TitletownTech is nearly on the clock

Heather Graves

Staff

April 21, 2025

TITLETOWN – In just a matter of days, TitletownTech (TTT) will select its Start-up Draft winner – the culmination of weeks of applications, interviews, pitches and collaboration.

Not only will one of the seven finalists – Ateios Systems, Avant Genomics, CubeNexus, Devii, Shelfmark, SpaceRake and Ubicept – receive a $1 million investment and become TTT’s newest portfolio company, its founders will also have an opportunity to grace the stage of the 2025 NFL Draft.

During the Start-up Draft combine’s two-day company showcase held earlier this month, TTT Managing Director Jill Enos announced that the NFL production team plans to bring the Start-up Draft winner on stage during Saturday’s NFL Draft broadcast.

“It’s incredibly exciting,” Enos said. “The winning founder will be on stage during the NFL Draft, showcasing what this next generation of talent looks like – not just on the field, but in technology and innovation.”

Enos said it will tie the two drafts together in a powerful way.

“The NFL Draft has always been about potential and possibility, and now we’re adding to that narrative with a start-up founder who’s building for the future,” she said.

TTT Managing Director Craig Dickman said the NFL Draft is the largest event Green Bay has ever seen and provides a chance “to show Green Bay on a national stage.”

Exceeded expectations

Enos said the two-day combine exceeded all expectations the TTT team had.

In addition to running a 40-meter dash, kicking 30-yard field goals and touring historic Lambeau Field, Enos said founders met with TTT staff and leaders from TTT’s corporate network.

“We knew we had assembled an incredible group of founders, but the energy, thoughtfulness and collaboration that unfolded during the two days went beyond what we anticipated,” she said. “The quality of conversation, both in structured settings and informal moments, really reinforced why we do this work and how powerful it can be to bring the right people together.”

Dickman said this level of collaboration “doesn’t happen by chance.”

“It happens because they are great partners who feel really invested in uplifting our community and working with founders to try and find ways to help them advance in the marketplace,” he said.

Enos said the founder finalists started their combine experience by having dinner with TTT’s existing portfolio company founders.

“The next day, they had on-field ‘workouts’ led by Rob Davis, the Packers’ director of organizational development and a former player,” she said. “They ran 40-yard dashes, kicked field goals and got the blood pumping before transitioning into more focused sessions.”

Enos said each founder met one-on-one with corporations aligned with their start-up to gather commercial or market feedback, depending on where they are in their journey.

“They also spent time with the TitletownTech team and partners to dig into strategy and continue due diligence conversations,” she said. “In addition to the working sessions, founders filmed content that will be featured in the Start-up Draft broadcast (April 24) and available for their own marketing.”

Everyone’s willingness to show up fully and give it their all, Enos said, was very much appreciated.

“To be vulnerable, to have fun and to lean into the experience,” she said. “We weren’t sure how people would react when we told them they’d be running 40-yard dashes and kicking field goals. These types of events can be stressful, but the group embraced it. They found a way to enjoy themselves while still making the most of the opportunity.”

Being a start-up founder, Enos said, can be isolating at times, “so we hope this gave them a chance to connect with others who understand the journey.”

“Whether or not they walk away as the selected company, our hope is they walk away with relationships that continue well beyond the event,” she said.

Enos said finalists wrapped up day one of the Start-up Draft Combine by pitching their respective companies to various stakeholders during a company showcase.

“To round out the experience, they toured Lambeau Field,” she said. “It was a well-rounded two days.”

The showcase

Ubicept

Ubicept Co-founders Sebastian Bauer (CEO) and Tristan Swedish (CTO) gave a first-hand look at their enhanced camera and perception technologies during the showcase.

“Our key motivation here is about perception – so understanding the world,” Swedish said. “When we talk about perception, it’s worth bringing up that there are 45 billion cameras in the world, and most of these cameras are not used for human consumption – they’re used for understanding what’s happening around us.”

Where normal cameras struggle, Swedish said, is in challenging environments such as low light, high brightness or fast motion.

AI, he said, has made “vast improvements” in this area, however, “if you give AI poor quality data, it’s not going to perform well.”

“The key is not to improve your AI system to be able to handle poor quality data,” he said. “It’s actually to improve data at the source.”

