Scale Up Milwaukee, an initiative of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, is an action project focused on developing the entrepreneurial capacity in Milwaukee by bringing together the policies, structures, programs and climate that foster business growth.

Scale Up Milwaukee is based on a model developed by Daniel Isenberg, founding executive director of the Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Projects. Isenberg has worked with entrepreneurship ecosystems abroad, including in Colombia, Brazil and Denmark, fostering policies, structures and cultures that stimulate long-term economic growth, development and prosperity through programs and workshops.

Milwaukee is the first community in the U.S. to develop a program based on this model. The initiative is also backed by Governor Scott Walker and Mayor Tom Barrett as part of a bipartisan effort to grow the economy by stimulating high-growth ventures and encouraging job creation.

The long-term strategy for Scale Up Milwaukee is to create an integrated effort to simultaneously impact six domains of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Milwaukee: Culture, Policy and Leadership, Finance, Human Capital, Markets, and Supports.

Locally, the Greater Milwaukee Committee is working closely with UW Milwaukee, WEDC, WHEDA, MEDC and the mayor's office to implement the project.