Microsoft, the Packers, and the Venture Firm Betting on Midwest Innovation - Jill Enos, Managing Partner of TitletownTech - The TechEd Podcast

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Matt Kirchner (00:00):
Matt, welcome into this episode of The TechEd

(00:10):
Podcast. My name is MattKirkner. I am your host. We have
a phenomenal individual joiningus this week. I think the folks
that tune into the podcastregularly know that I love
professional athletics. I loveprofessional sports, especially
my beloved Wisconsin teams. Inthis case, the Green Bay
Packers. Will talk a little bitabout that. We love technology,
of course, here on The TechEdPodcast. And I also have this

(00:33):
closet fascination with businessmodels, financial models,
private equity, venture capital.
Doesn't matter. We're gonna hiton all of these topics today on
this episode of The TechEdPodcast, my guest is the
managing partner of Titletowntech Her name is Jill Enos. I've
gotten to know Jill pretty wellover the course of the last six
months, eight months or so.

(00:55):
She's doing phenomenal things,not just in the state of
Wisconsin, but all over thecountry, and really setting the
example for how we can focus oninnovation, how we can focus on
incubating startups and doing itin really, really creative ways.
It's my great pleasure towelcome in person to the studio.
Jill. Enos, Jill, awesome to seeyou. Thanks

Jill Enos (01:13):
for having me. I love your platform, and I am so
impressed with both the gueststhat you bring on and the
audience that you speak to. It'sreally quite a remarkable set
that you work with.

We certainly agree. I mean, we love the
guests that come on the podcast.
Nobody says no to the idea ofsecuring the American Dream for
the next generation of STEM andworkforce talent. But you're
exactly right. It's our audiencethat makes all the difference.
It's all the teachers, thestudents, the innovators, the
business owners and leaders andothers that tune in on a regular
basis to find out what'shappening all across our economy
in so many different sectors.

(01:43):
One of the things I love, Jillabout the work that you are
doing at Titletown tech is youtouch so many different sectors
of our economy, so manydifferent types of technology.
We'll get into that. But let'sstart out with this managing
partner at Titletown tech. Whatis your background and how did
you end up in a role like this?

Jill Enos (01:58):
It's been quite an experience to be to this point,
and not one that I would havenecessarily predicted, but the
work that we do at Titletowntech, and I want to share a lot
about what the organizationdoes, is really connecting
innovation with industry andstartups. And so my background I
came into from first workingwith most recently with
investors and startups inWisconsin. Earlier I was part of

(02:21):
a venture backed company, partof the leadership team wore all
different hats in helping grow ayoung company to ultimately be
acquired by AT and T on the EastCoast. And then earlier in my
career, I worked for the FederalReserve Bank of Atlanta. But
originally from the Midwest,grew up just south of Wisconsin
in rural Illinois. Yeah,absolutely,

there is something special about the
Midwest. A lot of people, as youand I were talking during the
warm up, don't really understandor recognize even some of the
people in our region recognizewhat a hub in so many ways, we
are for technology and forinnovation. As a matter of fact,
and I know we're going to talkabout your partnership with
Microsoft. When MicrosoftPresident Brad Smith was in
Southeast Wisconsin about eightmonths ago making a big
announcement, he pointed to thelegacy of innovation here in the

(03:02):
state of Wisconsin is one of thereasons for their what ended up
being a $3.3 billion investmenthere in our state. I happened to
drive by that site this morning.
I was down in commercialWisconsin for an event.
Absolutely stunning whatMicrosoft is doing here,
building this data center. Butthat's just one example of the
innovation that's happening inthe Midwest, and certainly all
this innovation taking placethrough and because of Titletown

(03:23):
tech, give our audience a littlebit of a flavor for the work
that you're doing and why it'sso important,

Jill Enos (03:29):
right? So Titletown Tech is a venture capital firm,
but really more so a hub ofinnovation. So we invest in
early stage companies as venturecapital, which is an asset class
that connects investors at thevery highest risk, kind of early
stage of a company that's in ahigh growth model. But beyond
that, as a traditional part ofventure capital, we're very not

(03:52):
traditional in that most venturefunds are made up of high net
worth individuals orinstitutions that put the
capital to work. We designed,from the beginning, to really be
focused on industry andconnecting our investors, who
are all companies that investedin this fund, with the intention
of seeking the venture returns,but also looking absolutely for

(04:16):
connections to what's next, tobe able to connect their
industries and to be watchingand learning and participating
in the developing innovation andtechnology as it's emerging.

So staying really, really high level about
that. Obviously, venturecapital, the model is, in your
particular case, you've got myassuming limited partners. These
are all a lot of them, wellknown corporations and companies
that are putting money into thisfund, and then you're putting
that money to work with startupsso early stage companies that
are had to have some big idea orsome new technology that they're

(04:48):
trying to bring to market, andyour investors are such that
they're willing to take a reallyhigh level of risk in that
investment, knowing that they'regoing to have some home runs and
probably some that maybe don'twork out the way that you hope
they will. We're. All in thename of sounds like return
secondary and innovation andpartnerships and driving the
economy forward is kind of themain goal. Am I getting that
right? I

Jill Enos (05:08):
wouldn't call return secondary. I would say they are
equal. They are absolutelyinvested with the desire and
expectation to see returns, butwe want the innovation at the
same time, and that connectionpoint is what's unique, among
many other things, some otherreally interesting aspects of
what we do, is how our origincame about, and this really came
from the vision of theleadership of the Green Bay

(05:30):
Packers.

Hey, tell us about that, and Microsoft as
well, right? That's true.

