The Future

Clint Betts -

Onward, Ever Onward

As** you may** have heard, Silicon Slopes and Beehive Startups have come together inside a newly-formed nonprofit organization. A plethora of major announcements will come on the heels of this news, and 2017 is shaping up to be another seminal year for Utah’s startup and tech community. There’s never been more money, talent, or resources available to startups in Utah’s history. It’s hard to believe there’s ever been a more exciting time to be an entrepreneur in the Beehive State.

As 2016 comes to a merciful end, let us remember how lucky we are to live and work in this state. Silicon Slopes is home to more than 5,000 tech companies. We’re no longer a small community with just a couple of success stories. We’re rapidly becoming a vibrant, diverse, global innovation hub with some of the greatest entrepreneurs and companies in the world.

Looking at some of the numbers, it’s clear Utah is in a strong position heading into the new year.

Unemployment Rate

  • Utah: 3.4 percent
  • California: 6.3 percent
  • United States: 4.9 percent

Median Home Price (Per Square Foot)

  • Utah: $164
  • San Francisco: $948
  • Boston: $612
  • Manhattan: $1,789

Venture Capital Invested In Utah

  • 2015: $1B+
  • 2016: $500M+ (Total doesn’t include 4th quarter numbers)

We’re lucky. We’ve accomplished a lot. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do.

In the years to come our community will be called upon to solve and overcome a number of challenges. Paramount to our continued success and prosperity is our duty to ensure the Silicon Slopes don’t rise while the rest of Utah falls or remains stagnant. We have a responsibility to care for and lift up those around us whether they work in tech or not. Startup Santa has taught us the power and influence our community can wield to do good and make a meaningful impact on people’s lives. We have 347,000 Utah children living at or near the poverty level. More than half of those children are at-risk of intergenerational poverty. We can’t leave these kids or their families behind. We just can’t.

While startup communities around the world are making real progress toward becoming more welcoming and open to entrepreneurs of every stripe and background, there is still a long row to hoe before the battle is won. The struggle to break into this game is all too real for those who can’t even get a ticket. Utah must assume a leading role in this effort.

With the formation of this uniquely influential organization, we pledge to work tirelessly to empower Utah’s startup and tech community to learn, connect, and serve in order to make entrepreneurship in Silicon Slopes open and accessible to all.

It was Kanye West who said, “the longer your ‘gevity is, the more confidence you build.” Three years ago almost to the day, Beehive Startups began writing a story about a community of entrepreneurs in Utah. As we begin another chapter in that story, our confidence in that community’s potential has only grown stronger.

Onward, ever onward.