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Flywheel Ventures Regional Opportunity
The Regional Opportunity The Flywheel Team believes that its target Southwest/Rockies region bears striking similarity to the historical development patterns of Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina and the San Diego, California region. Flywheel also believes that the quality of investment opportunities that emerged from the growth of RTP and San Diego can be successfully matched in the Southwest/Rockies for the financial benefit of participating investors in the Fund.
RTP catapulted from an agrarian and textile-based economy in the 1950’s and 1960’s with per-capita income ranked second-to-last in the U.S. to a contemporary rank of 5th in the nation for overall venture capital investment. RTP’s successful development was built on the foundation of university-based research and development spending; the area’s 3 major institutions (Duke, North Carolina State, and the University of North Carolina) conduct over $400 million per year in sponsored research. The successful commercialization of this R&D, coupled with the area’s lifestyle advantages, has led to the employment of over 40,000 technology workers in the area’s private sector companies.
In Flywheel’s view, San Diego of the mid-1980’s bears an even more striking resemblance to Flywheel’s target region, and especially the Firm’s headquarters location in New Mexico. During a series of economic crises in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the economy of the San Diego area was dependent on tourism, real estate development, and defense spending. At the same time, the area housed a large number of academic and non-profit research institutions. These facilities conducted almost $2 billion/year in R&D activity. Leveraging the local technology expertise brought by government contracting, along with these academic research assets, the region has subsequently grown well beyond its dependence on defense spending. San Diego now features over 1,500 private high-technology companies; ranks 7th in the nation for venture capital investment, and is the overall leader in wireless and ranks 3rd in biotech among all U.S. regions.
Posted 11-02-2005, 09:46 am, by admin Comments 0