Global program new to Wisconsin offers mentorship for risk management- and health-related startups

Global program new to Wisconsin offers mentorship for risk management- and health-related startups

Applications for all 2021-22 Creative Destruction Lab programs are due by July 30. Creative Destruction Lab

Applications for all 2021-22 Creative Destruction Lab programs are due by July 30. Photo: Creative Destruction Lab

Four Wisconsin-based companies — RoofMarketplace Inc., Opterrix, Pythonic Corp. and Last Lock Inc. — recently graduated from the inaugural cohort of a selective global entrepreneurship program that expanded to the University of Wisconsin-Madison last year with sponsorship from American Family Insurance.

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a Toronto-based nonprofit that facilitates free mentorship for highly scalable, seed-stage science and technology startups. It operates in 10 cities worldwide — including Madison — through partnerships with universities in each location.

Across all of its sites, CDL runs 16 different industry-specific programs focused on areas ranging from artificial intelligence to supply chain.

CDL-Wisconsin launched with a risk management cohort that began in 2020 and is adding a health cohort starting in 2021.

Applications for all 2021-22 CDL programs, which will run from late October or early November through June 2022, are due by July 30. Interested startups can apply here.

Founders who are selected for CDL will meet with a group of mentors — including investors, successful entrepreneurs and industry professionals — for one full-day session every eight weeks to get feedback and guidance on three short-term objectives founders set to complete between sessions.

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