Every Wednesday at 12:15 pm, room 4151 is filled with the entrepreneurial spirit and students ready to innovate, push boundaries, and learn. The Distinguished Entrepreneurs Lunch Program, or DEL for short, invites students to learn from local entrepreneurs. Whether they are UW-Madison alumni, CEOs, or creators of multi-million dollar companies, they all have one thing in common: they are all entrepreneurs. This semester, we were thrilled to welcome an amazing group of diverse and transparent individuals ready to share both their successes and shortcomings with us.
Rick Dabner
We began by welcoming Rick Dabner, Director of Federal Markets at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Rick holds an MBA in International Marketing and Entrepreneurship from UW-Madison. He now applies his expertise to design and execute federal marketing strategies, ensuring federal patients have access to their commercial products. As Rick often says, “It’s your day; all things are possible!”
Sara Parthasarathy and Partha Sabniviss
For our food lovers, we were excited to have Sara Parthasarathy and Partha Sabniviss. They are the co-founders of Flavor Temptations, a business that offers easy-to-use Indian spice kits, making the rich flavors of Indian cuisine more accessible while celebrating its culture. As Brand Ambassadors for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, they have donated over 100,000 meals to help combat hunger.
John McKenzie
John McKenzie, owner of McKenzie Apartment Company, launched his real estate career in Houston in 1979. After a successful tenure with Hines, he co-founded McKenzie-Smith, renovating historic hotels and developing retail centers. Returning to Madison, John spearheaded major apartment and condo projects. John founded the McKenzie Regional Workforce Center to aid disadvantaged youth, which has expanded to over 30 cities in the US and has achieved national recognition. It was amazing to hear about how he gives back to the community.
Bob Tinker
Bob Tinker is a Managing Partner of Metamorph Partners. Bob enjoys building companies from early stages to thriving businesses. As former CEO and Co-Founder of MobileIron, he led the company from inception to over $150M in revenue and an IPO in 2014. His stories were inspiring to hear and taught our students that they shouldn’t be scared to fail because to be successful, we need to be comfortable with failure.
Susie Younkle
Next, up was Susie Younkle. She coordinates MERLIN Mentors’ 100+ volunteer mentors and supports its many early-stage entrepreneurs. She also helps start and grow businesses with a particular focus on the financial aspects of startups. She currently manages accounting for a few Madison-area small businesses including PythonicAI and the Forward Festival. She shared great advice and reminded our students to take opportunities because sometimes the least expected paths make the best journeys.
Amy Fensch
Women Entrepreneurship Week (WEW) is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating female founders at Montclair State University and around the globe. The Wisconsin School of Business was honored to participate in WEW by having Amy Fensch, Senior Manager, Head of Americas Partner Digital, Omnichannel of HP, Inc. as a featured speaker. Amy leads digital transformation efforts and has held various roles in sales, business development, and channel management. She encouraged our students to network, follow through, and send thank-you notes.
Tim Sanders
Tim Sanders is the founder and CEO of Silent Donor. He created Silent Donor to facilitate fully anonymous, tax-deductible donations. The platform allows donors to send their contributions to the AnonDo Fund, which then transfers the funds to specified charities without revealing donor information. Silent Donor has partnered with so many amazing philanthropic organizations and is changing the world. His inspiring stories highlighted the importance of pushing boundaries and persevering.
Sarah Van Caster
Sarah Van Caster is the VP of Product Marketing at Varicent, where she leads enterprise software strategies. She discussed her involvement in the Wisconsin School of Business MBA program and taking the Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship course. She highlighted that WAVE helped her while working for Oracle and small startups. She shared great advice about her entrepreneurial journey and reminded our students that it’s never too late to figure out what you want to be when you grow up!
Tad Milbourn
Next we welcomed Tad Milbourn, Founder of RankedVote and Co-Founder/CEO of Payable. He shared his experience as the founder of two companies and his time at Intuit. He highlighted that throughout his career, he was inspired to think bigger and have the mentality that he could achieve anything. He reminded our students to stay persistent and have a ‘yes, you can’ mindset.
Happi Co.
Lastly, we were thrilled to have HappiCo join us for our final lunch of the semester. Co-Founders Sam Rockwell (CEO) and Justin Samuels (COO) along with Jeremy Reich (Chief Strategy Officer) started off selling waffles at the Mifflin Street block party and have been growing the business ever since. From Waffle Waffle, Happi Foodi, and partnering with Snoop Dog to make Dr. Bombay ice cream, they’ve done it all. The company is now a multinational manufacturer, supplying products under both brands to retailers such as Walmart, Whole Foods, Costco, and Amazon. Annual sales have reached $20 + million. They inspired our students to push boundaries and to disrupt industries to make an impact.
We would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the entrepreneurs who have made an invaluable impact on our program and students. These stories, advice, and guidance have inspired the next generation of entrepreneurs here at UW-Madison.
We also sincerely thank Neider & Boucher, S.C. for their ongoing sponsorship of the Distinguished Entrepreneurs Lunch Program since Fall 2013. Your support has made a world of difference to our students and we are deeply grateful for your continued dedication.
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