Midwest Moxie

Zhen Xu knew that most people thought it was impossible to use an ultrasound machine to destroy tumors inside the body. But Zhen was still a University of Michigan Ph.D. student; she decided she could afford to try. After years of testing how to control the high-intensity sound waves, that decision paid off and a new, non-invasive medical procedure was born. In 2009, Zhen co- founded HistoSonics, a Plymouth, Minnesota company whose non-invasive platform liquifies and destroys tumors at the sub cellular level.

 HistoSonics was acquired in August 2025 for $2.25 billion by a consortium of top-tier investors that i...

Omar Farha discovered in graduate school at UCLA that he was wowed by Metal-Organic Frameworks – MOFs as they’re called by chemists. MOFs were like sponges that could soak up toxic gases and other health hazards -- one of the most exciting and oft cited areas of chemistry.  So when Omar arrived at Northwestern University in 2007 it took him just four years to find two like-minded co-founders and start NuMat. The Chicago company designs custom MOFs that provide chemical protection, safe storage of toxic gases, and carbon reduction in energy intensive processes. NuMat has three facilities -- in Illinois, Wisco...

Graham Colditz is an internationally known breast cancer prediction expert. Joy Jiang is a young biostatistician. ​​Together they created Prognosia’s cutting edge software.

Graham Colditz is an internationally recognized scientist who’s written more than one thousand research papers and created several award-winning models for predicting women’s breast cancer risk. But it wasn’t until a young biostatistician named Joy Jiang (Jee-ang) arrived at Washington University in St. Louis that the idea of a startup took hold. The two developed AI technology that analyzes subtle changes in mammograms over time and predicts a woman’s five-year risk...

John Rinaldi started Real Time Automation in 1988 to make products that help the factory floor run more smoothly. It had a slow start. No matter how much time John and his team put into engineering the products, RTA sunk further into debt. Then, after attending a seminar run by a famous business expert, everything changed. John re-organized the entire office around his new-found insight: He needed to spend his time on marketing, not engineering. Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based Real Time Automation has 27 employees. In 2025 John created an ESOP, or Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and sold 20% of the company to his employees.<...

Steven Quiring knew his technology solved a problem for utilities. And based on projects he’d been involved in, he knew they’d pay for it. But it wasn’t until a student brought it up, that the idea took hold. This was a viable business. It could be a startup. So, in 2022, Steven co-founded StormImpact, whose predictive analytics helped electric utilities forecast weather-related damage and service disruptions. StormImpact grew to six employees, but just three years later, in 2025, sold for an undisclosed price to Urbant, a Miami Beach company that uses AI to predict threats to workers and critic...

Mike Schultz had spent more than a decade in his lab at the University of Iowa discovering a pair of radioactive substances that could detect and destroy cancer cells. Fran Johnson, his wife, had spent just as much time running the university medical center’s heart disease treatment program. So, when they launched a startup in 2015, the division of work was obvious. Mike stayed at the university to continue his research, and Fran left to run the company. Viewpoint Molecular Targeting in 2023 merged with Isoray to form a new public company called Perspective Therapeutics.  It’s headquartered in Seattle and h...

Ben Ivers was four years old when he cut up some carrots and tried to sell them from a table in front of his house at the far end of the cul de sac. Fast forward a few decades and Ben is having much greater success selling marketing automation software. After a decade working at three companies in the industry, Ben co-founded Tenon, an Indianapolis company that helps teams collaborate on marketing campaigns and integrate with sales and customer service.

Midwest Moxie's executive producer is Audrey Nowakowski. She produced this episode. Subscribe to Midwest Moxie wherever you...

Chris Fernandez could have continued to grow his t-shirt company, which had more than $50,000 of sales in its first year. But he sold it, got a graduate degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in 2015 co-founded a completely different type of company. EnsoData pioneered the use of AI and machine learning to analyze medical tests like EKGs and pulse oximeters. Today, the Madison company’s products and services help clinicians diagnose and care for patients with sleep disorders.

Midwest Moxie's executive producer is Audrey Nowakowski. She produced this episode. Subscribe to Midwest Moxie wherever yo...

Linda Kinkel spent more than three decades studying the tiny microbes that live in soil and on plants. Over the years, as the University of Minnesota researcher’s insight into these microbes’ function and benefits grew, companies tried to license her discoveries. But Linda was never satisfied with their plans. Finally, in 2019, she took matters into her own hands and founded Jord Bioscience. The company is using her microbes to increase crop productivity, decrease chemical inputs, and improve agricultural sustainability. 

Linda joined MIdwest Moxie with Keri Carstens, Jord Bioscience’s CEO and a key person in devel...

David Bromberg didn’t want to start a company, and he didn’t want to work at a big one. So after completing his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon, he left for California and a job at a solar energy startup. Two years later, though, David returned to Pittsburgh to co-found a company with his Ph.D. advisor – an international expert in integrated circuit design -- and another colleague. Pearl Street Technologies developed software that automated and accelerated the grid interconnection process for renewable energy projects. The company was acquired in early 2025 by Austin, Texas-based Enverus. 

