Members

MRUN membership is the core of the organization. MRUN members are all engaged in fostering the growth and development of new high tech ventures. Yet the Midwest startup scene is geographically dispersed across many mini-centers of excellence. The strength of the Midwest Startup ecosystem is a function of how well those in their respective mini-clusters can leverage the know-how and resources that lie beyond their immediate community. MRUN serves to build the Midwest ecosystem by boosting the degree to which those who create, fund and manage startups in the Midwest can develop trusting relationships with others having aligned but complementary skills across the region.

Generally in the world of startups, trust and relationships are key – we don’t do business in this sector with people we don’t know. Build your connections while strengthening the viability of the Midwest Startup Ecosystem by becoming an MRUN member. MRUN has three classes of members: full members, associate members and affiliate members.

Full Members must be:

a research institution, university or federal laboratory having $200 million or more in annual R&D spending (per latest year data from NSF),
a technology accelerator associated with commercialization of startups, or
an early stage investment entity to include venture capital firm, an angel investor or an angel investor network.

A Full Member institution, organization, or accelerator must be located in the MRUN Region (see below) Individual Full Members must be formally engaged in business formation activity or assistance thereto and be associated with a university, institution, organization, accelerator, or investor that qualifies at a Full Member.

Associate Members include

any other institution, organization or legal entity engaged in legal business activities that has an interest in technology commercialization through start-up formation that does not meet the requirements of being a Full Member and
research institutions, organizations, accelerators or individuals at those institutions, organizations or accelerators that are not located in the MRUN Region.

Individual Associate Members must be formally engaged in business formation activity or assistance thereto and be associated with a university, institution, organization, accelerator, or investor that qualifies as an Associate Member.

Affiliate Members include

not for profit, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), or
local, regional, state, federal organizations which participate in creation and/or funding of research or technology-based start-up business enterprises

Individuals may become Affiliate Members if they are associated with any of the above organizations focused on the Midwest Region.

The MRUN Region

The MRUN Region is bi-national spanning the Midwest portions of Canada and the United States. In the U.S. it includes the states of Illinois, Indiana Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Western Pennsylvania. In Canada it includes the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario.

MRUN Annual Dues

Full member – $750 Universities or research institutions having $200 million or greater in annual R&D spending (per NSF) organization, accelerator, investor group: $750 (includes up to 5 individual participants) Full members must be located within the MRUN Region
Full member – Individual: $300
Associate Member- $500 Universities or research institutions having less than $200 million in annual R&D spending (per NSF) organization, accelerator, investor group (Includes up to 5 individual participants) Associate members may be located anywhere.
Associate Member – Individual: $150
Associate Member – corporate: $1000
Affiliate organization – promotional partners – no member fees

Become an MRUN member

Sign up and pay on-line below using the secure link to Pay Pal. Note that Affiliate memberships carry no annual dues and thus are not listed as an option on the Pay Pal form. If you wish to join MRUN as an affiliate member or if you need an invoice other than the online receipt, please complete our online member application at Wufoo:

http://mrun.wufoo.com/forms/mrun-membership-application/

If you have questions or need assistance, contact

MRUN President, Allen Dines, UW-Madison email ajdines@wisc.edu

MRUN Vice President, Managing Director, Gary Keller, Xomix Gary Keller gary.keller@xomix.com