BME logo

Commercial market assessment

SEVERAL RESOURCES are available both on campus and off for faculty to assist with commercial market assessment of early stage ideas:

On campus resources


Small business Development Center and Technology Business Development Institute

Several short courses targeted for faculty and staff interested in startup business are offered each year that cover commercial market assessment. In some courses students are assigned a coach and are free to develop market assessments or other business plan components for their own ideas working in conjunction with the mentor/coach. Courses include first steps in creating a business, business planning for scientists and engineers.

Office of Corporate Relations

The OCR provides counseling for faculty and staff interested in starting a business based on UW research. While OCR does not prepare commercial assessments for client faculty, the office can and has frequently lined up resources either within the university or in the Madison area to assist faculty and staff with commercial market assessments for ideas related to startup companies.

School of Business Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship

Several courses are taught within the executive, evening and regular MBA programs at the School of Business whereby students gain experience by writing business plans and by conducting market assessments. In some of these courses students seek out individual study opportunities. Arrangements for faculty in the BME department to access these students have been made through Professor Larry Cox, director of the Center.

In addition to the various courses, a specific program within the Weinert Center called Weinert Applied Ventures and Entrepreneurship is a practicum for second year MBA students concentrating in entrepreneurship. Each academic year 12 students are admitted to this practicum. The students split into teams and select 3-4 projects for focus during the coming academic year. Initial thrust of each project is a strategic business assessment to include markets, competitors, distribution channels. The second phase of each project is the preparation of a venture finance feasibility analysis that determines risk factors and lays out a proposed investment scenario. Projects accepted into this WAVE program can range from startup ideas to established early stage companies.

The Burrill Business Plan Competition

The Burrill Business Plan Competition operates a student networking and referral process to facilitate students finding teammates and to assist in connecting interested students with ideas for the competition. Through OCR, the entrepreneurship Association and through the Weinert Center faculty and staff can identify students interested in the Burrill competition and can potentially negotiate an arrangement for the students to conduct market analyses as well as full business plans.

For example this year the first prize of $10,000 in the UW-Madison G. Steven Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition was awarded to a company called Ratio, created by a team of BME engineering students. Anthony Escarcega (BSME '97, MSBME '99) is a BME MS student who is currently an MBA student in entrepreneurship; his partner John Puccinelli is a graduate student in biomedical engineering. The two wrote the winning business plan for an already-patented device by Professor David Beebe, a BME primary faculty member, which can deliver large-molecule drugs to patients.

Off campus resources

Several additional options for commercial market assessments are available to faculty and staff through off campus resources:

Wisconsin Innovation Service Center

The Wisconsin innovation Service Center is a service operated by the Small Business Development Center at University of Wisconsin Whitewater's School of Business. The Center provides market and competitive analyses for individuals and businesses in Wisconsin and beyond. The Center is staffed by business students and supervised by faculty. Fees are quite low and the center has developed a strong reputation for quickly and efficiently assembling and analyzing relevant data on a wide range of technical and non-technical markets.

Wisconsin Entrepreneur's Network

The Wisconsin Entrepreneur's Network is operated by the UW Extension through the 11 SBDCs located throughout the state. One of the regional offices of the WEN program is the Madison SBDC (mentioned above) within the UW-Madison Business School. The program provides assistance to entrepreneurs in the form of assigned counselors who can assist in accessing resources to provide market and IP assistance as well as to provide assistance to companies in applying for SBIR and STTR grants.

Wisconsin Department of Commerce Bureau of Entrepreneurship

While the Bureau has mostly outsourced entrepreneurial support activities to the WEN, several staff at the Bureau remain that can assist with connecting entrepreneurs with individuals and companies that can help in preparing commercial market assessments.

Private business assistance consultants

In the Madison area several individuals and small businesses provide business planning, commercial market analysis and related assistance to early stage companies and to individual entrepreneurs. Some of the firms/individuals that have extensive experience in preparing business plans for technology-based businesses include:

Additionally through the OCR and the Weinert Center faculty can make contacts with recent MBA grads who may be in town and available for special project assistance.