I left off a recent blog entry by stating that ".... Montana will continue to be ignored by the capital markets for the foreseeable future." That generated some questions as basic as 'why, and what do you mean?' Second question first. By capital markets, I really mean that segment of the investment industry oriented towards backing private companies. Whether this comes in the form of venture capital (at any stage) subordinated debt, buy out capital or other forms of 'private equity', Montana perpetually ranks at the bottom of most lists in terms of both activity and dollars deployed. As to...continue reading...

I received a phone call from a marketing person with the Federal Reserve Bank (Minneapolis) last week. He is doing an article on successful university lead technology transfer programs. From the data he relayed to me, it appears that Montana State is doing a better than average job at transferring technology to start-ups. And quite a bit better than average at that. Based on that data, MSU is in the top quartile of universities when you consider the number of technology licenses executed with start-ups relative to MSU's overall research expenditures. And most, if not all of those licenses...continue reading...