OGDEN — Alan Hall could be kicking back, sunning himself aboard a nice yacht half a world away, enjoying the fruits of a hugely successful corporation he started in his Roy basement.
But instead, the man who matured MarketStar into a multimillion-dollar enterprise with operations in 100 countries is extending a helping hand — in the form of money and expertise — to a batch of Utah entrepreneurs who someday might repeat his success.
"I have a higher mission in life," Hall says. "Maybe when you get to a certain age, you say, 'Why not?' I'm not going to take it with me. I might as well use it to bless life's people."
The blessings flow from Grow Utah Ventures, an organization Hall started a couple years ago to help startup companies bridge the time between the seed and early stages of business growth. Grow Utah has committed $15 million to fund as many as 100 companies over the next five years, through either direct funding or collaboration from angel investor networks it is working to establish.
"Grow Utah Ventures' goal is to be the most powerful private entity for economic development," Hall said. "We've got the governor and counties and cities doing what they do, but there's no reason why private people can't try and marshal their resources to get some things done."
About 30 companies have received investments so far, but many have taken advantage of other benefits Grow Utah has to offer.
The right path
Grow Utah gets involved with entrepreneurs early in what Hall calls "conditioning." Greg Warnock of vSpring Capital in 2004 began an entrepreneurial training program called Junto Partners, and Hall soon came on board. It's under way in Salt Lake and Ogden. Teaching about 60 students, typically college juniors and seniors, the free program is offered for three hours a week for seven weeks.
"At the end of the course, they know whether they are an entrepreneur or if they're not, and that's equally as valuable," Hall said.
"What we know about that population is they're bright, they've got energy and they've got passion, but they don't necessarily possess wisdom, and we try to bring them some balance with that."
A few young entrepreneurs get a bit extra, in the form of $50,000 each to get their ventures going. Fifteen companies in the past two years have received the funding. Grow Utah gets a small ownership stake and will benefit should they hit it big.
Also helping out is the Northern Utah Business Ignitor Series, put together by Lumin Publishing and Grow Utah to let successful entrepreneurs provide helpful tips to the younger set.
That early entrepreneurial training is something that wasn't available years ago to people like Hall. He recalls graduating from Brigham Young University in 1972, when "universities did not look at entrepreneurs as anybody who was very bright because they thought you were supposed to go work for Mobil/Exxon. There were no courses. I really started in my life without any help at all. An MBA just taught you fundamentals, but how to be an entrepreneur was not available."
Money and more
Grow Utah also is making money and assistance available to entrepreneurs who have set up shop. While venture funds typically do bigger deals with later-stage companies, Grow Utah is focused on early-stage companies that have moved on from funding obtained from "family, friends and fools," Hall said.
Aided by a group of Weber State University students who receive scholarships in exchange for screening potential deals, Grow Utah looks for start-ups involved in technology that have had early sales, even if they are not necessarily profitable, and could benefit from funding between $50,000 and $500,000.
"It's an interesting thing that you can really launch a business that will succeed without that many dollars," Hall said. "Our average is $100,000. We've got 31 in place now. We're looking to make sure they're good people and not headed to Rio with our money."
Funded companies hail from Park City and along the Wasatch Front. They include Online Memorials, which produces recordings of loved ones that can be played back at their cemetery headstones; Mobile Optics, which produces camera and LCD systems to allow drivers to see in blind spots; and Elemental Business, a Web analytics firm.
Ultimately, the goal is the creation of strong companies with plenty of high-paying tech jobs.
"I really feel like it's the Lord's money, and I have a stewardship and I'm a manager of the funds, and therefore I'm going to do good things with them, and that's the whole focus here," Hall said. "There's a spiritual overtone to this."
And there's more than money.
"Utah is tops in the U.S. for startup companies, and there are thousands of entrepreneurs, mostly in technology of biomed, from Provo to Logan. Usually it's people with great ideas and dreams to succeed, but they're all needing money, and most of the time it's not money they need as much as some of the other things we do for them," Hall said.
The E Station
That's where the E Station comes in. Currently based in a former Greyhound Bus depot in downtown Ogden, the first E Station incubator is designed for five to seven businesses and about 30 total employees who can tap into the expertise of various partners.
"We primarily teach them about sales," Hall said. "What I try to get across to all the companies, whether it's Intel or Microsoft or a little company in Ogden, they don't know how to sell, but that's what we know how to do."
Legal, accounting and marketing mentoring also is available. "Anything they need, they can get access to with partners and people we have associated with us. We call them 'special advisers.' Generally it's free to them so they can keep their costs down," Hall said.
He envisions growing companies advancing from the E Station to the American Can Building, which Ogden city is renovating, and eventually perhaps to Business Depot Ogden.
The E Station concept also will grow. The next will be at the Davis Applied Technology College, and Hall plans to have them in Salt Lake City, Provo and Logan, as well as an online version.
