Built Here: StartingBlock's 2026 Impact Report

Built Here: StartingBlock's 2026 Impact Report Makes the Case for Civic Infrastructure.

Madison invests in roads, parks, libraries, and transit because it understands those things make a city worth living in. Our newly released 2026 Impact Report makes the case that an entrepreneurial ecosystem belongs on that same list: it's the investment that makes a city worth building in.

That's the idea behind this year's theme, Built Here. Since StartingBlock opened its doors in the Spark Building in 2018, we haven't been a coworking space or a startup office. We've been civic infrastructure, as essential to Madison's economic future as the parks and libraries the city already knows how to value. This report puts eight years of data behind that claim.

Civic Infrastructure, By the Numbers

More than 1,500 founders have come through StartingBlock's doors since 2018. Today, that community includes 130+ active member companies and 282 companies served over the organization's history, spanning technology, professional services, healthcare, and the arts.

Just as a library serves far more people than those who walk through its doors, StartingBlock's value compounds outward. Member companies surveyed in 2026 reported growing their teams by an average of 4.2x from the time they joined to today, growth spread across the portfolio, not concentrated in a handful of standouts.

What Civic Infrastructure Returns

Using Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and a conservative, tenure-adjusted model, the report quantifies what that infrastructure generates for Dane County:

• $56 million in direct annual wages paid by member companies

• $241–$280 million in total annual economic impact, applying published local economic multiplier research

• 38-to-1 return on StartingBlock's annual operating budget, measured in direct member-company wages

• 345 events hosted over the past three years, drawing an estimated 2,875–3,450 non-member visits to downtown Madison annually

Wisconsin's entrepreneurship rate is 0.18%, exactly half the national average. That gap doesn't close on its own. It closes when cities treat entrepreneurship as the civic asset it actually is, and fund the infrastructure that supports it the same way they fund a transit system or a park.

Built Here, and Staying Here

Wisconsin loses talented people. The founders and engineers who might have built companies here often leave because the ecosystem doesn't give them a reason to stay. The founders in this report made a different choice.

Recovery.com, co-founded by Ben Camp and Jeremiah Calvino, grew from 3 employees to 97, choosing to stay headquartered in Madison as it scaled. Sprocket Security grew from 8 employees to 50, nearly 6x growth, and recently moved into a larger suite on StartingBlock's 4th floor rather than relocating elsewhere. DataLily AI, founded by three entrepreneurs all under 25, is proof that serious companies don't have to start on the coasts. And Tricky Foods, after going through the Madworks accelerator, grew revenue 2.5x and now ships its SNAXI charcuterie brand to 48 states, built and based right here.

Each of these is a decision that could have gone differently. It didn't, because the infrastructure to stay existed.

Explore the Full Report

The 2026 Impact Report shares the full data, methodology, and founder stories behind these numbers, along with StartingBlock's vision for the civic infrastructure Madison needs next.

View the full report: Download the 2026 Impact Report