What we’re about
Silicon Slopes South is a group of brilliantly talented, motivated, and connected individuals and businesses in Southern Utah. We strive to build our technical community through education, networking, resource development, and virtually any other positive tech initiative you can imagine. Join us in our journey to great heights!
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Building a career and company in eCommerce technology (with Zonos & Corso)Dixie Technical College, St. George, UT
Niche niche niche niche niche niche (and why eCom technology may become your niche!)
When building a startup, your niche is your home — a subset of customers where you know their problems, their stories, and their dreams, and you know how to build products that make their lives better.
(For those not well-versed in avian French verbs, niche in French means “to build a nest”. Cool!)
Good startups find and conquer niches before they find and conquer the world. I REALLY like the niches that two local tech companies (Corso and Zonos) have found.
On Friday, September 6th at 12 PM at Dixie Tech, we’re talking with Paul Bartholomew from Corso and Clint Reid from Zonos about their niche within eCommerce software and other opportunities that exist in eCommerce technology.
About Corso and Zonos and their niches
- What is it?
The post-purchase platform for Shopify eCommerce orders. If you buy from a Shopify merchant, they may be using Corso to handle their returns, warranties, shipping insurance, etc. - People to know
Paul Bartholomew - Co-Founder
Cody Bean - VP of Revenue - What do you like about their niche?
- Found a large competitor (Route) and decided to beat with a smaller subset of customers (namely, Shopify merchants and merchants who use Gorgias, among other partnerships)
- They started JUST as post-purchase support and carbon offset. They’ve been able to expand features from there.
- What is it?
It’s a huge pain in the butt for merchants to conduct eCommerce across borders. Zonos makes it painless by automatically calculating duties and fees and helping merchants keep up with all the overhead/paperwork. - People to know
Clint Reid - Founder and CEO - What do you like about their niche?
- They aren’t trying to sell to ALL merchants — just merchants with some amount of volume and opportunity to go international.
- This isn’t a niche, it’s 1,000 niches. Imagine all the permutations of countries and borders.
> Canadian merchants selling to the US (and vice versa)
> UK merchants selling to the US (and vice versa)
> Australian merchants selling to Canada (and the US, etc.)
Opportunities FOR YOU in eCommerce software
We’ll talk more about it at the event but here are some ideas!- Types of companies you can start
- A Shopify partner service-based business, implementing Shopify
- Building apps on Shopify’s app store or other eCom platform app stores.
- Building apps for logistics, supply chain, inventory, warehousing, etc. etc.
- Types of jobs you can find
- eCommerce web developer / implementer (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc.)
- Revenue operations
- Lots more!
This event is proudly sponsored by Tech Ridge!
About Tech Ridge
Located on the former St. George Airport site overlooking downtown St. George, the 180-acre Tech Ridge Master Plan redefines the modern urban center. This smart, mixed-use development draws innovative tech companies and amplifies their ability to attract and retain top talent. The mix of workspaces, shops, and eateries promote a dynamic social lifestyle, including 60 acres of easily accessible trails, parks, and open space, all surrounded by the striking red cliffs of Southern Utah.About Scale STG
Scale STG is focused on building a tech/entrepreneurship sector that creates high-paying jobs that’ll help build an economy that can work for everyone in Southern Utah.If you’re interested in that goal as well, then let’s work together! Text me at 435-862-0053 or email me at peter@theworkflowacademy.com if you need help finding your people.
- What is it?
- Building SaaS in overlooked niches with Ashly Stone, Co-Founder at EmbrkAtwood Innovation Plaza at DSU, St. George, UT
### Find and Solve Concrete Problems that Drive Revenue for Your Customers
A widespread disease among first-time entrepreneurs:
- Identify HUGE problems experienced by millions
- Propose a vague solution with no business model
- Don’t have a clear go-to-market plan.
Bad idea
- Problem: It’s hard to get parking on college campuses!
- Solution: Build an app that lets students pay $10/month to see all the open spaces!
- Go-to-market plan: We’ll do an Instagram
Good idea (Embrk)
-
Problem:
> Customers pay tons of money, blood, sweat, and tears to enroll in addiction treatment programs.
> Often, those treatment programs don’t have good systems to treat these participants as lifelong customers, rather than just “someone who came and went” -
Solution:
> Build a platform that integrates with the case management systems that all treatment programs use, where we can follow up automatically with surveys and reviews and lifelong customer outreach to these customers
> Sell directly to the treatment programs (B2B), rather than to the participants (B2C) -
Go-to-Market
> Find a bunch of smart people (Ashly Stone) who have deep experience in the niche and build a sales motion to connect directly with treatment centers
On Friday, October 4th at 12 PM at Innovation Plaza, we’re talking with Ashly Stone, Co-Founder of Embrk, about Embrk, its growth, and its potential within this niche.
This event is proudly sponsored by Tech Ridge!
About Tech Ridge
Located on the former St. George Airport site overlooking downtown St. George, the 180-acre Tech Ridge Master Plan redefines the modern urban center. This smart, mixed-use development draws innovative tech companies and amplifies their ability to attract and retain top talent. The mix of workspaces, shops, and eateries promote a dynamic social lifestyle, including 60 acres of easily accessible trails, parks, and open space, all surrounded by the striking red cliffs of Southern Utah.About Scale STG
Scale STG is focused on building a tech/entrepreneurship sector that creates high-paying jobs that’ll help build an economy that can work for everyone in Southern Utah.If you’re interested in that goal as well, then let’s work together! Text me at 435-862-0053 or email me at peter@theworkflowacademy.com if you need help finding your people.
