 Part of how we're going to lay this out today is Dan is an economist It does the strategy and analytics for our office. And so we each year do a International export sort of strategy and where global business development, which is the team within O edit that we work under Where we go in the world so this kind of lays that out and In why we make those decisions and then I'll talk about the advanced industry programs and the opportunities for Entrepreneurs and then Nicole who runs our international programs will talk about how the strategy ties together and then some additional funding opportunities that you can take advantage of on the international side so But along the way I think that we welcome questions and you know stop us We want this to sort of be interactive. I know Dan stuff is he likes data So you'll see that there's a lot of data and stuff. So if you have questions about it, then just ask Hi everyone. Yeah, so as Katie mentioned my name is Dan. So I'm ready. I'm the manager of strategy and analytics within The gold is development division of the Office of Economic Development and international trade lot to say Basically, I pulled together data from different sources that help us focus our efforts Throughout the year and when we're engaging with companies being able to get them data on You know cost comparisons between Colorado and maybe Washington State or some other competitor as well So just a brief sort of give a little bit of a background about our unit And why we sort of think data and strategy is a really good place to start is that we the Office of Economic Development 70 people large which sounds pretty pretty good But if you look to other states, especially the ones that we're often competing with you're looking at a Workhorse of about thousand people doing the same job that we are with 70 and our division specifically Which is 10 people you might have about 70 in another of our competitors state So a very lean team We don't have a lot of time and a lot of resources just throw around and there's basically opportunity around the globe So what we try to do up front is to run a lot of data and strategy and analytics to say okay Well based on what we're seeing based on this data. We really should focus our efforts in these particular markets So that's the main thing that I'm going to show you guys today is Sort of our two major projects for the year is our FDI attraction strategy and our export strategy So there's actually two separate documents that try to pinpoint Some of our interactions a little more than just taking sort of a broad shotgun shot across the globe So here they are the front covers of these two so getting into it We'll talk sort of about our goal that we we think about when we first start on these strategies each year Then talk about the methodology we used and then talk about some of the findings that we saw through this exercise Cool So basically as I was just saying a little bit more we're trying to really focus our efforts So we're trying to guide the selection of international engagements and in our office. I should mention ahead of time runs trade and investment missions Either with the governor or executive director Or other leadership within our office to these international markets both to help Colorado companies that are here and are looking to expand to meet with distributors buyers other joint venture partnerships To help them expand their international market and then at the same time We meet with companies abroad to tell them how great Colorado is and how they should move some of their operations If they're looking into expanding or relocating to our state versus say Washington, California, Ohio so trying to guide those international engagements by Figuring out sort of these three key questions. So the first one is from which countries are companies Expanding in the industries that we see is relevant to Colorado's economic growth. And so we'll get into that a little bit in the next methodology section Into which countries are international investors putting their funds for sort of emergent industries like clean tech Health tech with sort of those intersections of software and sort of a more traditional industry that aren't as well defined in our data as we'd like And then third and this sort of gets to that export promotion side In which countries are people buying or importing the products that Colorado is good at manufacturing So to answer those three questions, I'll start with that FDI Attraction strategy. So yes, what is an FDI? I'm For indirect investment, I apologize. I get so used to just using the acronym as for direct investment. So a company Let's say in China Coming to the US and setting up operations hiring people within the market to you know produce a product Provide a service Any other questions or Um So for the foreign direct investment side We start at the point of which occupations Are sort of most What do you want to target the most so we there's a mercer's there's a study in 2016 with the Mercer group in our office that looked at the Occupations in which Colorado is already More densely hiring than the rest of the nation That were projected to grow quicker and have a lot of demand in the future that were high highly skilled and higher Paying and so we sort of focused on those at the beginning and then looked at the industries that were not only hiring those Occupations, but also we're also very strong in Colorado. We're projected to grow We're complimentary to the programs and the governor's priorities that a Little bit more subjective there, but that we also thought was important to focus on for this for this report and then from there looked at sort of So foreign direct investment project volume So we have databases that tell us when a company in a country a makes an investment into country B We can see you know the industry that was made in The amount of jobs that created the amount of capital that was expanded. So we tracked projects like that for about 16 different industries that were aligned with sort of what we call the NAICS codes North American Industrial classification system code essentially. It's a federal level designation that tells you