How Utah's ‘Silicon Slopes' tech sector is making a run at Silicon Valley

• Adobe first opened an office in Salt Lake City over a decade ago, and now there are over 1,000 big companies and startups within the "Silicon Slopes" tech ecosystem.
• The city of Lehi in Utah's Wasatch mountain range has become a hub for Oracle, Microsoft and other tech giants.
• While it may never reach the scope or scale of California's Silicon Valley, tech jobs are booming in the region.

This story is part of CNBC's quarterly Cities of Success series, which explores cities that have transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit that has attracted capital, companies and employees.

Forget Silicon Valley. Salt Lake City's tech scene is on the rise. Its ecosystem, known as Silicon Slopes, has transformed into a thriving network of startups and big tech companies over the past two decades, spanning multiple cities in the Salt Lake area. This rapid growth earned it the top spot on Wall Street Journal's list of hottest job markets in 2023.

At the heart of this transformation are companies like Adobe, which helped lay the groundwork for Silicon Slopes' rise. Adobe's presence in the Salt Lake area began in 2009, when the software giant announced it was acquiring web analytics company Omniture for $1.8 billion. The deal paved the way for Adobe to establish a campus, nestled in the scenic mountains of Lehi, just 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City.

"Back in 2009, this was orchards and farmland," said Wade Sherman, Adobe's senior vice president and general counsel, who joined the company when it acquired Omniture. He has now been with Adobe for nearly 16 years. 

Adobe first opened its doors in 2012 to a sleek, modern 280,000 square-foot building. A decade later, in 2022, the company expanded with a second phase, adding a 162,000 square-foot facility. Adobe says it currently has around 2,000 employees and with the addition of the new building, it is able to accommodate an additional 1,000 employees. 

Adobe was the first company to establish roots in Lehi, laying "the foundation for tech to grow and explode into what it is today," Sherman said. "Now, there are over 1,000 companies within the Silicon Slopes ecosystem."

The nickname, Silicon Slopes, encompasses cities along the Wasatch mountain range — like Draper, Lehi, Orem, Provo and more. And the heart of the ecosystem is the city of Lehi, now a hub for major tech players like Oracle and Microsoft, whose offices are just minutes away from Adobe's campus. The tech-cluster has created fertile ground for other startups to grow in the Silicon Slopes ecosystem. 

"I was there on the day that Adobe decided to build that building," said Brad Rencher, CEO of HR and payroll company BambooHR. "It has been incredibly fun to watch all of the companies and the buildings and things that have been built up around that."

Rencher, who spent over a decade at Adobe before becoming CEO of BambooHR, credits Adobe's arrival as a catalyst for Silicon Slopes growth. "That was a seminal moment in the history of Silicon Slopes," he said. "Since then, people have taken that baton, and they've run with it."

Today, Bamboo HR has around 1,500 employees in Utah and told CNBC it is bringing in more than $250 million in annual recurring revenue. Rencher says it's a testament to the power of Silicon Slopes. 

Comparisons to Silicon Valley, though, need to acknowledges key differences, according to Sherman. 

"It's not at the size and scale yet of Silicon Valley, and maybe it never will reach that size and scale," he said. "But in terms of the passion, the energy, the innovative, innovativeness of the people, I think it absolutely is."

CBRE's annual scoring tech talent report ranked Salt Lake City at No. 12 for labor market conditions, costs and quality in North America for tech workers. The city recorded 12.9% growth in tech jobs between the years of 2019 and 2023, according to the report. 

Catherine Wong, COO & chief product officer at property management software firm Entrata — who built her career in the Silicon Slopes ecosystem, having previously worked at Adobe, Omniture and Domo — says there is more growth to come.  

In 2021, Entrata raised $507 million in a funding round, led by private equity firm Silver Lake. According to CB Insights, Entrata is the second most funded company in Utah as of October 1, 2024 . 

"We have the funding pipeline, we have the educational institutions and we have the culture," said Wong. "The ingredients are all here." 

But those ingredients for success haven't always been in the Salt Lake area. Todd Pedersen founded his smart home tech company, Vivint, back in 1999, years before Adobe moved to town. 

"Back then, there was no real venture capital to speak of, and definitely no one that was looking to invest in the state of Utah," said Pedersen. "It was either grow by cash flow and survive or don't have a business."

The company more than survived, catching the eye of private equity giant Blackstone, which purchased Vivint in 2012 for $2 billion. 

"It's a kind of snowball effect. The more success that's here, the more success that comes," Pedersen said. 

The city's leaders and entrepreneurs hope that the snowball effect will continue to roll down Silicon Slopes. 

"We're very proud of that sort of pioneer heritage that we have, particularly in building what is now the Silicon Slopes ecosystem," Sherman said. 

Adobe may not have traveled to Salt Lake City in a covered wagon, but the company boldly paved the way for other pioneering entrepreneurs to head there seeking success.