Maggie Brickerman ’08
UW Major: Political Science
Partner, gener8tor
Abby Kursel ’14
UW Major: Marketing
Partner, gener8tor
In 2014, fellow Badgers Troy Vosseller ‘10 and Joe Kirgues ‘08 invited Abby Kursel to interview for an internship at a new start-up accelerator they’d founded in Madison. However, then-undergraduate Kursel wasn’t entirely sure she’d show up. She’d applied on a bit of a whim and was uncertain what, exactly, venture capital was all about. Mostly out of curiosity, she went to the interview — and accidentally discovered her passion for entrepreneurship.
Soon after, the team interviewed Maggie Brickerman, a statewide political campaign organizer who was in search of her next professional act. It took less than an hour of talking about the job for Brickerman to realize that she, too, was a uniquely perfect fit.
Kursel and Brickerman, employees number one and two, are now equity partners at gener8tor, which has grown into one of the highest-ranked start-up accelerators nationwide, with more than 75 programs, 130 employees, and a presence in 46 cities in three countries.
Early on, the two women were tasked with creating and managing the company’s gBETA accelerator, which initially focused on mentoring start-ups with Wisconsin roots. One of their many success stories is EnsoData, which was founded by two UW–Madison seniors who Brickerman supported through the process of turning a class project into a thriving, midsize diagnostic company that specializes in sleep-lab data.
For Kursel, one of gener8tor’s key contributions is helping aspiring founders to embrace the idea that they, too, can become successful entrepreneurs. “It’s our mission to invest across race, place, and gender,” she says. “You don’t have to be a white man from Silicon Valley in order to play in this industry.”
She and Brickerman worked their way up the ladder by leading gener8tor’s primary investment accelerator program. In total, more than 1,400 participating start-ups have gone on to raise over $2.3 billion in additional capital investment and have created more than 11,000 jobs in various industries across the country, with a significant number in the Midwest and Deep South. “The recipe for success that we developed in Wisconsin has served us well everywhere,” says Kursel. “It’s that good old-fashioned, roll-up-your-sleeves-and-work-hard mentality.”
For the past year, Kursel and Brickerman have been focusing their attention specifically on Wisconsin’s start-up and venture capital network, which is consistent with gener8tor’s current regional strategy designed to support entrepreneurs and investors committed to starting, growing, and investing in businesses in their particular state.
“Across the country, we’re doubling down on our mission of investing in a community’s best and brightest. This includes accelerators focused exclusively on start-ups based in or committed to relocating to a particular state,” Kursel says.
“We’ve built gener8tor — and our careers — on the idea that Wisconsin has everything it takes to create jobs — to create wealth,” says Brickerman. “Our companies weren’t getting investment from other places, so we’ve tried to serve as a lighthouse that shines a light on what’s happening here. We have the innovation and the genius here. We’ve proven it through fund returns, and people should not hesitate to bet on that with us.”
