Spring 2016

Greetings. I hope you are having a wonderful spring. Springtime is always a great time to be on campus and this spring is no exception. 

We continue to see a large and growing amount of entrepreneurial energy on the UW campus as evidenced by the stories in this quarter’s newsletter. These stories provide some great examples of the entrepreneurial activities our students and alumni are involved in but are by no means the full inventory of the many amazing things they are doing. This year we are seeing continued growth in interest from students from across the entire Madison campus. The students may be getting a major, working towards a certificate, attending one of our events or taking an introductory course. However they are engaging, we see them acquiring the skills and outlook that will be critical to their career success. Recently Steve Case, the founder of AOL, spoke at the Kohl Center where he talked about the entrepreneurial  trends he is seeing across the country and globe. He said, “Not everyone is going to be an Entrepreneur but everyone needs to have an entrepreneurial mindset.”  We see that in our students and alumni regardless if they are working for a large company or their own startup.

Speaking of those alumni and students who are in the startup world, we have a very strong representation in the finals at the Wisconsin Governors Business Plan Contest. The 27 Finalists include a current WAVE student team (WeightUp Solutions) as well as five other teams that have UW alumni as co-founders and two that contain UW faculty. It speaks to the innovation and entrepreneurial energy on the campus and in the students/alumni. The top 12 teams will be presenting at the Entrepreneurs’ Conference www.witrepsconference.com and we wish them the best. If you are in Madison on June 7-8, please stop by to cheer them on.

Best regards,

Dan

Dan Olszewski
Director, Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship