It has worked so well that Neilson said he and others will push for the Legislature to bump up the tax credit level to $300 million.

Representatives of several venture capital funds hailed Utah's economic advantages and the usefulness of the Fund of Funds program. Mark Gorenberg, managing director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, said Utah has surpassed Boston as a target for his fund.

"It's our second-biggest area for investing now," said Gorenberg, whose fund invests only in software companies. "It is the No. 1 tech growth area we believe in the country today, by the way, and we believe we're going to make more money here also than anywhere else in the country ... including the Bay area. So you should be very proud of what's being built here."

Spencer Tall, managing director of Allegis Capital, a seed and early-stage investment fund, echoed Gorenberg's assessment of Utah.

"I must tell you that in the last 10 years, Utah has made tremendous progress, and I agree with Mark," he said. "We think it's one of the hottest places in the entire country right now to both invest and in terms of economic opportunities."

Thomas Hogan, president of computer disk backup systems company Revinetix, noted that his company received an investment from RWI Ventures, which itself had received an investment from the Utah Fund of Funds.

"So it was completely invisible to us," Hogan said. "You don't care, we don't care, at the table where that money's coming from. (We care) is it a good fit? And it was."

Will West, a member of the Utah Capital Investment Corp., one of two boards overseeing the Fund of Funds program, said the program's is "amazing."

"Clearly, the needle is moving, and it is moving in a way that opens the opportunities," he said.

"We now have more than one outside venture capital company in Utah every single day looking at ... and working with companies, whereas prior to the existence of the Fund of Funds, I think we all had the experience of looking around at a great big empty and thinking, OK, I've got to fly to California to go find some money," West said. "So the landscape is clearly changing and it's encouraging."

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com