History
Talent follows capital. The Mountain West has a long history of industry-leading entrepreneurs and landmark technologies leaving the region in order to obtain capital. Recognizing this problem, Brian Cummings of the University of Utah joined forces with Paul Ahlstrom, Dinesh Patel and Gavin Christensen of vSpring Capital to design a seed fund that would unite the community behind the region’s best entrepreneurs and technologies and create great companies locally. Since 2007, Kickstart Seed Fund has been doing just that. Under the guidance of managing director Gavin Christensen, Kickstart was designed to align the incentives between the major players within the local ecosystem to fund local seed-stage companies. Kickstart was founded and backed by these same players: local venture capital, angel investor groups, community-minded corporations, and universities. Today, Kickstart Seed Fund is among the most active seed investors in the region and is helping launch tomorrow’s next major technology companies.