FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Danielle Scarzello, gBETA; Talking Trade with Prof. John Pevehouse, UW-Madison

April 10, 2026

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Danielle Scarzello, director of the gBETA program at gener8tor.

This free, seven-week program for early-stage entrepreneurs provides one-on-one assistance and mentorship opportunities, as well as informative gatherings exploring various business topics.

At the end of the program, the startup leaders get the chance to pitch their companies to investors and others during a showcase event.

Scarzello discusses how gBETA differs from other accelerator programs, touting gener8tor’s “concierge” approach to sharing resources and opportunities with founders.

“Not only is it a very curated process of how we think about selecting a cohort and how we think about making connections for those founders in the cohort, but we’re also just thinking about the experience of being a startup founder as well,” she said.

The program is meant for entrepreneurs who have some initial traction or validation in the market, to help them ramp up their idea and build momentum.

“Oftentimes, it’s not one thing or three things you’re working on, but try hundreds of things at the same time,” she said. “So figuring out a way to basically make this process as seamless as possible is so instrumental.”

And while the program is meant generally for early-stage businesses, Scarzello says that can look very different depending on the specific company and industry.

The discussion also explores the growing footprint of gBETA, which has chapters around the world. While it’s headquartered in Madison, Scarzello said the program has reached dozens of markets globally.

She said gBETA “has been one of our fastest growing product lines” within gener8tor, noting the program’s ability to support founders that are pre-investment and seeking help with getting started.

“Oftentimes we’re working with student-based teams out of universities, or we’re also working with maybe that 9-to-5 employee who’s secretly building after 5 p.m.,” she said.

The gBETA Madison program recently announced its Spring 2026 cohort, which will be capped off with an April 28 showcase event.

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

— In the latest episode of “Talking Trade,” UW-Madison Prof. John Pevehouse says the ongoing conflict in Iran is affecting more than oil markets, as the key trade route in the region is being used as a bargaining chip.

The interview was recorded Wednesday, one day after a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war was announced.

“We’ve seen wild market swings, you know, as the conflict has gone on, and clearly there’s been a tremendous depression of trade effect,” Pevehouse said.

While the earlier closure of the Strait of Hormuz had led to skyrocketing fuel costs in the United States and elsewhere, Pevehouse notes the critical shipping route is used to transport the element helium, used for processing computer chips and components.

“Helium is essential, and so that can disrupt the tech sector pretty easily,” he said. “You also have other kinds of refined petroleum products, but also you have a lot of petrochemical feedstock that comes out of the region, in other words, fertilizers and intermediates.”

As much as a third of global fertilizer industries depend on goods moving through the strait, Pevehouse said, noting ripple effects from the conflict through agri-business supply chains.

While the United States has shifted toward energy independence in the past two decades, becoming a net energy exporter, Pevehouse pointed to a “boomerang effect” as Asian countries affected by the conflict drive up prices globally.

Meanwhile, as negotiations play out between the U.S. and others in the region, the “omnipresent” threat of Iran closing the strait once again will remain, he said.

“That said, Iran depends on the strait too,” Pevehouse said. “People talk about, ‘Well, they could sink ships and close the strait.’ But that cuts them off too, and that gives them no source of capital.”

Talking Trade is sponsored by the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Michael Best Strategies and Carroll University, which will host an April 22 event on tariffs. Register here.

Watch the full episode here.

“Talking Trade” is now available in audio form on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Subscribe and find more episodes here.

— Nuclear fusion company SHINE Technologies is receiving a $263 million federal loan to finish construction of a medical isotope production facility.

When complete, the Chrysalis facility in Janesville will produce the sole domestic commercial supply of molybdenum-99, a radioactive isotope used for diagnostic imaging.

The loan, from the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing, will bankroll remaining construction work on the facility and installation of the specialized technology needed to produce the isotopes. The agency has made a conditional commitment, signaling its intent to provide the loan once certain technical conditions are met.

The facility is expected to start producing isotopes in the next 18 to 24 months and reach full production in two to three years.

It will support 200 construction jobs during the final buildout of the facility and 150 full-time jobs when it’s operating.

EDF Director Gregory Beard said during a virtual presser yesterday that these isotopes currently need to be shipped from overseas, during which radioactive decay causes them to lose half of their useful life. Production capacity is also limited.

“This important technology will help make medicine more affordable in the United States, because of this facility here,” Beard said.

Once complete, the facility is expected to supply as much as 75% of the nation’s molybdenum-99 demand.

The project is part of a broader national security effort to create more secure domestic supply chains.

SHINE founder and CEO Greg Piefer says he expects the facility to produce 1 billion doses of nuclear medicine in its lifetime.

“It’s exceptionally vital for American health care security that this project comes to completion,” Piefer said.

The federal loan will be repaid over a 15-year period, Beard said.

Piefer said Chrysalis will be the first fusion-based production faciity operating at an industrial scale, producing about 20 million doses of medicine per year. That would make it the largest medical isotope production site in the world, he wrote in a social media post.

“Creating a stable domestic supply is long overdue and will actually allow the U.S. to become an exporter of these important products once again,” he wrote. “But Chrysalis also establishes something bigger. It proves our approach to commercializing fusion works — solve real problems, generate revenue, and build toward fusion energy from there.”

Piefer also thanked U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, in his remarks yesterday.

See the release.

Listen to an earlier podcast with Piefer.

— State health officials have rolled out a two-year plan for how to spend $31 million in opioid settlement dollars coming to Wisconsin, with the greatest share going to tribal nations.

The state Department of Health Services yesterday announced details for allocating the $14.5 million Wisconsin received in 2025 through settlements with drug companies and other businesses, as well as the $16.5 million it will get this year.

The breakdown includes: $9 million for tribal nations; $6.5 million for room and board for Medicaid members getting addiction treatment; $3.5 million for preventing overdoses and infections disease; $3 million for community- and school-based prevention efforts; $2 million for law enforcement grants; $2 million for addiction treatment for pregnant women and mothers; $2 million for services for enrollees in the Birth to 3 program, and more.

Other elements of the plan getting $1 million or less include provider training, recovery coalitions, pharmacy training and family-centered treatment.

DHS says it’s already released $3 million in room and board funding to agencies serving seven Tribal nations and 66 counties, as well as $1 million in law enforcement grants for 16 county sheriff’s offices and one Tribal police department.

The plan comes as the state’s opioid overdose deaths have dropped dramatically, falling 42.5% from 1,422 in 2023 to 817 in 2024, according to figures from the agency.

“This funding has saved lives in Wisconsin,” DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a statement. “We have made significant investments in every corner of the state to fill the gaps and connect communities with the resources people need, when and where they need them.”

See the release.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— Several Dem guv candidates at a health forum in Madison knocked “Make America Healthy Again” policies and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

And a new study from UW-Madison authors finds longevity increased across all U.S. states and regions for those born between 1941 and 2000, clashing with earlier research that showed widening disparities.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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