— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Tom Dean, founder and CEO of Renaissant.
Dean discusses the Milwaukee technology company’s journey from launching as a safety and security platform in 2020 — targeting government buildings, schools and office buildings as customers — to finding success after pivoting toward logistics.
“What it’s turned into is a broad-based yard execution platform, that basically handles every type of transaction that shipping clerks, guards at warehouses, truck drivers, yard drivers … we get all of the tasking out to those people when they need it, for what they need to do,” he said.
Renaissant has maintained its focus on safety and security concerns within this narrower lane, Dean says, noting its customers rely on the company to deter fraud and theft as well as boosting productivity.
“Being able to do more with less, ship more goods on more trucks with fewer labor hours,” he said.
Since getting started about six years ago, the business has grown to nearly $2 million in annual revenue with at least 65 customers. The Renaissant platform is used at about 130 sites across the country, though its main customer base is in southern California where many of the nation’s shipyards are clustered.
“We’re coast to coast, we’ve got basically all four corners,” Dean said.
The conversation also explores how the business is using AI to enhance its operations, building on an earlier innovation project it completed with Microsoft and venture capital firm TitletownTech in Green Bay, which has invested in the company.
After working with Microsoft engineers on the development phase for the project, Renaissant deployed an AI-based voice assistant translation system to support truck drivers. Many of these drivers don’t speak English as a first language, often preferring their native Spanish, Polish or Hindi, Dean said.
“When they arrive at a warehouse, you can imagine that it’s challenging for a clerk or a guard to interact with them and give them complicated instructions … Renaissant facilitates all that translation between these drivers and the people they work with,” he said.
Listen to the podcast here and see the full list of WisBusiness podcasts.
— A UW-Milwaukee expert describes quantum computing development as “the new arms race” with implications for national security, in addition to numerous commercial applications.
Prof. Ali Abedi, vice chancellor for research at the university, spoke yesterday alongside other quantum specialists during a Wisconsin Technology Council luncheon in Milwaukee. He warned “if we don’t jump on the bandwagon right now, we lose the opportunity to lead” in this area.
While university researchers and a growing group of startup companies are working on advancing quantum computing applications in Wisconsin, Abedi said the state needs to do more to establish an attractive ecosystem for students and others looking to work in this industry.
Along with the economic benefits unlocked through quantum computing’s superiority over classical computing, Abedi warned there’s more at stake.
“Whoever gets to quantum, practical quantum computation first and they can crack everything we know about cryptography, they’re going to disrupt the entire world, right?” he said. “So there’s a significant risk here, that we really need to work toward that.”
His concerns were echoed by UWM Prof. Prasenjit Guptasarma, associate dean for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
He explained that because quantum computers are so much faster than classical computers at solving difficult mathematical problems underpinning critical encryption systems, they could be used to break through security programs used by banks, military and elsewhere.
Guptasarma warned of dire consequences if an adversary to the United States makes a major breakthrough in this area first.
“And so the country gets left behind, maybe another country out east figures it out, or west, and then they have all the codes,” he said, adding even nuclear launch code systems rely on the same kind of cryptography that could be vulnerable to an advanced quantum computer. “This is a real issue.”
Amid this next-generation technical sprint, others are exploring the potential for quantum computing to transform disciplines with substantial upside for human health.
Prof. Dmitry Babikov, part of Marquette University’s Department of Chemistry, yesterday highlighted the technology’s potential for precise molecular modeling, pointing to penicillin as an example.
He said accurately modeling the chemical structure of this antibiotic drug is only possible with quantum computing, noting existing approaches rely on approximations to some degree — which can fail in unforeseen ways.
“A drug molecule can be toxic not only to the bacterial cell, but also to the human cell … there is a wish to solve this problem exactly, and this is where the quantum computers come in,” he said.
— Wisconsin’s economy is more reliant on small businesses for job growth than at the national level, according to the latest Wisconsin Policy Forum report.
The group yesterday issued a brief on the state’s small business landscape, which highlights these companies’ outsized impact on both employment and job creation. Total employment at small businesses in Wisconsin reached 2.1 million last year.
Small businesses made up about 95% of the state’s net job growth between 2010 and 2025, the report shows. At the national level, that percentage was just 72% during the same period.
Small business growth in the state appears to have risen more quickly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, though authors note this trend could be influenced by existing companies reporting to the state unemployment system for the first time amid the pandemic disruption.
Still, the federal data indicates the number of companies in the state with fewer than 500 employees increased by 20.2% between 2020 and 2025, reaching 201,093. For both 2010-2015 and 2015-2020, the percentage increases were far lower at 6.9%.
Authors note companies in the 10-99 employee range, referred to as second-stage businesses, “play a particularly large role” in job creation for the state. While they made up just 21% of the state’s small businesses in 2025, they accounted for 52% of total small business employment in Wisconsin for the year.
By comparison, the “microbusinesses” with fewer than 10 employees made up just 17.3% of those jobs despite representing the largest share of the state’s small businesses by far with 77.3% in 2025.
