State of the industry: Utah's tech sector boom is bringing unprecedented opportunities and challenges.

• Author: Biton, Adva
• Position: Technology

"If you don't know what's going on in [Utah's] tech industry, you're missing the growth engine of the state."

These are the words of Richard Nelson, president and CEO of the Utah Technology Council (UTC). He's not exaggerating--with over 5,000 tech companies representing 7,000 jobs and nearly 10 percent of the state's payroll, it's important that Utahns recognize what's going on in their own home state.

After all, the rest of the country has begun to take notice.

Earlier this year, the Brookings Institute identified three Utah cities--Salt Lake City, Ogden and Provo--in its list of the nation's top 15 cities with the highest concentrations of advanced science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) industries, called "super-sectors." The U.S. Chamber ranks Utah at No. 4 in STEM job growth in the United States and No.1 in employment growth in the Western Region. The Beehive State also ranks No. 3 for entrepreneurship and innovation in the U.S. Within the last year, Utah tech startups raised over $730 million in venture capital funding.

In short, Utah's tech industry is booming in a way that's left industry veterans impressed, energized and optimistic for the future.

Bringing the Big Players to Utah

Make no mistake--while Utah's technology sector is currently garnering national attention, it wasn't so long ago that the "Silicon Slopes" were not on the national map.

"I used to get ridiculed by investors and entrepreneurs saying: What's in Utah? [You] don't have any good companies,"' says Robb Kunz, founder and CEO of BoomStartup, a lean startup accelerator. "Our brand as a state was about the outdoors and skiing and nobody took us seriously. In the last 18 months, we've started getting national recognition. There are good things happening. I don't get ridiculed now. There's a huge transformation in how people out of state are looking at the state of Utah."

His experiences are echoed by Jeanette Haren, CEO of educational technology company Truenorthlogic. "[Investors] would say, 'Oh, I'm not flying into Utah,"' she says. "Then, after I raised money and ed-tech went boom, they'd call me and say, When can we invest?' There's a totally different mindset. New York money isn't afraid of Utah now."

What changed? How did Utah go from being largely ignored to its place last year as the sixth-most popular venture capital (VC) funding destination, according to The Wall Street Journal? According to industry vets, there's plenty to recommend Utah to the...