Feature Story

 

Utah's Entrepreneurial Future: Who & What Will Make A Difference?

 

The future of Utah's entrepreneurial landscape will be significantly shaped by these organizations and their initiatives. From creating and supporting to funding and managing, these groups will directly impact the success of Utah startups. 

 

Venture Bench

Venture Bench is a University of Utah accelerator that provides a suite of services for its technology-based companies. Just last year, the U of U was ranked second in the country for generating new startup companies from its research-based inventions. The path to success for these startups can be long and challenging. Venture Bench services, such as business plan development, market assessment, networking, accounting and insurance, help startups in their pre-revenue stages. Many companies fail in this stage — commonly called the "Valley of Death" — because they lack the funding to make it to market. Helping university startup companies climb out of the valley and into industry helps the university continue to be a strong economic engine for the state.

 

KickStart Seed Fund

KickStart, a newly formed seed fund, officially launched in April 2008. KickStart's unique fund structure helps form proprietary relationships with both the entrepreneurial community and sources of deal flow to become a catalyst for high-quality deal flow at the earliest stages of the capital cycle. KickStart anticipates funding 15-20 companies with an average investment of $250,000. The fund is well-positioned to engage with quality technologies/companies early and enjoys a robust pipeline of opportunities in clean technology, life sciences and software/internet.

 

Silicon Slopes

Silicon Slopes is an online community for those associated with Utah-based technology and life science companies (5,200 and growing). It's a place where these businesses come together for information and other resources. The goals of Silicon Slopes are simple:

• Increase awareness for the great things going on in Utah.

• Recruit talent to come or remain in the state.

• Increase investments in Utah's technologies and companies.

SiliconSlopes.com provides a platform where companies and entrepreneurs can gain valuable exposure to recruiters, investors, partners and customers. The site allows companies to add or edit detailed company information, post press releases, job openings, events, blogs and report deal flow.

 

University of Utah – Tech Venture Development

Tech Venture Development is an organization focused on the business of commercializing technologies, servicing its faculty and business constituents and emphasizing the critical role the U of U can play in driving economic growth in Utah. Some of the new programs include an entrepreneur-in-residence program, a student law clinic, the Lassonde New Venture development program, Technology Titans (science idea competition), two business plan competitions, and a host of new funding and startup support initiatives. The ingredients and foundation are here to make the U of U a hotbed of business development, technology commercialization and a leader among other U.S. universities.

 

UtahPulse.com

UtahPulse.com is a multi-media resource for business news, information and services. It is produced in partnership with Zions Bank and designed to help busy business people stay apprised of all the information they need to prosper in a rapidly changing world. Each day, Utah Pulse aggregates all the local business news from newspapers, magazines, blogs and Web sites, and also features links to the major national and international business articles.

Utah Pulse also features original content from reporters and partners like Zions Bank, World Trade Center Utah, The Salt Lake Chamber, Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah), the Utah Science and Technology Research Initiative (USTAR), and Grow Utah Ventures.

 
Davis Business Alliance/SEED Weber-Davis-Morgan

Housed on the Davis Applied Technology College campus, the Davis Business Alliance (DBA) serves as the regional resource center for SEED Weber/Davis/Morgan initiatives that foster business creation across the region.

 

SEED Weber-Davis-Morgan links the various resources available through private industry, academia and government to serve as the catalyst and support for entrepreneurial and economic growth. Through a combination of training, mentoring, funding, evaluation and follow-up the DBA staff, and SEED Weber-Davis-Morgan Entrepreneurial Council drive economic growth with new and existing business expansion, high paying job creation, and an expanding tax base.

 

SEED Uintah Basin

Utah State University, the Uintah Basin Applied Technology College, USTAR, and the Uintah Impact Mitigation Special Service District have joined forces with Grow Utah Ventures and Zions Bank to create entrepreneurial engagement, workforce development and technology outreach opportunities. Beginning this fall, the SEED Uintah Basin initiative will be designing strategies to leverage higher education expertise and initiatives to create economic diversity through entrepreneurial development. Major projects already underway include the construction of new facilities: The UBATC/USU Vernal Classroom Building, the Anadarko Petroleum Industrial Technology Building and the Bingham Entrepreneurship and Energy Research Center. These facilities, representing a total investment of more than $80 million, will serve as dynamic attractors for new business, industry, workforce training, entrepreneurship, and research in natural resources, environmental studies, geology and water remediation.

 

Utah State University Economic and Entrepreneurial Development Programs

In an effort to improve the economic development and entrepreneurial environment at Utah State University (USU) and its surrounding communities, USU has centralized the Innovation Campus (IC), the Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) and the management of the USTAR initiative. USTAR brings in new research programs and talent aimed at commercial development and spin-offs, which will occupy more of the Innovation Campus. The new Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Entrepreneur Center will educate and assist students in creating successful startup businesses.

