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Published June 06, 2021

Craig Dickman, managing director for TitletownTech and one of the presenters at the Green Bay SCORE chapter's recent seminar "The Business Legends of Green Bay" certainly qualifies for that distinction.

His career has been one of excellence, and Dickman's bio lists his experience as an inventor, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He founded Breakthrough Fuel and co-founded the N.E.W. Venture Foundry. He held managerial positions at Schneider National and SHADE Information Systems and was chief executive at Paper Transport and Master Fleet.

Those achievements only touch on his lengthy career. In addition, Dickman obtained multiple patents and has served on numerous boards. He is a co-owner of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and a business investor.

Despite all of those accomplishments, Dickman says he has found a home at TitletownTech, and his greatest challenge now is balancing the multiple roles of business ownership, full-time employment, and serving on boards.

"I ask myself frequently how to juggle everything," he said. "In some ways, the diversity of what I'm working on is energizing in so many ways. I may start to work on one thing, and then turn that off and start on something else. My hobbies and work blend together."

A secret to doing it all, he says, is to be organized, block off time and remain flexible.

He added, "One of the advantages of being an entrepreneur is that your organization of time becomes more deliberate. In a way, you are always on, and the challenge is to shut it off when you go home."

Dickman says he walks every morning to organize his thoughts and also spends one weekend each year off by himself so he can do a personal assessment. During that time, he reviews the past year and decides what his next steps will be. A phrase that he often uses is "be deliberate."

That sentiment is advice that he gives to entrepreneurs.

"The most common questions I get are, 'How do I start? What is next? How do I respond?' I tell them that they must first choose to start; you really deliberately choose to start. You must decide that you are going to start and you are going to do this," he said.

"Every business starts in a very similar place in that every business starts with something they want to do. It starts with risk and that requires the individual to take that leap and start something. You want to start, create and grow value."

But not every idea will work. He says that a would-be entrepreneur needs to think about the purpose of the business and listen to the market because that will determine if the idea has value. Another distinction, he believes, is that the successful entrepreneur will be someone who really wants to do something versus be something.

"They will want to build a business that will leave a mark and change the way something is done," he said.

Finding those businesses has been the primary purpose behind TitletownTech, a partnership between the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft. Since starting about 23 months ago, they have received about 1,650 applications. Each is evaluated and those that will benefit the area and fit the criteria will be subject to additional review.

The successful candidate must fit into one of the five verticals: Sports, Media, and Entertainment; Digital Health; Agriculture, Water, and Environment; Manufacturing and Construction Tech; or Supply Chain Technology.

So far, 21 businesses have been selected for investment. TitletownTech promises that each will be surrounded by a team of experts to provide mentoring, capital, and customers.

Dickman explained, "At our end, what we're doing is making investments in companies. We have to get a return and we use our resources to help those companies build."

The pandemic had little effect as the main change was a switch to digital vs. in-person presentations. Between 100 and 120 applications come in every month.

"It shows an underlying creativity here in Wisconsin," Dickman said. "When I think of creation or innovation, what it does is solve a problem. This market has incredible problem solvers; it is a strength in the area. When we started TitletownTech, we had no idea we would see this kind of a response."

As a native of Green Bay and a graduate of local schools, Dickman couldn't be happier to see the impact being made.

Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.