You know your code 334 1621 Computer manufacturing and we could see that a Company in that industry was making investment into a certain country So we looked at those industries looked at where they're generating projects We also looked at on the other side where investors worldwide were placing their money into certain companies for certain industries and then on the export side it was The size and growth of import volumes both globally and coming from the u.s And also coming from Colorado. So like that several different metrics across both those reports Did some weighted ranking? Did some scoring based on those metrics and then categorized our markets to say Alright based on the size growth We should categorize it as one of our top priorities But then also we have we've seen a lot of colorado connection in that industry in that market So we're going to categorize it a little bit different So basically the last the tools that we funneled down to through the analysis were sort of country lists for a specific industry So in this one we're showing electronics And then also what we call skew tables which look at each countries FDI outbound projects that they were generating and said well, where is the largest share? Coming from as far as which which industry was in So for the country list we essentially we say okay, we know that we're wanting to run a Mission or help promote exports in a given industry for a given product Which countries are the largest for that market and which countries are growing the most? And that's what the country list will tell us on the other side. We could say okay We know that we want to run a mission to China, you know, which industry should we focus on so we could do is compare Sort of the share of the market in that country going to a specific industry with how that industry How it's share looks across the globe so in this case about 15% of China's outbound projects are electronic manufacturing Whereas for the rest of the world it's about 5% and that's and we have a shade. It's a kind of shows How that difference How severe that difference is the darker the more Further from the average it is So that is a case in which you know we should focus on electronics So here's some of the broad level findings. So we go through this process. We make the country list We make the skew tables and that's to help guide us what this is showing is sort of how many of the list the country makes For the outbound project generation So if you see here, the United Kingdoms at the top They made we essentially analyze 25 different industries and they made all 25 Country lists because the UK is by and far the largest project generator besides the US, but this is all international For moving across borders and setting up operations so It would not make sense for us to ignore them offhand essentially for any market Because they be we have a small team We need to go to where the action is occurring and right now it's occurring in the UK So the the dark of the shade basically the more lists that the country made as You can see the way we listed as it goes down to five lists of Taiwan is the last one there made five different lists And we did the same thing for the export promotion markets As you can see there they're pretty similar to the ones we have for the FTI and that's something that we Get into with our general findings and that's that sort of the highest income most populous and most economically advanced countries in the world They generate projects they Attract funding and they buy imports at such a level that it doesn't make sense to ignore them for most of our Industries and most of the products that we're trying to help bolster These are mostly Southern Western and Northern Europe so UK Germany France Italy Spain the Nordic countries of Norway Sweden Finland Denmark these are all really important what we call the Anglosphere, so you're looking at the UK Ireland Australia Canada are all very important And then a little further east Israel China Japan India and the Asian Tigers which are South Korea Taiwan Hong Kong and Singapore So these are all markets where We should be engaging You know with a frequency of about one every one once a year the ones every two years Our engagement should be really strong for our office because we're looking at the most activity and we don't have the Capacity to be Whole sale leaving these out in any in any respect and then areas of lesser activity So outside of those I just named especially Southeast Asia sort of Eastern Europe especially the Balkan area so sort of Croatia Romania those types They are they're starting to gain a little bit of traction especially in that export strategy And we believe that their markets are sort of building internally, but they don't yet have the business volume and the business strength to be moving across borders at the same Speed as the the sort of stronger markets So we think that they should be incorporated with the frequency and maybe one to every three to five years And we need to be tracking them closely to sort of see how their long-term going to incorporate into our strategy and then on top of all those Analysis we also sort of more loosely and subjectively thought about some of these other institutional Considerations that we need to take into account. So visa policy is not the same for every country coming to the US so we have specific Sort of subsets of visas like the treaty trader treaty investor visas e4 e5 and these ones allow Investors or Traders that are coming from a specific list of countries that we've published through the Through the custom through customs They allow for sort of a streamline process and window Visa retain it. So it's easier for them to come here than say someone from India or China which are not on that list And therefore it'd be easier to attract that investment. So you think about stuff like that sort of What universities are in the markets? We're looking at Sort of powerfully previously engaged in the market has it been five years since we've gone to a market That should be engaged frequently So there's a lot more than just the analysis. I just showed you but that's the main Main part of it and then we