FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Rachel Neill, Figgy and Carex Consulting Group; SBDC consultant shares small business AI insights

August 23, 2024

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Rachel Neill, CEO and co-founder of Madison-based Figgy and Carex Consulting Group.

She discusses her entrepreneurial journey, sharing insights on how she came to lead two very different companies.

Carex Consulting Group is a staffing company that began in the Madison area, drawing on the skill pipelines from UW-Madison and Epic Systems in Verona. It provides career matchmaking services, often working with startup businesses as an extension of their human resources programs. Meanwhile, Figgy sells a fort-building “play couch” for kids.

Neill came to the consulting world by joining Nordic Healthcare Consulting, now one of the world’s largest Epic consulting firms, when it was a startup company.

“Mark Bakken especially was a mentor to me, and helped me discover a love of startups,” she said, referring to the founder and managing partner of Madison-based HealthX Ventures. “And so, when Nordic got larger, I saw that there was an opportunity in the market to work with people either getting out of consulting or leaving Epic.”

Neill, who has six children, launched Figgy during the COVID-19 pandemic after trying to find a way to keep kids from being stuck to screens.

“And you can imagine with as many kids as mine, there’s a ton of toys and a ton of things, and it’s really overwhelming,” she said. “And so I became really focused on minimalist toys that were screen-free that could work with various ages and kind of grow with your kids.”

Since then, Neill has been recognized with the Retail Innovator Award as Figgy continues to grow and build out retail distribution channels.

“I love being in between two businesses, and I think my secret to success is working with really smart, capable people and letting them kind of do their thing,” she said. “The people I work with both at Carex and Figgy I think are lightyears beyond my capabilities, and so it’s amazing to watch them do the things they’re really good at, and it allows me to be our idea person.”

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— A small business consultant with UW-Madison is urging company leaders to shop around for AI tools that best match their needs while staying mindful about the technology’s limitations.

Amy Bruner Zimmerman, business consultant for the university’s Small Business Development Center, led a webinar yesterday on practical AI applications as part of Madison’s Forward Festival. She said encountering AI is virtually inevitable as it becomes more integrated with other applications, from Facebook to marketing communications tools.

While she noted AI can be a helpful tool for small companies, she also urged caution for those looking to integrate it in their operations. Because the data sets used to train AI systems have inherent human bias, she warned users to be careful with conclusions they produce related to health care needs, hiring and more.

The technology can also fabricate some information entirely in what’s called an AI “hallucination,” she noted.

“We’ll also just encourage you to always have some level of human intervention before taking the AI’s output at face value,” Bruner Zimmerman said. “In the case of these examples, if someone were to have evaluated the data that they’re presented with and reviewed it prior to making decisions upon that, some of those biases might have been not overlooked.”

Yesterday’s presentation also noted that if an AI tool is free to access, users are likely training its data set with their inputs. She said business owners should avoid entering personal information such as social security numbers, bank accounts, tax information, customers’ private data, intellectual property and proprietary data.

The SBDC itself is taking measures to be cautious about AI usage, Bruner Zimmerman noted. She isn’t using any AI recording tools when conducting confidential consultations with clients, as it’s often unclear where the information is being housed — especially with free tools. She noted paid AI tools tend to have more privacy controls.

Watch the video and see more Forward Festival coverage from this week here.

— The UW Board of Regents has unanimously approved the system’s 2025-27 budget plan and President Jay Rothman’s request of an $855 million increase in state aid over the next two years.

The Regents yesterday also approved a UW-Milwaukee proposal to lay off more than 30 tenured faculty as part of a plan to discontinue the College of General Studies that supports its satellite campuses.

Rothman said the additional $855 million would move UW out of its 43rd of 50 rank in public funding of four-year higher education and reach the national median. It would allow UW to freeze in-state tuition for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school year and allow some two-year colleges in Wisconsin to remain open by adding a $156 million increase for general operations.

Rothman, who initially announced the budget Monday, said the money will make UW competitive.

“This is not throwing money at a problem to make it go away; this is an investment in the future,” Rothman said.

Regent Ashok Rai presented a summary of the request to the UW Board of Regents yesterday, adding his belief this is the most appropriate time to ask for the funds.

“This is a way forward for the state of Wisconsin,” Rai said. “Yes, we’ve got inflationary pressures that need to be made up. Those inflationary pressures are preventing investments.”

See more from the meeting at WisPolitics.

