Sramana Mitra: Tell me a bit about the geography. You said Salt Lake City. Does that mean that you’re investing only in new test startups? What is your policy? Sumner Douglas: Definitely not. We definitely do take a lot of surge from Utah. The Utah tech game has grown significantly over the last couple of
Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with George Spencer was recorded in January 2019. Sumner Douglas is Managing Director and Venture Partner at BoomStartup, a Utah-based accelerator that offers pre-seed funding. Sramana Mitra: Tell us what you’ve been up
Sumner Douglas is Managing Director and Venture Partner at BoomStartup, a Utah-based accelerator that offers pre-seed funding.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold John: My favorite situation is when I have a founder who is strong in technology, but also has enough business acumen to be the CEO. That is when we have the strongest team, where you’ve got a tech person who’s essentially the CEO/CTO. The first 12 to
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold John: So, Boom Startup Capital 2010, LLC was the exact name of the entity that took in money, and then invested in each of the 10 companies in the inaugural year, 2010. We took in enough money for the investment and a bit more for expenses. That
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: What are your metrics for success? John: Traction in the form of investment, revenue, profit and exits. We always have the companies report at every meeting (a) validated customers, (b) users, (c) true customers, and (d) revenue.
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold John: So, both years, one team in 2010 and one team in 2011, turned us down after we gave them the invitation. Irina: Why do you think they turned you down?
By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold John: We have about 50 top mentors who are listed on our website. Sometimes they provide only a few hours during the summer. Sometimes, they’ll come in and provide four hours every week because they fall in love with the program. They do it all free.