also considered this So, thank you you guys have any questions or we can move on to the next part Thanks Dan Dan loves data so So again, my name is Katie was like her and I run the advanced industries programs for our office And I'm going to talk about our different funding opportunities Then I'm going to turn it over to Nicole who will talk about the international opportunities that you can take advantage of which sort of Relate to that strategy that Dan just went through and I'm just as we have background our office hasn't always used a data-driven Strategy approach. So we used to just kind of cast this wide net and think like oh, we should be going to Germany Or we should be going to Singapore and it's not always effective when you're in a market where it doesn't make sense If there's no signal, so that's why we have that strategy now that we can overlay into our funding programs And then really maximize taxpayer dollars in an effective way so I'm the money person and I'm going to talk about how you can take advantage of all of our state funding So I'm going to give you a little bit of background talk about the opportunities And then show you some of the return on investment and the impact of the program So how many people are familiar with the advanced industry programs? Okay, so a few of you great So some of this is going to be a little redundant some of it will be I think good just by way of background I like to talk about the blueprint. It was under the previous administration By Governor Hickenlooper But it kind of lays the foundation of how this program was first started. So He went around when he was early in office Did a bottom-up community approach cross agency collaboration brought together stakeholders to Identify these areas in the blueprint to focus on so building a business friendly environment retain grew Retain grow and recruit companies, which is what two of our industry development managers do in our office They work to recruit companies. So if you read the Denver Post The State Economic Development Commission meets once a month and approves these major expansion projects So slack came from the Silicon Valley. They did set up operations in downtown Denver. That's our office That's working typically with Denver Metro Economic Development Corporation or if companies are looking They'll work with Jessica our office works with Jessica's office to see if Longmont's a place for some of these Places to land as well and then increase access to capital, which is what the advanced industry program was created to do is to Increase funding to early-stage startups create market a stronger Colorado brand So early on that green triangle was created and branded through the state And I think it was shared so businesses could put that and say we're Colorado Business educate and train the workforce of the future and then cultivate innovation and technology So those were some of the goals Our office focuses on 14 industries We have seven advanced industries that we focus on their typically knowledge based jobs industries and Their their high-paying So advanced manufacturing aerospace bioscience life sciences electronics energy natural resources that includes clean tech infrastructure engineering and technology and information If anyone's interested in reading more here's the legislation that was passed. So this is state funding Some of its gaming revenues some of it comes from what's called Senate bill 47 and Dan mentioned those NAICS codes. I don't I don't know who makes these statutes, but They're all listed, but some of the funding comes from biotech and clean tech and when those industries grow then our fund grows So here's our program objectives. So drive innovation and foster entrepreneurship Support technologies that cross into multiple advanced industry sectors Accelerate commercialization Encourage public-private partnerships increase access to early-stage capital and then increase exports So there's different levels of our funding. So I'm going to talk about these more in detail So proof of concept, which is you know that? You know initial early-stage R&D development proving that the technology works Then early-stage capital retention where you either spend that technology out of a university or you are an early-stage company Where you have a product that you're commercializing and then we have an investment tax credit that I'll talk about And then of course we want people to as they expand get the product out of here and export it to different international markets and then we have our Collaborative infrastructure funding which is for large-scale projects when you sort of graduate to that so and then our step program Which you know again cool. It's going to talk about our international programs So some of the eligibility so if you are in the proof of concept phase and again I'm going to go into the details of those to be eligible you have to apply through a Colorado approved research institution So that would include a technology transfer office at any of our major universities federal lab And then that the technologies innovative and disruptive to one of our advanced industries So we do have collaborative partners that we work with closely in this program So we work with our seven advanced industry trade associations which are listed here So their involvement is that they are typically member-based organizations I encourage you if you are in any of these sectors to get involved with them go to one of their networking events There are people that could help you With challenges There's founders and CEOs that attend. There's also Different I would say C-level executives. There are there too that have grown companies to to scale so that You have you can find those opportunities if you need help or they can you know guide you to someone like if you're a bioscience company You need to you're not sure of a regulatory pathway with the FDA. They have some expertise there that can help you And then we also have Reviewers that you have a question. Yeah, this is a member of aerospace and aviation Organization does that just work with Denver based Aerospace and aviation companies or Colorado Colorado It's a nine-county