 

Utah Fund of Funds

The Utah Fund of Funds, a major Utah economic development program, was created by the Utah Legislature to maximize the amount, quality and diversity of capital funding available to early-stage and growth-stage companies in Utah — to help them grow, prosper and mature in the state. The program began with an initial charter of $100 million, but the Legislature augmented it with an additional $200 million in the 2008 session.

Rather than investing directly in specific companies, the Fund of Funds is structured to influence high-quality professional venture capital and private equity firms within and outside the state to focus more of their investment efforts on Utah entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ventures. The Fund of Funds invests in these carefully chosen venture firms which then commit to work closely with Utah companies and entrepreneurs. There are 21 firms in the Fund of Funds portfolio with a combined total of more than $5 billion in raised capital.

 

FundingUniverse

FundingUniverse connects qualified entrepreneurs with active angels, venture capitalists and lenders across the U.S. Its services, such as Funding Bootcamp, lender ScoreCard and Venture Consulting Services, prepare companies for investor scrutiny. Once prepared, these entrepreneurs are introduced to the appropriate financing source: a network of active investors and lenders who rely on FundingUniverse to save them time by bringing them qualified business deals. Through FundingUniverse, investors have access to pre-screened deal flow organized to their personal investment preferences and can request a pitch from an entrepreneur virtually or in person. 

 

FundingUniverse also hosts monthly events to help entrepreneurs through the fundraising process. Whether it be learning how to pitch to an investor (LivePitch event) or getting in front of dozens of angels and venture capitalists (SpeedPitching event), FundingUniverse has provided hundreds of Utah companies the opportunity to obtain early-stage financing. A few of the companies that have been connected to investors and/or lenders include: Acceptx Financial Services, Zinch, Klymit, AlphaSpine, InfoSquire, BlackLedger, Kahuna Creations, UnderTease, Renasis and Endless Enterprises LLC.

 

USTAR

The Utah Science Technology and Research initiative (USTAR) is a long-term, state-funded investment to strengthen Utah's "knowledge economy" and generate high-paying jobs. Funded in March 2006 by the State Legislature, USTAR is based on three program areas. The first area involves funding for strategic investments at the U of U and USU to recruit world-class researchers. The second area is to build state-of-the-art interdisciplinary facilities at these institutions for the innovation teams. The third area, Technology Outreach Innovation Program (TOIP), involves teams that work with companies and entrepreneurs across Utah to promote science, innovation and commercialization activities. TOIP teams are driving a number of strategic initiatives around the state to build Utah's entrepreneurial infrastructure. Initiatives include the SBIR/STTR Assistance Program, which assists technology companies statewide in matching their technology products to possible SBIR/STTR grants, and the BioInnovation Gateway Project, which is a model for the next generation of non-profit business incubators.

 

In addition, USTAR's Central Utah Technology Outreach Program is facilitating the creation of a new digital media initiative in Utah. The initiative is bringing business, university and government entities together to make Utah the worldwide industry leader in digital media to create hundreds, if not thousands of new jobs.

 

SEED Box Elder

SEED Box Elder is an economic development initiative of Brigham City, Tremonton, Box Elder County and USU in partnership with Grow Utah Ventures. With the recent announcement of a Procter and Gamble plant, ATK Launch Systems, Autoliv ASP, three Nucor facilities and many others, Box Elder County is well known as an important manufacturing area in Utah. The future potential for entrepreneurial growth and development is great in Box Elder County. SEED Box Elder has completed its first phase of work with guidance from a very active group of community and business leaders. The SEED Box Elder partners envision their work meshing with a community Innovation Center to be housed at USU's Brigham City Campus. This innovation center will combine business incubation space with a business resource center, and will incorporate the results and initiatives of SEED Box Elder in an entrepreneurial development engine for Box Elder County.

 

SEED Cache Valley

In northern Utah this year, a SEED Cache Valley strategy was designed by some 70 community leaders — all focused on expanding and supporting the creation of growth businesses in Cache Valley. A key emphasis of SEED Cache Valley is to develop a "no wrong door" approach so that budding entrepreneurs will get pointed to the most appropriate local resources to ensure their success.

The regional abundance of talented entrepreneurs coupled with their extensive inventiveness will serve as the anchor on which to expand aggressive business and job creation.

 

SEED Dixie

Launched over two years ago, SEED Dixie now partners with USTAR in sponsoring the Dixie Angels and the Dixie Technology Association (Dixie Techs). The Dixie Angels see 10 pitch presentations each year, which are carefully screened from dozens applying at www.dixieangels.com. This new angel group has funded two businesses in 2008.

Dixie Techs was established to nurture and provide resources to the technology sector, a seedbed of entrepreneurially minded businesses and individuals. Guided by an eight-member steering committee, the Dixie Techs group meets every month in Tech Friday gatherings to network, hear speakers and share information.

Currently the SEED Dixie/USTAR partners engage with clients for initial consulting for an assessment. If the concept or business has the potential to reach national markets and create high paying jobs, it proceeds to more advanced counseling and additional USTAR resources.

 

Launch - Fall & Winter 2008 (Special Print Edition)