The founding duo said their work originated from research at the University of Wisconsin and MIT, focusing on fundamentally reimagining how cameras capture and process visual information.

Swedish said Ubicept technology is able to capture high-quality visual data where conventional cameras fail, using advanced physics and light statistics.

Bauer said being selected as a Start-up Draft finalist and participating in the combine was an engaging experience.

“I think TitletownTech has built something really special in Green Bay, with a great community spirit,” he said. “And it is always extremely impressive to me to see what other start-up founders are building.”

The whole start-up journey, Bauer said, starts with an idea only, “essentially out of nothing and then evolves into something bigger.”

“In some cases, it does not evolve very far – start-ups still are more likely to fail than to succeed,” he said. “But in any case, there’s always real human beings behind (them) driving things forward, and seeing their passion and grit is very motivating for me.”

Bauer said he was surprised by not only the TitletownTech ecosystem, but the Greater Green Bay community as well.

“That is reflected by the fact that the Green Bay Packers are community-owned, and I always greatly enjoy people coming together to build something that is bigger than all the individuals combined,” he said. “I lived in Madison for three years and have been to Green Bay a few times before, but it was great to really immerse myself into the community there, even if just for a few days.”

Being selected as the Start-up Draft winner, Bauer said, would be “icing on the cake – it’s always nice to have more cash at hand to iterate faster, toward building a highly successful company.”

Though, regardless of the outcome, Bauer said “I think participating helped us iterate and improve on many different levels.”

“Building a start-up is a matter of constant iteration,” he said. “That means, for example, building the team, improving your product and describing the value proposition to others – whether it’s prospective customers, potential investors or the media. The goal behind this is to generate general awareness that can later evolve into material successes for the company.”

CubeNexus

Steven Brandt, co-founder and president of CubeNexus, a spatial data platform that aims to bring context to data for AI understanding – asked the showcase audience to imagine a photo.

That photo, Brandt said, could be from a family vacation, a wedding or even a photo from a holiday spent in the Maldives.

“That photo is not just a photo, it’s a memory,” he said. “When you look at that photo, all of the sights and sounds, the smells and what was happening around you comes back. That’s context, and context in what we’re giving to data at CubeNexus.”

Brandt said CubeNexus technology is bringing context to spatial data so that AI can understand it.

“There’s a huge problem out there,” he said. “Ninety percent of spatial data – big data coming off sensors collected by IoT (Internet of Things) devices, collected by aircraft – is unstructured. It’s in different formats. It’s stored in different storage silos. It is processed in different ways. It is geospatially on different coordinate systems.”

That disintegration of data, Brandt said, causes real challenges for leveraging AI to analyze, contextualize and visualize that data. 

With both himself and Co-founder Adam Gobbo previously serving in the U.S. Air Force, Brandt said they know firsthand the challenges the lack of context in images has.

“When we were deployed in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, we would ask – ‘can I just have a platform to answer simple questions about where and when I should make a decision?’” he said. “Should I send a team in here? Should I drop your weapon here? That is why we started CubeNexus.”

As the pair started exploring the industry, Brandt said they realized the commercial sector faces this problem as well. 

“Through hundreds of customer conversations, we’ve seen that the challenge of spatial data integration leads to real-world consequences,” he said. “Whether it is mission losses in the aerospace or defense sector or just the inability to monetize that data because it’s in different formats or whether it’s practical coverage problems in a manufacturing facility – it’s about trying to understand what is going on in a certain space at a certain time.”

Brandt said CubeNexus aims to solve data integration challenges and make spatial data more accessible and useful for AI applications.

So, how does it work?

“Think of CubeNexus as building the data structure for the future of data in real life,” he said, “meaning I can put on a headset and actually see the radio frequency in this room real time – meaning I can ask questions of that data.”

Brandt said CubeNexus software divides all of space – from outer space to the center of the Earth – into a proprietary cube-based structure that acts as a folder system.

“We can input all of these different sensor feeds, organize them into a fixed geospatial reference system over time,” he said. “We are a data structure platform. We are a software that does that, and we actually become more effective as AI becomes more effective. So our trajectory is only up when it comes to the ability to use our technology.”

