Startup community raises funds after founder hurt
Chris Meyer was working on building the new home for Sector67, a maker space he founded in Madison, when a propane tank started to leak.
The propane ignited. Meyer was burned on a third of his body in the Sept. 20 accident.
While Meyer received treatment for the burns to his head, neck and arms, his friends in the startup community went to work. They knew Meyer wouldn’t want the project to come to a halt.
On Sunday, his college roommate, Justin Beck, who founded mobile games studio PerBlue, started a GoFundMe page to raise money to finish the project. The original goal: raise $50,000 to help finish renovations at Sector67’s new site at 56 Corry St. in Madison.
That goal was met within 48 hours.
As of Friday morning, the GoFundMe page reported raising more than $96,000 of the new $100,000 goal. An additional $25,000 was donated by John Neis, executive managing director of the venture capital company Venture Investors. The funds will go primarily toward Sector67, the nonprofit Meyer founded.
“(Meyer) is a very selfless person in the sense that if he knew we were just doing a fundraiser for him he would not have had it,” Beck said.
Meyer started Sector67 in 2010 as a place for startup businesses in Madison to work collaboratively and share tools for laser cutting, woodworking, welding and other needs. Sector67 bought the Corry St. spot so the organization would have room to grow. According to the Sector67 website, $580,000 of the $750,000 needed for the project had been raised.
The idea is to keep the renovations going while Meyer is recovering and help out with some of his expenses. Meyer will be in the hospital for at least a month, Beck said.
Sector67 board member Scott Hasse wrote an update on the page about the building construction. They’re pouring the final footing and setting the final row of steel. Then, construction will move onto the roof, walls and insulation. Hasse wrote the group is looking for additional help.
Even while in the hospital, Meyer is working with Wisconsin companies. After his surgery to graft skin onto his arms this week, his wife, Heather Wentler, wrote on the GoFundMe page:
“He is excited to be part of a skin graft study with a local biotech company Stratatech. They’re in Phase 3 of the study and Chris has said that he’s excited to be providing research for a possible solution for future burn patients so they won’t have to go through traditional grafting.”