The best conversations in business rarely happen on a stage. They happen in rooms where people can be candid. For the past couple of years, Silicon Slopes has created one of those rooms.

Founder Circle brings together Utah founders leading companies valued at $100 million or more for monthly conversations about the issues shaping our businesses, communities, and state—from housing and the Great Salt Lake to private equity and Utah's affordability crisis.

The conversations have been valuable. What happened outside the room has been even more interesting. Relationships formed. Friendships grew. Deals got done. Founders started helping one another solve problems long after the lunches ended.

We didn't engineer that. We put the right people in the room with two rules:

1. Show up.
2. Give more than you take.

Now we're expanding the idea.

Introducing Silicon Slopes Executive Circles

Silicon Slopes is launching eight peer communities for Utah's CEOs, COOs, CTO/CIO/CSOs, CMO/GTM leaders, CROs, CXOs, CHRO/CPOs, and CLOs/General Counsels. Each circle brings together leaders who sit in the same seat and wrestle with many of the same problems. Because sometimes the person who best understands what keeps a CRO up at night is the CRO down the street.

Each circle meets monthly and has a private community inside the Silicon Slopes Hub with a full member directory. Members will create their own programming track for the Silicon Slopes Executive Forum and help select finalists and winners for the annual Silicon Slopes Awards.

Every other month, leaders from across the circles will come together for dinner. Circle members will also mentor Start School founders and produce workshops for participating companies, helping the experience inside these rooms reach Utah's next generation of leaders. And the members—not Silicon Slopes—set the agenda.

Each circle elects its own Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary and decides which conversations matter most.

Founder Circle taught us something simple: Put the right people in a room consistently, give them a reason to help one another, and remarkable things start happening.

Now we're opening more rooms.

Silicon Slopes Executive Circles invite Utah's leaders to show up, contribute, and become part of something bigger than their own company. Learn more here.

Join Silicon Slopes on September 10 & 11, when we host two days of everything that matters in Utah tech right now:

AI, Cybersecurity, Data, Systems, Builders, and SaaS.

Hundreds of founders, engineers, operators, and executives will be there.

Check out the Live Agenda!

The first STACKED Summit is the one people will say they didn't want to miss.

Be part of the first Stacked SUMMIT on September 11, 2026, at Salt Lake Community College.

One summit. Two distinct days.

This is an invite-only executive forum, followed by the full STACKED Summit.

Sponsors and speakers can reach both rooms. See ticket information here: https://www.siliconslopes.com/stacked

This October, trade the conference room for the golf course and spend the day with Utah's startup founders, executives, investors, and community leaders at the Slopes Cup.

You'll make new connections.
You might close a deal.
But, you probably won't fix your slice.

Slots are going fast!

More details here:

Not every leader will thrive in the AI era. Will you?

Spend one day with the minds shaping smart growth. Amplify Growth Summit is built for leaders who want more from AI than just efficiency. Join us August 27 at The Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah.

Silicon Slopes members get 50% off.

Silicon Slopes is a proud partner of Amplify, which means our community gets an exclusive 50% discount on tickets.

Use discount code: SILICONSLOPES-50 to claim your exclusive discount.

Don't just automate your future.

Amplify it.

The benefits equation just changed. Employees want better benefits. Finance wants predictable costs. HR wants to deliver both without losing the argument in the boardroom.

For a long time, those three things couldn't coexist. A new category of benefits technology is changing that.

By funding care in real time and locking in transparent pricing, employers can now offer broader access, zero deductible friction, and no network restrictions — while giving Finance the cost certainty they've always demanded. It's not a tradeoff anymore.

At this exclusive session on Tuesday, Sept. 2, you'll hear how one Utah employer redesigned their benefits strategy to deliver what employees actually want, stabilized their costs in the process, and changed the dynamic between HR and Finance for good.

What you'll walk away with:

• A real-world case study from a Utah employer who made it work

• A clear picture of how this technology shifts the Finance-HR conversation

• A 60-day roadmap to implement before open enrollment

50 seats. Peer leaders only. Come ready to rethink what's possible.

Secure your spot before it's gone.

At 10 to 100 employees, healthcare benefits stop being a line item and start becoming a hiring lever.

Many small businesses have caught on fast: just 6% of workers at companies with 10–199 employees were on level-funded plans in 2018. By 2025, that number hit 37%. And it's only increasing, year over year.

That's not a trend. That's most of your competitors already offering something you might not be.

Silicon Slopes Health Plans, a historic partnership between Select Health and University of Utah Health Plans, may just be the solution your team never knew you needed.

Ask your local broker today about your options, or contact [email protected] if you need to be connected to a broker.

Aug 26: Jacob Baadsgaard

Sept 1: Nate Walkingshaw

Sept 10: Gavin Christensen

Please take 5 minutes (that’s all we ask) to tell us about your StartFEST experience. Your feedback will drive future StartFEST events!

Here’s your chance to help make StartFEST 2027 what you want with the resources you need.

Click here to complete this quick survey.

Partner with Silicon Slopes, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and amplify your impact across Utah's most dynamic tech ecosystem. Here, tax-deductible giving meets tangible ROI, innovation meets influence, and your brand connects with the builders shaping tomorrow.

Shape the Future of Silicon Slopes!