region that they focus on But I mean certainly if you have any questions around the state They work with the like the Colorado Space Coalition and different organizations like that that can connect you to other entities and Then yeah as I was saying we have reviewers so we can be in business technical and financial experts that that all of our Applications I'll talk about that here in a minute as well And now I'm just going to do a deep dive into each of these opportunities so that you know how they work So our proof of concept is again that early Proving that the technology works you have to apply through a technology transfer office at a research institution You can ask for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars all of our funding is a matching grant with cash So you have to have fifty thousand dollars of cash If you're in this stage typically people working in a research institution our recipient of Federal funding that they're Working on so they can you can match it with any federal funds And then early-stage capital retention is for early-stage startup companies So you can request two hundred and fifty thousand dollars Is the matching requirements are flipped so you know it's a two-to-one match You have to have five hundred thousand dollars of cash the cash can come from Federal funding so SBIR STTR DOE DOD NSF NIH any federal agency But you can only match the unspent portion of your award. So say you receive a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar SBIR grant You've already drawn Maybe five hundred of it down you can match the remaining two fifty But you have to raise an additional two hundred and fifty thousand dollars But it can come from angel investment venture capital if you're ready to be funded I think what's really great about this funding is that you know often people are not investable yet by VC or even getting receiving an angel investment so people are they'll come to us to seek funding and We step in we get them to those specific milestones that An investor is looking for we fill that gap and then we get them to those milestones and then Investor will say now you're ready for us and they step in and start making investments. So that's what's I think nice about this program And maybe some of the eligibility there is that you have to be headquartered in Colorado or at least 50% of your employees here Less than 10 million dollars of annual revenue and less than 20 million dollars of third-party capital risk And I know as a startup you're like I just wish that I had one million dollars of revenue so Those are a little bit high, but we try to build a balanced portfolio So, you know amazingly enough we do have had have had companies in the past who have raised $19 million right under the cusp and people say well, why does a company that has 19 million dollars need state funding? this goes through such a heavily vetted process and Is reviewed by those business technical and financial experts that sometimes having that sort of state stamp of approval can help leverage additional funding in the future and Then our collaborative infrastructure grant is for large-scale projects I know infrastructure can be misleading because you know oftentimes manufacturers come to me and say oh We need to you know build out our manufacturing space and put equipment into our facility But that is not the purpose of this funding. It's really to build a statewide asset Where you know, it's it could be like a consortium for example where people come together And I'll give you an example. We just funded the Amit Alliance, which is part in partnership with Colorado Clean Tech Industry Association a company called Vartega Which recycles carbon fiber and then CSU and then EWI which is in Legland And so there's three centers of excellence essentially one of them is at the Colorado School of Mines They just launched this HP 580 jet fusing printer Industry can come in and work on that printer. In fact, we made a really great connection with the company who's Printing a prosthetic in Windsor, Colorado. They were sending that to and they were printing it out of carbon fiber They were sending that work to North Carolina They just found out that they can print it here at the Colorado School of Mines using nylon So and it's much lighter than carbon fiber. So that's one Opportunity that industry can go work at the Colorado School of Mines and then CSU will have a robot that's Deployed there they haven't It hasn't come yet and been installed yet But as industry you can go do work there and then EWI is a partner and then Vartega will also have some But the point is is that Colorado companies can go and use these assets that are now stood up in in the state And I have other examples too if you're interested in hearing about them But the matching funds same thing. It's two to one So the minimum request can be fifty thousand dollars our largest award was two and a half million that we Granted in 2015 around 3d printing Which was sort of when 3d printing 3d print printing's been around for a long time But you know it was sort of when it was emerging in here in Colorado So, you know another thing about this program is that we're trying to always keep Colorado relevant and at the forefront of innovation and emerging technologies So that's why I always get excited about this program because we we tend to start funding Really emerging in industries that can grow here in Colorado and help our economy The state could have 2.5 million done for a company Yeah, so it wasn't to a company. It was to it's called adapt the Alliance for the development of additive processing technologies and It's at the Colorado School of Mines and essentially it's a consortium of Colorado companies and what they're doing is characterizing 3d Alloys and the partners in it were Lockheed Martin put 3.1 million ball aerospace put a half a million fast and put a half of half a million manufacturers edge as a partner so large sums of money a lot of stakeholders and essentially Colorado companies can Participate in the consortium get access to that data They've expanded it into Utah now where they're working on composites, but it's really open source shared