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Right on. "Silicon Slopes" is surprisingly effective attempt by Utah County people to get investors to dump money there. Quick summary of the companies in "Sil

by tntn 8y ago

Right on. "Silicon Slopes" is surprisingly effective attempt by Utah County people to get investors to dump money there. Quick summary of the companies in "Silicon Slopes": Qualtrics (surveys), Domo (vapor), Adobe, Micron (fab only, but claim to "silicon" in the name), Nu Skin (MLM cosmetics/diet supplements) , doterra (essential oil MLM), NatureSunshine (MLM). Great place to be. Lots of innovation in MLMs.

alasdair_ 8y ago
>Great place to be. Lots of innovation in MLMs. Religion and MLM companies seem to be strongly correlated.
- dustinlocke 8y ago
  Built-in social network. Most church-goers automatically have access to a couple hundred people in the neighborhood. I live in Utah and I hate MLMs so much.
  - tialaramex 8y ago
    Also it pre-selects for people who don't say, "But this story makes no sense whatsoever" after your pitch. 419 scammers use deliberately poor grammar and other choices to weed out the people who will figure out it's a scam before they hand over any money, same for an MLM. You want the people who'll lie and cheat and pump every dime they have into your MLM, not the ones who attend a seminar, make interested noises then walk away after losing less that $100.
    - shemnon42 8y ago
      > Also it pre-selects for people who don't say, "But this story makes no sense whatsoever" after your pitch. Thanks for exposing your biases, but you are wrong. It's more of a quid-pro-quo exchange on some of these MLMs or trying to be supportive of someone else's venture in your community. Nearly all know it is overpriced and not necessarily what they need, but it is the rapid exchange of social capital that keeps those communities the way they are. Before MLMs it was casseroles, cookies, tools, helping hands, and babysitting.
      - mythrwy 8y ago
        It should go back to casseroles and tools than. Because what you are supporting is not your neighbors venture but the those who conned your neighbor venture. I'm really surprised there isn't strongly worded statements from Mormon Leadership on this but instead there is a big Nu Skin sign on BYU cougar stadium (or was when I was last in Utah). That isn't good.
        shemnon42 8y ago
        Buying items via MLM is no more immoral than buying a used car through a dealer. It's the abuses of that method that are well known, much like the sleezyness of the prototypical used car salesman. But there are actual good MLM salespeople as well as used car salesmen. The method itself is not immoral (It's not gambling) just some of the practitioners. That being said every single printed congregational directory I've seen has a statement "For Church Use Only - Do not copy without permission from your local church leaders. Not to be Used for Any Commercial, Business, or Political Purpose" - So there is a strongly worded statement about using church resources for your business. Or perhaps you were looking for this - https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/personal-financial-sufficiency-and-integrity https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/personal-...
        mythrwy 8y ago
        I think the method (MLM as opposed to a person who is just selling something) is immoral in the same vein that gambling is. Because it's a consuming and addictive negative expectations game that (generally) takes a persons money and effort without growing the social pie so to speak. It feeds on persons natural desire to better themselves, to make it in life but this effort is subverted into the pockets of hucksters and scammers rather than actually producing good for the world. In this sense it's like pornography as it subverts a natural tendency into nonproductive or counterproductive outlets. People become wrapped up in these schemes, they ruin relationships, families and lives. I find this very immoral.
      - s73v3r_ 8y ago
        If they really were being supportive, the church would ban all mention of MLM's around the church.
- tntn 8y ago
  It's mostly just that particular part of Utah. Mormonism is also highly correlated with successful and honest businesses. See https://www.economist.com/node/21554173 https://www.economist.com/node/21554173
mabey 8y ago
I hate MLMs as much as the next guy, but "Silicon Slopes" does have some legitimate tech companies as well: Podium, Canopy Tax, MX, InsideSales, Pluralsight, Lucid, HireVue, Entrata, Workfront, Ancestry, Jolt, Teem to name a few.
- tntn 8y ago
  I know. I also listed some (Qualtrics, Adobe). However, I have no way of telling if some of the companies on your list are any more legitimate than Domo, which has for years been heralded as a legitimate tech company in the area. To clarify (since not all of the companies you listed are in Utah Valley), my criticism was directed specifically at Utah County, not the whole state (i.e. not Salt Lake City or Davis county).
  - aaronkchsu 8y ago
    I don't know why people never mention https://instructure.com https://instructure.com for Utah startups but I work for them and they seem great!
    - bkirkby 8y ago
      s/seem/are/ imnsho . best place i've worked at in 25+ years :) strong engineering culture. great products. really, really smart people. management that understands the value of management (and what can be detrimental of management).
    - tntn 8y ago
      Again to clarify, I didn't mention them because they are based in Salt Lake. There are lots of great places in Salt Lake, but the discussion above was focused on Utah County (Provo, Orem, Lehi, etc.)
      - codingdave 8y ago
        To clarify, you are the only person who has mentioned this split between Utah County and Salt Lake City. You've clearly got a chip on your shoulder, and I feel it is detracting from a productive conversation.
valuearb 8y ago
Adobe? It’s not a startup, and it wasn’t headquartered in Utah, they were in Mountain View, CA when I met with Warnock. It’s like having Oregon claim EBay because a tiny fraction of the company is in Portland.
- thousandautumns 8y ago
  It doesn't have to be headquartered there, nor a startup to be relevant to the tech scene. Its not like its a small office building or anything, its a giant, state of the art campus that employs thousands and they've already committed to expanding further. Are we going to say Amazon isn't going to be hugely influential in the tech scene of wherever they choose their HQ2 to be, simply because they aren't a startup and are based in Seattle?