Brandt said in every room he was in during the two-day combine, “the energy in the room was electric.”

“I especially enjoyed connecting directly with corporate leaders and founders who are building the future,” he said. “I was surprised by how engaged and collaborative the corporate partners were. They weren’t just listening, they were actively problem-solving with us. We got really valuable feedback.”

The knowledge gained during the combine, Brandt said, has sharpened CubeNexus’ messaging.

“(The combine also) validated our technology with real stakeholders and opened doors to partnerships that could turn into revenue-generating business relationships,” he said.

Brandt said for him, this wasn’t just a pitch event – “it was a true relationship-building experience, rare and unique amongst venture capital funds like TitletownTech.”

Winning the Start-up Draft, Brandt said, would “be a signal that what we’re building matters.”

“Not just to technologists, but to the industries and customers we aim to provide value to,” he said. “Huge thanks to TitletownTech, the Packers and Microsoft for creating a platform where innovation feels both tangible and community-driven.”

Devii 

Devii CEO Anthony Molzahn took showcase attendees on a journey through app development.

“On average, it takes about 2,000 hours of software engineering time to make that app go live and work and generate revenue,” he said. “And about 1,000 of those hours go into the piping to make sure the information goes to the right place and (people) can actually do the thing they’re supposed to do with that data.”

Devii – a software development company based in Fargo, North Dakota – Molzahn said, has “whittled down” that 1,000-hour process to a single click.

“It took us a couple few years to do it, but now we are here,” he said. “For those who are very technical and want to know exactly – it is in the middleware.”

Molzahn said Devii does this by leveraging a technique known as meta programming – “code that writes code that generates APIs.”

“No, it’s not AI – AI uses our tech,” he said. 

“It’s a middleware that can look at any database and generate an API and a security policy just by looking at the shape of the mapping of that database itself,” he said. “Fancy (explanation) for ‘it’s an entire back end in a single click.’”

Though it’s good to talk about what Devii technology is, Molzahn said, “it’s a lot easier to talk about some of the customers that are using it.”

“Turflogic is a customer – they’ve been a customer of ours since 2018, they were our first customer actually,” he said. “They focus on golf courses – take drone imagery, analyze it and show the quality and the conditions, the turf health of the grass, the soil and the water management. Our technology is behind (that).”

Spending time in Wisconsin for the combine, Molzahn said, was a “beautiful blend” of his upbringing in Webster, Wisconsin (Burnett County), and his hometown of Fargo.

“I felt right at home,” he said.

The transformation of the Titletown District, Molzahn said, is a fitting representation of what TitletownTech, Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers are capable of doing for start-ups.

The experts involved in the Start-up Draft Combine, Molzahn said, helped him look at things from a different perspective.

“We have a nifty technology that makes it really easy for software engineers to write better code faster,” he said. “What the combine leadership team helped me understand is how to convey the value our technology has related to the use of safe, scalable AI when working with private data.”

From what he anticipated to what he experienced during the two-day event, Molzahn said, “TitletownTech totally underpromised and overdelivered.”

“The No. 1 value, without question, is that they put us in front of potential customers,” he said. “There is no greater value for a start-up than getting to hear from the voice of the customer. It shows they both understood our technology and value prop, as well as the problems and issues their network may be dealing with.”

Just being selected for the Start-up Draft,  Molzahn said, has garnered additional brand recognition and clout in the tech community. 

“Codifying that with an investment from the TitletownTech team would be transformative,” he said. “They understand our tech and who to put it in front of – that is the kind of partnership every start-up should want.”

If Devii is selected as the winner, Molzahn said, it would serve as “validation on a global scale alongside a highly sought-after venture capital partner helping us move forward, faster.”

That being said, Molzahn said, with founders and leadership from the other six finalists, “TitletownTech couldn’t make a wrong choice for the $1 million award if they tried.”

“If I were sitting on the other side of the table, writing the checks, I would have a tough time choosing just one,” he said.

Avant Genomics

At its core, CEO and Co-founder Rachelle Turiello said Avant Genomics aims to revolutionize cancer detection through automated, efficient and cost-effective laboratory technologies.

