John Richards, who is a partner with Utah Angel Investors, chairman of the Provo Business Development Corp. and sits on the board of directors of the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, shares his insights as an Angel investor and discusses how local entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the recession and what makes Utah fertile ground for cultivating entrepreneurs.
The Deal Flow Report identifies and recognizes companies that raised capital and participated in other significant business transactions, recognizes financing sources that provided capital to Utah-based business, and recognizes service providers and other professionals who supported capital raising efforts.
Ed Ekstrom is a high tech pioneer. Before joining the vSpring team, Ed served as Vice President of the Intel Communications Products Group and General Manager of the Intel Utah Software Development Center, a post given to him after Intel acquired LANSystems where Ed was a Principal. Prior to Intel, Ed was a Vice President at CeriSyn and a founder at Cericor, which was acquired by Hewlett Packard in 1985.
Steve Grizzell is a 20-year veteran in entrepreneurship, finance, innovation and economic development. His experience began in the mid-1980s when he consulted for the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development. To date, Steve has been directly responsible for more than 200 transactions, the majority involving technology-based companies. He maintains regular communication with some of the more significant companies in which he has invested, which provides a wealth of experience on matters such as fund raising, board formation and personnel recruitment.
The Utah Funds of Funds is a State of Utah economic development program designed to increase the diversity and quality of capital available to Utah startups and growth companies. The fund is in the process of expanding from a $100 million fund to a $300 million fund in Q3 of this year. We recently sat down with the Managing Director of the Utah Fund of Funds, Jeremy Neilson, to find out more about the program, how the expansion is coming along and what kind of successes they are seeing from their initial fund.
The Fund of Funds is designed to increase the amount and quality of capital funding accessible to startups and growing companies in Utah. The fund does not directly finance the startups; instead, it provides capital to carefully selected venture firms, both in and outside the state. These firms then invest in young companies and commit to spending time in Utah. The result is increased deal flow, a stimulated economy, job creation and maturation of Utah companies.
I just passed my one-year anniversary of living in Utah. It's a lot different than where I'm from. In some ways the differences are great - in some ways, the differences are not so great. Over the last year, I've had a keen interest in understanding the dynamics of the Utah technology sector and contemplating how to make things even better here.
