Zach Brandon: Madison’s health tech leaders should ‘brag’ about the area

Madison chamber President Zach Brandon says Epic’s growth in the Madison area is a “trend line, [not] an anomaly.”

Brandon said yesterday the Madison area isn’t the only place trying to brand itself as a health tech hub — describing that space as the “Wild West.” But Epic ensures Madison is the one with “the more credible argument,” and area entrepreneurs need to brag about that when traveling the country.

And look, he said, at what’s happening with the EHR consulting firms, such as Nordic Consulting or BlueTree Network. That’s similar to what happened when firms started popping up to consult clients on Microsoft, he said.

“I think you’ve seen the same thing happen here,” Brandon said. “People are building upon the infrastructure and network.”

Brandon spoke at a chamber-organized event aimed at bringing together the area’s health tech community, from startup leaders and investors to health systems.

The effort, called HealthTech Capitol, is a more focused effort from the chamber to grow the ongoing meet-ups among health tech entrepreneurs. The chamber is also planning a November event in Madison with a Chicago health tech incubator called Matter, which is led by a senior adviser at the prominent firm Pritzker Group Venture Capital.

And there are more events on the way, Brandon said.

“We’ll still have beer like the good old days, but it’ll just be larger,” Brandon said.


— By Polo Rocha,
WisBusiness.com