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News from around Western Wisconsin

 

  

Wisconsin's start-up economy tied to larger region

Wisconsin Technology Council

MADISON - Forget Saturday's football showdown between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Ignore the Monday night football game between the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre's Minnesota Vikings. The real cross-border game these days is all about biotechnology.

At least, that's the view from the newsroom of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which recently published a two-part series headlined "A bio border battle" and "Badger state tech boom." The stories call attention to Wisconsin's emerging technology sector - and even declare Minnesota an "underdog" in terms of catching up.

While it's human nature to perceive grass on the other side of the fence as greener, the Star-Tribune series (and a related blog item headlined, provocatively, "Wisconsin kicks our butt") is emblematic of a growing awareness about Wisconsin's ability to transfer research into start-up companies. After years of building a more entrepreneur-friendly economy, Wisconsin is finally moving beyond Rodney Dangerfield status and gaining respect. Other examples in recent weeks:

• Nineteen Wisconsin companies were selected by the MidAmerica Healthcare Venture Forum to make on-stage pitches to investors who will attend the group's annual conference, which will be held Nov. 11-12 in Madison. The next largest contingent of companies from any one state is eight from Ohio.

• Springboard Enterprises, a national group dedicated to connecting women-led businesses with private equity capital, held its "All Things Life Sciences" conference this week in Madison, attracting investors from across the United States.
• A recent gathering of tech-based organizations in Chicago examined Wisconsin's experience with a five-year-old investor tax credit law in hopes of persuading the Illinois Legislature to follow a similar approach.
• The Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, which annually gives start-up companies a chance to pitch their companies to investors, received more than 50 applications this year - including 10 from Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. This tech-based matchmaking event will be held in tandem with the MidAmerica Healthcare Venture Forum in November.
• The premier of Manitoba, who will soon become the next Canadian ambassador to the United States, will visit Wisconsin in Oct. 15 to sign a protocol agreement with the state that highlights opportunities for growing tech-based businesses.

The Star-Tribune series was sparked by the move of several Minnesota tech companies to Wisconsin, which, while hardly an exodus, highlighted the lure of Wisconsin's investor tax credits and a generally healthy system of launching homegrown early stage companies. Some members of the Minnesota Legislature are now hoping to emulate Wisconsin's tax credits law.

Read the full articles:

Part1: http://www.startribune.com/business/61513902.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU
Part 2: http://www.startribune.com/business/61603457.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1PciUoaEYY_4PcUU

 

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Business growth leads to bigger building

River Falls Journal 

Dirt started flying the week of Oct. 5 on a 22,000-square-foot building expansion at Interfacial Solutions, 949 Antler Ct., in the northwest corner of the Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park.
Company President, Jeff Cernohous, confirms that the six-year-old business will build onto its existing 15,000-square-foot structure and plans to finish the project by January 2010. 

"We've had some pretty good growth in the last two years," said the River Falls native who now lives in Hudson.

Interfacial began in 2003 as a Hudson-based business and built its current facility in River Falls two years ago. It offers expertise in materials science, producing ideas to patent, some of which are proprietary and some of which it sells to clients.

Cernohous describes the company's services as "developing solutions for companies." It is a privately held technology development and transfer organization.

Interfacial's soon-to-come addition will be north of its existing building, in the space between it and the Rush River Brewing Company. The new structure, says Cernohous, will contain more offices, a machine shop, a laboratory and warehouse space.

Read news release: http://www.interfacialsolutions.com/news13.html

 

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Work begins on hospital project

  
Chippewa Falls News Bureau | Leader Telegram
 
CHIPPEWA FALLS - The emergency room parking lot on the east side of St. Joseph's Hospital closed Monday because construction has begun on a $6.7 million expansion.

A row of parking spots in the regular lot, on the west side of the hospital and in front of the Marshfield Clinic Chippewa Center, will be designated for emergency room use, said hospital spokeswoman Michele Paquette.

"There is just so much truck traffic and equipment back there, and that entrance will be completely redone," Paquette said. "It's exciting that we're starting."

Emergency patients can enter the hospital via a nearby hallway that connects the hospital and clinic.
The emergency room parking lot will reopen in June, but the entire project is expected to take a year, she said. Visitor and other parking will remain the same.

A new, large, red sign tells hospital visitors to park in front of the hospital instead of going to the rear. The hospital also purchased ads in area newspapers alerting people of the parking change.

"We just need to make sure people know where to go," Paquette said.

The hospital project will more than double the size of the emergency room, from 5,000 square feet and seven beds to 13,000 square feet and 13 beds.

In the past 10 years, emergency room patient volume has increased 19 percent, hospital officials said at a groundbreaking ceremony in August. The central core portion of the ER hasn't been upgraded in 35 years.

Hospital Value Index: Top 100 Best in Value Hospitals Released

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) - Data Advantage, LLC announced today the Top 100 Hospital: Best in Value Hospitals^TM list from the 2009-2010 Hospital Value Index^TM, the first and only national study on U.S. hospitals and the value of care they provide. St. Joseph's Hospital of Chippewa Falls and Lakeview Medical Center in Rice Lake were both on the list.

