A 1-hour session for founders who are building a business — not running errands for one
You launched a startup to build something. Instead, you're switching between 8 tools, chasing invoices, fixing shift schedules, and wondering why your ""lean team"" still feels like chaos.
This session is for founders who are done with that.
In one hour, we'll show you how fast-moving startups are collapsing their entire ops stack — CRM, projects, HR, contracts, billing — into a single platform, cutting $3,000+ a month in subscriptions, and getting back to the work that actually grows the business.
What you'll walk away with: - A clear map of which tools you can replace today - A live look at how OneHermes works in a real startup workflow - A 30-day plan to simplify your stack — no migration nightmare
Format: 20 min talk · 25 min live demo · 15 min open Q&A
Seats are limited. Bring your mess — we'll show you how to clean it up.
The Badger Startup Summit is Wisconsin’s premier gathering for entrepreneurs, innovators, and supporters of the startup ecosystem—and the official kickoff to Forward Fest 2026.
Founded over 14 years ago, the Summit brings together founders, builders, investors, and community leaders for a full day of ideas, insights, and connection that set the tone for the entire week.
The program features a curated lineup of talks and discussions designed to be both inspiring and practical, covering topics such as: • Lessons from experienced founders (“Chapter Zero”) • The future of AI and agent-driven technology • Real-world startup journeys—from bootstrapped to venture-backed • What it actually takes to raise capital in today’s market This year, the Summit will feature interactive programming designed to engage attendees more directly, including opportunities for founders to share ideas, get feedback, and connect with peers and experienced operators in a more open, collaborative format. The Summit also includes a VenFair and networking lunch, connecting attendees with valuable resources, partners, and fellow entrepreneurs. Whether you’re launching your first idea, scaling a company, or supporting the innovation ecosystem, the Badger Startup Summit is where Wisconsin’s startup community comes together to kick off Forward Fest.
After several months and tens of pitches, your MVP is done and ready for prime time. Entering the commercial stage of your business requires another adaptation: you need to ditch the pitch and learn to guide a conversation with your ICP. It's not about you anymore, now it's about them. Who needs your product? ... for what, when, and how? Start developing a sales strategy that will lead you to find the answers and activate that much needed cash flow. In this interactive workshop you will discover a few insights to translate your features into crisp business messages for your client conversations. Drop by, bring a pen, and get ready to draft your next sales call.
Sales Coach and Consultant. I took what I learned in 25 years of selling telcom gear and now work with growing tech companies to build an impactful sales strategy. Goals: shorten sales cycles and build meaningful relationships with higher-ups.
Monday August 17, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm CDT StartingBlock Madison821 E Washington Ave 2nd floor, Madison, WI 53703, USA
Technical expertise gets you in the room. How you show up determines what happens next.
In this interactive session, consultants will examine the attitudes, assumptions, and habits they bring into client and colleague relationships, and how those choices shape trust, collaboration, and results. Through meaningful dialogue with peers, you’ll uncover blind spots that may be limiting connection or effectiveness in your work.
You’ll leave with practical tools and simple mindset shifts you can apply immediately to improve communication, foster more inclusive relationships, and create better outcomes for your clients and your business. Because in today’s marketplace, how you work with people is just as critical as what you deliver.
Hosted by Yes...And LLC
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
Owner | Cultural Engagement Specialist, Yes...And LLC
Kim Walters is the Owner and Cultural Engagement Specialist of Yes...And LLC, a boutique consulting firm that helps organizations build cultures of respect and belonging through leadership development and self-awareness. She partners with leaders and teams to strengthen communication... Read More →
Monday August 17, 2026 1:00pm - 3:00pm CDT Virtual
Assess readiness, connect your assets, and use AI to turn data into real-world action.
Hosted by Source-Right Inc
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
LOCATION: TBA - if you have a recommendation, please contact Christina. QUESTIONS? Contact Christina Libs at any time.