Midwest Moxie's...

Dan Schaefer didn’t know it at the time, but the idea for his startup company began to take shape on the day he and his wife adopted a dog. A 10-week-old Labrador retriever named Louie to be exact. Louie was in bad shape, so Dan and his wife turned to specialty pet nutrition to improve his health. And Dan found a great startup idea. In 2017, Dan and his childhood friend Pat Barron co-founded Native Pet, a St. Louis maker of all natural supplements and treats for dogs and cats.

Midwest Moxie's executive producer is Audrey Nowakowski. Sh...

Cale Johnston knew what startup success looked like. ClickSwitch, his first company, had a software platform that simplified the process of moving consumer accounts from one financial institution to another. It grew to more than 100 employees and was acquired in 2021 by a publicly traded company. So when the time came to launch a second startup, Cale knew just what to do. He’d made it easier to move consumer accounts; now he’d do it with business accounts. In July 2025, Cale founded Minneapolis-based Onsetto, which he believes will be even more successful than ClickSwitch.

Midwest Moxie's executive prod...

Mike Fern started at Baxter Healthcare as a chemist, then got an MBA, but saw no clear path to the type of jobs he wanted. So he responded to a newspaper ad – this was 1990 after all – and became the first employee at Eichrom Technologies, which was commercializing some Argonne National Lab discoveries in an Evanston, Illinois incubator. Fifteen years later Mike was named President. Today Eichrom has a staggering 90+% share of the global purified isotope chemistry market, and serves customers in nuclear medicine, environmental cleanup and other industries. Eichrom has about 40 employees. It got its initial funding from Arch Vent...

Nina Jenkins’ insect-killing fungal spores eliminate the need to fumigate, clean out cabinets and drawers.

Nina Jenkins didn’t start out thinking about bedbugs. The Penn State researcher was studying how insect-killing fungal spores could combat locusts, houseflies and Asian long-horned beetles. But that all changed when a graduate student asked Nina if her fungal spores would work on bedbugs. Sure enough, they were the perfect target. So in 2017 Nina founded ConidioTec to deliver a novel, non-toxic bedbug-fighting product to pest management companies. Eight years later, in 2025, the Pennsylvania company sold its flagship product to Kansas City, Miss...

After stints at the White House, Air Force Academy and Amazon, Nick Mastronardi set out to help the public sector make data-driven decisions and improve performance.

Nick Mastronardi had the realization while writing his dissertation about applying game theory to public finance. In game theory, each person’s outcome depends upon all the participants’ strategies and decisions. It was the fact that everyone wasn’t participating, Nick reasoned the outsized influence of the vocal few that made the public sector underperform. If someone could help officials harness the collective intelligence, it could improve local governments’ performance. Six years af...

Louisville-based GoodMaps, hatched at the American Printing House for the Blind, provides turn-by-turn directions in train stations, airports and other indoor spaces. 

Theresa Reno-Weber saw right away that GoodMaps, which had been developed to help blind and low sighted people navigate indoor spaces, had enormous potential for sighted people as well. So, she jumped in, first as Chief Operating Officer, then as CEO, and has been expanding its reach ever since. The expansion is no surprise to Anne Lancaster, Chief Officer for Innovation and Strategy at the American Printing House for the Blind. Like curb cuts, closed c...

Johnny Park has been an academic, startup founder and now non-profit CEO.

KaliVir Immunotherapeutics is developing immunotherapy programs for treating cancer.

EmpowerU's online program delivers resilience training with 1on1 counseling support.

BiomeSense's technology platform enables at-home monitoring of the human microbiome.

UpDown nightlife app helped users find events and deals and provided consumer data insights to entertainment venues.

Gentel Biosciences and Millipore Sigma both provide life science products.

Capita3 invests in women-led startups operating in the health sector.

7SIGNAL helps customers monitor and optimize their Wi-Fi network performance.

Hummingbirds connects brands with hyperlocal content creators and influencers.

eBlu Solutions makes prior authorization software for high-cost medicines.

Atzeyo Biosensors' platform helps doctors diagnose cancer in their offices.

Olio Health provides healthcare software.

Setex Technologies' material is used for nose pads and other consumer products

LIfeLoop developed software for senior living communities.

Genomenon provides genome interpretation software.

Eden Park Illumination's light fixtures disinfect air.

Unify Medical makes a surgical microscope.

Realta Fusion is developing fusion energy systems.

Cultured Decadence was aiming to grow meat from lobster cells.

Gripp’s mobile software helps farmers.

iotaMotion’s miniature robotic system helps surgeons

DeepSight Technology’s unique capabilities are improving medical imaging.

Neurable sells a smart headphone that helps people with focus.

Diamond Kinetics’ technology helps baseball and softball players.