I launched Madison Startups in October 2012 because as I immersed myself more and more into the local startup ecosystem, I felt that there were so many more stories that could be told.

Our first story was titled “Tech Social Makes its Return” and published on Oct. 23, 2012. Since then, we’ve written more than 1,000 articles covering events, biotech companies, tech companies and companies selling goods or services.

We also periodically write feature stories called “Company Profile.” The first one, back on Dec. 20, 2012, centered on Bergamot Massage, which is still open.

One question I routinely get is whether we have a print edition. The answer is no. We didn’t follow the traditional media (newspaper, magazine, TV, radio) model in which we had to reformat our stories for the web. We’ve always been online-only, meaning we don’t have to follow a pre-determined story length, and we don’t have to follow deadlines.

We are still working to improve our startup database and our startup events calendar. The latter was a replacement for the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Madi, which was going to be installed on our site, but unfortunately, Madi was never completed.

I want to make sure I express my appreciation for all our current and past sponsors. Even though Madison Startups is a for-profit enterprise, we’re only raising enough funds to cover our expenses.

Thank you so much for your readership and support over the years! We can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring.

Milestones

• April 2013 – Startup database page launches
• July 2013 – Madison Startups is first news outlet to report on StartingBlock Madison
• August 2013 – Our editor-in-chief helps to launch Madworks Coworking at University Research Park
• February 2014 – WisBusiness begins syndicating our news
• June 2015 – Our editor-in-chief is interviewed for a book about Midwest tech companies
• February 2016 – First “The Week Ahead” is published
• June 2016 – Startup events page launches
• March 2017 – Startup resources page launches
• May 2017 – Forward Festival begins syndicating our news