data. So I Think that's exciting because you know the model typically is if I mean Lockheed could do that themselves But they're not going to share that data across the country So it's a really unique opportunity for Colorado companies that are in that space to participate And then we have the investment tax credit so I don't run this program I'll have the contact information for the person that does run it at the end of the the slide deck, but This is really great opportunity if you are applying for advanced industry funding because it can help you leverage An invest an investor and investment So you can tell the investor that they can receive a 25 to 30 percent tax credit up to a $50,000 investment Here's some of the parameters the company has to be less than 10 million of total Non-revenue funding five million in annual revenue and operating and generating revenue for less than five years so I Will tell you that this is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars This is fully exhausted by June. It's on a calendar year. It opens on January 1st and again fully exhausted by June, which is the end of our fiscal year so Take advantage of this as soon as possible. So the investor has to get qualified and then it's on in the investments on it It's for a Colorado investor Yeah, and I'm happy to share again the contact information for person But I can tell you and they're mutually exclusive to the advanced industry's funding So you don't have to be a recipient of an advanced re-award to Receive the tax credit and we have one company you would say that raised I think $1.3 million with a significant amount of investors So it is impactful and can bring in a lot of investment into your company and help you grow and then I'm gonna Turn it over to Nicole who's going to talk about our export programs and the funding that you can take advantage of I always say I don't think it's too late to ever think about exporting You know if you're just launching your product or your technology you still want I think be thinking ahead Down the road how you're going to grow your business and if exporting is going to be in your equation But you know businesses. I always say are super myopic you're always heads down. I'm trying to do my thing and We there's a lot of state funding that you can take advantage of that helps offset the cost of doing business either domestically growing your company in Colorado or international business and it's the difference between continuing to do our D work or Go into an international market and sometimes people find that once they go into the international market and get contracts and Connections with suppliers and distributors that helps them them really scale and grow So I'm gonna have Nicole come up to talk and then I'll come back and talk about the impact of the program and then I'll Answer any questions Thank you Hi, I'm Nicole gunkle I run the international grants programs here at a wedding So I'll go over the three grant programs that we have to offer through our office And then I'll also talk briefly about the SBA. You haven't heard of them yet They're great resource especially for small companies looking for help So the first award the export accelerator grant or a export grant You have to be in one of the advanced industries that Katie mentioned a few slides ago to apply for this award Both this and the step grant which I'll get to they offset the cost of your international business meetings Or if you're going to trade shows to promote your products, you can apply to get funding to offset those costs Eligibility you can be new to export or you can be market expansion Either or you do have to show a profit within the last year for this grant We require matching funds as well the max award we can give under this is 15,000 But that means you also have to spend 15,000 of your money to either go to a trade show or on your international business meetings Our cycle for this it's July 1st through June 30th We asked though when you apply for this that you apply at least four to six weeks I'd say six to eight if you really want to secure funding Or sooner we'll always take a vacation sooner Our global consultant network this somewhat ties into the export If you're an advanced industry you can also use our network. So we have 15 Consultants across the world in different markets What they do is they help You with issues might have in that country So if you are interested in Japan, you've never been there before you want to know how will your products going to do in the market You can pay the $500 upfront and then we will connect you with our consultant in Japan They can do a whole market research report for you. So you kind of the ins and outs of them Especially things like tariffs or different cultural morph that you wouldn't be used to and that way you know better Whether or not it's a market for you If you already Chosen a market you're kind of working in it. You're struggling a little bit They can help with things like set you up with distributors in that area help you get more context So you can be better successful in the market This has the same requirements as a export you have to show a profit within the last year You have to be an advanced industry company The last one the state trade expansion program. So this is fun and in part by the SBA who I will also talk about later Offsets the same cost of the AIA export Both your international business meetings and trade shows the unique thing about step though Is that we go as a state to four different trade shows every year? And when we go to the trade show we pay for all the booth costs We pay for the design the furniture in the booth And we give companies a travel stipend to attend with us So it's a really good deal trade shows can be really expensive for companies to go to and you could look 10 20,000 would be a lowball for a company to go to a trade show and here you're basically Breaking even if you send one person to the trade show For a step the good thing about this you don't have to be an advanced industry You can be any industry you don't need to show a profit in the last year And you can also still be a market expansion or new to the entry