This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utah’s biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.
They call it “the valley of death.”
In the technology startup world, it’s the gap in funding between the federal grants that fuel research at universities and the venture capital that funds startups when they’re starting to scale up.
Can a state-created nonprofit be the angel investor that walks the state’s tech entrepreneurs through the valley of death?
That’s the intent of Rep. Jeff Stenquist’s HB42, a bill to create the Utah Innovation Lab. The Draper Republican proposes an independent nonprofit organization that would invest in startups at the “pre-seed” phase before venture capitalists are willing to jump in.
The lab would start with $15 million, but it wouldn’t just be giving it away. It would be buying equity in the startups, becoming part-owners of the ventures.