I was part of a great roundtable discussion today, hosted by Grow Utah Ventures and Lumin Publishing and moderated by Chris Knudson  (Chris's blog here.)  I disagreed with Chris's strong criticism about Matt Asay's Connect column on the state of Utah entrepreneurial vision (my recent modest post on the topic), but the concept of "what's right and what's wrong with Utah's entrepreneurial community" certainly made for a fantastic conversation. 

A lot of details on the roundtable will be coming soon (what did you expect with Lumin there?), and I'll update this post when it's available, but suffice it to say that there's a lot of good in Utah's entrepreneurial environment, but there's a lot of work to do, including in the "self confidence" department.  If you decide you're "not good enough" you're usually right, but all of the outside feedback is, Utah is clearly "good enough".

This morning I started my day with an early breakfast with one of the venture funds in Life Sciences that has been funded by the Fund of Funds.  This is a Boston based firm that is EXCITED about opportunities in Utah.  They're working to get connected and to get deal flow!  This is what I see over and over again from funds that are coming into the state, they see a TON of opportunity, great quality deals, excellent entrepreneurial energy, a fantastic and extremely competitive cost structure and business environment, a supportive state government (a little pat on the back for the GOED team), and an overall great place to make money. 

As I say to my 8 year old "NO More Whining"

A lot of talent, a lot of opportunity, let's get after it, and as Guy says, "Let's kick Silicon Valley's Butt"!