On our website Which if you're interested I can give you my card and I can send you the links You'll see that we both have applications for our specific trade shows But we also have a general application so you can go to any trade show in the world Or you can still do your international business meetings Um Generally our application cycles October to August We ask for this that you still apply about four weeks in advance You can apply sooner if you like to plan ahead and want to make sure that funding is available for you Okay So before I sit down I brought a handful of these brochures today The SBA is our partner for step, but they also have a lot of loan programs. I believe At least over 20 different programs Some are related to export some are related to Just general development for example Their export ones will help you if you get an international order and you can't fill it because You know, it's so large that you don't have that capital on hand. They can help you get a loan And the great thing about them is a lot of their loans are guaranteed by the SBA So if you're struggling to get that money directly with the bank the SBA can step in and say we will guarantee And in some cases they're guaranteeing up to 90% of your loan back by the SBA and that really helps The bank feel more comfortable about loaning you the money And could be a good resource so feel free at the end I have quite a few of these if you want more information and I can also connect you with our partners at the SBA here Any questions? About imports So we have our global business development managers help if they're Moving locations to Colorado or they're interested in the Colorado market We our programs do not help with imports coming in though So all of our awards are only for Colorado companies But the same requirements as Katie's where you have to be 50% employees here or headquarters here So we don't help foreign companies with their imports into the state Could you expand a little bit? You said that Colorado companies can go in the state? Yes Yes, that'd be like really high interest to us. So what is how does that work? What market are you in? Drums, okay. We don't Yeah, I can go into a little more. So the four shows we went to This year starting in October. So we went to Medica, which is medical device show in Germany We're going to JC next month. That's a composite show Hanover messes a huge advanced manufacturing show will be there in April and then we're doing a renewable energy one in September Yeah, but we add new shows every year And if we aren't going to a show you're interested in you can still apply for general funding And that's not you don't have to have a booth for general funding if you want to go and walk the show That's okay, too So then you're not taking on the cost of a booth No ETIG that's base symposium. Yeah, you're done in Colorado Springs. Yeah There's opportunities for companies with that So we wouldn't be able to your funding for you to go there because it's still in Colorado, right? I'm generally are there opportunities for Color of companies to leverage ODT's presence at space Yeah, yeah, so I thought of one point with the Export grants that you were doing International show that have to be held in the US that's still qualified. Yeah So that is the one exception Because we know certain shows do rotate around the world However, we require at least 50% international attendance at a domestic show In order to qualify it. The exception is International buyers programs. So the Department of Commerce has these shows Only in the US usually Where they bring large delegations of buyers for really niche Industries are going to those Yeah, we can help them those Just this isn't specific to that State trade but for all these grants advance industry's grants Is this really this is funding from state get renewed every year or is this something that is ongoing just Yeah, so advanced industries one so the first two programs I went over our state funded and they do get renewed every year For Step we apply for every year every soon to be every two years and again, that's contingent on that We live win that funding And then for advanced industry funding it's in statute until 2024 So that legislation expires then which will be starting to work on the reauthorization of it Now I'm going to talk about the impact of the program so that you can see how these taxpayer dollars have been utilized so Since the program statue actually was enacted in 2013 we didn't do our first cycle until 2014 that fall There's 68 million dollars of grants that have been funded or deployed to date. There's 457 projects We've created Over 1,500 jobs and retained 1515 hundred jobs and we've leveraged 794 million dollars back into the state. So I'd say that's a pretty nice return These are some of the top line metrics that we focus on we also focus on, you know patents on any IP that's been developed as well new companies that are have been created so I would say not bad return on investment for What we're what we're doing in the state and then for the tax investment tax credits So 86 companies have been approved to date 4.1 million in total tax credits have been given to 271 investors with a total of 19 million in total investments being so and then for the whole the export component so 870,000 in grants funded 110 projects funded and then 12.9 million in immediate export sales. So we always are tracking how many export sales are made I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but our state funding for the AI export programs only $300,000 We did go through a funding cut. So it's an hour at 175 So we do try to offset the the funding with our SBA funding which that we've steadily been increasing every year We received $480,000 last year and now We're hoping to get $600,000 this year, so we're competitive all these we see all these states performing and Deploying funding and we're like we're just going to be we're going to you know compete with that money money, too So And mostly like again the SBA stuff that they focus on is really utilization of the funding so And then the global consultant network $340,000 of cost savings 102 company service 162 