“We are a life-science, biotechnology company working to automate blood-based cancer detection in the laboratory for more than 50 different cancers – focused on sample preparation, in particular,” she said.

Turiello said it wasn’t even a decade ago that the only way to characterize a tumor was to obtain an invasive biopsy of the tissue

“Right today, we can detect more than 50 different cancers from the blood draw alone,” she said.

Turiello said Avant Genomics takes that one step further by cutting down on the steps, manpower and waste needed for each test.

“Typically, the sample preparation function of this workflow takes about eight hours to prepare,” she said. “Even before the analyst comes in (for the day) and sets their bag down – they’re already behind.”

Turiello said it also consists of more than 90 manual steps.

“So (there is) a lot of room for error, a lot of room for contamination,” she said. “It also requires 56 plastic consumables per patient sample.”

At Avant Genomics, Turiello said they have developed a full, automated platform for automated liquid biopsy sample preparation.

“The platform is 90% less manual than what’s currently on the market,” she said. “It is two times faster than the current alternative and requires 98% consumables.”

For Avant Genomics’ customers – laboratories – Turiello said “what makes them excited is the 84% reduction in cost.”

Both Turiello and Co-founder Renna Nouwairi said the Start-up Draft Combine was one of the most “well-organized and thoughtfully executed” events they’ve ever attended. 

“From start to finish, every detail was clearly communicated, and the structure allowed for meaningful engagement at every turn,” Nouwairi said. “We especially appreciated the chance to get to know the incredible team at TitletownTech, who brought such passion, professionalism and authenticity to the experience.”

Throughout the two-day event, Turiello said there was a “powerful sense of shared momentum” among the founders and executives present.

“It was inspiring to connect with such talented and mission-driven leaders – and to witness firsthand the energy they’re pouring into their ventures.”

The founding duo said they also “had a blast” participating in the light combine workout with David and touring “the legendary Lambeau Field.”

“The hospitality and generosity of the people in Green Bay left a lasting impression,” Nouwairi said.

The pair said they were “genuinely surprised” by how deeply connected TitletownTech is across such a broad and diverse network – from R&D and manufacturing to commercialization and capital.

“But what stood out even more was the authenticity of those connections,” Turiello said. “Everyone we met who has worked with TitletownTech spoke about them with true respect and admiration – that speaks volumes about the kind of partner they are.”

Participating in the combine, Turiello said, gave Avant Genomics direct access to high-impact conversations that are already accelerating its progress.

“TitletownTech was incredibly intentional in curating meetings that aligned with our strategic goals – whether it was with potential partners in R&D, future manufacturing collaborators, commercialization experts or investors,” she said. “Each interaction delivered real value: insightful feedback, meaningful connection and clear next steps. We walked away with a sharper focus, a broader network and a renewed drive to keep pushing our mission forward at Avant Genomics.”

Turiello and Nouwairi said for them, the biggest takeaway was that TitletownTech doesn’t just invest in start-ups – “they invest in people.”

“Their team brought an unmatched level of energy, support and care to the process,” Nouwairi said. “This wasn’t just a pitch competition – it was a showcase of what’s possible when great companies are surrounded by the right ecosystem.”

The partners said the combine also served as a reminder of “how powerful it is when innovation meets genuine support.”

Winning the $1 million Start-up Draft prize, Turiello and Nourwairi said, would be a game-changer for their company.

“It would allow us to accelerate critical R&D milestones, expand our team with the talent we need and bring our vision to life much faster than would otherwise be possible,” Nouwairi said. “But beyond the financial impact, it would mean something deeply personal to us. This journey has been built on belief – before there was external validation. To receive that kind of support and recognition from TitletownTech would be incredibly meaningful. It would validate the late nights, the risks we’ve taken and the moments we chose to keep going when it would’ve been easier to stop.”

Ateios Systems

CEO Rajan Kumar said Ateios Systems’ battery manufacturing technology focuses on creating a more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly battery manufacturing platform.

“We know that batteries are a critical device that helps us move, live and connect,” he said. 

That battery’s power, Kumar said, comes from a film called the electrode.

“So, in this film is the battery’s power,” he said. “That component consists of 80% of the cost to (make a battery).”