— Wisconsin Farmers Union and Clean Wisconsin are seeking to let the state Supreme Court decide whether DNR can require large farms to obtain permits designed to curb manure pollution in water, according to a new court filing.

The two groups, which are intervenors in the lawsuit, filed a petition to bypass the Court of Appeals and send it to the state Supreme Court, arguing the high court is likely to hear the case regardless of the outcome in the appeals process.

“Requiring the court of appeals to decide this case will only result in delay and unnecessary expenditure of time and resources, without developing the issues further for this Court’s review,” they wrote.

Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative appealed Court of Appeals District II Judge Carey Reed’s decision in the case in March. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, representing the dairy groups, had argued the Department of Natural Resources can’t require large concentration animal feeding operations to obtain wastewater permits before they discharge a pollutant to navigable waters.

But Reed found state law gives the DNR “broad authority” over permit regulations and the regulations don’t conflict with federal law.

Dairy groups have argued the permit requirements are overly burdensome, while environmental groups assert they safeguard water quality and public health.

In their petition, Wisconsin Farmers Union and Clean Wisconsin said without the wastewater permit process, DNR would have no way to impose standards to limit pollution.

“That would be a monumental and consequential break with 40 years of regulatory history. The decision in this case will thus have statewide impact for Wisconsinites who rely on safe and healthy groundwater and surface water,” they wrote.

WMC will have the option to file a response to the petition to bypass within 14 days. It will be up to the state Supreme Court whether to take up the case. If the high court declines to weigh in, the case can still continue through the appeals process.

— The Medical College of Wisconsin has announced a training program aimed at getting more doctors practicing within Milwaukee’s underserved communities.

The Health Equity Scholars Program’s initial cohort of five MCW medical students will be based out of the ThriveOn King building, with a goal of “helping the students develop a deeper connection” to the local community, according to the release.

Four of the participating students — Ciara Ayala, Alex Rafael Martinez Colindres, Miracle Powell and Dalicia Sampson — are from Milwaukee. The fifth, Gani Ali, is from Minneapolis. Each is getting full tuition scholarships from MCW, the release shows.

They will receive training from community leaders through the four-year program, getting hands-on experience working with “economically and socially marginalized groups” in Wisconsin’s largest city. Along with the core curriculum provided to all MCW medical students, the cohort will also get additional training specific to caring for at-risk communities.

Dr. Joseph Kerschner, provost and executive vice president for MCW and dean of its School of Medicine, says Wisconsin has a “critical shortage” of doctors trained specifically to care for medically underserved urban populations.

“Our new Health Equity Scholars Program will help address this problem by boosting the number of physicians who desire to stay in Milwaukee following medical school to provide healthcare to our neighbors living in historically marginalized communities,” Kerschner said in a statement.

See more on the program here and see the release.

— BioForward Wisconsin is putting the spotlight on two scientists for their contributions to the state’s biohealth ecosystem through the 10th annual Wisconsin Biohealth Awards.

The Madison-based group yesterday announced the awardees, who will be recognized in late October during the Wisconsin Biohealth Summit in Madison.

The winner of the Hector F. DeLuca Scientific Achievement Award, Dr. Cecilia Hillard, is a professor of pharmacology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She’s the director of the Neuroscience Research Center and associate dean for research at the Milwaukee-based school.

Yesterday’s announcement highlights her research into how elements of the cannabis plant affect the brain and recovery following stress and injury, noting her work has “significantly influenced the research landscape” in Wisconsin.

BioForward CEO Lisa Johnson says Hillard’s scientific contributions “have been instrumental in advancing our understanding of complex biological systems.”

Meanwhile, Voximetry CEO Dr. Sue Wallace has been named the winner of the Wisconsin Biohealth Business Achievement Award. BioForward calls her a “transformative figure” in the industry for more than three decades, noting her efforts in the field of radiation sciences.

Voximetry is a Madison company specializing in precision cancer treatment with a focus on dosimetry — the process of measuring and assessing radiation exposure from various sources. Before leading the business, Wallace spent time with GE Healthcare and Philips’ radiation oncology division, the release shows.

Johnson applauds Wallace’s “exceptional leadership” in the release.

“We take great pride in honoring these remarkable individuals for their outstanding achievements, which not only exemplify the innovation within Wisconsin’s biohealth sector but also underscore Wisconsin’s position as a hub of excellence in both scientific innovation and business leadership,” she said.

See more in the release.

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