Jill Enos (05:34):
The Packers, as many of your listeners know, are the
only NFL team that's communityowned, and the leadership of the
team really takes thatresponsibility to heart, to say,
we have a responsibility to thecommunity, to the state, to the
region, to continue to advancethe health of not just the team,

(05:54):
but this whole community aroundit. And so ed policy, this was
his initial vision, and Ed issoon to become the next
president and CEO of thePackers, to succeed Mark Murphy.
And both Ed and Mark have justbeen instrumental in bringing to
life over the last five years,this mission of, how do we
leverage the strength of aninstitution like the Packers, to

(06:18):
connect the industry, thecommunity and the business
around also advancing startups.
So that's attracting andretaining the best talent. It's
leveraging the newest and mostnext level technologies, and
it's finding those connectionpoints that helps advance our
industries in the region. Andthis initial thought was started
several years ago, and just asthat was coming to life, Brad

(06:42):
Smith, the president ofMicrosoft, right, who's
originally from Wisconsin, ifI'm mistaken, that's right,
connected with Mark Murphy, andMicrosoft was looking at the
heartland as a an area that wasreally important to their work.
And so Brad and Microsoft reallyfelt like this was an
interesting opportunity to builda relationship that's like no

(07:04):
other. There's nowhere else inthe world that Microsoft is
doing this right. And so the twobecame our anchor partners,
Microsoft and the Packers, andthen another 25 corporate
partners joined as investors inthe fund, and that capital we
put to work in investing inearly stage companies that are
changing the face of industry,

any of those other investors that might be
notable or recognizable to ourlisteners, that you can choose,

Jill Enos (07:28):
sure, a lot of Wisconsin companies, but not
exclusively. We didn't want tooperate in a bubble of
Wisconsin. But you know, in thearea of Schneider, Kohler, bolt
construction, Aarons, lot ofmanufacturing, healthcare
companies, BayCare clinic, butalso companies outside the area.
We have companies in Boston, NewYork, West Coast, because we
wanted to be connected tocapital markets AT and T is an

(07:50):
investor from Texas, becausethey really liked the work that
we're doing and how thatconnects to much of their
innovation as well, drawinginvestors

from all over the country and some notable guests
from the podcast in the past. Sowe had Laura Kohler on one time.
She was fantastic. Dan Aaron'swas one of our really, really
early guests of Aaron's company,and he was terrific as well. And
of course, Mary snap, who Iknow, you know, from Microsoft,
has joined us in the past too.
Some really great names thatyou've got as investors. Just
this partnership with the GreenBay Packers is incredible. I've
been to Lambeau Field probably50 100 times. I don't even know

(08:19):
how many, and it's just, it'smagic, right? And every time you
go back, it's magic. And thisrelationship that the community
has with that team, that it's ateam that's owned by the
community. To your point, youknow, the only team that, and
the only arrangement that's likethat there's something special
going on in Green Bay, and I'vegot to believe that that
philosophy and that spirit ofcollaboration and a partnership
with the community is, it soundslike that's just a really,

(08:41):
really key part of what you'redoing

Jill Enos (08:44):
as well. It is absolutely we operate in a
building right next to LambeauField, and we create a space
where any of the founders thatwe invest in can work out of our
space with us. Yet we havecompanies that are based all
over the US and Canada. Wereally look at what we do as a
center of place based efforts.
But it's not exclusive to havingto be there. It becomes place,

(09:05):
becomes an asset, not a limiter,as a place to convene, as a
place to connect, where theunusual intersections happen,
both between founders who meetwith and engage with industry,
but also with each other or withresources that we can bring to
life in this space. And whilewe've never made an investment
movement here as a condition ofinvestment, sure, we have had

(09:27):
seven companies that relocatedto Wisconsin because they really
saw the value in being part ofthis ecosystem and network, you

know, that really shows the value of economic
development, or whether it'sventure capital or finding other
ways to attract even early stagecompanies that may even have a
great idea and a handful ofemployees, and then you attract
them to a place like Wisconsin,as those organizations grow,
obviously, really, really goodfor the community. I have been
in your space, it is incredible.
You know, it's one thing forpeople to talk about
collaboration, but as you'rewalking through that space, and

(09:55):
I was just there, actually,we'll give them credit, I think
it was Alex and. Steve tank fromfork farms that put that
original visit together. And youdo, you see people leaning over
each other's desks. You seepeople standing in a conference
room, writing on the walls,putting all kinds of ideas, you
know, up on the on the wall toconsider with other individuals
sitting in these conferencerooms. And that wasn't staged

(10:15):
for me, right? I mean, I couldtell that that was just an
organic thing that's happening.
So I would certainly encourageour listeners that get anywhere
near Green Bay to come check outTitletown tech, because it
really is an amazing spot tospend time and see what ideation
in some of this progressivethinking around startup business
and growth is what it lookslike. So that was a real special

(10:37):
time for me, special thingsgoing on in Wisconsin, not just
in the Green Bay area, but youdrive maybe two and a half hours
south to Pleasant prairieWisconsin, where Microsoft is
building this huge, huge datacenter, $3.3 billion investment
in the state of Wisconsin.
Absolutely amazing. So talk alittle bit about how the
partnership with Microsoftextended beyond Green Bay. I
know you're doing some reallycool things as part of their

(10:58):
investment in SoutheastWisconsin and pushing some of
this innovation into theMilwaukee area. So talk about
that. Sure.

Jill Enos (11:05):
Microsoft, just have to tell you, has been a
phenomenal partner. Not only dothey see the power and
opportunity in Wisconsin, butwhen they come as a partner,
they mean it. And we've justengaged with at the senior
level, working with Brad Smith,with Mary snap, with Jason
Zander, our Chief TechnicalAdvisor, all of whom just make
the kind of commitment that youwould hope for when they engage

(11:27):
in a community. And not only arethey investing in building data
centers, but they launched theirmost recent AI co innovation
lab, the only one in the USthat's not on the West Coast.
They have one in Redmond and onein San Francisco. They also have
labs in Japan, Uruguay and inGermany, and they've launched
their latest one in Milwaukee.
And this AI co Innovation Labhas a focus on manufacturing,

(11:51):
and it's also unique in thatit's partnered with the
education institution UWMilwaukee and with Title tone
tech, as we're helping toadvance and bring in more
companies to go through theirlab. And Microsoft just looks at
this as an opportunity to helplift and connect more of the
industry in the state and jumpforward with AI and just the use

