Midwest Moxie
Kathleen GallagherMidwest Moxie
Hear about the successes, failures, insights and opportunities that shape some of the Midwest’s most exciting entrepreneurs. Host Kathleen Gallagher, executive director of 5 Lakes Institute, talks with company founders who are taking risks, disrupting the status quo and driving economic growth in the region.
WUWM
Hear about the successes, failures, insights and opportunities that shape some of the Midwest’s most exciting entrepreneurs. Host Kathleen Gallagher, executive director of 5 Lakes Institute, talks with company founders who are taking risks, disrupting the status quo and driving economic growth in the region.
WUWM
Pearl Street Technologies’ software is helping shrink the backlog of solar, wind and other new power projects waiting to get connected to the electric grid.
Zhen Xu took a research risk. Jim Adox bet his career on it. The result: A new field called histotripsy and a growing company with a non-invasive liver cancer treatment.
Chicago-based NuMat is the first company to successfully commercialize Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), one gram of which has the surface area of a football field.
Graham Colditz is an internationally known breast cancer prediction expert. Joy Jiang is a biostatistician. Together they created Prognosia’s cutting edge software.
John Rinaldi’s brush with a famous business expert got him out of the engineering department and into marketing. Then his factory automation products began to take off.
An Ohio State University professor started StormImpact to help utilities answer these types of questions. Then he became its top sales person.
How two Iowa professors pioneered and commercialized a tumor-imaging and tumor-killing treatment that sends two forms of radioactive lead into the body
Ben Ivers co-founded Tenon, an marketing automation company that helps teams collaborate on campaigns that use emails and texts to drive engagement
The Madison company, which uses AI to analyze medical tests and help identify and treat sleep disorders, has the largest sleep data repository in the world.
Jord Biosciences’ large library of soil microbes helps protect, stimulate and feed plants.
After nursing Louie back to health with special nutrition, Dan Schaefer co-founded St. Louis-based Native Pet to make all-natural supplements and treats.
Cale Johnston’s companies make it fast and easy to move accounts without disrupting direct deposits and recurring payments.
This small Illinois company has more than 90% of the global purified isotope chemistry market.
Nina Jenkins’ insect-killing fungal spores eliminate the need to fumigate, clean out cabinets and drawers.
After stints at the White House, Air Force Academy and Amazon, Nick Mastronardi set out to help the public sector make data-driven decisions and improve performance.
Louisville-based GoodMaps, hatched at the American Printing House for the Blind, provides turn-by-turn directions in train stations, airports and other indoor spaces.
Johnny Park has been an academic, startup founder and now non-profit CEO.
KaliVir Immunotherapeutics is developing immunotherapy programs for treating…
EmpowerU's online program delivers resilience training with 1on1 counseling…
BiomeSense's technology platform enables at-home monitoring of the human…
UpDown nightlife app helped users find events and deals and provided consumer…
Gentel Biosciences and Millipore Sigma both provide life science products.
Capita3 invests in women-led startups operating in the health sector.
7SIGNAL helps customers monitor and optimize their Wi-Fi network performance.
Hummingbirds connects brands with hyperlocal content creators and influencers.
eBlu Solutions makes prior authorization software for high-cost medicines.
Atzeyo Biosensors' platform helps doctors diagnose cancer in their offices.
Olio Health provides healthcare software.
Setex Technologies' material is used for nose pads and other consumer products
LIfeLoop developed software for senior living communities.
Genomenon provides genome interpretation software.
Eden Park Illumination's light fixtures disinfect air.
Unify Medical makes a surgical microscope.
Realta Fusion is developing fusion energy systems.
Cultured Decadence was aiming to grow meat from lobster cells.
Gripp’s mobile software helps farmers.
iotaMotion’s miniature robotic system helps surgeons
DeepSight Technology’s unique capabilities are improving medical imaging.
Neurable sells a smart headphone that helps people with focus.
Diamond Kinetics’ technology helps baseball and softball players.
Mycocycle Inc. uses fungi to remove harmful toxins.
Marathon Health provides advanced primary care at health centers across the U.S.
