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Entrepreneur Success Stories
Following are the real-life stories of some of Wisconsin’s entrepreneurial stars, who started and grew successful businesses.
Do you have a story to tell? Tell us about it.
Coffee Roaster on Solid Ground in Green Bay
By Leah Call
If you’re looking for a good cup of coffee, Mark and Catherine Semrau, owners of La Java coffee roaster in Green Bay, can certainly help you out.
“We strive to have the freshest highest-quality product we can offer to our customers,” said Mark Semrau of the gourmet coffee and tea business he started with his wife Catherine in 2002.
Direct Sales Success
A successful direct sales business in Green Bay has the potential to become as recognizable as Pampered Chef or Tupperware. Started in 2003 by entrepreneur Cheri Larson, Azante Jewelry offers high-quality, affordable jewelry through a growing force of independent sales consultants.
Invention Improves Safety For Firefighters
By Leah Call
One year ago, FireSite LLC took shape after three University of Wisconsin-Madison  engineering students took first place in the invention competition titled the Schoof’s Prize for Creativity, held annually at the UW College of Engineering. Today Nick O’Brien, Mitchell Nick and Chandler Nault are hard at work turning their prize-winning invention into a marketable product that can potentially save the lives of firefighters.
Entrepreneur Earns Federal Recognition for Biotech Startup
By Leah Call
Most small businesses begin with an idea. InViragen LLC co-founder Dr. Jorge Osorio always had good ideas, but he wasn’t always able to pursue them. Starting his own business gave him the opportunity to turn his ideas into reality.
With 12 years of biotech-industry experience, Osorio is an assistant professor of infectious diseases and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. In September 2003 Osorio formed InViragen along with co-founder Dr. Dan Stinchcomb of Fort Collins, Colorado.
Entrepreneurial Spirit Helps Framer Find Success
By Leah Call
Perseverance. It’s the key to success, according to entrepreneur Jenny Erlandson. After nearly five years in business, Erlandson feels good about her decision to leave corporate America and start her custom-framing business, Three Thirty-Five Framing.
Creative Success in Northeast Wisconsin
Fresh perspective. Refined design. Premier customer service. That’s what you'’ll find at Autumn Hill Creative LLC, one of the newest advertising agencies on the scene in Kimberly, Wisconsin.
Hortonville Entrepreneur Finds Recipe for Success
Who can resist a fresh baked cookie? At LEONARD’s Designs, LLC in Hortonville, Wis., about five miles northwest of Appleton, the cookies are always fresh and always irresistible. But something extra contributes to the sweet success of this new business.
Organizing the Fox Valley and beyond
 Melody McCabe, owner and principle consultant of Office Efficient Systems LLC (OES), hopes to someday run an organizing empire. For now she reigns over the growing organizing business she started three years ago in Neenah, Wisconsin. OES provides customized innovative systems and procedures that help businesses, home offices and individuals get organized and improve efficiency.
Menomonee Falls Business Has Bright Future
When the company that employed Bruce Bathurst was purchased and moved to another state, he and co-worker Greg Retzlaff decided to start their own business. AquaSensors LLC, with an office in Brookfield and manufacturing facility in Menomonee Falls, took shape in November 2002. Three years later, AquaSensors employs five and sells its products throughout the U.S. and Asia.
Bitten by the Pond Bug
Paul Mancheski often feels like he’s on vacation when he goes to work at WaterScape Designs LLC, the business he started with his wife Justine in 2002. Waterscape Designs in Door County, Wisconsin, constructs and designs ponds, streams and waterfalls for homeowners.
WhuddleWorld: Safe, Engaging Online Community
 Dee Hardrath of Waukesha, Wisconsin was involved in the online industry before most people even knew what it was. Now this high-tech entrepreneur is CEO of her own interactive online realm, WhuddleWorld, an online community of imagination that is engaging, entertaining, and safe for "kids" of all ages.
Washington Island farmers brew success
A group of farmers on Washington Island, off the tip of Door County,  with the help of Washington Island Brands, approached Capital Brewery of Middleton, with the idea of providing Island grown wheat for use in one of Capital’s award-winning brews. View more information at: http://www.islandwheat.com/
Healthy Success
 Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer once said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
Margarette (Peg) Paul, owner of 4P’s in a Pod LLC, is living proof of that theory. Paul’s love for what she does is clearly evident when she talks about her new Waukesha-based catering business.
For Gail Ambrosius, making chocolate is her destiny
 By Chris Martell
Gail Ambrosius, whose hand-dipped chocolates have attracted a cult-like following in the Madison area, is often asked if her last name, which means "nectar of the gods," is real or just her nom de chocolat. Gail Ambrosius, whose hand-dipped chocolates have attracted a cult-like following in the Madison area, is often asked if her last name, which means "nectar of the gods," is real or just her nom de chocolat.
Ambrosius is the real, if unlikely, surname of her father, who farmed in Seymour, near Green Bay, while his wife spent her days in the kitchen, cooking and baking everything from scratch, including her famous chocolate pudding, for their brood of 10 children.
“D’Bug Lady” Returns To Wisconsin with the Help of WEN Partners
 JUNEAU COUNTY--- Carol Schriver-Kauscher has returned to Wisconsin! Carol, also known as “D’BugLady," was a successful business woman in Cincinnati, Ohio. She planned on starting her second D’BugLady Pest Management Company and had every intention of locating it in Kentucky. The Juneau County Economic Development Corporation has opened many doors for Carol and D’Buglady Pest Management by helping to establish links to the organic industry, introductions to current and future small business owners, future government contracts and even the European Market through a meeting with Jean Pierre.
MATC aids state businesses
KAREN RIVEDAL krivedal@madison.com
MADISON -- A business assistance center at Madison Area Technical College helped Wisconsin companies secure $292.3 million in government contracts in 2005, a 42 percent increase over last year's record.
Innocorp. in Verona used the center to help it get a contract with the U.S. General Services Administration for sales of its Fatal Vision goggles, which simulate different blood alcohol levels for alcohol training programs. The GSA contract - getting one essentially certifies a vendor as a good risk - lets companies do business with government agencies for individual sales of up to $25,000, up from the $2,000 sales possible without such a contract.
Innocorp. president Mike Aguilar said MATC's Business Procurement Assistance Center streamlined the process of applying for the contract.
Entrepreneurial Boot Camp boosts Rudolph child care facility: Rudolph’s Little Dears
Boot camps and toddlers don’t normally mix, but for Rich and Caroline Casper, an Entrepreneurial Boot Camp helped a quality child care facility open its doors in the town of Rudolph.  The Caspers recognized a need for such a facility in their community. "It's my wife's vision," Rich said. "She's a preschool teacher at St. Phillip's, and she always heard it would be nice to have a day care in Rudolph." Rich also completed the necessary requirements for daycare certification.
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