Pondview Lavender Farm: A budding business
Horsing around is a way of life for two sisters in De Pere
May 27, 2024
WISCONSIN – Since its inception, TitletownTech – formed in 2019 out of a partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft – has focused on helping support the growth and innovation of startup and early-stage businesses.
That partnership took a giant next step earlier this month with the announcement of TitletownTech-Milwaukee – which will be embedded in the AI Co-Innovation Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
“TitletownTech-Milwaukee is an extension of what we do (at TitletownTech in Green Bay) – and I think that is an important message,” Managing Partner Jill Enos said. “It’s an extension of the expertise and the work we’re already doing, which is connecting founders and entrepreneurs to innovation, tools and resources to help them advance.”
The announcement came in tandem with Microsoft announcing a $3.3 billion investment in southwest Wisconsin at UWM’s Connected Systems Institute, which will house the nation’s first manufacturing-focused AI Co-Innovation Lab.
Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft and an Appleton West graduate, said the project aims to make Wisconsin a leader in high-tech manufacturing – which Enos said has always been an area of focus for TitletownTech.
“We’ve been focused on manufacturing as one area of investment since the day we opened, so we’ve always had that interest – we know it’s a core strength of the region,” she said.
According to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the Badger State is home to more than 470,000 manufacturing jobs – making it No.1 in the country for manufacturing employment concentration.
Though physically located in Northeast Wisconsin, Enos said TitletownTech’s presence blankets the state – with the Milwaukee expansion only furthering that reach.
“(TitletownTech-Milwaukee) extends it so we can be in a position where we collaborate more with other partners in a city that is a center of this,” she said.
Though nearly two hours separates TitletownTech and TitletownTech-Milwaukee, Enos said the approach, focus and importance are the same.
“It’s important to us we don’t have an ‘our office is here and their office is there’ approach – we think of it as fluid,” she said. “So, our staff will be extended. We’ll have two people working out of the UW-Milwaukee location, out of the AI Lab, but they will be connected to our team here.”
Enos said companies, wherever they are – across the state and beyond – can come into this.
“We have portfolio companies in the state right now in Viroqua, New Richmond, Janesville, Madison and Delafield – so, we’ve got portfolio companies from everywhere,” she said. “We want established companies to feel the same connection and reach to do more.”