activities performed and again just to emphasize what Nicole said it you know paying $500 for a market research report that can cost you anywhere between five and ten thousand dollars is That's nothing and also that $500 can help make the determination if that's the market that you're in versus like oh I'm gonna fly you know to the UK and then you find out I should not even be here And so that will help mitigate any risk to you and Then our state trade expansion program 1.2 million in projects funded 135 companies. We've completed 15 trade shows so Again to answer you know through your question if there is a drone focused Trade show that you want to attend in another country or a conference then just contact Nicole and she can help you with that funding opportunity And then here's our contact information well Nicole and mine is on there Andrew the tax Dan isn't on there, but Rama. She's not here today. She works on the program with me. So but Thanks again for having us Jessica and Sergio. We appreciate it. We always like to process Yeah, so the advanced industry process so we do this twice a year So right now we're in the middle of a cycle it opened on January 1st And it's due on March 2nd by 5 o'clock The next cycle will open July 1 and will close either before Labor Day or After Labor Day, I'm not sure what that date is yet, but it typically will be the first business day in in September and the way that the process works is after our applications are Come in we do a compliance review And then we send it to business technical financial experts that do an independent review in our online system They score and rank everything using a rubric and then we convene a subcommittee in each of those seven advanced Industries alongside those trade association partners that I listed there so they're a non-voting member they're impartial during the process and We look at that initial scoring and ranking from the independent review And then we down select two to four applications to move forward to our full advanced Industry committee where we convene 80 to 100 reviewers from all of the seven advanced industry sectors And then there's a five minute pitch with a five minute Q&A And then we do another vote score and rank and then all of those recommendations go to the state economic development commission for final approval We typically grant between three and six million dollars every cycle It is highly competitive. I have well over 100 applications right now that are in the queue Sometimes industries for example technology and information tends to be An industry that has a lot of applications there can be 40 and we're only moving four people forward Once you advance to the full committee day, I would say that your odds increase to get funding We fund typically between 12 and 22 companies out of the potential 28 companies that pitch So Once you get there odds go up, but if you're not funded for whatever reason we will Provide you with information that you can request feedback. We'll prepare that for you and send it to you and you can prepare an application The next grant cycle. I know the next this cycle is you know, I know we're here kind of cutting it close to the deadline Um If you're I would encourage you to look at the application It is going to take you some time to complete the way it's structured is we have you do an executive summary You talk about your product and technology the market size competition You'll put together your team their you know resume to put together three years of financial information You'll do a timeline template a budget template. You'll talk about the benefits To the state in terms of job creation job retention any capital investment You have to get letters of support So it's it's similar to I would say if you're doing diligence with an investor, but not as intense So we're sort of that first little step for you like if you can't answer any of our questions in our application You're not going to raise money. You're not going to be raising money anytime soon Because they're going to ask for all of that information Times 10 and it's going to be probably a more intense process for you So I always say this is a great opportunity to get yourself prepared set up for when you start raising raising money So that's how the application structured again It's due on the second if you haven't started it I would take a look at it if you can't put in a really strong competitive application because you know It's down to the wire now I might wait and and apply in july and I say that because the review teams that are Reviewing again. There's in the room 15 to 20 people You're exposing your application to those 15 to 20 people and if it's You know if you're throwing it together at the last minute because you're excited about this opportunity It won't be as competitive. They might think it's too early and The next time you apply it might Might still not be as competitive. So you want to put your best foot forward. So you have poisoned the well Yeah, yeah, we don't want to have you go through that experience. So just my words of advice I certainly want to encourage everyone to apply But I also want you to be thoughtful and think about when the timing is and if you're really early and As well, you know, again, we do this twice a year july is right around the corner Just wait until you are ready. Your product is close to being ready for the market You have an mvp build So all things to take into consideration There's some like Top things that you know are relatively common reasons that people don't make it past that first round or that don't get funded As a result of the pitch that you could share. Yeah, I would say Just be realistic in your application. These people are You know CEOs and founders that have started companies. They've skilled companies. They've raised money They If your plans and you're going to create, you know 100 jobs Right, it's just it's not real and they all just go do these people know how they're going to scale this company It's just not realistic. They don't want fluff. They want to see this is my plan This is what i'm going to utilize state funds for this is how i'm going to accomplish it So that they