Tie Milwaukee and Madison
For leaders in the Wisconsin entrepreneurial sector, it’s no secret that there’s little interaction between Madison and Milwaukee. Outside of a few efforts from organizations such as the Wisconsin Technology Council and Gener8tor, collaboration has been fairly minimal. While both Madison and Milwaukee do boast several start-up success stories individually, our region and state are at a complete disadvantage by the lack of interconnectivity.
Due to our proximity, we should be seeing corporate partnerships similar to those found between Boulder and Denver or Provo and Salt Lake City. Three weeks ago, we met for lunch and comprised a list of six ways Madison and Milwaukee can forge better connections.
Invite Madison speakers to Milwaukee’s 1Million-Cups once a month.
Engage corporate partners to think “Wisconsin First” and provide preferential treatment to companies regardless of their city.
Invest in long-term transportation strategies to link the two cities (for example, a train).
Provide housing and entertainment options targeted to entrepreneurs traveling for one day, such as Uber coupons, AirBnB evening and coffee shop advice.
Start-up founder swap weekends. The concept of these swaps would be to bring start-up founders from Milwaukee to Madison for a weekend of planned activities with start-up founders from Madison and then bring the Madison founders to Milwaukee for the same experience.
Host extensions of statewide entrepreneurship conferences such as Forward-Fest or the Early Stage Symposium in Milwaukee and provide subsidized transit to the conferences from both cities.
As it stands, the ecosystems in Madison and Milwaukee allow for a corridor of innovation between the two cities. Even if we move forward on only two of these ideas, we believe there is enough creativity in our startups to propel the entire state forward.