51 firms advance to next round of Business Plan Contest
Fifty-one entries from 19 communities have advanced to the semi-final round of the ninth annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.
The contestants were selected from a field of 248 first-round entries by an independent panel of about 60 judges organized through the Wisconsin Technology Council.
The semi-finalists are spread among advanced manufacturing (14), business services (11), information technology (13), and life sciences (13). Also entering were companies in energy, clean tech, software, industrial processes, health diagnostics, drugs, and medical devices.
The 51 entries competing in Phase II of the contest are writing summary business plans of no more than 1,000 words. Phase II plans will be filed online by 5 p.m. March 19; the next judging period will last about two weeks.
About two-dozen plans will move on to Phase 3, in which contestants will write a full business plan.
Prize winners will be announced in June at the annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference, to be held at The Pfister Hotel. The top dozen contestants will give live presentations at the conference, with judges scoring those pitches as a part of selecting the winners. Total cash and in-kind prizes in the statewide contest exceed $200,000.
The semi-finalists include:
| Ankit Agarwal | Madison | Imbed Biosciences |
| Sara Amiri | Whitewater | Peer2Connect LLC |
| William Bazeley | Whitewater | NexVex Home Services Exchange |
| Joe Beck | Madison | Bacterial Concentrator (USE) |
| John Bender | Sussex | Simple Campus |
| Erwin Berthier | Madison | A Painless Cholesterol Test |
| Joseph Blustein | Madison | Artificial Vision Device - AVD |
| Boyce Doyle | Greendale | Sensational Exploratorium |
| Andrew Brown | Madison | HS Stats |
| Matthew Buerosse | Thiensville | COMFY CRUTCH |
| Rimas Buinevicius | Madison | RoWheels |
| Bill Checovich | Madison | IFAST |
| Brian Curry | Pewaukee | Lumen HC |
| Joshua Curry | Milwaukee | NutriGenix LLC |
| Ryan Dover | Lake Geneva | LocalGrown |
| Paul German | Oconomowoc | Imas Technologies |
| Mike Goodman | Madison | Retail Prescription Filling |
| Tim Gorsuch | Mukwonago | The Smart Sight |
| Roald Gundersen | Stoddard | WholeTreesTM Structures |
| Shawn Guse | Madison | Apartia Pharmaceuticals |
| Michael Harper | Milwaukee | ROAM |
| Brian Jensen | Madison | Fishidy.com |
| Chris Johnson | Middleton | Pilot Training System |
| Christopher Kemp | Milwaukee | Soil & Sediment Clean-up |
| Aaron Larner | Madison | Style Shuffler |
| Jeff Leismer | Sheboygan | VibeTech, Inc. |
| Nick Maris | Mequon | Reza-Band UES Assist device |
| Frederick Montgomery | Middleton | Novel Nitric Oxide Treatment |
| Connie Nadler | Madison | Smart in a Box |
| Leena Palav | Sussex | Natural touch bra |
| Nathan Patterson | Madison | PolarD - Radiant 3D Printers |
| Bobby Peterson | Madison | My Coverage Plan |
| Peter Petit | Pewaukee | V-Glass Vacuum Insulated Glass |
| Scott Pristel | Peshtigo | Self-DJ® |
| Ronald Raines | Madison | Hyrax Energy |
| Justin Reed | Madison | Capacitive Exciter |
| Dan Reed | Madison | Revolutionary Fishing Software |
| Pradeep Rohatgi | Milwaukee | Lightweight Composite castings |
| Abdalla Saad | Madison | Anticancer Nanomedicene |
| Jason Sevener | Shorewood | EnaCloud |
| Robert Shimmel | Madison | NCD Technologies |
| Alexander Smith | Beaver Dam | AxMax Tremolo |
| JT Smith | Madison | The Game Crafter |
| Jonathan Stojan | Hudson | ThriftyWrench.com |
| Menachem Tabanpour | Madison | Phophate Upcycling |
| Constantin Tivis | Dickeyville | Parallel programming software |
| Wayland Tobey | Sauk City | Cycogs Robotic Wheels |
| Karisa Trudgeon | Verona | inSIGHT by RedTwine |
| Woody Wallace | Madison | Cloud Machine |
| Dave Westlake | Delafield | Print Command |
| Ching-Hong Yang | Mequon | Pathogenesis inhibitor |
