UW–Madison launches Kauffman Campus II initiative by connecting students with successful young entrepreneurs.

By Doug Bradley

Just what is this thing called “entrepreneurship” and why is it so pervasive in Wisconsin, especially on the UW–Madison campus? Good questions.

But if you ask more than one current—or former—UW student entrepreneur, you’re likely to get different answers. And maybe that says as much about entrepreneurship as anything: It’s intimate and personal, and derives from an individual’s drive and passion.

“Being my own boss and running my own business has a special appeal for me,” says UW–Madison’s Nate Lustig, who, along with fellow student Corey Capasso, owns and operates ExchangeHut.com, an online student-to-student marketplace that has more than 10,000 members.

“No one will ever have more passion for your idea than you,” claims UW–Madison alumnus Kris Dressler, head of product development for Laminar Technologies LLC of Chicago and co-inventor of the TurboTap, a technology that combines knowledge of fluid dynamics and laminar flow with draft expertise to form a tap that pours four times as fast without excessive foam.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to start a business,” adds Troy Vosseller, a first year UW–Madison law student and co-owner of Sconnie Nation, a campus clothing company.

All three entrepreneurs were part of a “Make Your Passion Your Profession” panel comprised of UW–Madison birthed, or Madison-bred, start-up companies. They addressed a packed room of more than 100 students at the Memorial Union on Feb. 28, as the Madison campus launched its Kauffman Campus II initiative (see sidebar) and celebrated EntrepreneurshipWeek USA.

“We are delighted with the leadership and expertise that UW–Madison brings to EntrepreneurshipWeek USA as a program partner,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation and himself an alumnus of UW–Madison. “Educating our young people about entrepreneurship and reinforcing the value that entrepreneurs and innovators bring to our economy is critical to America’s long-term prosperity—more so now than ever before.”

According to Schramm, the Kauffman Foundation spearheaded the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA effort along with government, universities, non-profit organizations, businesses and media, including The New York Times and Inc. magazine. Running from Feb. 24–March 3, EntrepreneurshipWeek USA activities nationwide inspired young people to think creatively and to turn their ideas into action, whether starting a new business, developing an innovation for an existing company or solving a societal problem. Wisconsin alone hosted more than 60 EntrepreneurshipWeek USA events, including five on the UW–Madison campus.

During the “Make Your Passion Your Profession” panel, students heard about the entrepreneurial spirit, they listened to stories about hard work and sacrifice, and they were told about the value of marketing and public relations.  But in the end, the theme that resonated throughout the evening—and connected ExhangeHut to Turbo Tap to Sconnie Nation to Prep Cosmetics to Blame Society Productions—was passion.

“It takes a certain kind of personality and a special kind of drive,” says UW–Madison alumna Lauren Frank, who recently returned to Madison as executive director and co-founder of Prep Cosmetics, a designer cosmetics store on State Street. “You can’t be afraid of taking risks.”

But risk-taking for the sake of risk-taking is not a successful business strategy either, counseled Joseph Boucher, a Madison attorney who teaches in the UW–Madison School of Business and facilitated the panel discussion. Boucher has worked with many student-based businesses, among them ExchangeHut and Turbo Tap.

“It’s knowing enough and being smart enough to take the right risk at the right time,” says Boucher. “What’s striking about young entrepreneurs is that while they understand this, they also have a commitment to being true to themselves and their business aspirations.”

And as with many of the young entrepreneurs on the panel—and in the audience—the influence of UW–Madison is very prevalent in their businesses. ExchangeHut, for example, was established in 2003 by then UW–Madison student Matt Stamerjohn, who started the company with his father after taking a Management and Human Resources class in the business school. Dressler and his Turbo Tap co-inventor, Matt Younkle, were UW–Madison engineering students and winners of the Schoofs Prize for Creativity.

“I can think of at least three critical ways the UW has helped us significantly,” said Lustig of ExchangeHut. “The [G. Steven Burrill Technology] Business Plan Competition, the entrepreneurship courses — and now a major in entrepreneurship and the student-run Entrepreneurship Association. These are terrific resources.”

“If it weren’t for the UW, I wouldn’t have my business at all,” added Prep Cosmetics’ Frank.

And judging from the excitement and enthusiasm from the students in attendance on Feb. 28, scores of new business opportunities are just waiting to happen.

“When we talked about this in our dorm room back in 2002, it was more ‘guess and check’ than anything,” said UW–Madison senior Ben Fiechtner, co-owner of Sconnie Nation. “But now, with the Kauffman grant and all the new attention—and events like this—students are going to have a lot more resources to call on.”

If Fiechtner and his fellow students are right, the Kauffman grant activity just might be the spark that lights an entrepreneurial fire on the UW–Madison campus and throughout Wisconsin.

Visit our archives to read articles from previous issues of the UW Business Wire.

UW–Madison named ‘Kauffman Campus’

“Being named a ‘Kauffman Campus’ provides an opportunity to broaden our great legacy of teaching, research and outreach at UW–Madison and will also help grow Wisconsin’s economy,” said UW–Madison Chancellor John Wiley last December when the $5 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was announced. “Wisconsin’s leadership in research and development is yielding many opportunities for commercial ventures, and this program will help us train the young entrepreneurs who will make those opportunities a reality.”

The UW–Madison was one of only nine campuses nationwide to be selected for the Kauffman Campus II initiative, and the campus’s plan calls for a number of new student education initiatives, including the development of a residential learning community focused on undergraduate students with an interest in entrepreneurship and establishing new courses in entrepreneurship for students across campus.

Because the spirit and skills of entrepreneurial studies imbue all academic fields, and are generating exciting new developments in the arts, humanities and service learning, all UW–Madison colleges and schools are being encouraged to participate. Eventually, work related to the Kauffman grant will quickly move around the state—among UW–Madison’s partners will be the Urban Entrepreneurship Program in Milwaukee, other campuses in the UW System, state agencies, the WiSys Technology Foundation (which patents and licenses research from outside Madison), the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Network and the Wisconsin Technology Council. The program will also be linked to a new initiative, the Wisconsin Venture Center, to help foster connections to venture capital.

“Every citizen of the state is a potential ‘student,’ and we intend to incorporate entrepreneurship into the value proposition of what the UW offers to the people of Wisconsin,” said Charles Hoslet, managing director of the UW–Madison Office of Corporate Relations.

That office, which serves as a “front door” for business to the UW campus, is managing the Kauffman grant.