Session Detail:
Most teams are stuck when it comes to knowledge bases, help centers, AI chatbots, and static documentation. They don't consider their knowledge as an asset - as thetechnologicalsystem that powers their delivered services. Understanding how you stack up AND how to distill your knowledge down will quickly show you customer insights and opportunities to grow efficiently. Just remember you're a human - and knowledge is a first and best technology naturally existing throughout your organizational network.
If you're hearing: 🥔 "Our help center is a mess - it's a hot potato" 💸 "Customer support is is too expensive / too reactive" 😖 "My team is burning out answering the same 5 questions" 📈 "We need a more sustainable way to scale"
You have overwhelm. You likely have unharnessed knowledge that overwhelms and weighs you down.
Take a breath and join us to find better ways to work.
About Christina Libs: Christina improves accessibility and reusability in organizational operations. She is a fractional knowledge systems program manager for enterprise businesses. She's open to project-based contracts for any small (5-50) teams supporting large customer bases (100s-1000s+). She is a KCS® certified practitioner ♻️, ex-Zendesk Engagement Manager and Manager of Proactive and Automated Support 💚, ex-Epic Implementation Services and Post Go Live Support Program Manager ❤️, and UIUC Graduate in Communication and Sociology 🎓. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin and loves to 🌱 🏒 🥏 🏄♂️.
Knowledge Strategy Consultant, Service Knowledge Operations
Questions? Contact Christina Libs at any time.
About Christina Libs:
Christina improves accessibility and reusability in organizational operations. She is a fractional knowledge systems program manager for enterprise businesses. She's open to project-based contracts for any small (5-50) teams supporting large customer bases (100s-1000s+). She i... Read More →
Madison’s startup ecosystem operates under intense pressure to: • Accelerate timelines to market • Deliver strong financial returns • Compete for capital in a demanding investment environment
However, herein lies the problem: Financial results are not delivered through physical effort alone. More hours, more hustle and more pressure often produce exhaustion not outcomes.
Because money doesn’t just follow effort. Money follows energy.
And without disciplined financial systems, even high momentum turns into waste.
The entrepreneurs who apply both the Laws of Energy and financial discipline will outperform the market. This event will guide them to that competitive advantage by introducing a new operating model for founders and growth leaders navigating today’s reality:
A Dual Engine for Modern Growth • Applying the Laws of Energy → Drives productivity, momentum, and speed without burnout • Applying Financial Discipline → Drives measurable returns, capital efficiency, and investor confidence
Presented by MJ Reiners, Founder of Summerland Education and Victoria Thayer, Founder of Novii CPA, this session bridges the gap between: • Why growth is slower than expected • Why hard work does not create burnout and what does • And how to accelerate both execution speed and financial performance
A practical workshop for Wisconsin founders deciding whether government sales can become a real growth channel — and which path to pursue first.
Agenda: The Wisconsin Opportunity Map What Wisconsin companies already sell to the government, including defense manufacturing, food/ag, healthcare, logistics, construction, technology, and professional services.
The Founder Decision Tree Should you pursue direct federal contracts, subcontracting, prime-supplier channels, SBIR/STTR, state/local contracts or hold on government contracting for now? Government Revenue Fit Canvas
A hands-on exercise to map your customer, end user, buyer, funding source, channel partner, compliance gaps, and next test.
The Readiness Check What you need before pursuing this channel: customer fit, delivery capacity, compliance, registrations, certifications, working capital, insurance, cybersecurity, and sales-cycle tolerance.
How Deals Actually Happen A candid conversation with a founder/operator, prime or supply-chain buyer, procurement expert, and capital provider.
90-Day Action Plan Each founder identifies one target customer segment, one likely entry path, three next steps, and one thing not to waste time on yet.
Starting or growing a business comes with challenges, including understanding environmental requirements. Fortunately, help is available! Join this webinar to learn how Wisconsin DNR’s Small Business Environmental Assistance Program helps entrepreneurs save time, avoid compliance headaches and make informed decisions from the start.
