A fund to help start-up companies is likely on the agenda this state legislative session after a similar bill failed last time around. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, is optimistic such a proposal will pass this. He says the state budget is in better shape to fund such a venture and now there is a greater acknowledgment of the needs of entrepreneurs.
Still says the venture capital plan should have an investment fund run by not by a state agency, but by private market managers.
“What it provides is the notion that you’re really going to market-based decisions made and it really takes the politics out of it,” he says. Still says 30 other states with an angel investor/venture capital fund use this type of private management.
The council is among a coalition building consensus for a venture capital fund that would use $200 million of state tax money over six years.
AUDIO: Still on optimism for venture capital plan (1:00)