(12:14):
cases going through already havebeen amazing, from startup to
mid size, manufacturer to largecorporation, the types of cases
that companies are bringing tothe lab are about. Half of them
have been focused on how toserve their customers better and
expand revenue opportunities andmeet customer needs. Other half

(12:35):
have been around efficiency andenablement and optimization to
really make their businessesstronger, but really taking a
next level view of how do weleverage AI as it's changing
rapidly in our manufacturingbusinesses, especially, but
businesses across the state andregion, and

I've had a long relationship with the University
of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,particularly the connected
systems Institute. Will give JoeHammond, the executive director,
a little bit of credit for hisleadership. Mark Moni, who is
the outgoing Chancellor, Markretiring here in June of this
year. A great friend of mine hasbeen for a long, long time, and
Mark was so involved, also, aformer guest on the podcast, by
the way, so involved withhelping to launch the CSI. And

(13:13):
it's just one of those otherkind of understated things
happening here in the Midwest,where people don't realize all
the innovation. And then youpoint to the whole idea of
partnering with manufacturers,and if my memory serves, I think
it's initially like 135 up to270 manufacturing companies that
the CO Innovation Lab wants topartner with and drive AI into
their business models and reallyassist and support those

(13:35):
entrepreneurs and thosebusinesses and integrating
artificial intelligence intotheir business practices.
Really, really important. Imean, there's just tremendous
innovation that already happensin manufacturing. We had Aza
TASH party on the podcast abouta year and a half ago. He's
managing director for McKinsey,huge consulting company, as you
know. And he wrote a book. Heruns strategy, by the way,
globally for McKinsey, wrote abook called The titanium

(13:57):
economy, in which he talks about70% of innovation across the
entire economy in the UnitedStates happens in small to mid
sized manufacturing companies.
And so if we are in the UnitedStates going to embrace this
whole idea of AI and machinelearning and related
technologies and appliedartificial intelligence, which
is, you know, as is a key focusof mine, we have to do it
through small to mid sizedmanufacturing and what do we

(14:19):
have more of here in the Midwestthan almost anywhere else in the
country and anywhere else in theworld, is small to mid sized
manufacturing businesses. So thework that you're doing and
others are doing at the COinnovation lab is really the
timing for this is perfect, andyou're setting the example.
Certainly, there's innovationhappening in other parts of the
world, but setting the examplein a lot of ways for the entire

(14:39):
country, and doing it right herein the Midwest. So let's talk
about the Midwest a little bit.
We have listeners from all overthe globe. Certainly some are
familiar with places likeNorthern Illinois, where you
grew up, or southern Wisconsin,where I did a lot of them
probably not. What is uniqueabout especially let's talk
about startups. So you're in theventure cap world. What's unique
about the startup environmenthere? The Midwest. It

Jill Enos (15:01):
starts, I think, with this history, this legacy of
creative, industrious energy, goback 100 years, and the number
of companies being created herewas enormous, and continues to
be, but it's not getting thesame attention, for sure, that I
think it was at that time. Yetwe have just a culture, an

(15:21):
ethos, of building and creatingthings, solving problems, fixing
things. And to me, that createsa fabulous platform for
entrepreneurship, for sure, andwe need to attract and support
more of those founders to beable to build and connect here.
And I think today, more thanever, we're doing that the
position that we have atTitletown tech is unique in that

(15:43):
we're able to almost act as ascout to see some of what's
coming in terms of next leveltechnologies and really
interesting entrepreneurs whoare solving interesting problems
and working to and then on theother side, we're seeing
industry and some of theirchallenges, and we can make
those connections. And I thinkof the Midwest is just a unique
hotspot for that. We're engagedas a region, and it's, you know,

(16:07):
there's something true aboutMidwest being a nice place, and
people want to help each other.
It's a lot of sharing andcollaboration that way as well.
The number of companies we workwith, both large and small, that
want to collaborate and findways to solve problems together,
right? I think it's reallyunique to the Midwest, without

question. I was having a conversation this
morning with Tim Gibbons, who'sthe publisher of the Milwaukee
Business Journal, and we weretalking about exactly this
topic, where you think about,first of all, some of the names
in the Midwest, in my home stateof Wisconsin, companies like
Evinrude, Harley Davidson, SCJohnson, Kohler company, and, I
mean, the list goes on and on,these are all companies. They're

(16:43):
household names, right? Andhousehold products, and have
been innovating here, in somecases, for well over 100 years.
I mean, fourth and fifthgeneration companies, so that we
really do have that spirit ofinnovation that is quietly alive
and well here in the state ofWisconsin and here in the
Midwest. And then, to yourpoint, you get this opportunity
to look at what's happening inthe market, to be kind of the

(17:05):
distant early warning system, ifyou will, for these other new
technologies that are emerging.
I mean, you get to look at, I'massuming, you get to look at
tons and tons of companies andstartups that are coming to you
with ideas and talking aboutinvestment to getting advice and
and so on. What are some of thecompanies that are kind of part
of the startup ecosystem is youdo your work at Titletown tech,
whether they're companies thatyou're invested in or things
that you've seen.

