Empowering Utah Entrepreneurs: The State’s Fund of Funds Program (aka Happy VC firms like Utah!)
If you had told me in 2002 and 2003, when we were working with the Legislature to help them understand the critical nature of passing the Fund of Funds legislation, that this Fund would have been so successful, I would have been hard pressed to believe it! 60% of all of the venture funds raising money today have approached the Utah Fund of Funds, a total of nearly 150 funds, and the FoF has placed committments with 15 of them, with another 5 to go. All of those funds are excited about Utah and are committed to have their partners spend time and effort here in the State. Listen to these presentations and be prepared to be wowed about the future of our state!
Venture firms which presented are:
Carl Peterson, Vice President, Rosewood Capital
Carl emphasized the unique nature of Rosewood - they invest primarily in consumer and expansion plays such as restaurants and consumer products. They are optimistic that they will find investment opportunities in Utah.
“It really boils down to the fact that we have formed this partnership with the Utah Fund of Funds and, in doing so, we spent time looking at what opportunities developed here in the Utah consumer space,” said Carl Peterson
Mark Gorenberg, Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Mark stated that Utah is Hummer's #2 market (after Silicon Valley), representing 10% of their portfolio, having just surpassed Boston in the number of investments (click on slide 29 to hear this section). Very bullish about Utah, about its tech community and the range of opportunities here. Some quotes from Mark are below:
"It's our second-biggest area for investing now," said Gorenberg. "It is the No. 1 tech growth area we believe in the country today, by the way, and we believe we're going to make more money here also than anywhere else in the country ... including the Bay area. So you should be very proud of what's being built here." “This is the best time if you are software company to be starting a company and the best time to be investing in one.” “I think entrepreneurs here are less parochial because of the success stories. People have models to look at and can see that there is that opportunity here,
Spencer Tall, Managing Director, Allegis Capital
Spencer Tall has been active in Utah for many years and believes that Utah is one of the hottest markets in the country right now in terms of investment opportunities (see Allegis slide, timestamp approx. 37:55)
“You’ve created a terrific entrepreneurial environment and the entrepreneurs that come to see us are creative, focused, thoughtful and we are very excited about our future goals of investing in Utah,”
Entrepreneur Thomas Hogan, President, Revinetix also commented on raising money in Utah (Portfolio Company of RWI Ventures, a
To see the video and powerpoint slides of the presentation, you can visit the Utah Fund of Funds presentation page to link to the video and download the slides directly . You can also visit the zentation hosting site directly. The video and slides are also embedded below and you can watch directly from here.
Categories: Venture Capital Firms, General Entrepreneurship, Raising Money, Utah and Economy
Comments