"These are the hospitals that set the bar for the nation when it comes to value. If every hospital performed at the level of the Top 100, we found that more than $60 billion per year could be saved," said Hal Andrews, CEO of Data Advantage.

"The Hospital Value Index^TM winners are a geographically diverse group of hospitals that have a proven ability to deliver high value care to their communities and represent a model of care that other U.S. hospitals should look to," added Andrews. "As legislators consider health reform, we believe that it will be increasingly important to recognize and reward those hospitals that deliver outstanding value."

Read full article: http://thehealthcarevalueblog.com/2009/10/12/100-top-best-in-valuetm-hospitals/

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Success stories lift WEDA affair

Leader-Telegram

Although residential construction has taken a hit in the current economy, at least one local business in the industry has managed to sustain remarkable growth.

Silvermine Stone Co. of Eau Claire gained momentum through the Idea Challenge, a program administered by area agencies to help launch startups. It also won the Eau Claire Area Economic Development Corp.'s most recent Create Your Own Business contest. Although the $10,000 in prize money was welcomed, the award had an intangible benefit as well.

"More important than the money was the credibility that came with it," said Kevin Koehn, a member of the company's management group.

Koehn and Rich Mickelson, a mason for more than 30 years who founded the business, spoke on Thursday during the 2009 Wisconsin Economic Development Association Fall Conference at The Florian Gardens. The event began Wednesday and runs through today.

The theme for the conference is "Economic Development Planning: Redevelopment, Innovation and State Policy." Silvermine's presentation fell within the "innovation" category considering the company's patent on Stack-N-Tack mortarless stone siding.

Silvermine began operations in a 5,000-square-foot facility manufacturing about 150 square feet of the stone siding daily. It now occupies 15,000 square feet and produces ten times more product. Silvermine, 1507 Menomonie St., currently has 22 employees.

An anticipated increase in demand once the economy bounces back is a concern, Koehn said. As its geographical reach expands, the business is considering whether it will contract services, license the process to other manufacturers or construct additional company-owned facilities elsewhere.

Read full article: http://leadertelegram.com/news/business/article_70ac88a0-c412-59bb-a979-4fc6f89a20eb.html

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Sajan Named to Inc. Magazine's List of Fastest Growing Companies

 

River Falls Company Makes Elite List For Second Consecutive Year

 
Sajan, Inc., the leading on-demand language technology and services provider, has been named to Inc. Magazine's annual list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. for the second consecutive year. The list, also referred to as the Inc. 500, was unveiled in the September edition of Inc. Magazine.

"The language translation market is undergoing a transformation," said Shannon Zimmerman, the chief executive officer of Sajan. "The profile and composition of tomorrow's leading companies in this sector may not necessarily look like those of today. For Sajan to again be recognized as an Inc. 500 fastest-growing company is testament to our team's innovative approach, and the market resonating with our technology and services."

Sajan started as a software development company, but the emphasis on language translation technology began in 1997. An initial version of its translation management technology followed. The Sajan sales staff has grown substantially, and has added new locations in North Carolina, Boston, Connecticut, California, New York and Portland. Today, Sajan has patents pending on various translation and language technologies and offers its on-demand services to global companies throughout the world.

For additional information on Sajan, go to www.sajan.com.
 

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Eau Claire Wisconsin - Best Place to Raise Kids 2009

Business Week Magazine

Nearest city: Minneapolis
Population: 61,887
Median household income: $60,637

Eau Claire, in northwestern Wisconsin, was once primarily a logging and manufacturing town, but the economy now includes high-tech, health-care, and university jobs. It is home to a handful of college and university campuses including the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Runners-up:
Appleton
Racine

 

See article: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/11/1110_best_places_for_kids/50.htm

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Featured Technology

The SMARTT Network Technologies section fosters early-stage business and technology activity in Western Wisconsin.

Solid Particle Delivery Systems

Technology Owner: CATI - Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation
Filed under Chemicals category

Researchers at International Specialty Products, a global chemical company located in Wayne, NJ developed three (3) patents which describe a delivery system to convert liquid pesticides into instantly dispersible solid forms. This technology enables formulating liquid active ingredients in a water dispersible granule formulation. The solid formulation can be introduced in a water soluble/dispersible bag that can be introduced directly in a spray tank. This technology avoids the use of solvents in the formulation. The technology is best suited with Chloroacetanilide (AMIDES) type herbicides and methylvinylether/maleic acid co-polymers as the preferred polymeric system.

Read more about this and over 150 other technologies

Off the Shelf - Networking event

If you'd like to speak with others who are interested in early-stage technologies and new product development, or if you want to connect with people who may have expertise that you're seeking, join us at Off the Shelf, a free networking event for proven innovators in Western Wisconsin.

Check out the Off the Shelf Blog