Jill Enos (17:26):
Sure we've invested today, we're in over 30 active
companies that we work with fromall over the country. About half
of those are in Wisconsin, avery recent example of Canadian
based company came in in oneday. This is just earlier this
year, in January, in a one dayvisit with our team, and what we
were able to connect them with,this is a healthcare robotics

(17:47):
company. Okay, they were able tomeet with a medical system in
our region that gave them atotally different view on what
their rural market opportunitiesmight be for this medical robot
that enabled an autonomousultrasound system and to be able
to understand what theircustomers and partners might
develop or need from them. Theywere also able to meet with the

(18:09):
general manager of the roboticsfunction within Microsoft who
was visiting with us that day,to get technical guidance and
advice, and then work with anumber of people from our team
about thinking about pricingstructure, business model, how
they might build in the market,how they might create
partnerships, and all of thatkind of in this connection,
point of engagement that ishelping them now, we've invested

(18:33):
in them. It's company calledcobionix, and it's helping them
now to start building for thefuture. So that's a company, for
example, on the medical side,but also in robotics. Sure, fork
farms you mentioned earlier isanother company indoor
hydroponic growing systems.
That's a category that a lot ofcompanies have tried and failed
in, right? And fork Farms hasfound a really unique niche in
building ag tech systems veryeffectively, and they are

(18:57):
growing very well. They havetheir entire supply chain really
based in Wisconsin, right? Andthey've sold to all 50 states in
12 countries, and they're doingthat all from Wisconsin, and
changing the way people thinkabout the most efficient water
and energy system to be able togrow that you can grow in a
world where climate is changing,how people think about access to
food

well, and their angle on education as well, and
they're focused on education andhaving gotten to know both Alex
and Steve, and they're doing itfor all the right reasons,
right? I mean, if you start withtrying to make money first and
your mission Second, it neverseems to work all that well. And
if you start with doing really,really important work for
whatever reason, I've learned,the economic success always
comes, but it's because you'redoing the important work, not

(19:39):
because you're focusing on that.

Jill Enos (19:40):
We see that all the time with startups. I mean, it
really to be able to go aftersomething as hard as building a
company from scratch, you haveto be mission driven, right, and
just truly obsessed with whatyou're solving. Yes. So a couple
other fun companies. There's acompany called Gen logs, okay,
we met this team. They're basedin Virginia, in the DC area.
Yeah. Three former CIA guys whonow talk about it as they used

(20:04):
to track terrorists, and nowthey track trucks, and they've
developed a freight intelligencesystem that really the supply
chain world has never seenbefore. They're able with a
mixture of sensors, cameras, D,o, t, data, all sorts of
different data sources totriangulate and have full
awareness of the supply chainand the movement of trucks,

(20:27):
trailers and freight across theUS. Wow. And have met the needs
of shippers, brokers, carriersand so many more, because
they're able to predict wherethe supply chain movements are
headed. Yeah. When they gotstarted, we met them about a
year ago, and they came to GreenBay in their first meetings that
we connected them to industryplayers. They have three

(20:48):
customers that signed upimmediately, wow, from the Upper
Midwest, because this is an areawhere freight matters, where
movement of goods matters, andthey were able to just get
immediate traction while theythe companies remains based in
DC. They put employees in GreenBay, and they have a whole
customer base here. They spend alot of time in this area, and

(21:08):
they're really having a bigimpact in the world and supply
chain. So it's just fun to seethat growth Absolutely.

And you think about, you know, the first
company you met, Cobi Onix, andit really that's a great example
of where you're addingtremendous value, right? Because
if I'm a startup, and I'mthinking about, okay, what are
the really, really importantthings? Well, first
understanding my market, andhere you're you're putting them
in touch with a health systemthat plugging them into people
that can give them great adviceand listen to their value
proposition. And so on thetechnology side. And you know,

(21:36):
who wouldn't love to havesomebody, a senior leader at
Microsoft, giving them adviceabout the technology side of
their business, and then thebusiness model part of it, which
is really two parts, the, youknow, the venture cap and the
capitalization of a company, andunderstanding the investment
models and the options. I mean,that's part of it. But then
there's just the day to dayexecution in a business. They're
both important. You can't do onewithout the other, and being

(21:58):
able to tap into your leadershipteam and your group of subject
matter experts in the area ofboth capitalizing a business and
operating a company. I mean, amI getting that right? Is that
really kind of the magic of thiskind of intersection of all
these different things that youcan bring to these startups?
That's absolutely

Jill Enos (22:13):
right. It's the mixture of all those because a
company can't survive on justfinding a customer. It's got to
be customers building themarket, understanding how to
keep up on the technology side,understanding and really
thinking ahead strategically onhow to build and design their
pricing model to havecompetitive advantage. It's just
one of those unique things thatwe can put all together in our

(22:35):
model because of the strength ofthis Wisconsin ecosystem and the
partners that come together thatare interested in advancing
innovation with us? Yeah,

absolutely. And I gotta believe that the startups
that end up having theopportunity to work with your
team feel like, in some ways,they died and went to heaven in
terms of being an entrepreneur,right? I mean, you've got all
these resources at yourfingertips, and it doesn't mean
that they don't have to workreally, really, really hard,
that they don't have to bereally creative, that everything
is going to work out the waythat they expect it's going to,
or that there aren't somefailures. There aren't some
failures along the way, but tohave all of that help and all of

(23:06):
that assistance, I mean, it'sreally a testament to the
incredible work that you'redoing. Is you see both startup
companies and some really,really cool technologies. You
mentioned a few of the companiesyou're working with as you look
kind of either to the present orthe future, either with your own
portfolio companies or otherthings that you're seeing. What
are some of those technologiesyou have your eyes on? Jill,
it's

Jill Enos (23:24):
great that you asked that because the landscape is
changing so fast, you're morethan anyone connected to some of
the work in AI that affects allbusinesses. We've had a really
interesting seat, especiallywith Microsoft, but because of
the other partners we have inseeing how rapidly AI is
changing robotics and how we'reseeing now natural language

(23:45):
programming robotics, wheresomeone working on the assembly
line can talk to the robot andexplain what it needs to do
differently, not having to codeit. We're seeing changes in
autonomous systems, where camerasystems are operating in a way
that they can see aroundcorners, and we have a company
that we're talking to now thatreally is building in that
design. We're also looking atnext level of energy. Our

(24:08):
partnership with the Universityof Wisconsin, both the
University of Wisconsin,Milwaukee and Madison, and the
system gives us, and that wasone of our original partners, by
the way, with Microsoft and thePackers, we knew higher
education was a critical pieceof all of this, and it's a
fundamental part of Wisconsinstrength, and our partnership
with the University has beenvery powerful. Most recently, we

(24:28):
invested in a company out of UWMadison that's called Real to
fusion, and it's a nuclearfusion company. And you would
have said three or four yearsago that nuclear fusion was
decades away. We really feellike this is just a handful of
years away, wow. And to be ableto see that come out of Madison,
for us to be able to helpconnect both invest capital, but

(24:50):
connect them into the market.
Got the paper industry, fabulousindustry, to be able to take
advantage of fusion energy as afuture energy source. And we.
Already made connections withrealtors team and some of the
industry players in NortheastWisconsin that can help them to
see what's possible in thefuture. And we all are
experiencing and seeing the needfor energy, and the rapid demand

(25:11):
across the board in globally forenergy. So we know it's an
important area to be thinkingabout.

