“The Governor’s Business Plan Contest was a very rewarding experience for [me] and [my] team.  The exposure given our small company as a direct result of our participation and success in the contest has and will continue to add credibility to our organization.  In fact, as I was drafting this letter, I took a call from one of the Venture Fund Managers we are in contact with congratulating us on our success in the contest.”

-Eric Antonson, U.S. Trailmaps Inc.

2nd Place, Information Technology category


“Thank you for all your hard work in organizing the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.  [It] was more beneficial than I expected!  As I said before, the day we won the business plan contest was also the day we made our first sale of our new product.  The Business Plan Contest was a great exercise for us to organize our ideas and develop suitable pricing, and it seems to have worked!”

-Brennan Pardee, GuestBridge, Inc.

 3rd Place, Business Services category


“Pragmatic Construction has now gotten two venture capital calls since winning the Business Services category of the contest.  Those connections simply would not have happened without the exposure we received because of the contest.”

-Juli Kaufmann, Pragmatic Construction

1st Place, Business Services category


“Let me take this opportunity to thank you for making the whole contest experience enjoyable, worthwhile, and truly helpful to our business’ growth process.  We got some good news on Monday that our funds are moving another step closer to, well, us!”

-Ben Lap, BioSentinel LLC

2006 Life Sciences category contestant


“The process of building a business plan and testing it with a peer group is a great exercise with far-reaching benefits.”

-Paul Hinahara, Madison Instruments


“The contest enabled me to write a valid and useful business plan in easy steps.  I had not writeen a business plan before the contest.”

-Jeffrey Milsap, Sound Focus LLC