June's member highlight at the Innevation Center is Jeff Saling from StartUpNV!
Jeff Saling is a serial entrepreneur with successful exits that included three IPO’s and one private sale. He has deep expertise in enterprise software, especially Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud-based systems. After years of launching, running and investing in successful startups, Jeff co-founded StartUpNV with a vision to “build a startup ecosystem to inspire and retain our most talented entrepreneurs and university graduates.”
Jeff moved to Nevada in 2009 but had to spend the next eight years traveling to Silicon Valley, Seattle and Austin to build his software startups because of a lack of capital and software developers at home. While working on one of his startups, Jeff joined an incubator in Austin, Texas, the Capital Factory, and loved the experience. When he came back to Reno, he looked for a similar program for his next startup. There were more than 1400 incubator and accelerator programs in the U.S., but none in Nevada. In the midst of frustration, Jeff felt other founders would face the same challenge of needing to travel out of state to join an incubator, or worse, leave the state altogether to pursue their dream. As Jeff lamented, “The brain drain has to stop – we need our own vibrant and inclusive ecosystem.” StartUpNV is designed to be part of that solution.
While at the Capital Factory, Jeff experienced the supercharged energy level of an entrepreneurial environment created by having a large number of startups gathered in one place, along with university students, particularly engineering students, and an engaged community of angel and venture investors. He hopes to build a physical and virtual organization like the Capital Factory, bringing different constituents together in an environment that inspires productive interaction and engages with the community.
Jeff believes that one of the key challenges in our ecosystem is the lack of robust and productive investor-founder dynamics. StartUpNV wants to help the founders become more "fundable” and, at the same time, identify and educate investors to be more active in early-stage investing. Jeff believes our state government could help by simplifying and clarifying our Blue Sky (venture capital) laws and regulations to attract more investors and venture fund formation. Having better access to capital would help retain entrepreneurs in our state and attract talented outsiders to pursue their dreams here.
The goal of StartUpNV is to produce a strong pipeline of entrepreneurial founders, new companies, and early-stage investment opportunities in Nevada. With successful exits, the entrepreneurs and the investors would give back or “pay it forward” to newer startups, leading to a sustainable and innovative business ecosystem and community.
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