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Grow Utah Ventures is a privately funded not-for-profit organization with the goal of promoting entrepreneurial development in Utah. Founded in 2004, they have been hugely successful at directing resources to early stage Utah businesses, developing community entrepreneurship programs and helping create jobs for the future. We spoke with Craig Bott, President and CEO of Grow Utah Ventures to see exactly what initiatives are leading to their success and what we can expect in the future.

Silicon Slopes:  What is the idea behind Grow Utah Ventures and how was your company founded?

Craig Bott: Grow Utah Ventures began with the vision and drive of Alan Hall- a successful entrepreneur located in Weber County. Over the years, Alan had successfully grown his company MarketStar and recently sold the company to Omnicom. With some of the proceeds from that sale, he felt that he would like to help other Utah entrepreneurs succeed as well. He formed Grow Utah Ventures with that intent and asked me to lead the effort and organize the programs and initiatives that have become a part of Grow Utah Ventures.

We have operated now for four years and are fully privately funded and have recently converted our organization structure to a not for profit. In addition to Alan’s financial commitment, we now have Zions Bank as a major partner in all of our undertakings.

We have focused our entire efforts on what we consider to be the four pillars of entrepreneurial development in Utah; talent, idea generation, support and funding. We strive to foster, train and encourage potential entrepreneurs to step forward and start businesses. We facilitate idea exchange among Utah’s research universities and corporations with the objective of spinning out new companies. We actively work to help communities around the state create an environment that is more supportive of entrepreneurism, under the banner of SEED Utah. And we rally individual angel investors, encouraging them to make investment in Utah’s early stage businesses by organizing, training and facilitating angel groups across Utah.

Silicon Slopes:  Describe the types of companies you are interested in funding.

Craig Bott: First and foremost we focus on supporting entrepreneurs, not just businesses. We feel strongly that we make investment in entrepreneurs and that our return on this investment will generate benefits to the state over the career of that entrepreneur, whether it is in their first business or their fifth. So our distinction is emphasizing Utah’s entrepreneurial talent.

That said, we tend to focus our resources on entrepreneurs leading growth and high growth businesses. We refer to a simple system of classifying entrepreneurs into four categories. The first category is entrepreneurs who are sole proprietors of their business. These are the artisans, craftsman, and independent operators. Category 2 are the lifestyle businesses, those owning restaurants, gas stations, beauty solons etc. Category 3 are the growth businesses, those that have or are pursuing a national market. The final category is High Growth or businesses that pursue national and global markets.

We primarily focus our support on Category 3 and 4, those entrepreneurs leading growth and high growth businesses. This was a conscious decision on our part to do so. We felt that there is a pretty strong support system for entrepreneurs in Category 1 and 2. The SBA programs, SCORE, the Small Business Development Centers, banks, academic programs and the like, all of which do a great job in supporting and assisting these entrepreneurs. We didn’t feel that we could add much that isn’t already being done.

But surprisingly there is very little formal support and structure solely focused on assisting entrepreneurs in category 3 and 4. And yet these are the rising stars whose companies, if they succeed, will have the greatest impact on the state’s future economy through increased wages and value creation for the founders. We felt that a lot more could be done to assist these entrepreneurs to more successfully grow category 3 and 4 businesses in Utah across all market sectors. We are not restricted only to technology but look to support entrepreneurs in all sectors.

Silicon Slopes:  Grow Utah Ventures does much more than provide entrepreneurs with funding. Take us through the process of how your company helps businesses transition from the seed to early stages of growth.

Craig Bott: Under the pillar of Talent we have a host of initiatives that are designed to encourage Utah’s entrepreneurial talent pool to step forward and take the risk associated with starting a business. We celebrate success stories and provide real world experiences through our Launch magazine, a free publication to all Utah entrepreneurs. We host premier networking events such as The Ignitor Series which are designed to provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to meet successful role models and learn the “how to’s” from those that have already done it. And we have helped develop proprietary training materials that instill in entrepreneurs the skill sets they need to succeed.

Under the Idea Generation pillar we are leading initiatives that promote unique ideas and technologies developed at our universities, applied technology colleges and private corporations. Our initiatives are designed to facilitate awareness on the part of entrepreneurs of the ideas they can capitalize on as they build their businesses.

