6.0. EDSR 07-09-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minnesota business plan competition. The company is now considering a location in Elk River(possibly in the incubator or possibly as a tenant in one of the established businesses with surplus laboratory facilities in the community). It is giving active consideration to Elk River because of the ailability of seed capital from the ASCCF and ERIC. Despite the fact that is technology is worldclass (MSI does contract research for the federal government's Sandia National Laboratory) and the company's business plan was 'award-winning' , the local venture capital community continues to ignore these 'vetted' opportunities. The ASCCF recently announced a successful 'harvest'from its investment in NT International, Inc., (NT). It recently received about$350,000 from an initial investment of about $50,000 that was made in 1994. A large portion of these funds are now available to be re-invested in other emerging companies such as MSI. The blow-out in the dot-corn field has revived interest in the traditional areas of technology innovation such as medical devices/biotech as well as computers/software/telecommunications especially among 'business angel' investors (wealthy and successful business and professional individuals). ERIC is blessed in the sense that many of its investors are capable of rendering good appraisals of emerging technologies such as have come through the Elk River Incubator Program. These independent thinkers are critical to the success of any investment club especially one that works in concert with a community based seed capital fund. In summary, the reluctance of the institutional investment community to exhibit some sense of adventure in their venture capital investments makes the resources that are available to the City of Elk River even more valuable in respect of attracting emerging technology based entrepreneurial companies to the community. • • 2