No doubt about it, one of the things I love is
creating images on, in my case,mid journey, right? So I love
going and just making somethingup, right? Show me a beautiful
cabin on a mountain lake in themiddle of Colorado, and then it
just goes, and it uses AI tojust create a picture of that. I
mean, it still blows my mindthat you can do that, or I need
a really cool background for aslide. And 11 seconds later,

(25:39):
after telling mid journey what Iwant, it prints it out. One of
the things I always feel alittle guilty about is somebody
told me, or I read, about sixmonths ago, that to create one
image using artificialintelligence uses the same
amount of energy as it takes tocharge your smartphone from zero
to 100 and it's like, wow,that's kind of crazy. Or another
one I heard was that training agenerative, pre trained

(26:00):
transformer like chat GPT justonce, requires the same amount
of energy that can be used topower 130 homes for a year. I
mean, so you really think aboutsome of these advancements in
the areas that we're talkingabout, data centers, artificial
intelligence, machine learningand so on, requires tremendous
amounts of energy. And then youthink about to connect that to

(26:21):
all right? There's all kinds ofways that we can generate
energy, and probably thegreenest way, if you forget
about, at least for the moment,with the risk that might go
along with it, is nuclearenergy. And then you tell him,
using fission, right? Sosplitting an atom, and now
you're talking about usingfusion technology, which is way
greener, way safer, producesmore energy. And so some of

(26:41):
these worries that we have aboutthe things that are happening in
AI, the things that arehappening in the processing and
storage of data and so on, somestart to mitigate that. So on
one hand, you've got really coolrelationships with organizations
like Microsoft, who I know aresuper conscious about the Energy
Impact and consumption andsustainability of their business
model, building a data center,and we could look to the future

(27:03):
of literally being able to powerthat data center using nuclear
fusion in a way that is waysafer than really, and way
greener than any way that wehave right now to create energy.
And you're right in the middleof that. Am I getting

Jill Enos (27:14):
that right? That's exactly right. I think that we
look at Wisconsin, so manypeople think, Well, why would
you be doing all this in theMidwest, and why is Wisconsin a
place for that? And just asyou're describing it, it's it's
a good reminder that theproximity in Wisconsin to the
key industries and manufacturingand agriculture and healthcare
that are truly on the cuttingedge and in the highest need for

(27:36):
technology transformation,including with energy sources,
there's no better place to be interms of really being able to be
connected to experts andproblems and opportunities. And
I think we're just in a uniquespot, the state in the upper
Midwest. Yeah, there's

so much, so many great things going on in the
Midwest. You know, we had Dalecoyengo, who's the president of
the Milwaukee metropolitanAssociation of Commerce, on the
podcast about six months ago,and most notably, we traded
grade point averages from highschool in that particular
episode. Neither one of us weregreat high school students, so
that was kind of fun, but hetalked about the Midwest. We
don't have hurricanes, we don'thave earthquakes. Floods are

(28:13):
relatively few and far betweenfrom a geopolitical sense, we're
really landlocked. We're righthere in the middle of the
country, and so to really safeplace to be able to invest in,
to think about the future. Sojust, just another example of
how we're bringing some really,really cool things here. And
again, for you to be right inthe middle of all this has to be
super, super exciting. Again, inworking with all of these

(28:34):
emerging companies, emergingtechnologies, whether they're in
the logistics space, they're inthe sustainable agriculture
space, you know, they're in theenergy space, all these really
cool companies. I'm sure youspend a lot of time counseling
them about some of thechallenges they can expect as
they're firing up their businessmodels and getting into, you
know, an entrepreneurialenvironment. It's one thing to
have a great idea and somethingthat somebody else is willing to

(28:56):
bet on. It's another thing toexecute on that. What are some
of those challenges Jill, thatyou think startup space, and
that if our, you know, if we'vegot budding entrepreneurs in the
audience, students and so on,that are thinking about doing
something like this in thefuture, you know, what should
they be thinking about in termsof the challenges that'll be in
front of them?

Jill Enos (29:11):
Well, there are no shortage of challenges when
you're building a company, andit's the best entrepreneurs that
see that as a grand opportunity.
Talent is always challenge. I ama big believer that Wisconsin is
a great source of talent, andwe're seeing some of that come
to life now. We've got a AIcompany in Delafield, just
outside of Milwaukee, that isbuilding really next level
technology around using AI inimages, geospatial data and

(29:35):
video. And they've got talent.
They're attracting from aroundthe country that wants to be in
Wisconsin, to be building, not abad place to be absolutely and
they're doing work in nationalsecurity around the country, and
they're also working withmanufacturing companies in our
backyard, looking at some oftheir data needs using visual

(29:58):
data. And so I think. That whenpeople say, oh, there's a
challenge with talent, I say,yes, there's a challenge, but
it's very solvable. It's it's amatter of having interesting
things to work on and bigproblems to solve, attracts
really smart people. So talentsone, I think being connected to
the market is one of the mostimportant things that a startup
needs at the beginning to getreal time iterative feedback

(30:20):
about what they're building.
There's nothing worse thanbuilding something nobody wants,
right? And if you can belearning from the market real
time as you're building, itchanges how you use your capital
and how fast you can grow. So wehad a company based in
Charlottesville, Virginia,Springbok analytics. They're
using AI to build digital twinsof MRI systems cool so that they
can predict the doctor's medicalsystem can work with the patient