Our Community Support Pillar is comprised of a number of initiatives that emphasize providing entrepreneurs the support they most need to succeed. This includes access to knowledgeable mentors and advisors, market experts and the like. We operate business accelerators as a first location for an entrepreneur where they can benefit from the synergy and excitement that comes from being located where others are starting their companies.

And under the Funding Pillar we have sought to address the need of providing more financial support for early stage businesses. This is the stage where a business most needs that first $100k to $500k to get their business off the ground. Through our efforts in making lead investments to encourage the investments made by Utah’s growing angel community, these entrepreneurs are benefited. As they grow, we link them into the venture funding sources that are available in Utah.

Silicon Slopes:  Can you tell us about the SEEDUtah initiative?

Craig Bott: SEED Utah falls under our Community Support Pillar. It stands for Stimulating the Expansion of Entrepreneurial Development in Utah. Essentially this is a private grant program where Grow Utah Ventures and our partner Zions Bank, provide matching funds to any community in Utah on the condition that they make entrepreneurial development a community priority.

Our funds are matched with theirs to undertake a wide range of initiatives that are designed to provide in that community what they most need to establish a more entrepreneurial friendly environment, one that promotes business creation and successful start-ups.

In many cases, the communities we have worked with are really starting from ground zero where there is virtually nothing in place that fosters entrepreneurism. In these cases, we actually lead a community wide strategic planning project with leaders from their region and provide our expertise on what they can do to grow businesses in their area.

The overall objective of SEED Utah is to transform the geographic regions of Utah’s into energetic seedbeds for entrepreneurism and business creation. All this to strengthen, expand and develop their regional economy.

Silicon Slopes:  Which communities are you currently working with and what type of programs have you helped them launch?

Craig Bott: For a long time, much of the state’s efforts to promote entrepreneurism and business creation was focused solely on the Salt Lake and Utah County areas. We all know why these regions have been emphasized so much and we applaud all the good that occurs in these areas to stimulate business growth and to add to our economy.

But at Grow Utah Ventures we have felt that there is no reason why other regions of the state couldn’t also become centers for business creation. They have the talent base, ideas that can be commercialized and supportive leaders. What they need to know is what are the right areas to emphasize and apply sufficient resources to support a few key initiatives.

With that in mind, the first SEED Utah community was Washington County, in the St. George area. Last year a core group of leaders from the Dixie region participated in a five-month process known as SEED Dixie. The result is a very specific strategy with over sixty core programs and initiatives that are currently being undertaken. These include the formation of an Entrepreneur Association, a one-stop clearinghouse for information known as the Dixie Entrepreneur Center, the formation of the Dixie Angels, a group of local investors and training provided in the region to prospective entrepreneurs.

Over the past five months three counties have come together to form the SEED Weber/Davis/Morgan initiative. Led by Pres. Millner at Weber State University, this region wide effort has included some seventy business and community leaders as they have designed a custom strategy for stimulating growth businesses in this region. Implementation efforts are already underway to form an Accelerator Initiative for Business Creation in the Outdoor Recreation Industry, commercialize applied research conducted at Weber State University as well as both the Davis and Ogden Applied Technology Colleges; capitalize on the commercialization of technologies associated with Hill Air Force Base, organize a Northern Utah entrepreneurs Association, and provide entrepreneurial training at the local high school level. Of particular interest is the formation of two public sector funds in Weber and Davis County to support and invest in early stage businesses in the region.

The SEED Box Elder project will soon be completed. This strategy incorporates capitalizing on the tremendous inventiveness of the work force in Box Elder County. Special initiatives will be undertaken to work with many of the region’s leading employers to foster new business creation from such companies as Autoliv, ATK, Proctor& Gamble, Malt-o-Meal and others.

The SEED Cache Valley project is just beginning. This project is led by Pres. Stan Albrecht of Utah State University and will focus on how to maximize the assets of both Utah State University and regional employers to start, grow and keep entrepreneur led businesses in Cache Valley.

Silicon Slopes:  You place a lot of emphases on the importance of fast-growing companies. Why are these fast-growing companies or “gazelles” so important for the Utah economy and its cities?

