The Eyes of the Nation Fall Upon Utah’s Startup Community

The rise of Utah isn’t smoke and mirrors.

StartSLC was a smashing success. Everything we could have asked for — support, attendance, Peruvian sandwiches — we received and then some. If you were lucky enough to grab a seat in The Gateway’s Grand Hall on Saturday night, you saw something special — not a copycat of Silicon Valley’s community, but the assertion of a unique and successful startup culture. Utah’s very own startup culture.

The rise of Utah isn’t smoke in mirrors. Recent articles published in The New Yorker, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg — disregard the latter’s terrible, unexplainable title — highlight what attendees of StartSLC already know: the Utah tech community is thriving on a level matching anything America has to offer. Even our college students are in the game. Provo, Ogden, and Salt Lake City are all rated among the top 15 cities in the US regarding advanced-industry jobs. Look around and Utah is littered with some of the industry’s biggest names — Pluralsight, Qualtrics, InsideSales — with many other lesser known companies — ClientSuccess, Cotopaxi, Qzzr — knocking at the door.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand legitimate growth and progress is currently happening in the Beehive State.

Published 2/5/2015