In his own words…

01 What was your favorite class?
I have two favorite classes. The first was MHR 722, Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship taught by Professor Robert Pricer in the spring of 2000. I took this class when I was working on my master’s degree in mechanical engineering and it was the first time I had a chance to take a real elective graduate level business class and I really became absorbed in the material. Professor Pricer was one of a few key people that illustrated that there are other viable career paths beyond “getting good grades and finding a job” after graduation. His encouragement, mentoring and experience was really noteworthy and influential. Two years later, he flew to Austin, Texas to watch me present a business plan at MOOTcorp, the annual “Superbowl of student business plan competitions” that we were lucky enough to be invited to. That was a pretty nice gesture considering it was only a couple weeks before he retired from the university.

The second favorite class was ME 549 Product Design, a graduate level course taught by Professor Frank Fronczak. Professor Fronczak was my major professor as a graduate engineering student and my favorite part about that interaction was the weekly chats we’d have in his office about anything we wanted to talk about. It rarely had anything to do with school directly, but was very memorable and educational. He still invites me to his semi-annual parties at his house and we stay in touch.
02 What is the one thing every UW student must do?
Every UW student should be engaging in the amazing extracurricular activities and competitions on campus. For me, those were the Schoofs Prize for Creativity, the Tong Prototype Award and the Burrill Business Plan Competition. They laid the foundation for starting my first company, gave me a way to differentiate myself from every other student and helped me refine my ideas in an academic setting in a way that simply doesn’t exist outside college. By working on a project related to what I was studying, the material in the classroom came alive and it was so much more impactful. There is synergy between general knowledge and specific projects, and too many students don’t have specific projects to apply the education they are receiving in a tangible way.
03 What advice would you offer to graduating seniors?
I would urge graduating seniors to not be so caught up with finding a job. While I understand this will always apply to the vast majority of graduating students, there are some that have the interest, the passion and the capability to make it on their own and that should be embraced. I was always a little disheartened by the nearly singular mentality that presides within graduating classes of interviewing, career services and negotiating a starting bonus. There is nothing more rewarding than working on your own initiative and pursuing a project that you think has a future. I can’t imagine devoting a substantial portion of my career to something I didn’t own.
04 What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
When I was interning at my dad’s company during high school, I was talking to one of the electrical engineers there about where to go to college. He said, “Well, I went to Minnesota and that went well but whenever we wanted to really have a good time we’d road trip to Madison. You might want to check that one out.” The rest was history.

When I was considering dropping out of college my freshman year to pursue my first invention (that I never ultimately pursued), my parents sat me down and advised against it. They said two things that still ring with me today, nearly 15 years later. “You don’t even know what you don’t know,” was the first one. It was so true. My dad said he was very impressed by my desire to do innovative things, take risks and do something extraordinary, but he stressed that there would always be opportunities to someone that is bright, energetic and had a great attitude. He advised that I would be in a much better position for success if I got my education behind me first, then embarked on these new ventures after I had the degrees on the wall. He ended this statement by saying, “And when you get that far, we’ll be your first investor.” A few years later when I was starting Fluent Systems and graduating with my MBA, they were.
05 What’s your favorite quote?
I used to consult for Bose Corporation in Boston. Dr. Bose, founder of Bose and one of Forbes wealthiest Americans, was famous for saying, “If it’s going to be better, it must be different.” It is very hard to argue with that statement.
06 What are you reading now?
Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger. This spring I went to Berkshire-Hathaway’s Annual Meeting with Warren Buffet. Charlie Munger is Mr. Buffet’s business partner and the vice chairman of Berkshire. I was struck by his unconventional thought on investing and the world in general, and this book is no disappointment. It contains his lifespan of thoughts, lectures and opinions on many aspects of life. I highly recommend it. It is also beautifully illustrated and visually interesting.
07 Are you a cat-person or a dog-person?
Dogs, by far. I grew up with weimaraners and they are my favorite. My sister recently got a puppy weimaraner named Chip and I’m always looking for opportunities to “puppy sit.”
08 What was your first job?
In high school, my best friend Scott and I started our own lawn mowing business. The only problem was we didn’t own a small enough lawn mower that I could get into my parents’ Suburban, so my dad went out and bought a small walk-behind mower just so I could pursue my interest in running a business. We did market research and realized that our area was a poor market because everyone had kids, so we traveled 10 miles closer to the city to find where the older neighborhoods were and then went door to door rounding up clients. These older citizens were happy to have us mow their lawn and soon we had more work than we could handle. It taught me very early on that you don’t need someone else to make money and I started solidifying my entrepreneurial tendencies from then on. I have done a number of things over the years to make money without needing a job, but all helped build my common-sense understanding of business. It’s my written lifelong goal to never have a job.
09 What’s your guilty pleasure?
On good, celebratory days, I go out for a steak and some beers with my friends. On bad days when I need a pick-me-up, I go out for steak and some beers with my friends. Filet mignon, medium rare. Sadly, I don’t even feel that guilty when I indulge in this practice.
10 If you could trade places with any person for a week, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be?
Myself, 10 years from now. Who is not fascinated by the movie Back to the Future?

Like other famous inventors, Chad Sorenson’s dream began in his garage. His creation, an environmentally friendly alternative to charcoal, makes grilling easier for outdoor-grill enthusiasts and is now being sold nationally and internationally.

Sorenson considered dropping out of UW-Madison during his freshman year to pursue a creative endeavor. “My parents sat me down and advised against it,” he recalls. “My dad said I would be in a much better position for success if I got my education behind me first.”

Sorenson’s aptitude for inventing and marketing his ideas began at a young age. His parents, a biomedical engineer and elementary school teacher, fueled his curious mind by building a workshop bigger than their home in Blaine, Minnesota. “These resources gave me an innovation playground,” Sorenson recalls. “I learned how to use a soldering iron before I started preschool, and by third grade I was building gas-powered remote control cars.” He also discovered he had a knack for competing in and winning school and district science fairs, where he could wow the judges with his elaborate technical presentations.

Sorenson was equally dogged and innovative as a UW mechanical engineering undergraduate, when he entered the annual Schoofs Prize for Creativity. After winning the $10,000 award and several other competitions, he went on to pursue a master’s degree in engineering and an MBA from the Wisconsin School of Business.

Fresh out of graduate school, he founded his first firm, Fluent Systems, and developed a product for agricultural markets. After the company was acquired by a public corporation, Sorenson and some new partners founded a second firm, Sologear, LLC, to develop and market the FlameDisk®. Using a unique solidified ethanol fuel within an aluminum shell, the FlameDisk can be placed at the bottom of any outdoor grill, making it simpler, safer, cleaner and more portable than charcoal.

Sorenson is grateful for the education and support network he found at his alma mater. He is a frequent guest lecturer and mentor for business and engineering students. He also judges the Schoofs competition and sponsors the Sorenson Design Notebook Award to encourage undergraduates to document the development of their inventions.