Shortly after accepting admission into the RMI MBA program, I was put in touch with the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)-Wisconsin, which is a unit of the Risk & Insurance Department at UW-Madison. CDL is an objectives-based mentorship program for science- and technology-based startups, and the UW hosts the only Risk Stream globally. During the initial meeting, I was asked if I would like to serve as a Venture Manager for the upcoming program year. I happily accepted the offer.
The first step in the CDL process for me was attending Session Four in May. My thirty-six-hour visit to campus began with a networking session, where I engaged with founders of risk and health & wellness companies. The next day consisted of five sessions in which mentors assisted founders in clarifying the objectives they should work toward in the next weeks, lunch, the large room discussion of each venture, and deliberations. Seven outstanding ventures earned the opportunity to progress to Super Session in Toronto at the end of June, which culminated the 2024-25 program year.
The new program year started with a busy summer recruitment season. To narrow the cohort to twenty risk companies and twenty health & wellness ventures for this year’s cohort, I reviewed approximately 160 applications and interviewed 50 companies. CDL-Wisconsin has two fantastic directors leading us through the process–Bram Daelemans and Morgan Piehler–and my colleagues include four other venture managers.
The venture managers held an initial onboarding call earlier this month, getting to know each founder and understanding their mission statements. Additionally, CDL-Wisconsin held a virtual cohort kick-off that connected founders with excellent graduates from previous risk and health & wellness cohorts. We will continue to onboard ventures until we welcome the 2025-26 cohort to Madison on October 23-24. I am excited for those great two days and for learning more about the successful ventures that will advance to Session Two in December.
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