(30:44):
and predict where there'spotential future injury or where
they might have more decisionsupport in a surgery. Sure. And
while the company remains inCharlottesville, because that's
where the tech was born out of,they have employees in
Wisconsin. They're working withGE Healthcare as a partner.
They're working with UW Madisonto evaluate some of the
athletes. They're working withso many different people across

(31:06):
this state. And I think of thatas like when you ask about what
challenges does a startup have,it's getting access to a market
where they can learn real timeand be iterative. And the
environment that we've continuedto create is one where we want
that iterative market feedbackto help them succeed. Third
thing, in addition to market andtalent, is just having the right
technology and moving fastenough with technology right and

(31:28):
that's another thing that we goout of our way to make sure and
with fantastic partnership withMicrosoft. But we go beyond
that. Microsoft has neverexpected that we use only
Microsoft technologies. So ourstartups use AWS and Google
Cloud and all of those, butmaking sure and helping those
companies to be able to stayahead, especially today, where
the tech is changing faster thanmost of us. You know, week to

(31:51):
week, we're all learning about anew tool or a new capability,
and it's it's just critical forstartups to be able to build on
that as well. Absolutely,

Wayne, and you think about just the need for,
in some cases, specializationand figuring out what you're
really, really good at, we runinto it, frankly, a lot in
education, where you used tohave a teacher that taught
everything right. And now, asthings in technology moves
faster and faster, it's like,how in the world can you even
keep up with all of that? Andthe answer is, you can't. You
have to rely on other people.
You have to rely on othertechnologies. You know, you talk

(32:22):
about the idea of usingtechnology in the healthcare
field, whether it's, you know,using AI along with an MRI
machine to predict futureconcerns and so on, which I just
think that's, that's like thecoolest thing ever, really,
really important, but alsomaking sure that we have the
human in the loop along the way.
I was just having a conversationthis morning with someone from
freighter south, a seniorexecutive there, and talking

(32:45):
about exactly that, how we canapply artificial intelligence,
whether it's in the work that adoctor is doing, a nurse is
doing, an analyst is doing, butwe still have to have that human
in the middle of that wholeprocess, which is really
interesting, moving backwardsthrough what you just said, also
talking about the idea of beingin the idea of being in the
market and knowing the market.
And back in my days of leadingKaizen and continuous
improvement events, my thing wasalways go to the gemba right,

(33:07):
the Japanese word for where theaction is right. And in so many
cases, especially if I'mtechnical, especially if I'm the
designer person, and I'm really,really geek out on the tech,
which is amazing, rememberingthat at somebody at some point
you got to meet the people thatare going to use that. And that
are going to use that andunderstand what the real needs
are. To your earlierconversation about the company
that had access to the healthsystem. And, you know, by

(33:28):
working with Titletown tech andbeing able to talk directly to
the customer, that's really,really important. And then you
started, I think, where so manyof these conversations do with
with talent, and I think you'reexactly right. We hear people
complain about you used to bethe millennials. Now it's the
Gen z's. I, in fact, I read anarticle in the Wall Street
Journal this week that justfascinated me. Said 11% of Gen
Z's are taking a parent or afriend along with them to a job

(33:52):
interview. Why not attend? I'mlike, Well, come on. But on the
flip side, and we continuallyfind young people in our ed tech
companies that if you find theright ones, it's amazing what
they'll do, and they expect adifferent work environment. It's
not the days of punching a clockat eight in the morning and
working till five and doingexactly what the boss says and
just being an automaton. Thoseare gone if you want the really,

(34:13):
really good Gen Z folks that aregoing to be able to think on
their own, are going to beinnovative, are going to add
tremendous value to theorganization. So we have to
think differently about how weleverage those people in the
environment that we give them.
But to your point, if you showthem an environment where they
feel like they can thrive, wherethey feel like they can add
value, for so many of them, it'smore. It's about more than

(34:35):
making money. It's about makinga difference, and if you can
create that environment forthem, super, super important. So
I think you nailed that exactlyon that talent topic, which is
where you started. And let'skind of continue on that
conversation. Tell us a littlebit, Jill, about how you're
thinking about talent, how wecan prepare talent. Are the
things that we could be doingdifferently, both kind of on a
micro level in an area likeGreen Bay or in a specific

(34:57):
educational environment, and ona macro level. In general, in
terms of making sure that wehave this talent that's going to
fuel the next generation ofinnovation here in the United
States. I'm

Jill Enos (35:06):
glad you asked, because one of the things about
your audience that I love isthat they're touching the
talent. It's those that arebringing that education at the
earliest level. And that'sexactly what we should all be
thinking about, is how thestudents in today's K 12 and
university are impacting what'sahead. I would say, more than
anything, it's creatingexposure. And the more that

(35:26):
students are exposed todifferent ways of thinking and
different types of problems, thecreativity is there. It's just
giving them room to experiment.
And so I'm a big believer in howdo we develop talent is creating
lots of opportunities for themto see problems. Sure, when we
think about startups andinvesting in the best teams, we
want them focused on theproblem, not the solution,

(35:48):
because we find that when you'rebuilding something that's new in
the market, if you're focused onthe problem, you're probably
going to keep working thesolution, and it may change,
right? But as long as you keepthat focus on this is the
problem I'm trying to solve, youcan get there if you come in
really bent on a single way toapproach it. Those are the

(36:10):
startups that struggleinteresting, and I think of that
with students as well. And asstudents are learning, if
they're coming at it as a oneway to solve a problem approach,
they will be much more limited,same as an entrepreneur, than if
they're looking at the problemto say that's a really
interesting problem. What are 20different ways I could come at
that totally and I just think itchanges your view whatever

(36:30):
business you end up in, whetheryou're a founder or whether
you're a doctor or whetheryou're a welder, it's having
that creativity and freedom toexplore and design a solution.
Yeah,

so many things that occur to me as you're going
through that answer. I mean, thefirst of which is, I always
think about going back to theKaizen days again, and for what
it's worth, and the audience hasheard this before, but I had
about a 10 year period in mylife where I was working with
manufacturing companies all overthe country on improving process
and driving waste out ofprocess. And so we would use
this, you know, the JapaneseLean approach called Kaizen,

