GROW UTAH AND WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY’S MILLER ADVANCED RESEARCH CENTER HOST ACCELERATOR FOR UTAH PRODUCT STARTUPS
Six Utah innovators received training, prototyping services and mentoring from industry experts to launch their new products during RAMP Spring 2024 Startup Accelerator Program
Grow Utah and Weber State University recently concluded the Spring 2024 Cohort of their RAMP Accelerator, a new product accelerator exclusively focused on Utah’s product startups and small businesses.
Now in its sixth year, RAMP is an 8-week startup accelerator program which helps Utah entrepreneurs and small businesses develop new products across a wide range of industries including outdoor recreation, consumer products, automotive, construction and more.
Through the intensive mentoring, training and interactive learning program, participating innovators surveyed potential customers, tested their value propositions, refined their business models and gleaned advice from business mentors, manufacturing professionals, 3D print specialists and other experts who have previously built successful product companies. The six participating startups were selected from over 25 applicants.
“One of the absolute best parts of RAMP is the quality of the mentors,” said RyLee Reid, Founder and CEO of Sandbar Callus Care, a Spring 2024 RAMP participant. “I’ve been through many startup programs that only offer basic assistance and training. However, the RAMP program was the only one with mentors who’ve actually built product businesses before and knew exactly how to help me. I learned more in a few hours from the RAMP mentors than I did over several months participating in other programs.”
RAMP is organized and hosted by Grow Utah, a non-profit organization founded in 2008 with a mission to accelerate Utah’s innovators and small businesses. The sponsoring co-host for the Spring 2024 cohort was Weber State University’s Miller Advanced Research and Solution Center (MARS) which is located near Hill Air Force Base in Clearfield, Utah. RAMP helps MARS fulfill their mission of mentoring and supporting innovators. Additional sponsors include UAMMI, Utah’s premier industry association for advanced materials and manufacturing.
“The ingenuity of Utah’s innovators is amazing,” said T. Craig Bott, President of Grow Utah. “The goal of RAMP is to help entrepreneurs and small businesses further build, test and refine their innovations in order to succeed. In some cases, this means helping them pivot and tweak their innovations to bring more value to the market. In other cases, it means honing in on exactly what the customer cares about and what product features they will pay for.”
The next RAMP program will be held sometime in late 2024 or early 2025. Interested entrepreneurs can learn more, and signup to be notified of upcoming RAMP programs, at: www.GrowUtah.com/RAMP
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About Grow Utah
Grow Utah, is a privately funded non-profit organization dedicated to accelerate the creation of innovative, entrepreneur-led, high-growth businesses that will strengthen and expand the future growth of Utah’s economy.
The vision of Grow Utah is to create a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem in Utah that fosters entrepreneurial talent, drives innovation to solve market needs, aligns community resources and support, and ensures funding for products, entrepreneurs and businesses of promise. Learn more at www.GrowUtah.com.
About Weber State University Miller Advanced Research & Solutions Center
The Miller Advanced Research Solutions (MARS) center leverages the State of Utah’s (CapEx + OpEx) donation of a 20,000 ft2 high bay Miller Advanced Research Solutions (MARS) facility with full CNC machine shop (EDA), HAFB placement of advanced AM tools, Weber State University’s administration, a $20M appropriation from the Utah legislature, and a $3.5M cash donation from the Miller Family Foundation. MARS was developed to address the production deficiency in high-temperature materials deployment advancing the emergent need to match known and fielded peer hypersonic capabilities in weapons delivery systems. Learn more at: https://weber.edu/mars
About UAMMI
The Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative (UAMMI) brings together public, private, community, industry and education partners to assure growth and sustainability of Utah’s advanced material and manufacturing industry.
The mission of UAMMI is to ensure that Utah is the global leader in value-added advanced materials, manufacturing, technology development, and design by integrating industry, academic and government contributors in ways that enhance collaboration, promote business opportunities, share knowledge resulting from relevant research and engage a skilled and trained workforce.
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PR Contacts:
Justin Bott
Grow Utah
(801) 593-2269
info@growutah.com