Creating high-tech businesses aim of partnership

An opportunity to create more high-tech businesses in Montana came last week in the form of a new federal grant aimed at home-growing those companies rather than recruiting them from outside the state.

by Annette Trinity-Stevens- MSU

The Partnership for Innovation program creates a strategy for sprouting new technology companies here and nurturing them through private-public partnerships.

The three-year grant, awarded Sept. 5, is funded by the National Science Foundation.

"We know that some entrepreneurs do find their way to Montana," said program leader and TechLink Center director Will Swearingen.

"They may have come here from somewhere else to start a company, but that’s not happening fast enough. We want to apply a shock treatment to that process by using a ‘grow-your-own’ strategy."

The program creates a partnership among Bozeman’s TechLink Center, which finds NASA and Department of Defense technologies for companies to commercialize; the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity; the College of Business at MSU Bozeman, which trains students in entrepreneurial skills; and the Technology Venture Center in Bozeman.

The TVC is a private, not-for-profit organization that links entrepreneurs with investors, mentors and a business incubator.

In a nutshell, the partnership combines technology, talent, capital and know-how as a way of starting high-tech companies in rural states, said project participants.

"One of our top priorities is to find ways to drive more innovation and technology into industry in this state," the state’s chief business officer David Gibson said. "So we hope with this project to demonstrate best practices and get a foothold on how we can best drive technology from the universities and from the federal system into businesses."

In the high-tech sector, Montana suffers from a lack of deal flow, said TVC director John O’Donnell.

"There aren’t enough entrepreneurs knocking on the door," he said. "Rather than wait for the deals to come through the door, we’ll go find them."

Under the new program, TechLink will match technology from the university system or the federal government with potential business owners. Students from the Center for Entrepreneurship for the New West in the MSU College of Business will be assigned to the entrepreneurs to provide market analyses and other research while learning how to become entrepreneurs themselves.

TVC will provide links with investors and specialized services. Start-ups can apply for small "seed" grants from the federal grant money. The governor’s office will help give the project a statewide focus.

"The program could fail without any one of the participants," said business dean Richard Semenik. "That’s what’s so exciting about this."

The program is open to all potential entrepreneurs with an eye toward attracting more female- and Native American-owned companies.

National numbers indicate that the vast number of high-tech start-ups are begun by men, O’Donnell said, leaving the talents of women and minority entrepreneurs largely untapped.

Montana ranks near the bottom nationally in personal income per capita and other economic factors. The state’s high-tech sector has helped off-set some of those losses but needs to grow faster and more broadly to really improve overall economic conditions, Swearingen said.

Contact: Will Swearingen, (406) 994-7704; John O’Donnell, (406) 556-0272; Richard Semenik, (406) 994-4423; David Gibson, Governor’s Office, (406) 444-5634

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=492