The Water Council postponed the
BREW accelerator program after seeing a significant drop off in the quality and quantity of applicants for what would have been its 7th cohort.
The Water Council is instead redesigning the BREW, which was a measure decided in November of 2019 to ensure the success of the program in the future, said Water Council chief executive officer Dean Amhaus.
BREW is a 3.5-month accelerator program that draws local and international startups in the water tech space to Milwaukee. At the end of each program, BREW participants pitch their ideas to investors, universities, government entities and corporations for potential partnerships, acquisition or funding.
Starting in fall, “BREW 2.0” will become a one-week intensive accelerator program whereby applicants will still have access to the same resources but in a condensed period of time.
Other than the length of the program, the largest change is that startups will no longer be obligated to attend in-person training sessions, which, in addition to the length of the program, led to the decline of applicants, Amhaus said.
“From what we’ve heard, it was this hurdle of this time commitment,” Amhaus said. “That was a big leap for people. We could sense that if we kept on going down this same path with this requirement of having to be here, we would just reach that point of nobody applying. It was a natural barrier for people even applying.”
As part of the redesign, BREW accelerator entrepreneurial director Steve Glynn was let go. The Water Council plans to select a new director, but hasn’t decided whether that application process will take place internally or externally.
Amhaus said the entrepreneurial director role will likely change, adding that instead of a one-on-one startup mentor, the BREW will need a candidate who is more of a program coordinator.
“We had just decided we needed to make this shift and wanted to go in a different direction,” Amhaus said of Glynn’s departure and the redesign.
In an interview with BizTimes, Glynn said he left the BREW to commit more time to his company and the greater startup community in Milwaukee.
“I loved working for The Water Council,” Glynn said. “It’s a great organization and I had a blast working on the BREW for the two years I was there. The only thing I love more is the broader tech and startup community in Milwaukee and I just wanted to spend more time being involved there too.”
The redesign will not change the core of BREW programming, which provides startups access to Milwaukee’s cluster of water tech companies. However, training will be modified to give startups the choice of when and which sessions they want to attend over the course of a year.
“What we heard repeatedly was that what is most valuable about the BREW was the ecosystem and being plugged into those connections,” Amhaus said.
With a shorter program, Amhaus expects the BREW to become more accessible to companies both locally and internationally. But expectations and how the program will impact the local water tech ecosystem will change, he said.
Rather than focusing on individual growth and successful startup exits, the program will direct more of its attention towards building an ecosystem of water tech companies while introducing new products to companies already in the greater Milwaukee area.
The goal, Amhaus said, is to attract 20 to 30 companies to Milwaukee each year with the hope that one or two will stay after experiencing the local water tech ecosystem.
“It’s a little bit of recruitment and retention, research and development and a spattering of objectives,” Amhaus said. “That’s why some our big companies are interested as well because they get to see new companies that could align well with their products.”
Other changes to take effect include access to work space within the Global Water Center, which is where The Water Council is located. Startups previously had access to a 1,000-square-foot office space within the GWC for approximately $140, a monthly fee that would increase if they decided to stay each ensuing year, Amhaus said.
Future companies in the program will now have the option to rent a desk in the center’s Oasis co-working space for $275 a month. However, program members are not required to rent an office space, Amhaus added.
Upon completion of the BREW, applicants previously received a $50,000 equity investment from The Water Council, which was funded by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. However, the revamped program will no longer offer the equity investment as part of the deal.
The nonprofit is seeking more sponsors and partners to fund the BREW, but the amount of funding needed is unclear given the redesign and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amhaus said.
“I can’t really say the cost right now because there’s still quite a bit unknown,” Amhaus said. “The quandary is, how do you plan for and what is it going to look like in fall?”
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