Appleton-based networking business pitches idea on ‘Shark Tank’-type reality show

APPLETON – A 2nd Fox Towns-based mostly small business in as a lot of months hopes to acquire statewide publicity by means of a system that encourages Wisconsin entrepreneurs.

Micronet, a networking startup primarily based in Appleton, will be featured on the tv system “Undertaking Pitch It” this weekend. Venture Pitch It, presented by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Centre, gives Wisconsin business owners the prospect to pitch their small business notion in a “Shark Tank”-kind setting.

The sixth episode of the show’s sixth time airs Saturday on Milwaukee Television set station WISN-12, and will be rerun on 4 other Wisconsin stations, like WBAY, on later dates.

Micronet follows Gold Coastline Candy, a community candymaker specializing in peanut brittle, which was highlighted on the period premiere in March.

Andrew Schmitz, co-founder of Micronet, is grateful for the opportunity to acquire exposure further than the Fox Valley.

“As a startup, the publicity is wonderful,” Schmitz advised The Publish-Crescent before this week.

Schmitz and enterprise companion Eric Johnson begun Micronet in late 2019. It is an e mail-based mostly networking instrument utilized by groups, these types of as enterprises and associations, to spark engagement among the their staff and members.

Schmitz experienced the plan for a networking tool many a long time in the past, when he was first looking to begin his have business enterprise.

“I understood how crappy my community was, and I truly preferred to be improved connected with men and women domestically in this article, with other organization proprietors,” Schmitz explained. “I just wished I could indicator up for a services that would join me with locals for coffee or get a checklist of all people who would like to have coffee in the Fox Valley that are businesspeople.”

He could not obtain a assistance that delivered just that. So, he established it.

The original iteration of Micronet was Fox Valley Join, a networking web site that still capabilities nowadays. End users who indication up get an introduction to a different professional in their email inbox and are inspired to plan a one particular-on-1 to get to know just about every other. End users can opt to obtain weekly, biweekly or month-to-month introductions.

Tale continues

Fox Valley Join was so nicely obtained that enterprise proprietors approached Schmitz and Johnson to see if there was a way their companies could get involved. That was when Schmitz and Johnson resolved to develop their matchmaking technological know-how into an app.

“It’s amazing for staff engagement and obtaining employees to chat to every other,” Schmitz reported. “If staff members have additional friends at get the job done, they’re extra probable to adhere around, so clever organizations are looking for techniques to enhance friendships amid their staff members. That is what Micronet does.”

Micronet has been in particular common as enterprises endeavor to regroup in the 3rd year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People have just kind of gotten out of this two-year span of emotion pretty disconnected,” Schmitz claimed, “and so it looks the reception of Micronet is truly excellent right now because individuals are on the lookout for techniques to reconnect with their communities or just various ways to get linked with other people.”

Schmitz also credited Task Pitch It for helping him nail down Micronet’s manufacturer.

“(The concept) is a little difficult to explain, and that’s what I’m trying to perform on,” he stated. “What I consider was actually handy with Task Pitch It was possessing to go by the work out of getting to clarify the thought to other people today quite quickly.”

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Every “Undertaking Pitch It” episode features 3 business people. A panel of enterprise gurus make a decision which of a few doable awards just about every entrepreneur will receive, which means each entrepreneur is confirmed an award. The awards incorporate money prizes of $10,000, $5,000 and $1,500 the latter two awards also include direction and mentoring in selected areas of company operation from the authorities. More info on each award is offered below.

In five seasons, “Undertaking Pitch It” has invested $3 million in funds and mentoring methods in its business people, in accordance to Kari Altman, the program’s director of neighborhood outreach. About two-thirds of the 114 firms showcased on the demonstrate have been minority- and/or girl-owned businesses.

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Make contact with Brad Star at [email protected]. Stick to him on Twitter at @byBradStar.

This write-up originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton networking small business Micronet seems on Job Pitch It