In May 2000, Badger State Ethanol, LLC was founded based on the vision of its two founders, John Malchine and Gary Kramer. The primary driving force shared by both of these men was a mutual passion to help develop American agriculture and to do so following sound business principles. The fact that no one else had ever built an ethanol plant of this magnitude in Wisconsin created some interesting challenges for both of these developers.  The company started as a green field project so it was necessary to first create a business plan, budget, find an acceptable plant location, establish contracts, obtain permits, establish financing, create a prospectus through a registered offering and sell the equity. Gary and John accomplished all of the above in 15 months. With all of this behind them, construction of the plant started in July of 2001. Construction was completed in October of 2002 with the plant startup right after that. The plant reached name plate capacity in five days and passed all performance guarantees in just 12 days.  Listed below is an abridged version of the executive summary as published in the first draft of the business plan dated June 2000.