RMI2 aims to expand FastTrac effort

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BY DAVID YOUNG • DavidYoung@coloradoan.com • May 26, 2010 Following the success of Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative's new FastTrac TechVenture, intended to provide new entrepreneurial ventures in the clean-energy, bioscience and technology industries a leg up as they're starting out, the organization is looking to take the program statewide.

RMI2 Chief Executive Officer Mark Forsyth deemed the seven-week course, which ended Saturday, a great success. He hopes to make the FastTrac program a staple of the initiative's offerings.

"We are just so happy with this course, we want to institutionalize it as a core part of RMI2," Forsyth said.

In what Forsyth described as an "intensive" course, 19 participants from 15 separate startup companies throughout Northern Colorado came together to form or refine their respective business plans. Topics included entrepreneurship, funding, investors and market research.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, based in Kansas City, Mo., the world's largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship, partnered with RMI2, a Fort Collins-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in Northern Colorado, to develop the new program.

Forsyth said they hope to offer the course, which costs participants almost $1,000, again this year and once a quarter starting in 2011 to companies throughout the state.

RMI2 is currently working with interested parties to explore funding the program on a regular basis.

Chuck Henry, owner of Advanced MicroLabs, a startup company out of Colorado State University that focuses on online chemical analyzers, went through the first class and said it was helpful considering he has never had any previous business training.

"I wish I had done this before I ever started Advanced MicroLabs," said Henry, who found the information on how to take his technology to the business market with a viable product as the most useful portion of the class.

The collaboration between participants was something that helped hone an environment where entrepreneurs could learn from each other.

"We saw a lot of synergy between participants going through it. They formed some close relationships," Forsyth said. "They developed a great network with the community they expect to remain connected with."

Henry, who received a scholarship through Larimer County and the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Initiative, said not only did he make valuable contacts with other entrepreneurs, but he was able to network with some of the presenters who have already started their own successful companies.

"Another key piece was also coaches who have been through real startup activities," Henry said. "They provided invaluable input into that process and really made the class beneficial."