Tech PR Pro Jay Kolbe On Why Milwaukee Still Struggles To Own Its Innovation Story.
Jay gets honest about why holding back hurts the present and future Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
» NOTE: The full audio interview with Jay is at the end of this article. «
Jay’s bio:
Jay Kolbe, a Milwaukee area resident, is a 20-year communications pro and co-founder / managing partner of Impact Partners, a New York-based strategic communications and growth advisory firm.
He works closely with high-net-worth individuals, family offices, investors, and emerging technology companies.
He also advises a wide range of technology and media-related brands and is known for helping founders, firms, and leaders create sharper, more ownable narratives around who they are and why they matter.
AI’s summary of my interview with Jay:
Jay breaks down why so many founders, companies, and institutions still struggle to communicate what makes them truly differentiated and why simply “knowing your audience” isn’t enough if you haven’t clearly defined your own narrative first.
He offers a sharp outside-insider perspective on Milwaukee and Wisconsin: a place with real substance, pride, and values, but one that too often under-owns its wins, hesitates to tell its story, and leaves too much room for bigger coastal markets to define the conversation instead.
Steve and Jay get into one of the most uncomfortable but important tensions in the region’s tech ecosystem: why there can still feel like more talk than building, more protection of the status quo than support for what’s next, and why that creates real friction for ambitious people trying to scale something here.
More than anything, this episode is about urgency. Jay argues that honest conversations, even uncomfortable ones, may be exactly what Milwaukee needs if it wants to become the kind of place that not only produces innovation, but actually owns it, supports it, and keeps it.
As I tell my kids: having hard talks is hard. But we need to do it. And we can do it in a respectful, caring way. That’s why I’m grateful for Concurrency and Secure Compliance Solutions who encourage and support me in making Milwaukee better.
Why the hell am I talking to a New York PR guy from Iowa about tech and innovation in Wisconsin?
I believe to get better as a city we must, from time to time, get outside of Milwaukee for perspectives on what’s happening with tech startup founders, investors, etc., in the rest of the world.
Jay Kolbe is the guy to offer an expert POV on that.
From the moment I hit record, He and I got right into it.
As Jay was schooling me on the importance of telling stories through unique, ownable narratives, especially for founders and tech ecosystems, I paused.
I asked myself: is Milwaukee telling its best tech story?
Am I telling Milwaukee’s best tech stories?
For a few minutes, the communication strategy conversation spins me into a bit of anxiety.
I got a little worried that my recent grumpy nature blended with telling the truth about Milwaukee’s tech ecosystem might be too aggressive.
Jay coined this word to describe my state of grumpiness as “anticappointment“: that I see what’s possible but I’m running into things here in Milwaukee that are stopping them from happening.
For people who are genuinely some of the most honest people on the planet, Wisconsin is not honest with itself about the challenges that business and innovation face in the state.
Let’s take a step back.
We love Milwaukee.
However, are we allowing that MKE love, our strong civic pride, to cloud what we need to do to move forward and make the city better and finally manifest our potential?
If so, on what platform can we compete?
Integrity.
That’s what tech company builders on the coast want, Milwaukee!!
Why aren’t we leaning into that?
Let me be loud and clear why. WE ARE NOT OWNING OUR STORY!
There are best practices of how you create innovation environments that Wisconsin has not quite figured out yet.
Like what?
Exactly what I asked (even though I knew what).
Like aligning our communities (such as Madison <> MKE, c’mon!).
Aligning our effort.
Aligning our story.
And eliminating the damn silos!
We can get there, I know we can.
But it’s going to take stronger leadership and a whole lotta work.
I’m in. LFG.
Here’s my full interview with Jay: