Utah Technology

For those who know about Salt Lake City and its vibrant business and tech­nol­ogy base, it comes as no surprise that the city consistently gets a thumbs-up from national publications and surveys. In the May 2005 issue of Inc. magazine, the Salt Lake City-Ogden area was ranked 31 out of 274 population centers in a study of the best places to do business. The magazine noted that in 2000, there was only $100 million in early-stage funds in Utah, while today the total is “more than $650 million.”

Brad Bertoch, executive officer of the non­profit Wayne Brown Institute, in Salt Lake City, which helps start-up companies attract venture capital, says that the present, “is probably the most robust it [venture capital] has ever been. The venture capital industry in Utah has 16 venture funds and $1.5 billion in capital, while at the height of the [Internet] boom in 2000, there were two venture funds in the state.”

The national 2004 MoneyTree Survey, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association, ranked Utah 17th among in the nation for venture capital raised.

“Utah has become the epicenter of the Inc. 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in recent years, specifically Provo,” said a fall 2004 Inc. article. The number two company on the list was software developer uSight, based in Orem, which is adjacent to Provo. The article noted that Utah had the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita in the U.S. with 6.8 per million residents, with the next state being a distant second, with 3.9 per million residents.....

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