by tntn 8y ago

alasdair_ 8y ago

>Great place to be. Lots of innovation in MLMs. Religion and MLM companies seem to be strongly correlated.

dustinlocke 8y ago
Built-in social network. Most church-goers automatically have access to a couple hundred people in the neighborhood. I live in Utah and I hate MLMs so much.
- tialaramex 8y ago
  Also it pre-selects for people who don't say, "But this story makes no sense whatsoever" after your pitch. 419 scammers use deliberately poor grammar and other choices to weed out the people who will figure out it's a scam before they hand over any money, same for an MLM. You want the people who'll lie and cheat and pump every dime they have into your MLM, not the ones who attend a seminar, make interested noises then walk away after losing less that $100.
  - shemnon42 8y ago
    > Also it pre-selects for people who don't say, "But this story makes no sense whatsoever" after your pitch. Thanks for exposing your biases, but you are wrong. It's more of a quid-pro-quo exchange on some of these MLMs or trying to be supportive of someone else's venture in your community. Nearly all know it is overpriced and not necessarily what they need, but it is the rapid exchange of social capital that keeps those communities the way they are. Before MLMs it was casseroles, cookies, tools, helping hands, and babysitting.
    - mythrwy 8y ago
      It should go back to casseroles and tools than. Because what you are supporting is not your neighbors venture but the those who conned your neighbor venture. I'm really surprised there isn't strongly worded statements from Mormon Leadership on this but instead there is a big Nu Skin sign on BYU cougar stadium (or was when I was last in Utah). That isn't good.
      - shemnon42 8y ago
        Buying items via MLM is no more immoral than buying a used car through a dealer. It's the abuses of that method that are well known, much like the sleezyness of the prototypical used car salesman. But there are actual good MLM salespeople as well as used car salesmen. The method itself is not immoral (It's not gambling) just some of the practitioners. That being said every single printed congregational directory I've seen has a statement "For Church Use Only - Do not copy without permission from your local church leaders. Not to be Used for Any Commercial, Business, or Political Purpose" - So there is a strongly worded statement about using church resources for your business. Or perhaps you were looking for this - https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/personal-financial-sufficiency-and-integrity https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/personal-...
        mythrwy 8y ago
        I think the method (MLM as opposed to a person who is just selling something) is immoral in the same vein that gambling is. Because it's a consuming and addictive negative expectations game that (generally) takes a persons money and effort without growing the social pie so to speak. It feeds on persons natural desire to better themselves, to make it in life but this effort is subverted into the pockets of hucksters and scammers rather than actually producing good for the world. In this sense it's like pornography as it subverts a natural tendency into nonproductive or counterproductive outlets. People become wrapped up in these schemes, they ruin relationships, families and lives. I find this very immoral.
    - s73v3r_ 8y ago
      If they really were being supportive, the church would ban all mention of MLM's around the church.
tntn 8y ago
It's mostly just that particular part of Utah. Mormonism is also highly correlated with successful and honest businesses. See https://www.economist.com/node/21554173 https://www.economist.com/node/21554173

mabey 8y ago

I hate MLMs as much as the next guy, but "Silicon Slopes" does have some legitimate tech companies as well: Podium, Canopy Tax, MX, InsideSales, Pluralsight, Lucid, HireVue, Entrata, Workfront, Ancestry, Jolt, Teem to name a few.

tntn 8y ago
I know. I also listed some (Qualtrics, Adobe). However, I have no way of telling if some of the companies on your list are any more legitimate than Domo, which has for years been heralded as a legitimate tech company in the area. To clarify (since not all of the companies you listed are in Utah Valley), my criticism was directed specifically at Utah County, not the whole state (i.e. not Salt Lake City or Davis county).
- aaronkchsu 8y ago
  I don't know why people never mention https://instructure.com https://instructure.com for Utah startups but I work for them and they seem great!
  - bkirkby 8y ago
    s/seem/are/ imnsho . best place i've worked at in 25+ years :) strong engineering culture. great products. really, really smart people. management that understands the value of management (and what can be detrimental of management).
  - tntn 8y ago
    Again to clarify, I didn't mention them because they are based in Salt Lake. There are lots of great places in Salt Lake, but the discussion above was focused on Utah County (Provo, Orem, Lehi, etc.)
    - codingdave 8y ago
      To clarify, you are the only person who has mentioned this split between Utah County and Salt Lake City. You've clearly got a chip on your shoulder, and I feel it is detracting from a productive conversation.

valuearb 8y ago

Adobe? It’s not a startup, and it wasn’t headquartered in Utah, they were in Mountain View, CA when I met with Warnock. It’s like having Oregon claim EBay because a tiny fraction of the company is in Portland.

thousandautumns 8y ago
It doesn't have to be headquartered there, nor a startup to be relevant to the tech scene. Its not like its a small office building or anything, its a giant, state of the art campus that employs thousands and they've already committed to expanding further. Are we going to say Amazon isn't going to be hugely influential in the tech scene of wherever they choose their HQ2 to be, simply because they aren't a startup and are based in Seattle?