{"id":6880,"date":"2015-12-01T05:34:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T05:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=6880"},"modified":"2015-12-01T05:34:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T05:34:16","slug":"bunker-labs-wisconsin-aims-to-aid-entreprenurial-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/bunker-labs-wisconsin-aims-to-aid-entreprenurial-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Bunker Labs@ Wisconsin aims to aid entreprenurial veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2-KwaAOZ_400x400\"<\/a>MADISON<\/strong> – In the post-9\/11 era, veterans are underrepresented in entrepreneurship. According to Michael Ertmer, however, military experience is the ideal preparation for the 24\/7 balancing act that a young enterprise demands.<\/span>

A veteran of five years in the U.S. Army and more than 10 years in Silicon Valley, Ertmer is the point man for Bunker Labs @ Wisconsin, a Madison outpost with connections to the University of Wisconsin-Madison that is designed to help veterans advance high-tech startups.<\/span>

“Veterans have unique qualifications to be entrepreneurs because of their experience on active duty and the battlefield,” says Ertmer. “The current generation of vets has been charged with simultaneously fighting a war and building a country, and it’s hard to think of anything more fundamentally entrepreneurial.”<\/span>

Ertmer, whose Army service took him to Bosnia, Turkey and Rwanda during the 1990s, has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Marquette University and did graduate work at Stanford University. An Onalaska native, he recently returned to Wisconsin after years in California.<\/span>

Since Bunker Labs @ Wisconsin opened its doors on Nov. 10 at the University Research Park, Ertmer has served as executive director – and solo operator, for the moment. The group is recruiting 10 to 20 veterans who have promising ideas for technology-oriented ventures or who have a young enterprise in which technology plays a vital role.<\/span>

<\/p>\n

[pullquote]Bunker Labs @ Wisconsin has roots in the Patriot Boot Camp, designed to connect veterans and their spouses with education, resources and community in order to become successful technology entrepreneurs.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

More often than not, according to Ertmer, military life contradicts the stereotype of rigidity and structure: it’s an environment ripe for innovation.<\/span>

“Few soldiers are over-resourced,” he says. “They’re given responsibility but not always authority; [they] are forced to make things happen, to do more with less. That reads like the resume of a successful entrepreneur.”<\/span>

The Bunker will offer business-accelerator-style advice, support and referrals to the chosen entrepreneurs. Areas of assistance might include revenue growth, finding access to capital or acquiring the initial customer base.<\/span>

Polco.us, the Bunker’s first company-in-residence, has already taken advantage of the offerings. Polco’s software allows citizens to engage in local politics by, for example, “voting” on local proposals. The website (<\/span>polco.us<\/span><\/a>) says it “makes it easy for busy but concerned citizens to make a positive impact in their communities.” According to Ertmer, Dane County is Polco’s second\u00a0 — and largest — customer so far.<\/span><\/span>

Bunker Labs @ Wisconsin has roots in the Patriot Boot Camp, designed to connect veterans and their spouses with education, resources and community in order to become successful technology entrepreneurs. When a three-day event took place in 2014 at UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, the veterans’ interest in entrepreneurship was palpable.<\/span>

“We had 30 military veterans from 13 states,” Ertmer says. “Patriot Boot Camp was such a success that the national business accelerator Techstars asked, ‘What would the graduate school look like?'”<\/span>

The answer was as close as Chicago, where the original Bunker Labs had begun assisting entrepreneurial veterans and was broadening its reach by spinning off local affiliates.<\/span>

Each of the 10 Bunker Labs nationwide raises its own funds and faces its own challenges, so the Wisconsin group is seeking corporate and foundation support. At UW-Madison, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was eager to help out.<\/span>

“I participated as a mentor in Patriot Boot Camp,” says SBDC director Neil Lerner. “It was a terrific experience, and it opened my eyes to the special skills and interests that military veterans bring to entrepreneurship.”<\/span>

The SBDC is assisting Bunker Labs through the Wisconsin Business AnswerLine service. Vets can learn about attending the Bunker Lab program via a toll-free phone number\u00a0<\/span>(1-800-940-7232<\/span><\/a>) or email service (available at\u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/wisconsinsbdc.org\/business-answerline<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/span>

“AnswerLine consultants can also answer business questions and provide other information about starting and growing a business in Wisconsin,” says Lerner. “There is no charge for the service, for veterans or anybody else.”<\/span>

To Ertmer, Bunker Labs is about building a professional network of veterans and helping with whatever they need next. The results look promising – both for today’s veterans and the options available to them in the future.<\/span>

“We’re already talking with Epic Systems, gener8tor, MERLIN Mentors, R.W. Baird & Co., and others – as well as several senior business leaders, like [former Wisconsin Secretary of Commerce] Dick Leinenkugel, who plan to get involved,” Ertmer says. “As a result, we can turbo-charge opportunities for veterans in Wisconsin.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current generation of veteran has been charged with simultaneously fighting a war and building a country, and it’s hard to think of anything more fundamentally entrepreneurial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","category-social-science"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",65,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",350,350,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",96,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2-KwaAOZ_400x400.jpg",150,150,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Other<\/a> Social Science<\/a>","tag_info":"Social Science","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}