5 Lakes Chat @ Badger Startup Summit

Strategies for Meteoric Growth: Start Planning to Scale on Day One

12:00 noon -1:00 pm  
Three UW-Madison alums who have spent their careers scaling companies will share insights on what it takes to successfully scale a business.   John Byrnes, Chairman 5 Lakes Institute, Founder and retired Chairman and Executive Managing Director, Mason Wells, a top tier Midwest private equity firm.  Tom Erickson , Founding Director, UW-Madison School of Computer, Data and Information Sciences. Until late 2019 when his company sold a majority stake for $1 billion, Tom was Founding Board Director, Chairman and CEO of Acquia, a Boston-based provider of cloud platforms for digital experience management. George Roberts, Partner Open View Partners and formerly EVP North America, Oracle.  While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to Oracle CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.  Moderated by Kathleen Gallagher, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and 5 Lakes Institute Executive Director(also a UW-Madison alum).

The MERLIN Pitch & Replay Goes Virtual

1:00 – 2:15 PM

We team up again with MERLIN Mentors to bring you the entrepreneurs behind Wisconsin’s newest ventures. This year we go virtual.  Five entrepreneurs start simultaneously each in a different virtual “room” and rotate every 15 minutes. Learn more about this fun event at the Pitch & Replay Page where those selected to pitch are highlighted. 

The 1 Million Cups VenFair will return in 2021

The Million Cups VenFair just is not the same unless it is live.  VenFair will return to the Discovery South Atrium next year.  Connect or re-connect with key people in the startup and tech scenes. Learn how to find what you need whether it be partners, employees, customers, investors, consulting skills.

Disruptive (r)Evolution Showcase will return in 2021

Badger entrepreneurs who are building their companies around emerging hot, and potentially disruptive, technologies show you how their efforts will change the landscape.  In these mini-TED talks, you’ll learn where the technology is and how they are leveraging it.

The Summit is just one of the many cool events in Forward Fest20 – learn more…

COVID-19 or no COVID.  August in Madison is never complete without the Forward Festival.  Run by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs since 2010, the technology and start-up communities come together to learn, share, and have some fun.  Check out more than 40 events – all related in some way to the Madison startup and tech scene. Many will be virtual this year but selectively some may be live.

SUMMIT SPONSORS

Special thanks this year to WARF for sponsoring the Virtual Summit and to gener8tor for webinar and Zoom support

We thank our regular Summit sponsors below who have made prior summits possible