University of Utah starts 23 spin-offs in the last year

• Posted by Steve Spencer

Article posted on Aug 24

You know, it can be pretty easy in these economic times to get caught up in all of the hand-wringing and angst-festing about how horrible things are in housing, unemployment, etc.

But every one in a while you get that slap across the face… that wake-up call that reminds you, “Holy crap.  I am pretty freaking cool.”

One of those comes to us int he form of an article by Matt Storms, for the Midwest Technology Network.

In this article Matt explores how to create more start-ups based off of Midwest University Science and Technologies.  In his article he uses the University of Utah as an example of how to do it right.  Why?

“Regardless of whether they are called university spinoffs, spinouts, or just plain start-ups, the University of Utah sure has a lot of them: 23 that started just last year— that’s second best of all universities in the nation.”

This, in spite of the fact that (as Matt states):

“But, this is the land of the Big 10 and other top universities, whose R&D dollars dwarf those spent at the University of Utah. University of Wisconsin’s federal R&D expenditures are consistently in the top three of the country and are more than three times those spent at the University of Utah.”

So what are some of the factors that have helped the U of U consistently turn out an average of 20 new startups per year since 2005?  Well, based of his discussion with Brian Cummings, Executive Director of Technology Commercialization at the University of Utah, Matt tells us (among other things):

• The University of Utah established a seed fund named KickStart that was launched in April 2008
• The Technology Commercialization Office (TCO) is currently establishing separate specialized investment funds that focus on key high-value research areas within the University, such as interventional medicine, software, imaging, and energy. Each of these funds will focus on early stage technology companies and be roughly $20 million each. The money is being raised by the TCO from private investors.
• Management recruiting by the TCO (particularly of those folks visiting our ski resorts
• Venture Bench, a University-based accelerator, provides a suite of services for pre-revenue University of Utah start-ups.
• The Utah Fund of Funds, a state of Utah economic development program (currently, $300 million), was created to support early-stage and growth-stage companies in Utah.
• The University has implemented what it refers to as a “virtual incubator” program for qualified small University of Utah start-ups. Under the program, each company receives a voucher that entitles them to a $50,000 credit for sponsored research conducted at the University to further product and market development of a given technology.

This is awesome.  I’d love to get some insight into how some of these companies are performing.

20 new startups per year in this economy!  Isn’t it good to know that while so many people are fighting just to keep their doors open, we have people here opening so many new ones.

Sometimes it’s just good to kick butt!

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