are doing, you know, the best diligence with taxpayer dollars as possible So again, we don't want to see 68 jobs created 100 jobs. If you create two jobs the quarter of a million dollars Super, we know once you go to raise more money, you'll be adding more jobs And that's really the path that that's happened. So that's one thing be realistic. No fluff People weed right through it. There is competition Do not say we do not have any competitors because I can tell you Our viewers they they spent extra time on their own. These are all volunteers No one's paid doing their own diligence saying Oh, I actually found like five people that are also doing this. So, you know, there are there's competition out there If you have like a unique value proposition or something that differentiates you you need to really communicate that What is different than what's already being done in the market? And how is this going to Be disruptive or how is this going to impact colorado? You know, again, we'd love to see emerging Technologies we can tell you like for bioscience, for example Early on our bioscience community was used to funding like medical device and pharma and digital health came on and everyone's like We're not funding digital health like everyone was opposed to it. And so now I can tell you we're seeing a ton of digital health that's getting funded because That's what people are using now. So that Let's see. What are some other things? Uh, grammar spell check You know, you're asking for a quarter of a million dollars utilize the character spaces There's five thousand character spaces for the executive summary for a reason They want you to see that you spend the time filling all of that out I have some people that they think brevity is better And they just put in a few sentences and people just think well, they didn't put enough effort into this You know a quarter of a million dollars is a lot of money. So they want to make sure that it's going to the most appropriate Again the most competitive applications Let's see what else, you know, again letters of support. So if you have any like customers or Anyone that supports supports you Those are always great things if you oh, I failed to mention If you don't have the match at the time of the application You can apply for what's called conditional approval, which allows you six months to obtain the matching funds So our review process is about 10 to 12 weeks applications are due on march 2nd We will give awards out in mid may the match of may 20th may 21st that timeline So you would have until November to raise the full match You just can't obligate any of the state funds We won't reimburse you for any of that until you show a full $500,000 match. Yeah, so you can take that conditional approval out to the market and it helps. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, it's it can be used as leverage. So hey, I got this $250,000 award like will you I will say though. We are starting to really look at people's fundraising plans We want to see that you've started before our application because diligence takes a long time This is just an observation and the suggestion For something that you put the state to work on and I think it would greatly help, you know, economic development here in Colorado We need investors vcs. I can do larger rounds. Yeah It's a huge role in the ecosystem. We don't have it. It's totally back to state It creates all kinds of dislocations You know our very best companies emerging companies don't get funded by colorado investors Because if you want to raise a large around you have to go out of state And if you want to find a lead investor if you're going to dc, right, you have to go out of state And that is um, I think a major issue in colorado and it really holds us back And I think that's why it's silicon valley and you know, maybe you know place on the east coast near city, boston Like, you know, even though they're really expensive and there's a lot of downsides to look into your company there But the money's there. Yeah Um, I appreciate that comment. Um, we are aware that that's an issue here that they're I mean, there's pockets of capital here, but I think too that rounds are getting larger too. So seed money, that's not Seeds are change that amounts changing and so but but I I hear your point We work with rocky's venture club very closely. They're angel investment group. I know that they're concerned about it I know that our bioscience association Um They're not quite ready, but there are different groups of people that are working on initiatives and how we can look at The capital stack here in colorado and we increase that funding but Point taken I hear it all the time. We know it's Definitely one fund in colorado where you can, you know, maybe if you get a meeting with them, you can raise a lot of your rounds Yeah, but that I mean, you know, maybe two and a half to five mil right plus. That's it. There's one fund Yeah, and um, if There you go. Yeah. Yeah, it's not unique to colorado though 80 percent of all these You want to go to either of the coasts another eight percent goes to boulder the other 12 percent is split amongst the rest of the country Yeah, but you know in boulder, it's it's kind of tech stars and they sort of have a monopoly You know, um, you know with their program there's nothing wrong with the program But just having just a more diverse ecosystem and just having competition and a really diverse Funding environment would help our state so much Because you know, you can raise c1 here, you know, you know, four million or half million but large around Yeah, yeah, we we know that that's the challenge. Yeah, I appreciate that comment We hear I don't know that we I don't know how we we would necessarily address it But we are listening into there's people that are looking at it and Trying to brainstorm ways to to change that So any other questions? We were clear as mud All right. Well, again, thanks Jessica. It's radio. Um, happy to always come up and visit longmont and Share our expertise anyone else is ever interested in hearing about any other programs in the state of colorado We're happy to share Our colleagues names and And help