(37:04):
where we would generatecontinuous improvement in an
organization. One of the thingswe always said is, when you're
facing a problem, we call it,find five ways, right? So I've
solved that problem fivedifferent ways before you pick
or come up with five solutionsbefore you pick the best one.
You're saying, come up with 20different solutions before you
pick the best one, and I lovethat. And then, as you say,
focus on the problem and not thesolution. I mean, that is

(37:27):
certainly important for anentrepreneur, certainly
important for an innovator, butjust important in life. I mean,
how many relationships andconversations do we come to with
the answer and get so hell benton pushing our solution for the
problem, rather than saying,What is the problem we're trying
to solve, which, by the way, toyour point A, is going to change

(37:48):
over time. B, the more we focuson the problem, the more we're
going to understand it, and thedeeper we're going to go and see
a solution today isn'tnecessarily a solution tomorrow,
and the first solution we comeup with isn't necessarily the
best solution. It probably isnever the best solution, because
the more we talk about it, themore we think about it, the
closer we're going to get to theperfect solution. And no

(38:09):
solution will ever be perfect,but the closer we can get, the
better off we are. That'sreally, that's a really, really
thoughtful response, andsomething that I hadn't thought
about. So focus on the problem,not on the solution, and the
solution will figure itself outalong the way. I also think
about all my years about whetherit was running businesses or
manufacturing, how often we getfocused on the wrong stuff. We
talked before about focusing onmission and not on not on money.

(38:32):
I had a mentor Tell me now, 30years ago, when I was all giving
some big presentation about howwe were going to make a company
profitable, and he saidprofitability is just a result.
He's like, profitability comesfrom doing the right things in
the organization, the rightthings in the business. And
really, solutions are just aresult of focusing on the
problems and then figuring outhow we could solve through that
problem. And if we come up withthe best solution, and we're in

(38:54):
touch with the market and weunderstand what our customers
want and what they're thinkingnow we've got that magical
solution that we can bring tomarket and have a prayer of
being really, really successfulwith it. Absolutely,

Jill Enos (39:04):
it's fundamental to starting and growing a business.
Absolutely, you know, makingsure you're you're solving
something that needs to besolved exactly

and long before we started or grow to a
business, long before we'refocusing on the problem or
solving something that needs tobe solved. We've got to have
these students that are inspiredtoward whether it's being an
entrepreneur, inspired towardtechnology, as we think about
technical education, as we thinkabout STEM education. Jill, how
should we be thinking? I mean,you're seeing a lot of these. I
know not all of your foundersare young people, but certainly

(39:33):
a lot of them are. I'm sure alot of the companies you look at
are founded by younger people.
What do our educators need to bethinking about in terms of
preparing that next generationof whether it's an entrepreneur
or a technologist or what haveyou,

Jill Enos (39:45):
there are just so many opportunities today. As I
mentioned earlier, it's exposureto problems, and it's
interesting as we've expandedour opportunity with cell phones
and all technology that youwould think everybody's seeing
more. And the algorithms tend todrive and narrow some of what
our younger people are seeing,and so they get a repetition of

(40:06):
the things they had been seeingbefore. And you know, as someone
with kids, I've witnessed thatas well, and it's something I
feel like as educators, asparents, as community members,
we have to work hard to makesure that this whole idea of
getting opportunities to seebeyond what you're normally fed
and whether that's in yourclassroom or on your computer or

(40:27):
or in your friend group, butjust trying to expand that view.
And I'm also seeing just it'sabout Unlocking Potential, and
educators today just have whatfeels like an enormous
responsibility, yeah, but alsoopportunity to unlock potential.
And when you can give studentsthat chance to feel like they

(40:48):
can come at something from adifferent view, if they can see
that there are more than oneways to approach something,
they're Unlocking Potential.
Yeah, absolutely. I

had a conversation not too long ago
with actually another formerguest on the podcast, but a
superintendent of a schooldistrict out west of here in
western Wisconsin, thisobservation that he made is just
stuck with me. And he said, ifyou look at now the average
classroom in his district, andhe said the range of student
potential, or I guess, of theirknowledge, ranges depending on

(41:17):
the subject. It's nine gradelevels. So he said, if you have
a freshman in a high school thatyou may have one student in that
classroom that is doing math,for instance, or English at like
a freshman or sophomore ofcollege level, and another
student that's doing the samething at a second grade level in
the same classroom. And then youthink about that diversity of
background and experience andall kinds of reasons why one

(41:39):
student might be ahead or or alittle bit behind. But then
think about that poor teacherthat has somehow has to deliver
learning to a cohort of 20 or 30students with a range with
literally a nine grade range interms of what their their
subject matter expertise is. Andso I think we, a lot of times,
we don't give our student, ourteachers, enough credit for the
challenge that they have oftrying to teach in this day and

(42:00):
age. On the other hand, to yourpoint, all of these tools that
are starting to emerge forthings like self paced learning
and experiential learning andhands on learning that allow us
to unlock the potential on anindividual student basis, and
and we all have a teacher, atleast, most of us have a teacher
or a group of teachers thatshowed us we could do something
we didn't know we could do, orthat we had a skill we didn't

(42:21):
know that we had, or that wejust instilled confidence in us
that we could be something thatwe had no idea that we could be.
That's the magic of an educator,and then that's how we unlock
the potential of the nextgeneration and create that next
generation of entrepreneursthrough our education system.
And I know as we think abouteducation, one of the questions
I love asking our guests,because everybody has some
different view and some uniqueview about their education

(42:44):
journey, or their own or theirkids or somebody else's that
they focus on. And if there'sone thing in education, that one
belief that you have in theworld of education, Jill, that
others might be surprised by,what would that belief be?

