A Madison entrepreneur with a deep love for fishing took home this week's grand prize on "Project Pitch It" after he shared his patented invention with the show's moguls.
William Walsh, founder and CEO of Madison-based
Harpoon Lures, is a competitive fisherman who has travelled throughout Wisconsin for decades with his friends. He’s spent several years trying to create a lure that would allow him to fish near the bottom of lakes, where all the bigger fish are.
Walsh has created a lure that contains a three-hook, cam-activated system integrated within its body. The Harpoon Lure can be used as a Crankbait, Swimbait or Shallow Popper lure.
Harpoon Lures won the Peg Ann & David Gruber Project Pitch It Award, worth $10,000.
“Unlike our grandparents’ lures with the old dangly hook system, Harpoon Lures have no dangly hooks,” said Walsh. “All the hooks are contained within the body of the lure.”
Harpoon Lures not only make fishing easier but are also a safer alternative to traditional fishing hooks. Traditional fishing lures can get caught on any sort of obstruction in a body of water, which can cause harm to the environment. Their design also means fisherman are likely to accidentally injure themselves on the hook.
Right now, Walsh 3D prints all of his Harpoon Lures. He wants to create molds of the lures and complete a test production run to get his product into the hands of people in the fishing industry.
Sahara Rose De Vore is the founder and CEO of
The Travel Coach Network, a global platform used to train and certify travel coaches. The Milwaukee-based company won the Jerry Jendusa BREAKTHRU/UW-Milwaukee Award, worth $5,000.
Over a decade ago, De Vore packed a backpack and booked a one-way ticket to Ireland. This kicked off her solo journey across the globe. In 10 years, she travelled to 84 countries. Through her journey, De Vore realized there is a gap in how travel is currently being marketed.
“Unlike travel agents, travel coaches do not focus on the booking phase of a trip,” said De Vore. “Instead, they help people set intentions for their trips to better understand why they want to get away, so they can use travel as a tool for things like transformation.”
There are countless reasons a person might want to travel and The Travel Coach Network’s certified travel coaches can help clients accomplish varying goals, from empowering single female travelers to educating families on the benefits of multi-generational travel.
De Vore wants to take the company’s certification program and create a condensed version that can be targeted towards travel agents as an additional accreditation. She also hopes to build an international network of certified coaches.
Dr. Josh Medow, a tenured professor of neurological surgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took home this week's We Energies/Milwaukee Admirals Award, worth $1,500.
Medow is the CEO of
The Digital Intern, an artificial intelligence software that nurses can use to help achieve the health goals set by a patient’s doctor.
What makes The Digital Intern different from an AI chatbot like ChatGPT is the base of knowledge it pulls from. While ChatGPT would be able to pull information from any sort of medical research paper on the internet, The Digital Intern has specific information as to what drugs and treatments have been approved by the FDA and why or why not they might not be working. The Digital Intern also adheres to best clinical practices while aiming to reduce costs.
“We wanted to talk directly to a medical professional, not control an IV pump or a ventilator,” said Medow. “We wanted medical professionals to be able to say, ‘No, I don’t agree with that.’”
Medow presented his software to the Food and Drug Administration, which determined that as long as a human is able to intervene between a recommendation and the treatment of a patient, the FDA will not need to regulate The Digital Intern.
The startup has raised $350,000 from angel investors. Medow hopes to get his software in as many hospitals as possible and eventually find a new CEO to replace him.
“Project Pitch It” airs on WISN-TV 12 in Milwaukee and on TV stations throughout Wisconsin. Those stations include Green Bay (WBAY-TV 2), Madison (WKOW-TV 27), La Crosse (WKBT-TV 8), and Wausau (WSAW/WYOW TV 7). BizTimes Milwaukee is a media partner for “Project Pitch It.”
