Bay Area companies are moving to Utah (here's why): Companies are starting satellite offices outside of Silicon Valley and Utah is one of their top choices.

• Author: Howell, Izzy

WHEN I ASK ANDREW COLLINS, CEO and cofounder of Silicon Valley-based Bungalow, if he ever imagined opening a second office in Utah, he says that it was never part of his original plan.

Founded in 2017, Bungalow provides a Airbnb-esque approach to finding an apartment and roommate. Initially designed to solve a very Bay Area problem, the platform has since scaled to include 850 homeowners and 3,500 residents as current users--and when they did, they opened a second office in downtown Salt Lake City.

"We were drawn to [Utah] based on quality of talent and proximity to SF," Collins says. "We did significant research when determining where we wanted to open our next HQ and found that Utah was a perfect fit. Culturally, there is amazing talent across the greater Salt Lake and Silicon Slopes regions, while it is also extremely accessible from all over the US. We've been thrilled by the team so far and are excited to continue to expand our footprint here."

Like Bungalow, a multitude of Bay Area startups are now laying claim to the Silicon Slopes. Collins notes that this has to do with the fact that Utah has "a great talent base with strong universities, a very driven and friendly culture, [an] accessible location, beautiful [landscapes], and a cost of living that is significantly less than cities such as SF."

UTAH IS A HUB OF MARKETING AND SALES TALENT

Austin Miller, CEO of IsoTalent says he knows several companies who are splitting their time between California and Utah. He thinks that while the Bay Area's tenure in tech has created a concentration of talented engineers, Utah has an abundance of quality salespeople. "[Silicon Valley] has a really strong balance to the areas we're limited in," Miller says. "Utah has this uniqueness that brings a really strong sales and marketing perspective."

Jordan Staples agrees. As head of direct sales for Paystand, he tells me Utah has "the type of talent that it takes to sell, market, implement and support." These skills are highly sought after by rapidly growing startups, and Utah is understood to be a reliable source for that talent. "While talent and diversity are important, acumen is also important," adds Mark Fisher, Paystant's VP of marketing. "As a fintech, we want to tap into that community."

The state's predominant religion could have something to do with that. An estimated one-third of Utah's workforce spent two years of their youth as door-to-door salesmen and they go on to join a vast community of...