INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
of trend the new Silicon Slopes Venture Fund hopes to create.The newly formed fund, put together by Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith,
The goal? To become every bit as notable as a16z or Sequoia Capital.Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and Domo and Omniture founder Josh James
mountain region for outdoors enthusiasts, but tech has fast become the leading job sector in the state, with some salaries from companies
like Adobe and Qualtrics rivaling those in Silicon Valley
The state recently pledged a push to include at least one computer science course in every high school in the state by 2022
It also just hosted a massive, 25,000 person startup festival called the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit
aside for its mission to help Utah become a full-fledged tech ecosystem rivaling Silicon Valley but one would imagine it would have a
Qualtrics sold to SAP in 2019 for $8 billion, notably the largest private enterprise software deal in tech history.Silicon Slopes Tech
Summit 2020 Gubernatorial DebateOne of the many issues tech hubs around the world face is both the networking capabilities and the ability
to invest after the early stage investment
Most startups throughout the globe still find the need to travel and make connections in Silicon Valley to get them through the next step of
This has been true for every billion-dollar startup idea in Utah as well so far
Both Smith and James took in Silicon Valley venture for their companies, as did unicorn turned public edtech startup Pluralsight and the
recently rebranded sales platform Xant (formerly InsideSales) before making it big.However, this new fund represents the kind of push needed
to create a strong innovation ecosystem in the future, as Steve Case mentioned on stage at the summit event this last week
Deseret News paraphrased the AOL founder as saying.Pelion Venture Partners, which operates in both Utah and Southern California, will act
as a support to Silicon Slopes Venture Fund, providing organizational overhead
Each partner will still keep their day job and donate most fees to support the ongoing operation of the non-profit tech organization,
Silicon Slopes, which runs the annual tech summit of the same moniker
However, the Silicon Slopes Venture Fund will be an independent fund from Pelion, with the sole purpose of investing in deal flow the three