According to Kumar, about 95% of batteries use heat and perfluoroalkoxy alkane (PFA) polymers, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” in the production of lithium battery electrodes.

Ateios Systems, he said, developed a chemistry-agnostic platform (RaiCure™) for manufacturing battery electrodes without toxic solvents or forever chemicals  – which enables faster, cleaner and more cost-effective production for next-generation batteries.

The company’s new approach, he said, aims to reduce battery production costs by 50%, shrink battery size and manufacturing complexity and address current manufacturing challenges.

Ateios Systems’ long-term mission, Kumar said, is to increase the country’s battery manufacturing capabilities and reduce its dependence on overseas battery production.

“Right now, if you look at the U.S., we only have about nine or 10 gigafactories and Asia has 400,” he said. “We’re not going to beat that by investing in the same technology – it’s just too expensive.”

Kumar said the RaiCure™ Platform drastically increases the speed at which electrodes are manufactured, reduces the carbon footprint associated with battery manufacturing and decreases the size necessary to create gigafactories.

Kumar said the TitletownTech team did an excellent job of blending “fantastic opportunities to spread the excitement about our company, (the chance to) dive into the vibrant high-tech ecosystem in Wisconsin and have unforgettable experiences.”

Though aware of Wisconsin’s growing manufacturing sector, Kumar said seeing it up close “opened my eyes to its remarkable diversity and potential.”

“The invitation to visit was an invaluable opportunity, allowing me to explore numerous innovative companies eager to support us in exciting ways in developing, scaling and integrating our battery manufacturing platform,” he said.

Ateios Systems’ participation in the combine, Kumar said, enabled the team to enhance the company’s fundraising pitch and connect with potential customers from Wisconsin.

“Additionally, the chance to compete against the top 1% of start-ups chosen by TitletownTech is a source of pride for our team,” he said. “Wisconsin boasts a vibrant start-up ecosystem, and I am keen to participate.”

Kumar said he appreciated the “considerable effort” the TitletownTech team put in to ensure the event benefited all start-ups.

“For fun, I discovered that I can still run a solid 40-yard dash and kick a 30-yard field goal,” he laughed.

If Ateios Systems is selected as the Start-up Draft winner, Kumar said the funding and support from TitletownTech’s $1 million prize would empower his team to establish a billion-dollar-plus production line for its battery manufacturing platform.

“This initiative promises substantial returns for our investors and strengthens the U.S. position in an industry dominated by Asia,” he said, “where (currently), more than 90% of batteries are produced.”

Shelfmark

Using Jordan Love and T.J. Watt jerseys as examples, CEO Pat O’Donnell walked showcase attendees through the capacities and advantages of Shelfmark – an AI visual inspection automation platform geared toward middle-market manufacturers. 

“We’re building Shelfmark out of Pittsburgh, because I believe that economies like Western Pennsylvania, like Central Ohio – where I was born – (and) Wisconsin, (where TitletownTech is located), are the best places in the world to build things and to make things,” he said.

O’Donnell said they set out to build a technology company a little bit differently with a little bit different mission.

“We set out with the mission to make the companies that call our regions home more profitable and more effective,” he said.

In order to accomplish that goal, O’Donnell said that meant immersing himself into the middle-market world.

“I spent about a year doing first-person discovery in middle-market manufacturers and companies around Western Pennsylvania,” he said. “I rode along with a bread truck at 4 a.m., I worked the assembly line at a small manufacturer – all with the intent of learning (and seeing firsthand) the problems these operators experience.”

Through this discovery period, O’Donnell said many manufacturers have three things in common.

“First, they can’t find labor,” he said. “Two, 90% of them manually inspect the project they produce. And three, these manufacturers want to automate.”

The reality, O’Donnell said, is solutions in the market today are not built for middle-market manufacturers.

“That’s exactly the problem we’re solving with Shelfwork,” he said. “We are an AI-based digital inspection automation platform for middle-market manufacturers… This isn’t just hypothetical. This is real and is being used in a couple of facilities across Western Pennsylvania as we speak.”

Regarding the Love and Watt jerseys, O’Donnell said instead of having one person visually inspecting the jerseys at each printer, “they now have one person, centralized, monitoring the  production of all six printers.”

