State start-ups need help sooner

It isn’t a shortage of venture capital that’s holding back Wisconsin business start-ups, it’s a flow of deals that comes in drips, not gushers.

In the hot deal areas of the country, venture capitalists have a steady flow of companies to screen in search of winners. But even in places such as Silicon Valley, Boston and San Diego, picking winners is still a risky business.

Put another way, the funnel through which deals flow is backward in Wisconsin, says Lane Brostrom, managing director of TechStar, an organization created to accelerate start-ups in the Milwaukee area. By putting too much emphasis on venture capital and not enough on the early stages of business creation, he believes, the state puts itself at a disadvantage.

By JOHN TORINUS
Special to the Journal Sentinel

http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/dec04/283144.asp