Five Years Later: Wisconsin Doesn't Have a Startup Problem. It Has a Scale Problem.

When we launched Midwest Founders Community in 2021, the world was upside down.

The pandemic had changed how we worked, how we connected, and for many people, whether they wanted to work for someone else at all.

Five years later, Wisconsin looks very different.

According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state now has more than 200,000 small businesses, and the number of businesses with fewer than 500 employees has grown more than 20% since 2020. Nearly eight in ten of those businesses have fewer than ten employees.

That's not a story of entrepreneurial decline. It's a story of entrepreneurial energy. The challenge is what happens next.

The same report finds that small businesses have created 95% of Wisconsin's net job growth since 2010, yet Wisconsin continues to lag the nation in growing businesses into larger employers. The report concludes that the state's opportunity isn't simply helping people start companies. It's helping them scale. That distinction changes everything.

For years we've asked: How do we create more startups?

Maybe the better question is: How do we help more founders build enduring companies?

Wisconsin has always played a different game than Silicon Valley. Our most successful companies weren't built overnight. They were built over decades. They were built around customers before capital. Around relationships before transactions and with steady growth before blitzscaling.

That's not a weakness. It's our competitive advantage.

Today, when people hear "startup," they often picture venture-backed software companies. Those companies matter. They deserve support. But they're only one expression of entrepreneurship.

The founder opening an advanced manufacturing company. 

The architect building a regional design firm. 

The food entrepreneur creating a nationally recognized Wisconsin brand. 

The creative agency reinventing an industry. 

The construction company developing new building technologies. These founders are building the future of Wisconsin too.

The latest funding numbers illustrate the point. Wisconsin startups logged 12 deals in Q2 2026 — the highest deal count since 2024 — but the dollar total was heavily influenced by a single $67 million financing event, reminding us that venture funding alone doesn't tell the full story of entrepreneurial health.

If we only measure venture capital, we'll miss most of the entrepreneurs creating jobs, strengthening communities, and building generational businesses across this state.

That's why the Midwest Founders Community exists.

We believe founders deserve a place before they deserve a pitch deck. A place to find customers. To find collaborators. To find perspective. To find people who understand what it means to build.

Five years in, our mission hasn't changed. We're still building a Wisconsin where founders don't succeed because they left. They succeed because they stayed.

And the next chapter belongs to all of us.

Come celebrate the first 5 years of our journey together on August 6th at the Vinyl Room in Milwaukee. Details here. 

We’re also looking for you to share your own stories of triumph and milestones here.