MON AM News: WisBusiness: the Show with Toni Sikes of CODAworx; WRA’s Larson expects housing market to remain competitive next year

December 2, 2024

— The latest episode of “WisBusiness: the Show” is with Toni Sikes, co-founder and CEO of Madison-based CODAworx.

The company connects artists, creative teams and qualified sub-contractors to those who commission art worldwide, aiming to “demonstrate the power of public art to change the world.” Its name stands for collaboration of design and art.

Sikes is a former co-chair of the Wisconsin Technology Council, which produces the show, and has experience in investment banking and early-stage investing. She discusses the company’s business model, calling it “the hub of the public art industry.”

“By that, I mean we bring together all of the different sectors involved in creating large-scale public art,” she said. “There’s an entire industry that has grown up around getting these major pieces of public art created and installed.”

The company has a “software as a service” model — which she compares to business networking site LinkedIn — which now has more than 17,000 members around the world and makes up most of CODAworx’s revenue.

CODAworx’s project budgets have totaled more than $5.4 billion to date across more than 16,000 installations. The platform currently has more than $9 million in active open calls on its commissions page, according to its website, with budgets ranging from $2,000 to $1.5 million.

Earlier this year, the company’s CODAawards program had nearly 380 entries from 21 countries, putting a spotlight on projects that “most successfully” integrate commissioned artwork in public places, architecture and interior design. See contest winners.

“We are sort of on a mission to help people understand that public art is an industry, and it’s a substantial industry,” she said. “Commissioners in ‘23 commissioned $4.4 billion worth of public art, and that’s what they were paying the artists. The artists then turn around and spend 70-90% of that on subcontractors.”

Sikes also shares her advice for burgeoning entrepreneurs, urging startup leaders to be creative in fundraising and accomplishing other goals.

“Certainly money is an important way you get something accomplished, if you need it done,” she said. “But I have gotten so many things done through partnerships and barters. And you know, major projects that I wanted to do and I knew I could not afford with cash … I start with the idea first, and then I try and figure out how to get it accomplished.”

Watch the show here.

— Tom Larson, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Realtors Association, says he anticipates Wisconsin’s housing market to remain competitive into the new year.

He doesn’t foresee any dramatic impacts immediately targeting homeowners coming from the new Trump administration.

“I think President Trump has focused on regulatory reform,” Larson told “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “He is going to try to reduce the impact that the federal government has on the cost of new home construction. I also think you’ll see maybe some incentives for local units, the government, to streamline their regulations. I think that’s going to be their primary focus in the upcoming legislative session.”

The latest data from October showed a slight rebound in home sales in October, up 3.5% from the same time last year.

“We are watching interest rates because I think interest rates are going to really drive inventory,” Larson said. “A lot of people locked in these lower rates, three or four percent. And when rates get down to lower six, and even below six, you’re going to see more people putting their homes on the market, which is good for buyers and sellers.

The median home price in Wisconsin continued to climb to $310,000.

“It’s all driven by supply and demand,” Larson said. “Demand causes prices to go up. So we are producing fewer homes than we did 10 years ago. And because of these interest rates that were higher than a lot of people locked in at, fewer people are putting their homes on the market. So we have less inventory and more demand, which is causing prices to increase.”

See more from the show.

— State health officials are helping to investigate a multi-state salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least three people in Wisconsin.

The outbreak is linked to cucumbers sold by Arizona-based SunFed Produce and distributed in 26 states including Wisconsin from Oct. 12 to Nov. 26, according to the announcement from the state Department of Health Services.

The FDA recently announced a recall for the cucumbers, which can be labeled “SunFed Mexico.” The agency warns that salmonella can cause “serious and sometimes fatal” infections in young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, and can start between six hours and six days after infection.

A total of 68 people across 19 states have been infected by the outbreak, according to the CDC, and 18 people have been hospitalized.

DHS is warning state residents who bought contaminated cucumbers to avoid using them and throw them away, and to contact stores if they’re not sure if what they bought is covered by the recall.

See the release.

— The Wisconsin Indigenous Housing & Economic Development Corporation has awarded $160,000 in grants for small businesses in the state.

The group recently announced the grant funding for indigenous-owned companies, provided alongside the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. A total of 32 recipients are getting $5,000 each, across various industries including beauty, retail, child care, HVAC and others.

Fern Orie, CEO of the WIHEDC, is touting the economic impact of indigenous entrepreneurs in Wisconsin. The group says indigenous-owned businesses and other tribal enterprises made up 1% of the state’s total GDP in 2023, based on a recent study.

“Historically, this economic force has been under-reported and under-supported; and as an advocate for Wisconsin’s Indigenous business community, WIHEDC is proud to contribute to their success through the 2024 grant program,” Orie said in a statement.

The organization is made up of four nonprofit certified Native Community Development Financial Institutions, or NCDFIs.

See the release and the list of recipients.

— SpayVac for Wildlife Inc. has expanded production capacity at its Madison facility to meet increased demand for its fertility-control vaccines for animals.

The startup recently announced the expansion alongside Canadian company BioVaxys Technology Corp., aimed at supporting wider vaccine availability for field trials and market studies ahead of launching its product “in the near future.”

SpayVac for Wildlife recently shipped its product to Europe for a “major feral horse population management” effort, according to the announcement. That came after the company produced its vaccine for an immunocontraception project in Asia last summer.

“Part of our use of proceeds from ongoing fundraising will be to further scale up so we can produce tens of thousands of vaccines,” SpayVac CEO Tom D’Orazio said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the company has engaged in ongoing trials with the U.S. and EU governments, as well as a “prominent aquaculture genetics” company focused on a potential sterilizing product for fish.

See the release and see more at Madison Startups.

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