Silicon Slopes Conversations Silicon Slopes Conversations

In this Friday Conversation, we were joined by Beth Armstrong, Managing Director at Marcella Club & Ryan Kartchner with Capital Reef Partners. In this conversation, Beth and Ryan share their fascinating journey to Marcella, highlighting the resort's unique blend of golf and skiing experiences. They discuss exclusive offerings such as the Golf Course Home Sites and the success of Park City Club Memberships, which are nearly sold out.



Beth begins the conversation by discussing her career in hospital administration before moving to Utah for her son's ski racing. Ryan grew up in Utah and worked in golf club management, at Promontory and Hidden Valley Country Club. He started consulting for Reef Capital while at Promontory which is where Beth and Ryan met. 



Ryan discusses how he pitched the idea for a high elite, over the top club, that was a little more on the exclusive side making it more appealing for people to join. With options to live on the ski hill or on the golf course, Marcella will be an attractive option because of its year-round options. Beth & Ryan discuss that Marcella will have 150 ski lots and 350 lots with golf memberships and the course will be over 7,500 feet with holes over 700 yards and 300 yard par 3s.



Ryan shares insider knowledge from working with Tiger Woods in designing the course. Ryan says he has also worked with Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. He finds it interesting to see how each designer has a different approach. Ryan says his initial meeting with Tiger to discuss the property got Tiger very excited about the possibilities at Marcella.



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In this Friday Conversation, we were joined by Garrett Blood, Founder & CEO of Kajae. In this conversation, Garrett discusses Kajae's mission of connecting talented individuals from 26 different countries with opportunities at a variety of companies. Garrett explains how Kajae finds highly skilled professionals, such as accountants, engineers, and developers, and ensures they receive good pay and benefits while working remotely for client companies.  



Garrett shares the story of starting Arctic Zero, an ice cream company he founded that became the number one pint of ice cream sold on Amazon. He discusses the challenges of creating a healthy ice cream and experimenting with different recipes. Garrett also talks about leveraging Amazon's shipping network to lower acquisition costs for customers. The conversation shifts to Garrett's experience serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico where he witnessed high levels of poverty, which later inspired him to create opportunities for talented people around the world through Kajae.



Garrett explains Kajae's business model, where they make a small margin by connecting professionals to long term jobs while prioritizing the well-being of their employees. Garrett and the interviewer discuss movies from the 1980s that influenced Garrett. They talk about Garrett seeing Ronald Reagan at Disneyland on his 11th birthday and exchanging words with the former president. The conversation ranges from movies to music to Garrett's vision for Kajae in the future.



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In this Friday Conversation we were joined by Edson Barton, CEO of YouScience. Edson discusses how his journey from personal misjudgment to founding YouScience embodies the company's ethos of early talent discovery for effective educational and career mapping. The episode offered a glimpse into YouScience's impactful work in Utah schools and underscored the importance of recognizing and nurturing individual talents.



The core of YouScience's mission was discussed as Edson elaborated on their longitudinal platform designed to guide students from middle school through their careers, helping them uncover their innate strengths and interests. This sparked a question about Edson's personal connection to this work, leading to a heartfelt discussion about his own experiences misjudging his talents in school.



Delving into the practical application of YouScience's platform, Edson explained how they administer aptitude tests in Utah's public schools to empower students with insights into potential career paths. This data-driven approach aims to align students' educational journeys with their natural inclinations, a concept that resonated deeply with the host and listeners.



The conversation took a reflective turn as Edson shared his journey of self-discovery, realizing his passion for the arts amidst academic challenges and inconsistent grades. This personal revelation added a poignant layer to the narrative of YouScience's mission.



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In this Friday Conversation, we were joined by Bubba Page, serial entrepreneur & angel investor, founder/CEO of venture capital syndicate Influence.vc. In this conversation Bubba shares his entrepreneurial journey starting from his college days.



After serving an LDS mission in Brazil and graduating from BYU, Bubba jumped into the startup world with his first company, Seatability, an office furniture company. He then went on to start Launch Leads, bootstrapping it for 5 years before bringing on a CEO. His next venture was Quota Deck which rebranded to Outro and raised VC funding. Although Outro did not succeed, Bubba reflects on the difficult emotional period that followed.



After spending time angel investing and supporting his wife's social media business, Bubba started Influence VC to syndicate deals and invest in startups leveraging his experience in influencer marketing strategies. He now finds fulfillment in helping portfolio companies scale through this work.



Throughout his journey, Bubba credits his faith in God for guiding him through the ups and downs. He believes God opened and closed doors at the right times, leading him down the entrepreneurial path. Bubba feels blessed and acknowledges God's hand in bringing the right people and opportunities into his life.



Tune in to hear more details on the twists and turns of Bubba's entrepreneurial path from college to now.

In this Friday Conversation, we were joined by Cory Linton, CEO & Manoj Perumal, COO/CTO of Mojo AI. They discussed the founding of their AI safety company in 2018, how AI can help aggregate safety data to identify risks, and how their platform provides customized recommendations to improve worker safety.

Cory & Manoj discuss how initially, their original focus was on establishing an AI company, leading them to explore various sectors such as trucking and other things. However, their journey ultimately shifted towards prioritizing safety, which captivated the speaker due to its relevance, as demonstrated by the everyday occurrence of pretest planning meetings on construction sites.

They explained how a key turning point for them was acquiring a safety software platform from Facebook that large companies wanted to license but the original owners wouldn't due to data privacy concerns. This became the core of their product offering. They now work with companies of all sizes to aggregate safety data from the frontline workforce to identify risks.

They discuss how the platform also provides customized safety reminders and recommendations to workers. Companies of all sizes use their platform while continuing to improve safety practices. Corey and Minoj hire data scientists and engineers to build out the platform and they raise venture capital funding to scale the business. 

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In this Friday Conversation, we were joined by Wil Eyi, Co-Founder & CEO of Toolbox. In this conversation Will discusses his journey as a young boy from Gabon, Africa to being here in Utah with his wife and kids. Additionally, he talks about what he is doing to improve economic outcomes in Africa and create jobs.

Will has led an extraordinary life journey so far. Born in Gabon, he graduated high school at only 15 but was too young to attend university in France. So instead, he moved to the United States to learn English and attend community college in Texas. After getting associates degrees in biology and chemistry, Will was introduced to BYU by members of the LDS church. At BYU, he double majored in biochemistry and finance, inspired by the concept of impact investing. 

After graduating, Will worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and private equity at Warburg Pincus. He later earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. While there, Will decided to become an entrepreneur instead of returning to investing. He launched Toolbox as a labor marketplace, but eventually pivoted to focus on financial tools for small businesses after recognizing inefficiencies in scaling the marketplace model. 

To date, Will has raised $10 million for Toolbox, including from Kickstart Fund where Tanner is a partner. He also moved the company headquarters back to Utah from New York during COVID. At just 30 years old, Will has already accomplished so much and is on an exciting entrepreneurial journey with Toolbox.

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