Wisconsin Candidate For Governor Kelda Roys On Her Vision for Tech and Innovation.
Kelda makes a case that Wisconsin's economic future depends on.
NOTE: This article is not an endorsement for Kelda Roys. The purpose was to have a conversation about his vision for technology and innovation for the state. I have asked all eight Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates to join me on this platform for the same conversation and coverage. Five have responded.
The full audio of my conversation with Kelda can be found at the end of this article. But here’s a preview.
Kelda’s Quick Bio:
Kelda is a Wisconsin-born attorney, state senator, and tech founder running for governor.
She has over two decades of bipartisan legislative wins and a track record of turning big ideas into law.
She’s a tech entrepreneur who founded a business to make home-buying more affordable, and a champion for Wisconsin’s startup ecosystem advocating for the capital access and policy reforms that help homegrown companies scale without leaving the state.
She’s also a mom and stepmom of five.
AI’s take on my interview with Kelda:
Kelda makes her case for why she’s the most experienced candidate in the Wisconsin governor’s race and what that experience actually means for the state’s tech and business future.
She also talks about why Wisconsin keeps losing startups and talent to neighboring states, and the concrete policy fixes she’d push as governor, including a bigger state fund-of-funds for growth-stage companies.
Her take on building a statewide culture that embraces risk and failure, and why that mindset shift matters as much as any tax credit.
A candid conversation about healthcare, small business, and what other candidates are getting wrong about economic development.
Here’s my take.
This interview with Kelda was unlike any other of the three candidate interviews I did leading up to this one (which now makes 4 of the 8 gubernatorial candidates). I’m batting .500 and doing math on Substack.
As a tech guy worried about where Milwaukee and Wisconsin are headed around technology, it was refreshing to hear specifics on policy and language from an actual tech founder. Now I know there are other things the next Wisconsin governor will need to know beyond technology, but I write about tech and Kelda knows her stuff.
What you won’t hear in this recording is numerous breaks she and I had to take because of traffic sounds, horns, sirens….OMG I was worried she was getting ticked off. But she rolled with it and this turned out great because it’s informative and you can hear the uplifting vibe our conversation had in the absence of the edited out background noise (we recorded live on the Great Lakes Distillery patio).
I want to say more, but the twenty minute conversation says it all. Take a listen here or on Spotify.
Before I forget…I’m super stoked to be sponsored by Concurrency and Secure Compliance Solutions. They help to keep the Experience Milwaukee machine running so I can bring stories like this to life.