Amy Pietsch

During her career Amy has been an entrepreneur and intrapreneur. Titles of Coordinator, Associate Director, Director of Next Generation Initiatives and Owner have come and gone from her business card. Through it all she has been working with people to launch and grow sustainable enterprises. From part-time, home-based, business owners to traditional small business owners to multi-million dollar entrepreneurial firms, Amy has helped them define their business model, develop strategic, marketing and business plans and access alternative, traditional, angel, VC and peer-to-peer financing. 

In 1999, Amy was part of a team at CAP Services, Inc. that created and launched Wisconsin’s first virtual business incubator, CAP's Virtual Business Incubator (VBI) was an innovative online resource for Wisconsin entrepreneurs, using the latest technology to connect them with the mentors, experts and resources to help them be successful.

In 2002 Amy was responsible for working to find the "best and highest" use for spent foundry sand. She was successful in working with the WI DNR to create an amendment to NR538, which enabled the use of spent foundry sand in golf course construction and renovation.

In 2004 Amy was recruited by Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) to join them in their pursuit of researching the need for and then developing the vision for the FVTC Venture Center, which launched in September 2005. Since that time Amy has worked to create an entrepreneurship and small business resource center that the College and the communities it serves could be proud of. The FVTC Venture Center and the core entrepreneurship training series, e-seed™ has served thousands of people, helped 300+/- businesses to launch and grow creating more than 1,000+/- jobs in the FVTC service area and throughout Wisconsin.

Along the way, Amy's work to drive economic development via entrepreneurship and small business creation and expansion has been recognized by organizations from around Wisconsin. In 2009 the MIT Club of Wisconsin selected the FVTC Venture Center as the recipient of their annual Innovation Award. Amy received the Woman of Distinction Award from Mid-Day Business and Professional Women in 2007, the Cutting Edge Award from Appleton Rotary in 2006; and, Amy was the recipient of the 2005 Alverno College Young Professional Achievement Award.