Nevada is one of the fastest-growing states when it comes to entrepreneurship and small businesses since the pandemic. The topic was the focus of a recent UNLV Brews & Economic Views event at Bad Beat Brewing in downtown Las Vegas.
The speakers included Len Jessup, managing partner, Desert Forge Ventures and a fellow at the Lincy Institute at UNLV; John Kwon, co-founder and executive director at the Korea Business Innovation Center and president and director of regulatory affairs at SEALEXCO LLC; Zachary Miles, interim vice president for Economic Development at UNLV and executive director of the UNLV Research Foundation; Eric Sanchez, CEO and co-founder of X2L Bio; and Lorrained Yarde, founder of Innovation Henderson.
Jessup said the start-up ecosystem in Nevada was ranked fifth in the nation, prompting the need for a fund to help drive the growth of companies. Over the past year, Desert Forge Ventures has 32 investors with 17 start-ups that have commitments.
“It’s a good year for the fund, and it’s great to be back in the middle of all of this,” Jessup said.
Jessup said the surge in Nevada goes back to its history of Las Vegas built on risk-taking. The city was inhospitable without electricity, but a watering hole that helped. It started as a stop-off to California and then someone opened a gambling hall and that evolved to the resort industry.
Las Vegas has since turned into a place of innovation with the help of universities to create home-grown companies, Jessup said. In addition, California’s taxes and regulations have caused company founders to move to Nevada.
Miles said Nevada is surrounded by ecosystems in California, Utah and Arizona. The state is in its earliest stages and has roadmaps from neighboring states that can be followed.
“What’s really exciting but also creates a problem for playing catch-up is that everybody is doing a lot of stuff at the same time,” Miles said. “We’re trying to coordinate. We’re a young ecosystem, and we can move and be agile and can benefit from those around us by pulling in entrepreneurs, funding or best practices. It’s an exciting time. We’re early but moving in the right direction.”
Sanchez said what Las Vegas has is awesome but because it’s early, it’s going to take a lot of work and community building.
“These opportunities because they are early are awesome but also but it’s a lot of work,” Sanchez said. “It’s all here.”
What makes the U.S. special when it comes to entrepreneurship is the willingness of people to take risks, Sanchez said.
“I’ve been at this for 22 years, and I can’t believe I have made a living out of it,” Sanchez said. “At the end of the day, you have to figure out how to make it day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year. When you’re successful, you’re sleeping even less because the expectations are so much higher. The beauty of being an entrepreneur is you do take a risk but there’s a reality. Starting a company is like pushing a boulder up a hill. Sometimes a rainstorm will come and sometimes a tsunami will hit and you are still holding that boulder. If you can’t hold that boulder it’s hard. That boulder gets heavier and mud gets thicker and the rain gets harder. As you go through it you build up stamina and enjoy it.”
Jessup added that what’s missing from Las Vegas is the ability to draw upon the people it needs for tasks like they do in the Bay Area in California.
Miles also cited the importance of funding from the government and supported entities to help attract businesses and help them grow.
Yarde said it’s the start-ups rather than the big companies who innovate and are changing the world. She said it would help if Las Vegas would attract anchor companies to support other business and cited Haas Automation that has expanded from California to Henderson as an example. It’s building a 2.4 milion square-foot manufacturing facility while also building up space for vendors.
