Successful Milwaukee Angel Investor to Keynote gener8tor Premiere Night
Founder of Milwaukee’s First Angel Network, Jeff Rusinow, to Headline Startup Event
Jeff Rusinow
MILWAUKEE – Local angel investor and former retail executive, Jeff Rusinow, will keynote gener8tor’s Premiere Night event October 21, as five startup companies present their businesses to over 400 attendees.
The event will feature companies that have completed gener8tor’s Milwaukee 2014 accelerator program, which provides funding, mentorship, and training for high-‐tech entrepreneurs. The program culminates with a Premiere Night event where each entrepreneur pitches their company to an audience of potential investors.
Jeff Rusinow has been an active member of the early-‐stage venture capital community in the Midwest for over the past 15 years, when he founded Milwaukee’s first angel network, Silicon Pastures. He earlier spent 22 years in retail management, holding senior executive positions at Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Hudson Bay Company and, most recently, Kohl’s Department Stores, where he served as an Executive Vice President until leaving corporate mainstream in 2000.
Jeff has been on the Board of Directors of a number of private and public companies, as well as non-‐profits, over the past several years. As an angel investor, he has invested in over 30 startups, and has had 6 successful exits. He has been the Chairman and lead investor in two startups that have been acquired by Fortune 500 companies. He is a Founding Donor of BrightStar Foundation and is on the Investment Committee of the Wisconsin Super Angel Fund.
“Jeff has been a critical supporter of gener8tor through his mentorship, investment and cheerleading support. We’re thrilled to have him keynote our firth Premiere Night,” said Troy Vosseller, gener8tor Co-‐Founder.
The companies to be featured at the Premiere Night event:
Beekeeper Data (Madison, WI)
Entrepreneur: Matthew Rathbone
www.beekeeperdata.com
matthew@beekeeperdata.com
Beekeeper Data is a licensed, collaborative, software platform that lets executives and non-‐ technical employees quickly ask many different questions of their company’s complex data. Beekeeper off-‐loads data ‘grunt work’ from IT resources by allowing a company to build reusable and scalable reporting components that are easy for anyone to use. Beekeeper’s first product is rolling out to paid private beta customers during Q4 2014.
HITLIST (Provo, UT)
Entrepreneur: Andrew Stewart
www.gohitlist.com
stewart@gohitlist.com
HITLIST is the smarter way to gather data from your website visitors. No more pop-‐ups. No more annoying banner ads. HITLIST’s engagement platform uses a gamification module to serve ads and content to website visitors. In the process, HITLIST module gathers leads and increases “click-‐throughs” for publishers while also gathering sellable data from site visitors. Beta tested with companies such as Sony, Vivint, and J. Walter Thompson, HITLIST is now being licensed into major publisher networks.
Modern Movement (Madison, WI)
Entrepreneur: Glenn Polinsky
http://www.modmov.com
glenn@modmov.com
Modern Movement is pioneering a new method for measuring and improving balance. MM is aiming to be the first to market with a patented system, which tracks instability and movement. The software runs through a smartphone and has three modes: Play, Train, and Measure. A range of solutions will enable this system to perform as a game controller, a fitness tool, or a physical therapy device. MM’s first generation products are already carried by over 100 retailers.
Project Foundry (Milwaukee, WI)
Entrepreneur: Bill Mortimore
http://www.projectfoundry.org
bmortimore@pblhq.com
Project Foundry manages the complex workflow of teachers and students to plan, assess, report, and showcase project-‐based learning. Project Foundry is the leading SaaS solution for managing project-‐based learning for grades K-‐12. Project Foundry serves 100+ schools and 6,000+ teachers and students in 25 states. Project Foundry has achieved a $250,000 annual run rate.
Stock Mfg. Co. (Chicago, IL)
Entrepreneur: Jim Snediker
www.stockmfg.co
jim@stockmfgco.com
Stock Mfg. Co. is an American-‐made clothing brand that designs and manufactures premium men’s clothing in their Chicago factory, and sells directly to consumers at ½ the price of comparable brands. Due to Stock’s highly nimble model, they are able to identify trends in the marketplace and capitalize on them in-‐season. To date, Stock has generated over $425,000 in gross revenue.
Premiere Night event details:
Tuesday, October 21
5:00-‐9:00 pm
Turner Hall
1034 N 4th St
Milwaukee, WI 53203
Ticketing for the event is by invitation and request. Please address any inquiries to joe@gener8tor.com.
For more information, visit www.gener8tor.com or follow us at @gener8tor. gener8tor is thankful for the support of American Family Insurance as its premier program sponsor.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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