Legislature(2025 - 2026)GRUENBERG 120
02/27/2025 03:15 PM House STATE AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB87 | |
| HB30 | |
| HB75 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 30 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 87 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 81 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | HB 75 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 30-OFFICE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
3:19:44 PM
CHAIR CARRICK announced that the next order of business would be
HOUSE BILL NO. 30, "An Act establishing the office of
entrepreneurship; relating to new businesses in the state;
relating to reports concerning procurements by agencies; and
relating to initial business license fees for new businesses in
the state."
3:20:08 PM
CHAIR CARRICK opened public testimony on HB 30.
3:20:29 PM
SERENA ALLEN, CEO/Cofounder, AirVitalize, testified in support
of HB 30. She said that her company is a Fairbanks company that
pulls pollution from the air, and it wishes to expand to remove
air pollution worldwide. She said that she has completed most
of the innovation programs in Alaska and was named the "High
North Young Entrepreneur" in 2024 by the Arctic Congress. She
said that like many start-ups in Alaska, AirVitalize is at risk
of leaving the state.
MS. ALLEN commented on the difference between a start-up and a
small business. She said that a small business is a staple of
Alaska, and the owners are "entrepreneurs by nature." However,
a start-up is something that scales into a global entity that
brings billions of dollars to a region. She said there is not
an opportunity to grow and expand in Alaska at this point. She
said that in start-ups there is a term known as "The Valley of
Death." This is when someone has an idea, a concept has been
proven, but before a business can get to scaling, there isn't
the resources available to test the technology. She said this
is where AirVitalize is currently. She said that testing for
the company was done in Los Angeles where it was able to get
$70,000 to manufacture locally and test the product. She said
that there has been no money available for product testing in
Fairbanks. She proceeded to describe various Alaskan based
start-ups that left the state due to lack of resources. She
said that her own intern from last summer is looking for
opportunities out-of-state due to the lack of start-up
infrastructure in Alaska. She said this matters because
innovation is a cornerstone for building a resilient economy.
She said that HB 30 will help start-ups avoid the "Valley of
Death" and help Alaska diversify its economy beyond "just oil
and gas."
3:23:25 PM
GABRIEL LOW, CEO/Founder, Remote Hands, testified in support of
HB 30. He said that Remote Hands was in Juneau for the
Innovation Summit, an event focused on start-ups and innovation.
He said that he has always been an educator and had a background
working with various science, technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) programs in rural areas of the state. He also said that
he had associations with Upward Bound. He said that there is an
opportunity gap in Alaska's rural locations and often products
and services require expensive flights to get there. He said
Remote Hands connects rural communities with these products and
services. He said that he never thought about Remote Hands as a
start-up until he attended a start-up weekend in Anchorage. He
said this event changed his life and he was now looking at
scaling. He said that after a market evaluation, Remote Hands
had an opportunity to be a global entity. He said he has
received considerable support in the Anchorage start-up
ecosystem and having a statewide Office of Entrepreneurship that
would coordinate and bring resources together would be helpful.
3:26:20 PM
PETER WARDEN, Former Director, Startup Accelerator, Alaska
Fisheries Development Foundation, testified in support of HB 30.
He said that he is part of the Alaska start-up ecosystem in a
few ways. He spent the last 16 months as the director of the
Startup Accelerator with the Alaska Fisheries Development
Foundation and left that role to pursue other innovation ideas.
He said that he recently attended the Innovation Summit in
Juneau and had the pleasure of meeting several entrepreneurs.
He said that part of his background was building programs and
getting them funded. He said that this came with learning about
all the challenges associated with building an entrepreneurial
program in Alaska. He said that part of this process was
looking at "reverse engineering" to determine what works in
other places and what would work in Alaska. He said that
bringing products and services to the state comes with unique
Alaska challenges, including the geography alone. He said
hosting more start-up weekends across the state means navigating
logistical challenges and would require a proper fit to the
hosting community. He said that he really supports HB 30 and
thinks that it would help Alaska catch up to the rest of the
country when it comes to attitudes towards innovation and
support for innovation.
3:28:46 PM
Kyle Dufrane, Co-owner, Remote Hands, testified in support of HB
30. He said that he met the other cofounder of Remote Hands at
a start-up weekend. He said that without the start-up weekend,
the business would have never happened. He said that being an
entrepreneur is something he thought about for years but there
was never an avenue or direction to find the resources. He said
that he had learned about the start-up weekend from an informal
channel.
3:30:03 PM
MARK LAMBERT, representing self, testified in support of HB 30.
