Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Grow America Launches Entrepreneurship Effort

Utah entrepreneur Alan E. Hall--plus Zions Bank, Comcast Business Class, Comcast Spotlight, KUTV2, Utah Jazz and KJZZ-TV--said today that they are launching a new organization called Grow America, to help support, encourage, and strengthen entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. The group said that they will launch a series of business competitions, called Grow America Springboard, which will provide entrepreneurs with cash and awards. The first event will debut in May of 2012.

Alan Hall is the founder of venture firm Mercato Partners, and rose to prominence in Utah via his firm MarketStar, which he sold to Omnicom in 1999. Mercato's investments have included Fusion-io, Skullcandy, Cymphonix, MediConnect Global, and Control4. Hall's earlier Grow Utah Ventures effort applied a similar, startup competition to the state of Utah, to help turn ideas and early entrepreneurs into real businesses; the new effort looks to expand that model beyond Utah into other regions.

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