Marani’s ECG- and AI-enabled garments monitor moms during pregnancy.
Eric Apfelbach turned around two companies and led a publicly traded company.
Synbiotic Health makes clinically tested ingredients for gut and overall health.
Sifter Solutions' AI-powered platform helps people find groceries.
Quantified Ag created ear tags to monitor cattle’s body temperature and…
Disarm Therapeutics’ discoveries may yield breakthrough treatments.
Sesame Solar makes renewable, mobile nanogrids for emissions-free disaster…
Stratus Materials creates novel materials for next gen batteries for electric…
SPR Therapeutics provides patients with a non-opioid, non-surgical,…
How Claros Technologies aims to rid the world of per- and polyfluoroalkyl…
NutriSense was first to provide continuous glucose monitors to consumers.
Bloomfield improves the health and performance of specialty crops around the…
Connecting manufacturers with live data for faster decision-making and improved…
The Silvas developed headsets to allow doctors to see the heart they’re working…
How a company's work is transforming diesel to use clean-burning, renewable,…
After exploring all seven continents and dozens of countries, Corey Jaskolski…
Arnab Nandi’s research into spatiotemporal data spawned Mobikit.
Eric Christopher founded Zylo and, in the process, invented the category of…
Jian-Ping Wang’s years of research paid off when the world's first ever…
Jacob Babcock and his team are helping to free us from cords and make wireless…
Monika Roots is a child psychiatrist who has co-founded two telehealth startups.
Cory Scott stumbled into a pitch contest and emerged with first place, a…
Chris Goode leaned on 30 years of work experience in weather to start his…
Amy Brown quit her high-level executive job to start her own venture that helps…
After focusing on scalability and profitability Ben Schmidt's Pittsburg-based…
After founding four companies, including Ann Arbor-based Accuri Cytometers,…
Dr. Garry Cooper started with research lab materials but has grown…
Sankalp Arora figured out while in graduate school at Carnegie Mellon how to…
Danny Ellis and Kurt Heikkinen know first-hand how difficult, and ultimately…
Nicole Atchison and Francis Wang are both building a more sustainable future.
Tyrre Burks' desire to create the safest environment possible for a young…
Nancy Benovich Gilby and Katie Thompson have both figured out how to bring…
Greg Piefer's company, Shine Technologies, has about 400 employees and $700…
Shane Farritor and Josh Riedy have small town roots and big tech attitudes.
Matt Rubin and Gordon Daily are using their technical skills to build growing…
Jake Joraanstad knew about row crops and grain elevators. Julia Regan…
Mike Evans turned a desire to order take-out food more easily into…
The first season of Midwest Moxie produced a treasure trove of tips from…
Jon Pearce got an internship with a startup while still in college, setting his…
Mo Faisal set out to build better and more energy efficient semiconductor…
Niko Skievaski and his co-founders started building an interface for accessing…
Sridhar Deivasigamani knew the world was ready for smarter, more efficient…
Brian Wiegand started his first company in the early days of the internet,…
Alisyn Malek has impacted sustainability as an engineer and innovation leader…
Ankur Gopal struck out into the world but returned home to Kentucky to start…
Christopher Day grew up in rural Indiana without much visibility into any…
Jim McKelvey was a nationally known glass blower, but blew past that…
Taralinda Willis never imagined she would start a company; Norman Sadeh never…
Speeding up the clean energy transition
November 20, 202514min
David Bromberg didn’t want to start a company, and he didn’t want to work at a big one. So after completing his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon, he left for California and a job at a solar energy startup. Two years later, though, David returned to Pittsburgh to co-found a company with his Ph.D. advisor – an international expert in integrated circuit design -- and another colleague. Pearl Street Technologies developed software that automated and accelerated the grid interconnection process for renewable energy projects. The company was acquired in early 2025 by Austin, Texas-based Enverus.
Midwest Moxie's executive producer is Audrey Nowakowski. She produced this episode. Subscribe to Midwest Moxie wherever you get your podcasts. And if you love Midwest Moxie as much as we do, help us out by posting a review.