Craig Bott: We believe in the economic impact of these fast growing companies. Called gazelles by some, they essentially fit the profile of the Inc. 500. Inc Magazine tracks these rising companies each year, many of which are often located in Utah. These companies average 60 employees, have a growth rate of 1,300%, and annual revenues of around $10 million. Given their exponential growth rate, they will become the drivers of our economy in the years ahead.

What is most interesting is that most of these companies were started without a written business plan, little market research and with $10,000 or less.

You can see that we all can make a big difference with a lot of potential Inc 500 companies and do so without a lot of financial resources. We simply feel that our investment in time and funding is best made with these companies that can generate such a tremendous return to Utah as they succeed.

Silicon Slopes:  What are state and local governments doing successfully to develop and foster fast-growing companies that others are not?

Craig Bott: We don’t really have to look at other states for insight on this. Utah ranks #1 in the nation in Economic Dynamism according to the Kauffman Foundation. This is a measure of our entrepreneurial spirit and ability and speaks to the many good things that our public leaders are doing.

We are most pleased with what we see as the potential impact on entrepreneurial development of the USTAR program. This wonderful effort will enable Utah to continue to generate the great and marketable ideas and research over the years to come and to commercialize the value of those ideas through Utah start up companies.

We also recognize and support the innovative efforts of Provo City and their Business Development Fund. Under this unique program, funds are made available to early stage businesses- funds that are very needed at this stage and which encourage investment from other private sources as well. This is a leading example of what a community can do to promote entrepreneurism.

Silicon Slopes:  You appear to be very active a promoting entrepreneurship with your various projects—Launch Magazine, E Station, SEEDUtah, to name a few. Do you have any new initiatives on the horizon that we should know about?

Craig Bott: Certainly we will continue doing those things that seem to be making a difference- Launch Magazine, Ignitor Events, SEED Utah initiatives and strengthening Utah’s angel community.

But there are things that we have planned for the immediate future that we are particularly excited about. First, we will be introducing a Regional Innovation Cash Award for business ideas of merit. Our plan is to give away some $100,000 in $10,000 increments to entrepreneurs from across the state that have good business ideas. This will be done on a competitive basis and designed specifically for those entrepreneurs and inventors that are at an earlier stage and don’t yet have a business plan, those that have a killer idea but just don’t have the means to move it forward. Our funds will be used for proto-type development, market research, whatever is needed to move the winning ideas to the next stage. We are excited about this because there is so little funding available to help people with ideas or inventions especially those in the outlying areas of the state. We hope our program helps to fix some of this.

We will soon be announcing the expansion of additional eStations, Entrepreneurial Stations. Our two existing eStations in Ogden and Kaysville offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to locate their businesses in a resource rich and supportive environment and to accelerate their growth and success. Additional eStations will be located soon in the Salt Lake region and northern region of the state.

We are also in the final stages of initiating an Entrepreneur Scholarship program. Under this program, each year we will identify Utah’s very best young entrepreneurs, those who are just beginning their entrepreneurial career and are launching their first business. Through the course of the year, we will provide specialized training to these entrepreneurs that will benefit them in their first business and prepare them to be serial entrepreneurs. We will facilitate relationships between this yearly class of entrepreneurs and prominent mentors and support providers across the state and expose them to the best of Utah’s new technologies, ideas and business opportunities. We intend through this to better align Utah’s great entrepreneurial talent with viable business opportunities and make available a spectrum of support all with the intent of fostering accelerated business growth in Utah. Our scholarship sponsors will provide all of this to the entrepreneurs at no cost.

Silicon Slopes:  Since you are constantly around early-stage companies, is there any advice you'd give the entrepreneurs reading this interview?

Craig Bott: There is so much good advice available across our state, including the good advice that Silicon Slopes is making available. I simply would hope that all entrepreneurs would access what is out there and take it in.

At the risk of broadly over simplifying a principle, I would strongly encourage Utah’s entrepreneurs to clearly establish their own personal set of values to guide every aspect of their personal and business behavior and never allow the demands of business to violate these values.

If there is one thing that we in Utah should cultivate and be most proud of, it is successful entrepreneurs who retained their personal values along the way to their success. They kept their marriages intact, preserved their families and exhibited in every personal relationship with employees, partners and even competitors a high degree of personal integrity, mutual respect and regard.

At the end of the day, what we really need in Utah are entrepreneurs who know how to create significant economic value that does not by its very nature become the thing of most value to that entrepreneur.