Hall also is concentrating on "rallying," or getting others involved. The Salt Lake-based Olympus Angels meet monthly and consider potential deals brought by Grow Utah. The Weber/Davis County-based Ogden Angel Investors and Logan-based Cache Valley Venture Accelerator Club are among other such angel groups being established throughout the state.
"I'm out evangelizing this and having a lot of fun with it," Hall said.
Having angel investors involved means Hall can spread his funds out to more companies. Each angel must commit $25,000 and fund at least one company every year. He's organizing a statewide angel meeting, most likely in May in Salt Lake, where angels will gather to talk about cooperation and enhancement of their activities. Hall wants a flexible, nimble group that can invest individually or as groups.
"You can imagine that $2.5 million a year, coupled with what we're going to be doing, kind of gets this going, doesn't it?" Hall said.
Helping hands
"It helped us where we needed some financing to buy and sell machines," Greg Jensen said of Grow Utah. He's president of MotoFrugals Inc., an Orem company that sells used and new motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles and sells parts and accessories through a mail-order company.
"They helped us establish a line of credit we could pull from. It's afforded us the ability to buy and sell quite a few units. It helped us grow about 30 percent in revenues last year, and this year it should be about 100 percent growth. We should double in size. And the ability to do so is thanks to some of the money we've had access to."
Grow Utah also helped put MotoFrugals in touch with people in related industries or businesses.
"It's hard to say where we'd be without it (Grow Utah), but we definitely wouldn't have grown at the rate that we did," Jensen said.
Mobile Optics is one company at the E Station. Troy Sheen, executive vice president, said Hall, President and CEO T. Craig Bott and others have provided "strategic direction from a high level as to how the organization should be moving in the next five years and what it should be doing on a day-to-day basis to achieve those goals, and they've put some things in place to sustain the growth efforts with good financial plans with short- and long-term investments."
Hall's expertise with big-box retailers helped recently when Mobile Optics was in discussions with one prominent chain.
"If we didn't have the Grow Utah Ventures expertise with us, meaning Alan and Craig, we would have made some concessions when we were negotiating terms with these big-box retailers that would have killed our sustainability over the long term but would have looked very enticing for the short term," Sheen said.
A passion
Hall got Grow Utah growing a couple of year ago. A few years back, MarketStar became part of Omnicom Group Inc., and Hall was looking for something else to do as he realized his time at MarketStar was "coming to an exit." His entrepreneurial venture had become a huge company — more than 4,000 employees providing sales and marketing support to many huge companies — "and if I don't even come to work, it still goes on," Hall said.
Though he remains MarketStar's chairman, he no longer is CEO. He relinquished that title last month after 17 years leading the company.
"My true interest lies in start-ups. This is kind of my next stage of life. I can't run them. I can't do that because it would kill me off, but I can give them counseling."
A bout with heart disease a year ago reinforced his commitment. "I thought to myself, I can go home now and sit back, but I thought, if I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out in a blaze of glory, and I love entrepreneurism. I have a passion for it. I love to be involved in this. It's so fascinating and fun.
"And there are so many good people I get to work with. I don't do everything. I do some vision and a little strategy and people find they like it and they jump on board."
Grow Utah, though young, already has exceeded his expectations, and word has spread about what it has to offer. Last year, about 700 entrepreneurs — including one from Montana — sought funding.
"If I had a future goal, it would be how do I help the 670 who didn't (get funding)," he said. "Maybe there will come a time where we can find a way to give them some fundamentals and help them answer some questions and put some mentors around them and teach them the things they need to have.
"It's important for me to have people learn whether they really are entrepreneurs, and, if they have what it takes, what it will take to make them successful. And I think it's incumbent on me to teach people that."
Others have noticed what's cooking in Ogden. During a recent panel discussion about Utah's technology future, Jeff Edwards, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corp. of Utah, heaped praise on Hall's activities.
"Grow Utah Ventures is one of the most innovative, interesting, progressive things that has happened in this state in forever," Edwards said. "I just really applaud Alan, and there are others out there like him that want to put their gain that they've gotten in this world and put it back into good use."
Hall would be happy to see that happen, now and in the future. He hopes those benefiting from Grow Utah in some way give back to their community. He recalls being a Peace Corps volunteer with his wife in Brazil, earning 11 cents per hour but still finding time to teach folks there leadership skills.
"I teach these entrepreneurs that it's not about having $100 million in the bank. It's about having the spirit to help. Giving and being charitable can happen at anybody's stage in life," he said.
He also hopes the state's budding business executives do what they can, whenever they're able, to lend their own helping hands to other would-be entrepreneurs while perhaps foregoing their own yachting activities.
"I tell all of them, 'Replicate what I do here. It's a really good thing to do. If you guys and gals take your businesses to a level where you add some wealth, what I want you to do is repeat it. You go find entrepreneurs and take money and help your community and let's keep this thing going,' Hall said.
"That's what makes a community grow."
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com