The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.

MADISON, Wis. – A common perception in the state Capitol is that investing in startup companies in Madison or Milwaukee through tax credits, direct grants or support for research doesn’t aid the rest of the state. That was likely one reason why the state Senate failed this month to update a tax credit program that has helped Wisconsin startups since 2005.

A fresh report from the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy illustrates how wrong that perception can be.

Economists at CROWE examined the impact of Madison-based Exact Sciences on the Wisconsin economy since it moved from the Boston area in 2009 with fewer than 20 employees and the promise of research help from scientists in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The report noted the cancer diagnostics company directly or indirectly contributes between $6 billion and $7 billion annually to the state’s economy, or more than 1.7% of the gross state product.

The company does so today through 3,500 in-state jobs, $3.2 billion in annual revenue and vendor spending that, while mostly clustered in Dane County, is spread statewide. Vendor spending beyond Dane County by Exact Sciences since 2011 totals $260 million – more than $200 million of which has taken place in the six years starting with 2020.

In Dane County alone, Exact Science’s vendor spending exceeded $750 million in the past six years, ranging from construction to buying molecular research tools to professional services.

The Kansas-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation ranks Wisconsin near the 50-state bottom of new business starts, but the CROWE study showed how a few big successes can matter.

“A small number of large-scale successes such as Epic System and Exact Sciences in a city anchored by a major research university (UW-Madison) can still produce outsized economic effects for the entire state,” the report read.

Exact Sciences’ flagship product is Cologuard, the first at-home colon cancer screening test. It was used 5 million times in 2025 alone. The company released Cologuard Plus the same year along with Oncodetect, which spots tiny fragments of residual cancer in patients before tumors grow anew.

Also released in 2025 was Cancerguard, a blood-based test that can screen people for about 50 cancers. Riskguard, released in 2024, helps assess hereditary cancer risks through DNA analysis.

The success of such tests in a market that includes about 120 countries helps to explain why Exact Sciences is being acquired by Abbott Laboratories to fill out its global portfolio.

Part of Exact Sciences’ statewide reach has come from acquisitions of its own, such as the former PreventionGenetics in Marshfield, where Exact still operates a laboratory.

Phillips-Medisize, which is based in Hudson with operations in Eau Claire, New Richmond, Menomonie and Phillips, is also part of the Wisconsin footprint. Tailored Label Products in Menomonee Falls, Great Northern Corp’s Wisconsin plants and Plastic Ingenuity in Cross Plains are among other Wisconsin companies in the supply chain.

More than half of all Cologuard kits – familiar to many television viewers as an animated, talking box – are made in Wisconsin.

The CROWE report noted the return on public investment, which began with a $1 million relocation loan from Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration in 2009, has exceeded normal expectations. Total state investment over time has been about $38 million in grants and loans, mostly early on.

“… Exact Sciences has generated returns that are exceptional by the standards of economic development programs,” CROWE researchers noted. The direct cost per Wisconsin job of about $10,800 compares favorably with the typical range of $25,000 to $100,000 per job for economic development incentives nationally. Plus, many of those jobs have been filled by graduates of Wisconsin schools.

Exact Sciences was a failing public company when Kevin Conroy and Maneesh Arora moved it from Massachusetts to Madison. The payoff has not only been huge for Dane County, but for the rest of Wisconsin, as well.

Still is the past president of the Wisconsin Technology Council and an advisor to Competitive Wisconsin Inc., a non-profit policy group. Coming soon: The statewide impact of another one-time Madison startup, Epic Systems.