University Of Madison Wisconsin

Q&A: Deal maker John Neis works to connect ideas with venture capital

Those who follow Wisconsin’s economic development scene know the state suffers from a lack of investment dollars to help new companies get off the ground.

One figure often cited is that Wisconsin is home to 1.84 percent of the U.S. population and receives 2.15 percent of the nation’s academic research spending but attracts just 0.11 percent of the available venture capital.

For more than 25 years, John Neis has been working to change that. As managing director of Venture Investors, Neis has been involved in many of the state’s high-tech success stories.

Founded in 1982 by Roger Ganser as Venture Investors of Wisconsin, the firm today has offices in both Madison and Ann Arbor, Mich., putting it literally in the backyard of the two largest public research universities in the world. About 60 percent of Venture Investors’ activity is now based on spin-outs from the UW-Madison and University of Michigan. Venture Investors is now running its fifth fund and has over $200 million under management.

Neis currently serves on the board of Virent Energy Systems, Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals and Novelos Therapeutics, a Boston firm which in April acquired Madison-based Cellectar. He’s also served on the board of TomoTherapy, Third Wave Technologies and NimbleGen Systems — three of the most successful technology companies to come out of UW-Madison research.

Most recently, Neis has been involved in discussions at the state level over how to generate more investment capital for early-stage companies in Wisconsin, including the controversy over using a Certified Capital Company program or “CAPCOs” to leverage more investment dollars.

A Wisconsin native, Neis, 55, holds a B.S. in finance from the University of Utah and an M.S. in marketing and finance from UW-Madison. He’s also a chartered financial analyst. Neis spoke recently with The Capital Times about his work.

Capital Times: So what exactly is “venture capital” and how does it work?

John Neis: Venture capital is a professionally managed pool of high-risk capital that’s invested in nascent companies that are taking ideas or scientific discoveries and trying to transform them into products and services. But it’s not like picking stocks. In addition to bringing in outside dollars, venture capitalists become actively engaged, typically serving on the company board of directors, bringing their experience, advice and network of contacts.

Firework photos « Sandra Knisely

Inside the Box: New method for breast cancer imaging

Every woman over the age of 40 receives the same initial screening for breast cancer: a mammogram. Yet no two women are identical and neither are their breast cancer risks, so a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is developing a system better tailored to women with a particularly high risk factor.

In 2000, a National Academy of Engineering publication identified breast cancer detection as a healthcare problem in need of an engineering solution. In the subsequent decade, Professor Susan Hagness has emerged as a leader in the search for that solution. The system will offer three-dimensional capabilities similar to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system along with the affordability and accessibility of traditional mammography.

U.S. naval ships usually conjure images of aircraft carriers or other large vessels far out to sea. The USS Freedom (LCS 1), however, is able to enter water as shallow as 14 feet, giving sailors an unprecedented level of access to regions where the U.S. military is present, such as the Persian Gulf.

In addition to its extreme shallow-water abilities, the Freedom, which was built by the Wisconsin shipyard Marinette Marine, is unique in another way: It’s the first naval vessel to substantially include friction stir-welded components. The components, which directly contribute to the Freedom’s stealth and speed capabilities, came from Brookfield, Wisconsin-based Friction Stir Link Inc. (FSL), which has close ties to the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering.

It has taken more than a decade for Regina Murphy and her colleagues to determine that sometimes it’s actually better to rush things. At least that’s the case when those things are protein processes in the brain that can lead to devastating neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

Murphy, the Smith-Bascom Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, is studying the kinetics of proteins and peptides that aggregate in the brain. Her work has helped to dramatically change the research paradigms that guide neurological drug development, creating new possibilities for therapies that could treat not only the symptoms of these diseases, but perhaps the actual causes.

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Art, quadrennial exhibition

List of publications

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Art faculty exhibition, University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 8, 1990-January 20, 1991

Alumni directory, 1849-1919

Long-term study of educational effectiveness of newly formed centralized school districts in rural areas