Students launch software startup | Business

So she and her sister, Ali Pankowski, founded Transfur Inc. As a direct solution to the industry-wide problem.

The platform allows veterinarians to request, send and review medical records of patients who have received care from other clinics through a business-to-business software model. It uses artificial intelligence to extract relevant information from an animal’s previous medical history. The founders say it could be used by a variety of veterinary professionals, including specialists, primary care providers and care coordinators.

Annie Pankowski was supposed to begin work on a campus research lab when COVID-19 put a halt to operations in spring 2020. While coursework shifted to virtual, she then returned home to California, where her sister also studied veterinary medicine at the University of California, Davis. To keep busy in their free time, the siblings decided to help their mom, a veterinarian, at her practice.

It was at her mother’s clinic that Pankowski experienced the current record-keeping and sharing techniques of tediousness.

“I wanted to get more experience in the lingo and incoming cases,” Pankowski said. “I would pre-read all of her cases that were coming in that day and write a short history with important things my mom should look out for before she goes into this consultation with the client … it was an exercise for myself.”

However even when Pankowski went back to Wisconsin for school, she continued writing up client notes for her mother.

“She said it was super helpful because she didn’t have enough time to really go through each record. So even when I wasn’t helping home, I was doing school for her on the weekends, “Pankowski said. “I was laughing to myself like, ‘There’s got to be some technology that could do this better than how I was doing it.'”

Thus the idea for Transfur began to emerge – an idea that would eventually transform into a computer software solution that efficiently complements what Pankowski spent time doing by hand. It was during this time that she came across an ad from Varsity Venture Studio, backed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and High Alpha Innovation, an Indianapolis-based venture studio that partners with large companies and universities to innovate startup creation.

“It said, ‘Do you need a technology to provide a solution in your life?’ And I was like, yeah, actually, “Pankowski said.

After talking with her sister, they decided to submit a few short sentences in response to the call to action, detailing current issues around inefficient record management in the veterinary profession. Neither must expect anything to come of it, but they believe they have a million-dollar idea and need to start somewhere.

Initially Varsity Venture Studio evaluated about 150 total submissions. The Pankowski sisters were asked to flesh out their idea further and further as time went on. Eventually they found themselves meeting with Varsity’s leadership. They got a call of congratulations when they were selected as one of the 15 ideas to advance the exploration phase of the process.

Every month after that, they met bi-weekly with Varsity to come up with answers to technical, business-oriented questions – what is the exact problem? What does the solution look like? Who would benefit from this solution?

After the exploration phase, the Pankowskis’ idea was to select one of four final business ideas in a “sprint week” right before the final exams in April 2021. Varsity’s sprint week essentially compresses a startup’s life into three and a half days. , which includes customer meetings, financial modeling, design and more. The sprint week culminates in a pitch session, where teams present their business ideas to venture capitalists for potential investment.

“We got to hear everybody else’s pitch when they gave it. One of them had already started a business. One of them was a lawyer already. And there were all these super successful people that, you know, they’ve already done it. They ‘ve already been there, “Pankowski said. “We weren’t really expecting to be selected for the investment, honestly, just because of the caliber of pitches that were given.”

The idea of ​​Transfur, however, was extremely compelling to invest in the room. The Pankowski sisters suddenly added entrepreneurs to their resumes.

“When we found out we were selected for investment, it was honestly a shock. When we were on the call, I thought they were just going to say, ‘Thanks so much. You guys are awesome, it was so fun to work with you. But eventually, we decided someone else. ‘ And that wasn’t the conversation, “she said.

Looking back on the experience, Pankowski is grateful for the support provided at UW-Madison for those hoping to transform ideas or innovations into products and services, and encourage the entrepreneurial approach on campus.

Securing funding for the startup, Pankowski and her sister don’t plan to drop out of veterinary school. Already in her third year, Annie Pankowski emphasized the importance of finishing her education at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. She has no plans to become a CEO, but she and Ali will remain on the advisory board of the company. Because Transfur was launched through the venture studio model, the company is able to develop and scale quickly with support in essential functions like hiring, finance, human resources, legal, marketing and design.

“I think what really drove the product was that we wanted to use it in our lives,” Pankowski said. “The impact you could have on veterinarians is pretty profound.”