Source: San Antonio Express-NewsSept.迷你倉 07--The StarTech Foundation, launched with fanfare in 2000 as an institution to lead San Antonio into the technology investment race, closed its doors in mid-May without a public statement, the University of Texas at San Antonio confirmed Friday.StarTech, originally called the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative, or SATAI, had maintained its office at the UTSA downtown campus' Institute for Economic Development."We were told they have closed for business permanently," said Amy Dalrymple, IED's communications coordinator. UTSA also has shut down StarTech's Internet site.Calls seeking comment from Jim Poage, who had been StarTech president and CEO, and board chairman Brad Hunt were not returned Friday.The San Antonio Business Journal first reported the news online."It's probably a good thing they shut it down," said Ramiro Cavazos, president and CEO of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He was the city's economic development director in 2000 when SATAI started."I'm disappointed it has shut down," Cavazos said. "But I didn't see them as being relevant any more in the city's economic development landscape. It lost its connection to the original purpose and evaporated into the background. It no longer had a strong public-private partnership. That's the way we started out."An early sign that StarTech was winding down its mission of finding financing for startup technology companies came in December when StarTech said it would stop processing applications for investments from the state's Emerging Technology Fund on Jan. 1. The move ended a contract with the state that had provided funding for StarTech since 2007.In December, Poage said the Emerging Technology Fund was shifting its priorities from making investments in new technology companies to helping Texas universities attract "star" researchers and helping form consortiums of companies that would work on common projects.Later, the chairwoman of the Emerging Technology Fund's advisory committee denied that a policy shift had occurred. Terry Chase Hazell said Poage's claim was possibly misleading for other organizations that could take StarTech's place to screen applications for state investments.Poage said StarTech would continue to work with more than 20 other funding sources for startups coming to StarTech for help. Regional offices that screen applications for Emerging Technology Fund investments receive annual base payments of $150,000, with hi儲存倉her amounts based on the success of the companies obtaining investments.StarTech had received $245,000 in 2010 and in 2011, Poage said in December.Before operating with a state contract, SATAI/StarTech had been funded primarily with city grants for several years until the city's funding agreement expired.The Texas Research & Technology Foundation in San Antonio has applied to the state to replace StarTech as a regional center screening applications for state investments. TRTF's application remains pending in Gov. Rick Perry's office, which operates the Emerging Technology Fund, said David Clark, director of investment services for the TRTF's The Texas Technology Development Center program, known as T3DC.Clark said inventors in the life sciences, information technology and energy fields who seek assistance finding investments can go to TRTF for assistance instead of StarTech. UTSA's Small Business Development Center downtown also can help with access to capital and writing business plans, said UTSA's Dalrymple.Clark had worked at StarTech since 2006 before moving to T3DC in June. Clark said Poage met with the StarTech board several times in the winter and spring before the decision was made to close the organization. He said he did not know the reason because he did not attend the board meetings.In January, StarTech said it had reviewed more than 1,000 Emerging Technology Fund applications and recommended 36 to the state for investments. Nearly 20 of those obtained investments totaling more than $30 million.In all, StarTech said it had raised more than $260 million in financing for startup companies from sources ranging from the state and federal grants to other organizations such as the South Texas Angel Network and Microsoft BizSpark.Cavazos said StarTech's role of bringing entrepreneurs and investors together had largely been supplanted over the past five or six years by TRTF and Geekdom, a downtown office housing technology startup firms.SATAI started as a recommendation in a San Antonio economic development strategy developed in 2000 by a team of consultants led by Jim Gollub from California's Information Design Associates and ICF Consultants."It had served its purpose," Cavazos said of StarTech/SATAI. "But everyone had moved on to other organizations" for assistance.dhendricks@express-news.netCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the San Antonio Express-News Visit the San Antonio Express-News at .mysanantonio.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉價錢
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