By Brian E. Clark
For WisBusiness.com
Madison has a deep pool of scientific talent available to fuel young companies, but getting top, “C-level” executives to move here poses a significant challenge, a panel of hi-tech leaders said at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.
Other problems facing start-ups include financing “because the IPO and Venture Capital markets are broken,” said David Snyder, vice president of Cellular Dynamics (CDI), a Madison-based stem cell company founded by UW scientist Jamie Thomson.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Pulling Together for Success.” Tom Still, head of the Wisconsin Technology Council, said the symposium is expected to draw more than 400 entrepreneurs, investors, service providers and government officials over its two-day run, which ends today.
Though attendance at the symposium is flat compared to last year, Still said he was not disappointed.
“Conference numbers around the country have been down in general for a while,” he said. “But the crowd here is excellent because the majority of people are entrepreneurs, along with investors and others.
“Everybody has a hand on – and knows a lot about – a different part of the elephant,” he said. “That elephant is innovation. This gathering is all connecting those different parts and people.”
Allyn Ziegenhagen, head of the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Club of Wisconsin and a retired chemical engineer, lauded the symposium.
“I love this conference,” he said. “It fits in really well with what the club is trying to develop connections between entrepreneurs and financial backers. I also like the first-look forum on new technologies because of my background in industrial R&D.”
In response to a question from moderator Ed Maginot, Kevin Conroy, president of Exact Sciences, said it was an easy decision for him to move the company from Boston to Madison shortly after he took over several years ago.
Conroy, former head of Third Wave Technologies, said after living on the East and West coasts, as well as in Chicago, he and his wife found Madison a much more attractive city.
Moreover, he was able to hire dozens of scientists to staff the company, which is developing a molecular diagnostic colorectal screening test that detects both cancer and pre-cancerous conditions.
“Only four or five of our hires have been from out-of-state,” he said. “And once people join our company, they don’t want to leave.”
Craig Christianson, chief counsel for the Promega biotech company, said his firm’s leaders have chosen to grow in Madison because it offers “extraordinary proximity to talented workers.”
He said Promega recently considered building a 265,000-square-foot addition to its facilities in California or China, but picked Madison because of the region’s ability to “attract and nurture talent.”
Jeff Moore, interim chief financial officer at Virent Energy Systems, said he and his family moved from Atlanta to Madison, in part, because of the strength of its public school system.
He said he saw opportunity here because of his experience growing several young companies.
“Madison needed start-up management,” said Moore, who started as a consultant with the biofuel company.
“I saw Virent as a company that could be a game-changer,” he said. “It was a great decision to move here and we’ve never looked back.”
CDI’s Snyder said his company has no trouble recruiting leading stem cell researchers from around the globe to work in Madison.
“Scientists who do this work want to come here,” he said. “They are easy to recruit because of Jamie Thomson.”
It is executives at the vice president level, he said, who are harder to attract to Madison.
“That’s a tougher nut to crack,” he said.
Conroy said financiers have become more aware of Madison’s young high-tech companies in recent years.
But he encouraged his audience to contact their legislators to push for passage of a bill that would use state money for a venture capital fund to back Wisconsin start-ups.
He said Madison is blessed with an “incredible scientific infrastructure,” thanks to UW labs, the new Institutes for Discovery and the Research Park, home to numerous early-stage firms.
“But the capital is not here,” he said. “We are way at the bottom in terms of venture capital. This is an incredible place to start a business, but we need money to grow.”
Snyder, of CDI, concurred with Conroy and said other states and countries are trying to lure his company away from Madison.
“We get calls from around the world to relocate, from California to Texas to Singapore,” he said. “Wisconsin needs to be responsive to keep companies like ours here and help us grow.”