We will showcase free services, practical tools and one-on-one assistance available to small businesses, including a demonstration of the new Enviro-Nav tool that is designed to help businesses identify environmental requirements, permits and resources relevant to their operations. Whether you are launching a new business, expanding or simply looking for trusted guidance, this session will connect you with resources built specifically for small businesses.
Hosted by Wisconsin DNR Small Business Environmental Assistance Program
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
MadAI will be discussing engineering challenges of using AI code automation tools, such as claude code and code, to build and ship code bases which solve problems. We will first discuss a real world use case and then work together on building a solution to the use case in this session. Bring your laptop and a friend, we are going to get our hands dirty and build.
Interested in the basics of AI? This session will review some of the most popular tools available with demonstrations of their use with time to discuss tips & tricks and ask questions.
Hosted by Skapsmidja
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
Early-stage deep tech companies rarely fail because the science doesn’t work. More often, they stall in the gap between research and real market traction.
This session is a candid conversation with founders who started as scientists and are now navigating the transition to entrepreneurship, alongside the investors and funding partners who support them. We’ll unpack where things actually break—from misaligned funding strategies to weak customer signals and overbuilt technology.
Rather than focusing on success stories, we’ll dig into the messy middle: what goes wrong, why it happens, and how to better align funding, product, and market early.
Designed for tech- and scientist-founders actively building at the earliest stages as well as investors and ecosystem partners working closely with them.
Hosted by Innovative Outlier
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
Ever had a product idea but didn’t know how to begin building it?
This live, interactive session is for startup founders, creatives, makers, and curious people who want to explore physical prototyping without needing deep technical experience or a big budget.
Building on last year’s event, we’ll start with a basic introduction to AI-assisted hardware prototyping, then move into group ideation, whiteboard brainstorming, and a vote on which idea to pursue. From there, we’ll use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to help plan the prototype, choose affordable off-the-shelf parts, figure out how to connect them, generate code, troubleshoot, iterate, and test the result live on real hardware.
I’ll be bringing a variety of sensors, electronic components, microcontrollers, displays, motors, lights, and other parts so we can build and adapt on the fly instead of just talking about the idea. Think of the microcontroller as the “brain” of the prototype, with sensors as the inputs and lights, motors, displays, or other parts as the outputs.
This is not a polished engineering lecture. It is a live prototype build where the group helps shape the direction. Some things may work right away. Others may need debugging, rethinking, or a quick pivot. That is part of the process. Attendees will see how an initial idea can move from rough concept, to hardware plan, to wiring, to code, to live testing. The goal is to make hardware prototyping feel approachable, creative, and possible, especially for people who have ideas but do not yet know how to turn them into a working proof of concept.
You’ll walk away with: -A clear example of how AI can help move from idea to prototype -Insight into early proof-of-concept hardware design -A better feel for sensors, boards, wiring, code, and live testing -A look at how messy, iterative prototyping really works -Inspiration to start testing your own ideas with affordable tools and parts
From zero to prototype. Experience it live with AI and real hardware.
In 40+ years of working with entrepreneurs, we have regularly observed that “the money part” of business planning is often what causes many business owners and would-be business owners alike the most anxiety and confusion. Yet the numbers don’t have to intimidate you. Instead, understanding a clear financial plan for your business will give you the confidence to make educated decisions about the viability of your business idea, access needed capital and actively manage cash flow as your business grows.
This live-virtual introductory session – designed for new and prospective business owners in any industry – will help you understand:
▪️The purpose (and power!) of a pro forma in business planning, management and in accessing capital ▪️The fundamental “inputs” to building solid projections, including: ▪️Identification of your business models key revenue streams, and how to translate to your projections ▪️Synthesis of customer, competitive and industry knowledge into reasoned market size and share estimates ▪️The impact of pricing decisions, buyer behavior and capacity on projected revenue ▪️Types of key cost estimates needed for your projections ▪️Resources for pulling it all together!
By joining us for this overview session, you will build a solid foundation of concepts that can help you understand how to put real numbers to your dreams and learn the path to projections. Whether you plan to seek funding from a bank, determine the feasibility of your business idea, or explore new directions for your business, following the ideas we’ll cover in this session will help you build success based on knowledge.
