As the local entrepreneurial ecosystem matures, Scott Resnick remains among a group of young startup business leaders who have reached, or are fast approaching, the dreaded age of 30. They stayed after their graduations from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and helped build what promises to be productive era of local business development during a period in which more businesses are failing than starting nationally.
A former alder and mayoral candidate, Resnick has been on the reviewer side of the economic-development fence. Now that he’s hoping to gain city approvals for StartingBlock Madison’s part of the project known as The Cosmos, he’s transitioned from reviewer to “reviewee.” That entails working with the Marquette and Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Associations, the closest neighbors of the proposed development, plus the city’s Urban Design Commission and on up the chain.
Resnick, executive director of StartingBlock Madison and a founding member of Capital Entrepreneurs, is knocking on wood that everything goes well. Hiccups already have been experienced, as negotiations to make Sector67 a Cosmos tenant fell through. Resnick says losing the collaborative space of Sector67 was disappointing but not fatal. In fact, he says it’s probably the best thing for both entities. “I care about creating a sustainable business model, first and foremost, because if it’s not sustainable you’re not going to have long-term success,” Resnick states. “It wasn’t sustainable for both parties so we’re moving forward.”
Despite attempts to portray them as feuding entrepreneurs, Resnick wants everyone to know he’s on good terms with Sector67’s Chris Meyer and that his sense of anticipation for StartingBlock’s future home remains strong.
The site, located in the 800 block of East Washington Avenue, was originally owned in its entirety by developer Otto Gebhardt of Gebhardt Development. The parcel has been split in two between Gebhardt and American Family Insurance, which has enlisted the services of Eppstein Uhen Architects and J.H. Findorff & Son to design and build the 50,000-square-foot piece that will contain StartingBlock and technology businesses such as PerBlue, a mobile gaming company, and health IT ventures.
Given the possibility of delays, the stated construction timetable of one year after city approval (for the American Family piece) seems optimistic, but Resnick can’t wait to get started. StartingBlock also will have entrepreneurial company in the form of gener8tor and its technology accelerator program, the Doyenne Group, which focuses on women entrepreneurship, and UW–Madison, which will have some form of programming inside the facility.
“We’re still working on what that actually means conceptually but we’re working through some really interesting things with the UW, whether it’s classes, educational opportunities being programmed there, or enhancing the ability for startups to be generated outside of the university,” Resnick says. “Talk about economic development the city needs to do. Spinning off more companies from the UW is part of that equation.”
The Gebhardt section will house office space, a new music venue run by Frank Productions, and other still-to-be-determined pieces.
Another key piece to this development puzzle is the parking structure that will be built across Main Street. Madison Gas and Electric has worked out a land agreement for the parking “so we can do really dense development,” Resnick notes, “and that’s really what will allow the site to come alive.”
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Spirit of 1871
Resnick, who also serves as executive vice president of Hardin Design & Development, a Madison-based mobile applications developer, believes that entrepreneurs have something in common with political activists in that they engage in a constant effort to challenge the status quo. Whereas the 1960s defined Madison as a bastion of progressive, anti-war politics, the decade before us could define Madison as a place of innovation where anyone can grow a new idea.
Resnick expects the Cosmos facility to be Madison’s version of 1871 in Chicago or COCO in the Twin Cities — co-working centers that serve as beacons of local entrepreneurship. Madison might never become a “cluster” like New York or Chicago because it doesn’t have the size and scale, but given its various assets the goal of an “entrepreneurial hub,” one marked by innovation, hits the mark. It will really hit the mark, he notes, if the potential for significantly higher levels of venture capital formation is realized.
“These facilities are pieces of infrastructure in each city, and many cities have one that just sort of rises to the top such as 1871 in Chicago,” he says. “There are 217 — and probably more since the statistic first came out six months ago — but there are 217 co-working and entrepreneurial centers in Chicago. 1871 is still the one that becomes that beacon for entrepreneurship. It’s COCO in the Twin Cities.
“This will be Madison’s version of that so we are talking to entities outside the city about having that kind of startup presence.”
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