For the past 30 years, companies less than five years old have accounted for nearly all net job creation in the United States. With a unique blend of innovation and entrepreneurship, startups challenge the status quo with new ideas and new products while driving our economy, creating wealth and stabilizing our communities.

In an effort to renew focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy is working with thought leaders to amplify the voice of the startup company.

Understanding that innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t localized to one or two geographic regions, Advocacy works to encourage startups throughout the country. By listening to their thoughts and concerns through our regional advocates and small business roundtables and by providing an independent voice in Washington, Advocacy works to promote policies that help startups grow and prosper.

Join Chief Counsel Winslow Sargeant as he discusses:

• Why we need to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Some current challenges that startup companies are facing , including access to capital, and workforce issues such as retaining the best and the brightest and the skills gap.
• How Advocacy works on regulatory, intellectual property, and tax issues to help create a positive startup environment.

Presenter

Dr. Winslow Sargeant is the sixth Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, appointed by President Obama August 19, 2010. The Office of Advocacy is an independent voice for small business within the federal government with a mission of encouraging policies that support small business start-up, growth, and development.

And Dr. Sargeant knows the challenges of starting and building a small firm. He enrolled in a PhD. Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1988 and left in 1992 to work at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. He received his PhD in electrical engineering in 1995, and worked at ATT/Bell Labs in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 1997, Dr. Sargeant and partners co-founded Aanetcom, a “fabless” semiconductor integrated circuit design company. The company designed state-of the-art computer circuits for telecom and broadband applications. In March 2000, Aanetcom was acquired by PMC-Sierra, a publicly traded company.

Dr. Sargeant met his wife, Ikanyeng, during his graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin. Winslow and Ikanyeng have three children, Kgosi, Lorato, and Marang.

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Edgewood College and The Doyenne Group will be co-hosting a Women Entrepreneurs Networking Breakfast on Tuesday, August 21, from 7:30-9:00 a.m. at its Monroe Street Campus in the Washburn Heritage Room. This is an opportunity for established and aspiring entrepreneurs to meet and discuss the opportunities and challenges women entrepreneurs encounter and what we can do in our region to foster more entrepreneurial activity by women.

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Leveraging Innovation for Impact

ROI is no longer just measured monetarily. The Forward Technology symposium on Social Entrepreneurship explores balancing multiple bottom lines.

Social Entrepreneurship leverages innovation to solve problems rather than treating them. Join us on August 21 at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery for an evening of networking and learning. The event is free, but please register to reserve your space.

We have four terrific sessions planned:

Social Entrepreneurship Business Profiles

Midwestern businesses with innovative business strategies and a social entrepreneurship angle explain their business model and discuss the unique challenges of social entrepreneurship, from marketing to funding.

Businesses profiled will include Retrofit and The Good Jobs.

Bottom-line & Values-Based Marketing – Matthew Ruud

Director of SEO Matthew Ruud from SEM agency Rocket Clicks explains how to leverage online content strategy for values-based businesses, and more.

Crowdsourcing & Crowdfunding – David Bratvold

Crowdsourcing expert and founder of Daily Crowdsource and the Crowdopolis conference David Bratvold speaks on the uses of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing.

David’s research and analysis have been purchased by Dell, Xerox, IBM, Deloitte and the Department of Defense, and quoted in Forbes, Bloomberg, and Wall Street Journal.

FixesU: A New Technology Platform Based on the Work of NY Times Fixes Columns – Jeff Snell

Social entrepreneurship as it exists in 2012 will be explored by Marquette University’s Jeff Snell, currently the special advisor to Marquette’s president, and formerly COO for the Argosy Foundation.

New York Times columnist David Bornstein’s foundational work on social entrepreneurship will be profiled in the context of FixesU, a new technology platform that makes his columns available in an interactive format for professors and teachers.

Register today!

Announcing Launch Day, an event hosted by gener8tor, Wisconsin’s premier start-up accelerator program.

Launch Day is a celebration of gener8tor’s inaugural class of startups and Wisconsin entrepreneurship. Launch Day offers an amazing opportunity for gener8tor companies, entrepreneurs, and investors: a five-minute pitch in front of a captive audience of potential investors and experienced entrepreneurs, and a premier networking event for the entrepreneurship community.

For the past three months, gener8tor entrepreneurs have been refining their business model, talking to customers, and preparing for their pitch, but they only have one shot to impress.

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Are you an entrepreneur with a great idea for a new product or service, or maybe you already have a start-up business and you’re looking to raise capital or expand? Wherever you are in the entrepreneurial process, you’ll want to join AlphaTech Counsel, local investors, and representatives from regional incubators and accelerators for an interactive, hands-on session where you’ll collaborate with peers, including those who have been through the process a time or two. During the session you’ll…

• get valuable tips and perspectives on starting up, assembling your team, and expanding your emerging company
• understand how others have used lean startup methods and business model canvas techniques to focus the direction or their company
• learn the pros and cons of working with incubators and accelerators
• better understand the ins and outs of fundraising and common deal structures for early stage emerging companies

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Get a peek into Madison’s burgeoning startup scene!

Come meet some of Madison’s up-and-coming innovators working on a wide variety of interesting companies at the Capital Entrepreneurs Open Social meeting. Capital Entrepreneurs is the cornerstone of Madison’s entrepreneurial community, and the normally members only monthly meeting opens its door to anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship.  The event runs from 7-9 pm with an informal format and refreshments will be provided. Limited space is available, and pre-registration is required.

Register here!

Have an idea for a startup company? Capital Entrepreneurs is hosting a pitch contest as part of the 2012 Forward Technology Festival. Upload a 1 minute video of you pitching your biggest and boldest idea for a new startup beginning August 15. Anyone is able to vote for their favorite pitch through August 22.

The 3 pitches with the most votes will get invited to pitch in person to an experienced panel of entrepreneurs and a room full of interested people. The winners will all get a free 1 year hosting package courtesy of SupraNet, receive extremely valuable and insightful feedback on their ideas, and get a special invite to the Capital Entrepreneurs Open Social following the pitches where they’ll be introduced to the broader Madison entrepreneurial community.

Your pitch should include:

• The problem you are solving: Why would someone want your product/service?
• Your solution: What is your product/service?
• Why you can fix it: What expertise do you have to make the startup work?

The Judging Criteria:

• Potential scope/impact/value of the idea
• Feasibility of actually being able to make it happen
• Overall quality of the pitch

Have a startup idea? Enter your pitch now!
Want to attend and watch the Pitch Panel? Register here!

The Wisconsin Biotech Happy Hour is a monthly networking event for biotechnology professionals that provides a casual atmosphere in which they can relax, meet others in the industry and exchange ideas. Biotech Happy Hour directly supporst the future of the industry in Wisconsin through student scholarships, and business and scientific mentoring programs. This month’s event sponsored by Fisher Scientificand University Research Park.

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Biotech Happy Hour and BioForward are co‐sponsoring the second in a series of best practice workshops to help members of the Biotech community increase skills in networking. Join bio professionals for an interactive two hour program that addresses more advanced networking techniques including building spheres of influence and expanding a network through LinkedIn. Prior to the Biotech Happy Hour.

More Information…