ASHWAUBENON, Wis. — For the past six years, TitletownTech has been working with startup companies to bring new services and products to market.
Its offices are also right in the heart of where the 2025 NFL Draft will take place in April. Titletown Tech and Microsoft have a lot in store for the big event.
In conjunction with the NFL Draft, TitletownTech is launching a startup draft.
It’s essentially a nationwide pitch contest for startups. The winner will walk away with a $1 million investment and access to Microsoft technical support.
Lyndon Lattie moved his business, Aramid Technologies, from Phoenix to Green Bay last year. Its core product is called SMARTCERT.
“SMARTCERT helps companies keep track of traceable documentation that has to go along with parts that require them,” he said. “The aerospace industry, electronics, chemical, that type of supply chain.”
Lattie said the move offered a number of advantages.
“That was to become more connected with the TitletownTech ecosystem,” he said while in his office in TitletownTech. “We really wanted to find a way where we could have access to resources, we could have access to other founders and we could have an environment that stimulated a lot creative and growth for our company.”
(Spectrum News 1/Nathan Phelps)
“When it comes to the number of startups, we’re really expecting thousands,” TitletownTech Managing Partner Craig Dickman said. “If we set a target, 5,000 companies jumping into this would not be exceptional.”
TitletownTech is a venture capital organization working with with startups. It’s a partnership between the Packers and Microsoft.
(Spectrum News 1/Nathan Phelps)
Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said this is one of the ways Green Bay can bring something unique to the NFL Draft.
“This will be the first time ever to have a ‘Startup Draft,’” he said. “I think it really highlights the fact that this is a great place for entrepreneurs.”
Applicants will be narrowed through a startup combine in Green Bay on April 3 and 4. The number one pick will be selected at a startup draft day event on April 24.
Lattie likes the idea and said it’s something that would have appealed to him during the early stages of the Aramid’s formation.
“It creates an excitement,” he said. “It attaches something that can be a very stressful thing to raise money and turns into something that is celebratory and connected to the NFL Draft. What could be cooler than that?”
Startups working in areas aligned with Wisconsin’s strenghts: advanced manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, agriculture, water, energy, digital health and sports, can apply, here.