Hosted by Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
In today’s dynamic marketplace, standing out is essential for success. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned business owner, or a creative professional, a branding can be powerful in your organization. Join us for an immersive and interactive workshop designed to equip you with the tools and strategies to build a strong and compelling brand identity.
Led by Ibrahim Harun of IH Concepts with 18 years of experience in branding and marketing, this workshop will delve deep into the core elements of effective branding. Through a combination of an insightful presentations and collaborative discussions, you’ll learn how what goes into a brand so you can hit the ground running.
Whether you’re looking to launch a new venture, bring more life into your business, or simply refine your marketing strategy, this workshop will provide you with the knowledge and insights you need to elevate your business and drive meaningful connections with your audience. Don’t miss this opportunity to take your business to new heights!
How did the long and twisted path of one man lead to a new product and business? By combining little bits of information and experience from each of his stops into something new and powerful. Have you ever asked yourself the "How did I get here" and "How will I ever use that chapter" questions? Come hear how it has come together for one and be encouraged that "it" is coming together for you as well!
I have designed a Cooling garment that outperforms all of the commercially available Cooling products currently available. Based on the technology used in hospitals and the military i have brought definitive care Cooling to the job site, sideline and community center.
This dual-track workshop is designed to help attendees build a business that sustains them rather than breaks them.
Hollie H. Hollister and Ross Larson will co-facilitate this community learning exchange by bridging insights from Psychological Resilience and Heart-Centered Leadership.
Solo founders and small business owners will learn how to scale their impact without the soul fatigue of misaligned growth.
Hollie H. Hollister is a pragmatic visionary who aspires to combine the personal with the professional to bring fresh thinking, unique insights and holistic solutions that help heart-based small business owners grow their businesses and themselves (all without stifling who they are... Read More →
Wednesday August 19, 2026 4:30pm - 7:30pm CDT 100state17 South Fairchild Street fl 7, Madison, WI, USA
Technical expertise gets you in the room. How you show up determines what happens next.
In this interactive session, consultants will examine the attitudes, assumptions, and habits they bring into client and colleague relationships, and how those choices shape trust, collaboration, and results. Through meaningful dialogue with peers, you’ll uncover blind spots that may be limiting connection or effectiveness in your work.
You’ll leave with practical tools and simple mindset shifts you can apply immediately to improve communication, foster more inclusive relationships, and create better outcomes for your clients and your business. Because in today’s marketplace, how you work with people is just as critical as what you deliver.
Owner | Cultural Engagement Specialist, Yes...And LLC
Kim Walters is the Owner and Cultural Engagement Specialist of Yes...And LLC, a boutique consulting firm that helps organizations build cultures of respect and belonging through leadership development and self-awareness. She partners with leaders and teams to strengthen communication... Read More →
Have you reviewed your business from your customers’ point of view? Do you know your products or services inside and out, but do not have formal sales experience? Are you new to finding customers, but passionate about connecting your product or service with your customers?
Practical Tools for Kickstarting your Go-To-Market (GTM) is a founder-focused guide to building and testing sales and marketing motions. Led by Joshua Steinberg, Director of Strategy & Business Development at Hive, the session breaks down core GTM concepts, introduces proven sales methodologies, and gives early-stage teams a clear framework for communicating value. Through real examples and interactive discussion, participants learn how to understand customer pain, articulate differentiated outcomes, and build the foundation for strong product-market fit.
Designed for entrepreneurs looking to turn insights into action, the workshop emphasizes hands-on learning with exercises that guide founders in crafting value-based conversations, developing discovery call scripts, and asking smarter customer-driven questions. Attendees walk away with tangible tools they can immediately apply to customer discovery, early sales efforts, and strategic storytelling. With an open, collaborative atmosphere, the session empowers founders to confidently test assumptions, refine their offering, and accelerate their path to market traction.
