Feature Story

 

SEED Utah

Grow Utah Ventures Pumps $1 Million Into Local Economy

 

By Gail Newbold

 

The vast majority of entrepreneurial development in the state of Utah takes place in Salt Lake and Utah counties, but Grow Utah Ventures, a privately funded nonprofit organization founded by local entrepreneur and MarketStar Corp. founder Alan Hall, would like to see that change.

Putting their money where their mouth is, Grow Utah Ventures principals have committed to pumping $1 million toward promoting entrepreneurial development throughout neglected regions of the state. The initiative has been named SEED Utah (Stimulating the Expansion of Entrepreneurial Development) and offers roughly $1 for every $2 that local governments invest in entrepreneurial development. It also offers the expertise of Grow Utah Ventures' advisers to help regional leaders design strategies for successful business creation in their area.

Introduced in mid 2007, SEED Utah has been extremely well received by community leaders across the state. "Virtually every one of the civic leaders we talk with agrees they've overlooked business development for entrepreneurs," T. Craig Bott, president and CEO of Grow Utah Ventures, says. "But they haven't known where or how to start. SEED Utah has given them a starting point."

The first SEED Utah project was in St. George/Washington County. Dubbed SEED Dixie, the project has already yielded positive results for the region. "Local leaders felt they needed to diversify their economy by emphasizing creating growth businesses," says Bott. "As a result of SEED Dixie, the leaders have formed an entrepreneurial association; organized regional angel investors; and have already begun to work directly in assisting in promising entrepreneurs in the region. They have about 40 different strategic initiatives that are custom designed for their region and will make a difference."

A tri-county SEED Utah initiative encompassing Weber, Davis and Morgan counties released its final strategy in January 2008. About 65 business, academic and government leaders participated in the SEED Weber/Davis/Morgan initiative. Following the leadership of Anne Milner, president of Weber State University, and the commissioners from the three counties, this region spent the last six months determining what it most needed to do to stimulate entrepreneurial development.

 "This strategy builds on the creative talent of the regional entrepreneurs in applied research and manufacturing," says Bott. "You will see a concentrated emphasis on establishing entrepreneurial clusters around the aerospace, defense, outdoor recreation and technology industries. Leaders have already established two entrepreneur resource centers in Davis and Weber counties, expanded the number of active regional angels, and established two significant public funding programs to help finance early stage businesses. This, and all of the other strategic initiatives, are under the direction of the Regional Entrepreneurial Council comprised of successful entrepreneurs who are volunteering their time and expertise."

SEED Box Elder, the latest project, began strategy work session in November and will complete its final strategy for entrepreneurial development in March 2008.

Grow Utah Ventures received support from the Governor's Office of Economic Development and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah in establishing the initiative, then extended an invitation to community leaders across the state to focus more of their energies and interest on stimulating the expansion of entrepreneurism. Funding goes only to cities and counties where local leaders recognize the need to make entrepreneurism a key focus of their economic growth strategy.

"These communities are also required to match our private grant with their own funds, and then use these resources in specific ways to encourage the creation of high-growth companies," says Bott. "We're talking about creating companies like Omniture and Overstock across the state. The needs of these companies and these entrepreneurs are so unique, that traditional sources of assistance often fall short. We seek to focus the communities' help on businesses that can grow quickly — the future Inc. 500 businesses."

In addition to funding, Grow Utah Ventures provides expertise and advice on what it takes for a community to help a fast-growing business. "We have some very strong opinions about what entrepreneurs need to do to grow a successful business," says Bott. "Specifically, we focus on cultivating entrepreneurial talent, how to find successful ideas, how to get funding, and where to get support and training. We have specific strategies we share in each of these four categories."

As these and other SEED Utah projects are undertaken, Bott and Hall envision a "very energized entrepreneurial community" with 10 to 12 new high-growth companies in each region of the state, each with 50 to 60 employees and annual revenues of $20 to $30 million.

The Governor's Office of Economic Development Executive Director Jason Perry called the initiative "a wonderful example of how private leadership and momentum can effectively be applied in a public/private partnership. Creative solutions such as this effort help maximize Utah's entrepreneurial talent."

For more information about the program, visit www.growutahventures.com or www.seedutah.com.

 

Launch - Spring 2008

 

 

For the full "digital magazine" version of Spring 2008, visit: www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/growutah/launch_2008spring/