Jill Enos (42:58):
I think there's a natural assumption that in
business, if you're building abusiness, that your background
is business, yeah, and I thinkthat's just absolutely not true.
And in fact, the most creativepeople are those that come into
business because they'recreative. And we've seen
founders like Alex tank, majoredin music, was an opera singer
before he built a Ford farms.
Yeah, we have founders who comeinto business from law, we have

(43:20):
founders who come into businessfrom healthcare or education,
and I think it's just sofundamental that as teachers are
helping to open the doors forstudents that they don't let the
student feel like they can'tpursue a wide variety of
interests and still have theopportunity to shift gears to
build a business after they'vebeen a teacher. Or there are

(43:43):
just so many different avenuesthat I think there's a
limitation that sometimes, as asociety, we put on people, and
we say, Oh, if you're this kindof major that sets you up for
this path, right? And today,more than ever, there's no
predefined path that we justhave to continue to think of
education is Unlocking Potentialand creating doors for people to
walk through, no matter whatsteps they've taken before.

Absolutely well, and I love that you said that.
The truth is that, and I know alot of entrepreneurs, you do as
well, I've seen people emerge inbusinesses. The two probably
best business leaders I had inmy manufacturing days on the
operation side were both peoplethat graduated from high school
got jobs in manufacturing andjust started their career. In
one case, one of them is runningnow a billion dollar company

(44:27):
with a high school degree noformal business education knows
more about business than almostanybody I know, but learned it
all on the job. Second, one,same kind of thing, running a
smaller business, but they'reboth chief executives of
companies. We have people in oured tech businesses that come
from the world of education, inone case is, I think we were
talking about before an Englishmajor, they come to a business

(44:49):
model with an intellectualcuriosity and a desire to do
something different and to learnand an open mind. And it's
unbelievable what those peoplecan do. So I think that's a
lesson for a lot of people,right for our teachers. You're
going to have your high flyingbusiness student that you know
is just going, you know,destined to be some financial
engineer, and that's awesome.
Send that person on thatjourney, but don't discount the

(45:09):
student who's fascinated bymusic or by art or by English or
by some other discipline, andmaybe that becomes their career,
and maybe they find their wayinto entrepreneurship. So really
important lesson for ourteachers, important lesson for
the students, of course, aswell, is that you are not
defined by whatever yourinterests are in ninth grade,
right? I mean, there's all kindsof career opportunities, all
kinds of directions your lifecan take. Same thing for our

(45:31):
parents, and same thing foranybody who is hiring that next
generation of talent leadingbusinesses is that, yeah, go to
Harvard, go to Yale, go to Duke,hire your MBAs. That's awesome.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
But there's a lot of otherplaces that we can look for for
talent. So one final questionfor Jill, you know, says we're

(45:51):
wrapping up our time here on TheTechEd Podcast. I keep talking
about this, I think, allafternoon, Jill, but it's a
question we'd love to ask everysingle one of our guests. It's
our last question that we'd loveto pose to them. And that is, if
you go back in time to that 15year old Jill you're growing up
in Northern Illinois, not toofar from where we are now in
Mequon, Wisconsin. And you couldgive that young lady one piece

(46:11):
of advice. What would that pieceof advice be? I'd

Jill Enos (46:14):
give two. Okay. First advice would be, become a
Packers fan. Started as a bearfan finally got my allegiance
right, but I'll find our wayeventually. Some take longer
than others. Second and moreimportantly, you know, what I
would tell my younger self isthe reminder to never
underestimate the power ofpeople and relationships.

(46:34):
Absolutely, we have this everchanging world. There will
always be a new challenge, a newup and down to deal with a new
technology, or even just a newproblem to solve. But the
reality is, all these things wecan create and change and manage
through and humans are amazing.
What we can create and bring tolife through the power of

(46:56):
people, it just continues toblow my mind, and so much of
that is built on therelationships and the
investments we make in thepeople that we're connected to,
those like us and those not likeus. And that, to me, is what
makes all of this the mostexciting and energizing of the
work that you do, that I do, isthe power of people and the
relationships we create. Yeah,it's

energizing indeed, and and especially now
it's important, point with theadvent of robotics and
automation, artificialintelligence, machine learning,
all of these differenttechnologies that we have to do
work for us. And a lot of peoplethink that maybe in the future,
the world of work will be alltechnology. The truth of the
matter is, at its core, it'sabout the relationships that we
have with each other, therelationships that we have with

(47:39):
other people, the way that weinspire them. They inspire us.
And you're right. There's justno limit to what human beings
can do. And the power of peopleis absolutely amazing. And so
build those relationships withanybody and everybody. So glad
that we're building thisrelationship. Jill, every time I
get together with you, I learnsomething. You're such a
thoughtful person, doing amazingthings at Titletown tech for all
the right reasons. So thanks somuch for being with us on The

(48:01):
TechEd Podcast.

Jill Enos (48:02):
Thanks for hosting me, and thanks for providing
this platform to so many peopleand to reach such an important
audience in advancing educationacross the region.

Thank you for saying that. And we do think our
work is really, reallyimportant, as is yours. So those
words are golden to me and can'tthank you enough. Can't thank
our audience enough for joiningus on this episode of The TechEd
Podcast, had such a deep,amazing conversation here with
Jill Enos, and can't thank herenough for being with us. Also
want to make sure we're pointingeverybody to the show notes. We
have the best show notes in thebusiness. You will find those at

(48:33):
TechEd podcast.com/enos that isTechEd podcast.com/e N, O, S,
when you are down there, youknow, you'll find us all over
social media, Instagram,Facebook, tick, tock, LinkedIn,
wherever you go to consume yoursocial we will be there. Reach
out, say hello. We would love tohear from you, and can't wait to
see you again next week on TheTechEd Podcast. You.

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Microsoft, the Packers, and the Venture Firm Betting on Midwest Innovation - Jill Enos, Managing Partner of TitletownTech

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Microsoft, the Packers, and the Venture Firm Betting on Midwest Innovation - Jill Enos, Managing Partner of TitletownTech