No prior knowledge needed to attend.
Hosted by Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
This hands-on LinkedIn workshop is warm, welcoming and fun. It walks attendees through the full ecosystem of building a powerful presence. Participants will learn how to optimize their profiles so they clearly communicate value, attract the right audience, and open doors—whether that’s landing a dream role, growing a business, or expanding influence.
The session moves beyond setup into momentum: covering content strategy, topic ideation, and practical tools to create engaging posts without burnout. It also dives into the art of community-building—because LinkedIn isn’t just a platform, it’s a relationship engine. Attendees will learn how to engage authentically, build trust, and turn connections into meaningful opportunities.
The Becoming Experience is an interactive workshop and networking experience designed for entrepreneurs, creatives, and purpose-driven individuals ready to transform their story into impact.
Hosted by entrepreneur, speaker, and founder Tennisha Loggins, this experience blends authentic storytelling, business strategy, mindset transformation, and practical tools to help attendees move from survival mode into purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
Through guided reflection, interactive activities, networking, and actionable business insights, attendees will explore how healing, identity, and lived experiences can become the foundation for leadership, confidence, community impact, and profitable growth.
This event is ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs, women in business, creatives, side hustlers, and individuals navigating personal or professional reinvention.
Attendees will leave inspired, connected, and equipped with practical next steps to begin building intentionally, confidently, and purposefully.
I'm Tennisha Loggins, Founder & CEO of Loggins Family Business LLC, an entrepreneur, speaker, and storyteller. I help people turn ideas into income and purpose into action. Let's connect if you want to talk about entrepreneurship, food trucks, pop-ups, small business growth, coaching... Read More →
Thursday August 20, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm CDT Leflore Accounting Services306 E Wilson St #2e, Madison, WI 53703, USA
Wisconsin is a national leader in organic food production—but for many consumers the certified organic system still feels opaque. “Understanding Certified Organic in Wisconsin” is a practical, interactive session designed to demystify how organic really works in our state and to introduce new tools that make it easier than ever to find, buy, and support Wisconsin organic.
This event is for anyone who cares about the future of our food system: shoppers, chefs and retailers, distributors, institutional buyers, farmers (certified or transitioning), and food system professionals who want a clear, current picture of Wisconsin’s organic landscape. Together, we’ll walk through the key facts and structures that define certified organic in the United States and Wisconsin—how certification works, who the 1,623 certified organic operations are, where they’re located, and how they fit into the broader value chain. We’ll unpack what “certified organic” really means in practice for crops, livestock, and processed foods, and why local organic production is critical at a time when so much “organic” food on store shelves is imported and often less transparent.
A highlight of the event is the public unveiling of Wisconsin Organics’ new three-part online directory ecosystem: a unified, searchable directory of certified organic farms and handlers; an emerging consumer-facing brands and products directory that will catalog an estimated 3,000 Wisconsin organic products; and a farm and garden input supplies directory mapping key supply-chain businesses—from seed and soil amendments to equipment and organic feed. Built on meticulously collected and cleaned data, these HubSpot-based tools transform scattered information into an accessible, navigable map of Wisconsin’s organic sector.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the USDA national organic standards, how certified organic works in Wisconsin, where the opportunities and bottlenecks are across the value chain, and how to use the new directories to source local organic products, strengthen short supply chains, and better align purchasing with their values.
The session will include a guided tour of the directories, have some local organic producers in attendance with their products, providetime for questions and live troubleshooting, and space for attendees to share what tools and information they most need next—helping shape the future of organic market transparency in Wisconsin.
Hosted by Wisconsin Organics and Giant Jones Brewery
Noreen Mucha is the Founder and Director of Wisconsin Organics-dedicated to building the digital and coordination infrastructure necessary for Wisconsin’s organic sector to thrive. With more than two decades of experience in global food systems and nutrition across 40+ countries... Read More →
Thursday August 20, 2026 3:00pm - 4:30pm CDT Giant Jones Brewing931 East Main Street Entrance on, S Brearly St Suite 9, Madison, WI 53703, USA
As entrepreneurs, you work to build a better world. Forward thinkers and innovators have always been a key to social change and community well-being. Join one of Madison’s top rising philanthropists, Dan Rashke, Chairman of the Board at TASC, to discuss innovative philanthropy. He will joined by a fellow philanthropist and financial advisor.