“To them, it seems like a custom solution,” he said. “To us, it’s scalable… we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.”

Having the chance to connect with the Wisconsin start-up ecosystem – investors, customers and ecosystem partners – during the combine, O’Donnell said, was priceless.

“The community support was really impressive,” he said. “I was surprised by the turnout of Wisconsin’s corporate community. I really enjoyed the chance to interact with so many manufacturers and business leaders.”

Throughout the process, O’Donnell said it provided an opportunity for him to hone in on Shelfmark’s product and messaging in a friendly environment.

“We’re also grateful for the exposure to customers that will benefit from our visual inspection automation technology,” he said. “I took away connections, guidance and relationships with other dynamic founders – it was quite an impressive group of companies and entrepreneurs.”

If he were selected as the winner, O’Donnell said, “it would mean the world for Shelfmark.”

“The resources would help us further our mission, and the exposure would drive growth,” he said. “Plus, a chance to attend and be on stage at the NFL Draft would be a dream come true.”

SpaceRake

During the company showcase, SpaceRake’s CEO Weston Marlow and CPO Jordan Wachs presented an in-depth look at its “next generation of laser communication technologies.”

“The writing is on the wall that highly connected, small and dynamic systems – whether they’re satellites, or drones, or robots, or they’re embedded in your car or they’re embedded in an industrial process somewhere – are going to change the way the world works in the near future,” Wachs said.

Through the development of cutting-edge technologies – like many-to-one lasercom routing – Marlow said SpaceRake is enabling the next generation of space communication, driving innovation in both space-based and terrestrial applications.

As of January 2025, Wachs said SpaceRake – which develops miniaturized communication systems for satellites and drones – successfully flew the smallest laser communication systems anywhere in the world.

Marlow said SpaceRake’s potential applications could include IoT, smart agriculture, disaster response networks and connecting systems from space to ground.

“SpaceRake components are built for the customer’s needs – they are very small, they’re very lightweight,” Wachs said. “We are building a niche market that nobody is touching.”

Marlow said he was impressed with how well-curated the Start-up Draft Combine was – ensuring each start-up got the most out of the two-day event.

“The TitletownTech team coordinated with their corporate partners to set up meetings for each of us that were really high value and will have positive repercussions regardless of what happens with the competition,” he said.
That “Midwestern nice,” Marlow said, “is a real thing, and boy, was it great.”

“Everyone was so welcoming and friendly,” he said. “Folks went out of their way to make sure that we had what we needed, knowing how hectic the two-day event was going to be.”

Marlow said SpaceRake has already received “some good publicity” from its participation in the combine.

“Getting more pitch practice is always helpful, especially live pitches in front of a crowd of knowledgeable professionals,” he said. “The networking that we did during the event will help us with business traction beyond the original thesis we had.”

Marlow said the TitletownTech team “ran a tight ship” – making sure “we hit the ground running – literally – when we got there.”

When asked what it would mean if SpaceRake was named the Start-up Draft winner, Marlow said two things came to mind.

“Every founder believes in what they’re building, but to get the validation from a win like this would be huge,” he said. “It would also help us build momentum to get our idea into the world.”

The pick is almost in

The feedback TTT staff received from both the founder finalists and its network or investor partners, Enos said, “was incredibly positive.”

“Founders appreciated how intentional and thoughtful the process was,” she said. “It didn’t feel like a traditional competition. It felt like a true opportunity to plug into something meaningful. Investor companies also shared how impressed they were with the structure and caliber of the founders. Several follow-up conversations are already underway.”

The days since the combine, Enos said, have been filled with several follow-up conversations amongst the TTT team, its investor companies and the founder finalists.

“The team is reviewing feedback, sharing notes, continuing diligence and having conversations internally and with founders to align on the final decision,” she said.

From the initial announcement to the final combine session, Enos said “the response has been incredible.”

“There’s been so much excitement and support from across our network,” she said.

Each finalist company will be featured in the TitletownTech Start-up Draft broadcast April 24 – which will be streamed across LinkedIn, YouTube and X.

The public is still able to vote for the TitletownTech Start-up Draft Fan Favorite at titletowntech.com/titletowntechstartupdraft.

Voting will close April 24 during the Start-up Draft broadcast.