The report also emphasizes the impact of micro-businesses on small business growth overall, as this segment increased by 35.3% over the decade ending in 2025. That’s compared to 10.4% growth for the second-stage companies and just 0.7% for the largest of the small businesses, with between 100 and 499 employees.
“This is not surprising, given that small businesses are easier to start and grow in their earlier stages and are more likely to introduce new products or play a disruptive role in the economy,” authors wrote.
And while small business employment has risen in the state, “payroll has grown even faster.” In the first quarter of 2024, small business employees earned a combined $32.8 billion in wages, accounting for 79% of total wages paid by all private sector employers for that period. That marked a 30.1% increase from three years earlier, the report shows.
Authors say sharper payroll growth of 12.3% in 2022 and 10.6% in 2023 reflected both inflationary spikes and rising competition for labor.
“While this benefited workers and their families during a period of rising costs, it increased pressure on small business margins and was a factor in many businesses raising prices,” they wrote.
— The latest DHS report on the health of Wisconsinites shows low-income residents are more likely to report having poor health.
The State Health Assessment report, which is issued by the state Department of Health Services every five years, shows about 82% of adults in the state said they had excellent, very good or good health in 2024. But the other 18% said they were in fair or poor health.
When broken down by income category, about 30% of adults with household incomes below $50,000 per year report having fair or poor health. For those with income between $50,000 and $100,000, that percentage drops to 13.4%. It then falls further to 7.7% for those making $100,000 or more.
“This further demonstrates how when people have adequate income, they can more easily access the things that keep them healthy — like medications and healthy foods,” authors wrote.
The wide-ranging 107-page report includes a section on healthcare access, which notes residents say they care they need “isn’t readily available” within their communities, prompting long wait times and the need to travel for care.
Residents say they need help coordinating care across many providers and systems, and need providers who “understand their lives, cultures, languages” and other key factors.
“They are burned out from caring for the health needs of others in their households, and getting enough professional in-home care is not affordable,” authors wrote.
The report spotlights other health challenges for state residents, such as the declining childhood vaccination rate. Last year, 66.9% of children in the state completed the recommended seven-vaccine series by age 2, marking a decline from 72.1% in 2019.
Authors note vaccination rates tend to be lower in rural areas, for children in families getting BadgerCare Plus, and for Black children in Wisconsin.
“Barriers to vaccination still exist, including vaccine misinformation and distrust, as well as access to vaccination services and coverage,” authors wrote.
— Archeus Technologies has begun a clinical trial for a cancer therapy and companion diagnostic, the Madison-based drug development firm announced.
The company yesterday said it has begun dosing patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial for its ARC-706 therapy and the companion diagnostic ARC-166. The study involves patients with metastatic cancer getting immunotherapies known as immune checkpoint inhibition or ICI treatment.
Participants in the imaging and therapy study will first get intravenous ACR-166 followed by the ARC-706 therapy to assess its safety, distribution in the body, potential to “augment anti-tumor immune response” and other factors, according to the announcement.
Other goals include determining an ideal dose of the therapy for later phases of treatment and analyzing changes in other cancer-related indicators.
Earlier studies found administering the therapy at specific doses based on results from the companion diagnostic imaging can “significantly increase the response rate to ICI therapies” and the duration of patients’ response.
Dr. Grace Blitzer, who’s leading the study, is an assistant professor of human oncology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and a radiation oncologist with the UW Carbone Cancer Center.
“By combining functional imaging with targeted radiotherapy, we hope to demonstrate meaningful clinical benefit to patients without disrupting ongoing immune-based treatment—a goal that could have wide-reaching impact across multiple tumor types,” she said in a statement on the trial.
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.
— State officials have announced new grant funding is now available for job training focused on advanced manufacturing and AI.
Gov. Tony Evers and the state Department of Workforce Development yesterday said applications are open for the Wisconsin Training for Resilient Advanced Industry Needs, or WisTRAIN employer grant program.
The program is open to employers of any size, as long as they operate a business in the state or are part of a consortium of Wisconsin businesses. They must propose training to support jobs, technologies or workforce needs in advanced manufacturing, AI or related emerging industries, and employ trainees in Wisconsin-based positions.
Applications are being accepted through July 13 for consideration in the initial funding round. After that point, applications may be accepted and reviewed until remaining funds are awarded.
WisTRAIN is backed by $7 million in federal funding, provided through a skills training program from the U.S. Department of Labor focused on high-demand industries.
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the latest WisBusiness column by manufacturing expert Buckley Brinkman.
— AI freezes people in place. The speed and scale of this technology demand attention. But knowing who to believe, making sense of the daily flood of new information, and figuring out what to actually do — that’s the hard part.
I’m not a technology expert — I help organizations use technology more effectively. I struggle with the same information overload you do. Over time I’ve built rules of thumb — heuristics — that cut through the noise and help me move forward.
Find more columns from Brinkman at the AI in Wisconsin page.
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