This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: The Podcast” is with Joe Kirgues, co-founder of Gener8tor, a platform that connects startup founders, universities and investors through several different programs.
While COVID-19 stifles in-person meetings and events, Gener8tor continues to connect people through an emergency response program with American Family Insurance and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation to put on a series of webinars to assist businesses with navigating coronavirus relief programs.
Gener8tor’s regular programming such as its gBeta, social impact and accelerator programs have gone virtual.
“It’s not to say they’ve been going as well as they went before, in part because the venture markets are locking up, the angel markets are locking up,” he said. “We are finding that startups are having a harder time raising capital from the private markets.”
While the current market is impacting everyone’s capacity for investment, there’s hope for startups that can benefit from this digital world.
“We have seen companies that have had years of growth in just a month,” said Kirgues noting Eatstreet, Brightcellars and Zoom. “It speaks to the importance of having a diversified economy — because that diversity in moments of difficulty can be your resilience.”
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