He said that he was a four-time start-up founder/CEO and two of
these companies he has taken from just an idea to something with
market sales. He said that his last company was a software
company which ended up being based out of San Diego and was
acquired by a third-party in 2019. He said in 2022 he got
involved in the start-up ecosystem where he had the honor of
being the mentor and resident for the gBETA startup accelerator,
which is Alaska's leading startup accelerator. He said he was
also involved with Techstars and chaired the tech investment arm
of the NuFund Venture Group. He said that most of the last few
years had been spent getting start-ups ready. His last company
was founded in Alaska and because of the lack of resources and
capital availability, the company moved to San Diego. He said
that this was a transformative experience for him because
everything he struggled to find in Alaska was easily found in
San Diego. This included access to capital or centralized
resource guiding which he found from an entity called "Start-up
San Diego." He said this put him in contact with people who
helped his business get off the ground. He said that this was
foundational to the growth of the company. He said that none of
this value was captured by Alaska. He said that since returning
to Alaska he has cofounded another company that is venture
backed, and it has successfully raised capital and nearly all of
it has been outside of Alaska. He said that during investor
meetings, the common question he has received is when he plans
on moving the company out of Alaska, even though two of the co-
founders live in the state and the headquarters is based there.
He said that if Alaska wants to build the start-up ecosystem,
then the state will have to support and grow it itself. He said
HB 30 is the single biggest thing the state could do to build
this ecosystem.
3:33:28 PM
NORRIS KRUEGER, Leadership Council, Ecosystem Builder, testified
in support of HB 30. He said that he has been able to work with
global policy people and was both a scholar and educator in
entrepreneurship. He said that he is passionate about helping
people build a start-up ecosystem and said that this is an
important topic and other states and countries have been trying
this. He said that simply listening was powerful and that
entrepreneurs want to be heard. He said that the previous
testimonies were a powerful signal that it is time to coordinate
and advance this topic. He said that the start-up climate often
needs a referee and the Office of Entrepreneurship that is
proposed under HB 30 could do this. He said that every year,
companies have fewer jobs, and this includes every state and
region. He said the new jobs are coming from start-ups and
having a vehicle to help start-ups is critical.
3:38:37 PM
JAY BYAM, CEO, Karetorium, testified in support of HB 30. He
said that Karetorium started five years ago and began
participating in the start-up ecosystem four years ago after
discovering its existence. He said that Karetorium has involved
itself in every single program throughout the state and has
jumped from one program to another. The phases involved
customer feedback, investment acquisition, and other assistance
to achieve start-up milestones. The business is now profitable
and has six full-time employees. He said other start-ups do not
go through the phases in such an elegant fashion. He said that
an Office of Entrepreneurship proposed under HB 30 would be able
to centralize start-up activities.
3:40:56 PM
REPRESENTATIVE HOLLAND asked if Mr. Byam could describe
Karetorium in greater detail. He said it is a great example of
a start-up that is more than just an Anchorage based business.
The software company captures images of processing facilities to
allow for facilitated remote support, something that can support
rural locations in Alaska and decrease maintenance costs. He
said that it provides solutions to not only Alaska's challenges
but with potential applications across the globe.
3:43:16 PM
MR. BYAM said that Karetorium is an online platform that makes
three-dimensional (3D) models of infrastructure. He said that a
lot of the work in Alaska has been to build out various
infrastructure in rural locations. By doing this, off-site
experts can use 3D modeling to coordinate with others how to
maintain these facilities. He said that starting out in Alaska
was beneficial because it made their company adjacent to
potential users of this product. He said it allowed the company
to legitimize themselves on a small scale for later scaling into
other sectors. He said that when Karetorium mentions that it is
based out of Alaska, it surprises people.
3:46:07 PM
CHAIR CARRICK, after ascertaining that there were no additional
questions, closed public testimony on HB 30.
3:46:42 PM
REPRESENTATIVE HOLLAND asked about an amendment deadline for HB
30.
3:46:52 PM
CHAIR CARRICK set an amendment deadline and announced that HB 30
was held over.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HB 30 Support LTR Kartorium 2.25.25.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 30 |
| HB 30 Support LTR Health TIE 1-30-25.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 30 |
| HB 30 Support LTR Gener8tor 2-19-25.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 30 |
| HB 87 Written Testimony 2-27-25.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 87 |
| HB 75 Amendment N.2.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 75 |
| HB 75 Written Testimony 2-22-25.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 75 |
| HB 75 State Affairs Follow-Up Memo 02.24.2025.pdf |
HSTA 2/27/2025 3:15:00 PM |
HB 75 |