecosystem of Entrepreneurial Change
The Innovation Bootcamp is part of a larger pathway, Founder Factory, that helps founders move from team formation and startup exploration to investment readiness. Supported by WEDC’s Ignite Program, it brings together founders, mentors, investors, and ecosystem partners to help more Wisconsin startups succeed.
