*untamed *wild *feral NoCo News for the Left of USUs Issue 1: The Non-Profit Industrial Military Complex
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 2 Exposé: Why Innosphere has Got to Go …… …………………….. 3 What is mutual aid and why do we need to do it? ………….. 12 To Live Free (Palestinian Essay) …………..…………………………. 14 Book review: The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit industrial Complex………………...…………………. 15 Events and Organizations Updates …………………………………….. 17 https://www.cartoonfreeamerica. com/political47.html 1
Greetings comrades! The Undomesticated Observer was created to share information, ideas, art, and events, from across the front range area. It is intended to be a collaboration of leftists from any/all groups who would like to contribute to its content. This zine will not be censored in any way and all ideas left of center will be fair game for content. However, the editors do have full creative control and will not be including any material not relevant to leftist action/organizing. That being said, we welcome your content! We are hoping to publish a new issue each month as our capacity allows. Power to the People! Please email content and letters to the editors at: FoCoAgainstCapitalism@gmail.com 2
*By Meena, little t, and artee What is Innosphere? As a way to ostensibly stimulate economic growth, the City of Ft Collins launched the non-profit, Fort Collins Technology Incubator Program in 1998, now known as Innosphere. Innosphere distributes millions of dollars in grant and foundation money which it uses to fund start up companies (many of them connected with former or current companies of its board of directors). In 2015, 42 Innosphere startup companies raised 31.8 million dollars in capital. Innosphere is listed as a 501c3 company, meaning none of its assets are taxed nor do they pay city sales tax back to Fort Collins residents for the public services they use or the products they buy as part of their operations. https://icma.org/articles/article/city-platform 3
5.3-million-dollar loan. An additional 2 million dollars was loaned from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. The rationale for the loan according to the city of Fort Collins Economic Development Strategy was to provide a stronger foundation for business incubation activities in Fort Collins. The complete history of the development strategy can be found online at: http://www.fcgov.com/business/. Innosphere was initially partnered with several Fort Collins organizations and several CSU connected departments and organizations to “foster a nurturing entrepreneurial culture” in Fort Collins. Early on, Innosphere was connected to local partners, in line with the mission of incubating and retaining local Fort Collins business. The businesses and organizations they partnered with included: The Fort Collins Bicycle Alliance, Fort Collins New Tech Meetup, The Gardens on Spring Creek, and CSU. Originally, they worked primarily with CSU and CU Boulder to recruit faculty generated technology for potential development into new for-profit businesses. Currently, Innosphere gives business advice and connects academics and innovators with potential venture capital investors. Investors receive hefty tax breaks for contributing to the Innosphere fund. Since their inception, they have spread way beyond Fort Collins to include multi-state partnerships and have connections to big tech and big oil industry (more on that in a later edition!) 4
Investors get a hefty incentive in the form of tax breaks. Meaning, money that would go back into the general fund for all of Fort Collins, get put into the pocket of Innosphere. Venture capitalists get a large investment that costs them a fraction of the “real” cost. Here is a breakdown of what investors got out of contributing to Innosphere: For example, if they invest 100K they will get 65% of it back in tax breaks. You can find the city council notes plus the full report from Innosphere including the table below by searching city council agenda archives under: “July 23, 2013 Work Session Item Fort Collins City Council”. 5
The CEO of Innosphere, Mike Freeman was the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Fort Collins from March 2006-June 2011. In March of 2012, he became the CEO of Innosphere Ventures. In July 2017 he became a General Partner in the Innosphere Venture Fund. In August 2017 he became a General Partner in the Israel - Colorado Innovation Fund (housed at Innosphere). In November 2017 he became a member of the board of directors at Incident Response Technologies. In Jan 2024 he became the Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Wyoming climate resilience engine, also housed at Innosphere. (More about the Israel-Colorado Fund and the CO-WYO Tech Engine to come in later editions). He is a member of multiple for profit and nonprofit companies including, the CSU Energy Institute External Advisory Committee, Colorado Clean Energy Cluster, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Colorado Enterprise Fund (a small business loan company). Tim Jones is the COO of Innosphere, appointed in 2022. He has been with the company since 2019. Jones is also a General partner in the Israel-Colorado Fund and leads the Innosphere Ventures Fund II Research Associate team, an expansion of the original fund. He also serves on the Cleantech screening committee at the Rockies Venture Club. He is a former employee of GE and has served in the UN Navy as a nuclear submarine officer. Recently, he has also been appointed COO of the Colorado Wyoming climate resilience engine. The City of Fort Collins Economic Health Director, SeonAh Kendall, is an Executive Committee Board Member along with current employees of the City of Boulder, The VP for Research at CSU, and the Managing Director of Bow River Capital (a private fund platform with $3BN in managed assets ). https://innosphereventures.org/about/
Ethical? The creation of Innosphere and its dubious connections to the City of Fort Collins did not go unnoticed at the time of its creation. Allegations of impropriety and illegality were leveled at the city to a degree that it issued an official response on February 2, 2012 in the form of a memorandum addressing citizen concerns. The concerns included the legality of making such a loan as well as undue pressure and influence from the former city CFO, Mike Freeman, setting himself up as the recipient of such sizable loans. You can find the full Memorandum in City of Fort Collins Archives dated Feb 2, 7 Re: Response to allegations Regarding Rocky Mountain Innosphere Funding.
Much of Innosphere’s current capital seems to come from Federal dollars, meaning it is taxpayer funded. For example, in 2023, the U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded them a Regional Life Sciences Incubation Program grant to help 30 science and tech-based companies get capital and access to business support. Despite its claim of being a Fort Collins community based program, this fund connects Innosphere and it’s grant money to partners in Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Texas, New Mexico, and South Carolina. As an example of the ways in which these funds are used to enhance governmental big data capabilities, Innosphere funded ResourceX, recently acquired by Tyler Technologies. This company is a vehicle for budget data software creation for local governments. Resource X’s applications leverage machine learning and AI to predict and identify multi-million-dollar opportunities for their “clients”. https://investors.tylertech.com/news/news-details/2023/Tyler-Technologies-Acquires-ResourceX/default.aspx 8
Fleepit Digital © 2021