Madison is in position to become a global player in the health care technology scene. How we, as a city, react in the months and years to come will determine if we continue to boom or spectacularly bust. It will take tactful and decisive leadership with a firm knowledge of technology start-ups to not only make Madison competitive, but successful in an industry that needs a signature location. As I’ve written about previously, the mayoral election will dramatically affect students, and this is another issue in which we have a dire stake in the outcome.
Verona, a near suburb of Madison, is home to Epic, the electronic medical record giant which now boasts 70 percent of the largest and most advanced hospitals across the United States, with customers including the Meriter, Dean-St. Mary’s and University of Wisconsin hospitals. In the past ten years, Epic’s market share and profits have skyrocketed, and with them, Madison’s good fortunes. As Epic’s star rises, it continues to create a health care start-up community continuing to grow.
Looking at the two frontrunners in mayor’s race, both current mayor Paul Soglin and Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, have serious tech credentials to take advantage of this good situation. Soglin is a former employee of Epic, serving as administrator for the health care behemoth from 2004 – 2007. Soglin, as mayor, also has been very open about Epic’s important role in Madison’s future and included the company as a large portion of his vision for the city in 2013.
However, Resnick brings the experience in the Madison start-up community that’s essential to capturing the magic of the moment. Resnick, co-founder of Hardin Design and Development and former University of Wisconsin student, is a serial incubating machine. He has co-founded Capital Entrepreneurs, a support group for tech start-ups, and StartingBlock, a hub for the start-up community in Madison seeking to bring existing groups under the same roof for collaboration and general assistance.
Unlike many prominent companies, Epic hires nearly exclusively new graduates and trains them to be experts. In full disclosure, I worked at Epic as a project manager for two years after graduation before becoming a grad student, and during my time I worked with an array of students, computer science literates and philosophy and Spanish world travelers. Epic’s aggressive recruiting, ambitious goals and generous compensation brings in plenty of smart, young people with diverse backgrounds from across the country, and a lot of them, including me, don’t stay there for a career. In fact, many people succumb to the churn and burn of the project management lifestyle, and when they are burnt out and need an escape, many want to stick around the city they’ve grown to love. I trust Resnick to keep former Epic employees here.
If they do stay, many Epic alumni either attend graduate school at UW (like me!) or clump together to form new start-ups ranging from Epic consulting firms like BlueTree Network or Nordic Consulting, to business incubators like 100health which helps mentor new businesses to get off the ground. Epic continues to grow in addition to creating even more opportunities for individuals to depart and forge their own way in our fair city. In an interview last year, Resnick discussed Epic’s importance to Madison, “Dell is to Austin what Epic could be to Madison…[Dell] was one of the leaders in Austin’s start-up renaissance. Hopefully, Epic can do the same here.”
As I said, Madison is facing a tremendous opportunity, and it will take skillful leadership to cement Madison’s place as a global health care powerhouse. If there’s someone who can harness the raw opportunity of Epic’s growth, it’s Resnick. We need someone who can ensure that Madison is well-equipped to attract and retain the young professionals that Epic draws in. While the good salary brings them to Madison, how can we get these bright people to stay when they decide to move to the next stage in their life?
Resnick is best qualified to lead Madison into a new start-up oriented economy. He is a young professional in a city that is eager to attract more. He has experience starting his own company, and seeing it succeed, and then following that success with mentoring other start-ups to succeed. Madison’s economy is changing, and we ought to elect a mayor who excels at developing this particular portion of the economy. We ought to elect Resnick.
Adam Johnson ([email protected]) is a graduate student at La Follette School of Public Affairs.