This interactive session is led through the framework of the Dan & Patti Rashke (TASC) Family Foundation 10-year matching gift to United Way of Dane County, a first-of-its-kind gift that is structured to elevate the nonprofit sector and leverages giving on all levels across the community. This $10-$15 million commitment is not where Dan’s philanthropy started. It’s the culmination of a commitment to philanthropy and social change that is decades in the making. You’ll leave with concrete strategies to build a roadmap for designing and achieving your own ambitious philanthropic goals. This will include diverse strategies for giving, examples of innovative investments, and some tangible tips to identify which causes align with your passion.
Join the ASK (Actionable, Support , Knowledge ) platform online challenge , join the zoom everyday 30 mins to work on your Claude AI prototype - 8:00 am with your community and assist each other.
Meet in hybrid or in person to learn about ASK and showcase your work 8 /21 . Topics to choose My First ( App, chatbot, website) AI for cause ( Lonliness, inclusive, hunger) Ai for sales Anything else
AI can help you generate an application faster than ever. But once the demo works, what comes next?
Join Flexion, a Madison leader in system modernization, human-centered design, and modern software delivery, for a live, interactive session where we take an AI-generated proof-of-concept application and move it closer to something real.
In this hands-on session, we’ll start by exploring the AI-generated starting point: a user-submitted product idea and the proof-of-concept app created from it. Flexion’s engineers, designers, product experts, and attendees will work together to look at what the app already does well, where it falls short, and what it would need in order to become a real product. Along the way, we’ll evaluate the prototype through the lenses of usability, architecture, code quality, security, scalability, and delivery readiness.
From there, we’ll improve the product together. We'll collaborate to refine the user experience, prioritize the most valuable enhancements, and move the app beyond demo-quality functionality. Using AI-assisted development alongside proven engineering practices, the group will iterate on the product live.
Finally, we’ll focus on building for quality and scale. The team will strengthen the application’s architecture, refactor and improve the codebase, and apply practices from agile delivery, Lean UX, ensemble collaboration, and cloud-first development to move the prototype closer to a production-ready solution.
Buying or selling a commercial property can feel overwhelming—especially when you don’t understand the process and terminology.
This session cuts through the noise and gives you the clarity you need to make smart decisions. You’ll understand the full sales process, what really drives value, and how to prepare so you don’t lose time, money, or opportunities.
Whether you’re purchasing your first small building or considering selling a long-held asset, this class gives you the fundamentals to move forward confidently.
Hosted by Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
Have you been thinking about turning your hobby into a business, but aren’t sure where to start? Do you have a side hustle that’s grown and you want to explore next steps? Are you interested in learning more about how to explore a business idea you have? This session will teach you how to use a visual business planning tool call the Business Model Canvas. This tool will help you understand how 9 functional areas of business work together to create a model of operation that can help you determine whether it is time to take the leap to full-time. The class will also give you information about resources and next steps.
Hosted by Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison
This is a virtual event. For those who are logged in and have RSVP'd, the streaming link will appear on this page starting 10 minutes before the session.
You have the big idea, the technical expertise or know-how, and a product or service you believe in and excites you. But if you feel like you haven’t unlocked the same level of excitement and awareness from potential buyers, you’re not alone. Understanding how you can apply principles of marketing strategy in your business could be the missing puzzle piece to fuel the next level of your company’s growth. During this session, you’ll get an actionable crash course in marketing strategy, including understanding what a “market” is and how to define your target audience and create personas, how to conduct a competitor analysis and define your differentiators in order to develop your unique positioning, and more. After the session, you’ll be able to apply marketing strategy principles to connect more often and more authentically with your right-fit potential buyers.
