Ogden-area group wants more tech and software companies to try Northern Utah
Jared Hales, center left, and Casey Elliott of Develop Ogden are pictured at Kadince, the Ogden software company where they work, on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Also pictured, from left, are Rob Knowles and Ky Kartchner, Kadince software developers. Hales, Elliott and other Develop Ogden members are trying to encourage more software companies to come the Ogden area and Northern Utah.
Jared Hales, a member of the Develop Ogden Board of Directors, is pictured at Kadince, the Ogden software company he co-founded on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Also pictured, from left to right, are Rob Knowles, Ky Kartchner and Luis Hernandez, Kadince software developers. Hales and other Develop Ogden members are trying to encourage more software companies to come to the Ogden area and Northern Utah.
Jared Hales, a member of the Develop Ogden Board of Directors, is pictured at Kadince, the Ogden software company he co-founded, on Tuesday, March 30, 2021. Also pictured, from left, are Brian Parkinson, Morgan Talbot and Brendon Boren, Kadince employees. Hales and other Develop Ogden members are trying to encourage more software companies to come the Ogden area and Northern Utah.
OGDEN — Call Casey Elliott an Ogden and Northern Utah booster.
But it’s not all about Historic 25th Street, the mountains and the outdoor activities here, though those certainly factor. “There are a lot of best-kept secrets up here, one of which is the awesome software companies that exist,” he said.
Indeed, though Salt Lake and Utah counties are more central in Utah’s tech sector, Elliott and others, via a fledgling nonprofit group, Develop Ogden, are pushing another message. If you’re running a tech startup, if you want a new home for your software company, give Weber and Davis counties and the rest of Northern Utah a chance. It’s about facilitating growth of the region’s tech sector and bolstering the regional economy.
Salt Lake and Utah counties may be home to the lion’s share of the state’s tech companies, “but there are software companies up here and we want to let people know that,” said Jared Hales, a member of the Develop Ogden Board of Directors. Though manufacturing and Hill Air Force Base are key cogs of the Northern Utah economy, tech and software have a presence, too.
“There is kind of a tech scene that’s growing. There is a tech scene brewing up here,” said Hales, who, along with Elliott, works for Kadince, an Ogden-based company that makes software meant to help financial institutions track their donations and community involvement. “Nobody really tells our story.”
TIM VANDENACK, Standard-Examiner
Aaron Venezia, chief technical officer for Kadince, an Ogden software company, is pictured at work on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.
Even so, it can be a tough row to hoe, pushing the cause of Northern Utah tech development. According to a 2019 report by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Garder Policy Institute, Utah’s Tech Economy, Salt Lake and Utah counties dominate the sector, with 3,738 and 1,335 “tech establishments” each, or 77.2% of the 6,568 in all in Utah. Davis County came next with 457 companies, 7% of the total, followed by Weber County, 211 firms, or 3.2% of them all.
Utah and Salt Lake counties have a larger population base, which has helped in tech-sector development. And the momentum just kind of gained and gained as new firms took shape over the years in the two counties to the south. Silicon Slopes became the informal name of the tech and startup community centered in the two counties, though the nonprofit group that’s taken on the name now touts itself as the voice of the sector across Utah.
“They’re doing great things,” said Hales, alluding to Silicon Slopes’ efforts to bolster Utah’s tech sector. “So I don’t want to say anything bad about them.”
But through Develop Ogden, he, Elliott and the others involved are on a two-fold mission. They want to raise awareness that there’s a tech sector here to build momentum in Northern Utah and they want the talent that’s here to stay put. “Nobody’s really taken the tech industry by the horns and said, ‘Listen to us,'” Hales said.
Among the group’s more specific efforts will be maintaining lists of job openings in area software firms, everything from administrative postings to tech-related jobs. “We’re an organization that promotes software companies and any job with a software company,” Hales said. He also wants to create a network to foster communication among reps from software companies in the area.
Both Hales and Elliott are big Ogden proponents, which factors in their go-go boosterism for the area. They tout the recreation and outdoor offerings here, the lower cost of living compared to Salt Lake and Utah counties and the slower pace of life relative to the two more heavily populated counties. Plus, for companies looking to hire, there’s the pool of graduates from two area universities, Weber State University in Ogden and Utah State University farther north in Logan.
The stakes are notable. Compensation in Utah’s tech sector, factoring both wages and benefits, averaged $106,100 in 2018 compared to $58,100 in other industries, according to Utah’s Tech Economy, the University of Utah study. Tech jobs accounted for 5.7% of all jobs in Utah in 2018, higher than the 5% nationwide figure.
What’s more, according to a Milken Institute evaluation this year of the top economically performing U.S. urban zones, the Ogden-Clearfield area lagged the Provo-Orem area and Salt Lake City in part because of the stronger tech sectors in the two more southerly locales. All three areas fared well in the national evaluation — the Provo-Orem area topped the list, Salt Lake City ranked fourth and the Ogden-Clearfield area finished ninth.
Like Provo-Orem and Salt Lake City, “Ogden-Clearfield has significant cost advantages over the West Coast tech hubs,” said the report, explaining the area’s strength relative to other Western U.S. locales outside the state. At the same time, though, Ogden-Clearfield “also faces the disadvantage of having to compete with (Provo-Orem and Salt Lake City) for investment and talent.”
Whatever the case, Hales, citing the performance of Kadince, says his message is relatively simple and straightforward — that software and tech firms can thrive in Northern Utah, that more should give the area a shot. “We have. We’re doing it,” he said.