By Tom Gibbons
Business Correspondent for TNAZ

The venture capital firms on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif. have had global impact — and a parochial focus.

For decades, Sand Hill Road played a role in the high-tech economy similar to that of Wall Street to 19th century industrialists, placing bets in the form of early-stage financing of companies — such as Apple, Google, Yahoo, eBay — in the Silicon Valley that have gone on to change business and daily life around the world.

However, the money people whose offices lined that ordinary-looking stretch of suburban roadway generally kept the funds within easy driving distance

There are signs the times are changing, though not fast enough for frustrated entrepreneurs.

"I think everything is becoming more liquid,'' said Michael Moe, author of "Finding the Next Starbucks."

Moe, a former investment banker and "company builder" who heads NextUp Research in Atherton, Calif., was the featured speaker December 10 at the Invest Southwest Conference at the Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale.

The conference drew representatives from investment firms based in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas and, yes, even from Sand Hill Road.

Moe foresees a world in which clusters of high-tech companies spring up in cities around the world. The Silicon Valley model has been adapted in such locales as Minneapolis and Boston.

The Phoenix metropolitan area is emerging as one of those areas, Moe said. "It has a lot of assets.''

One of those assets is that companies in key growth sectors, such as education, high tech, environment and sustainability and healthcare, have flourished in Arizona.

The Apollo Group, founded in Phoenix in the mid-1970s by a San Jose State professor, has the largest online university in the world.

Intel, though headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., has had a major manufacturing operation in Chandler for almost three decades.

Mayo Clinic, one of the premier names in health care, has a facility in north Phoenix.

Tempe-based First Solar has an $11 billion valuation. First Solar, which makes a thin-film photovoltaic cell that functions better with less light and has a smaller carbon foot print, went public in 2006.

"Five years ago they were running the company out of a shack,'' Moe said.

The success of those companies, he said, shows venture firms that Arizona has the talent to succeed.

The area has other strengths as well, Moe said. The presence of Arizona State University, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and proximity of the University of Arizona means there is a pool of trained knowledge workers ready to enter the workforce as well as faculty research and expertise from which to draw.

Moe credits Michael Crow, ASU president since 2002. Under Crow the school established the Center for Biodesign, the Center for Sustainability and added more than 1 million square feet of research space.

"I can't say enough about the job Crow has done,'' Moe said.

Then there's the 350 days of sunshine, great for solar energy as well as making Arizona attractive for relocation. And land is plentiful and cheap — and in the wake of the real estate meltdown, getting lower.

"Compare that to the cost of living in Palo Alto,'' he said.

Clate Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft, a Gilbert-based maker of software that automates e-mail and customer relations management, said there's still a disconnect between venture capital from Northern California and what's happening on the front lines in Arizona.

"The fire of entrepreneurship is burning strong here,'' he said in a panel discussion. "It's a good business climate. We have good people and good technology. The capital seems to be a step behind."

Bruce Andersen, who founded e-learning company Knowledge.net in Scottsdale in 1998, said the talent has always been here.

"People asked me if there's any problems with running a company in Arizona,'' said Andersen, who now runs Altivon, an IP Telephony company based in Phoenix. "I've never found any."