The Summit Series, a group of young entrepreneurs, recently announced they've raised $40 million to buy Powder Mountainin Ogden Valley. Powder Mountain's on the quiet end of the Utah ski spectrum but nonetheless receives the usual state dosage of 400" of snowfall, except without the crowds of hills closer to Salt Lake City. The Summit Series, describe excitedly as a "start-up of young, passionate entrepreneurs," bought the entire mountain, which they hope to turn into their organization's home. The group grew from a ski trip in 2008 for 19 young entrepreneurs at the behest of Founder and CEO Elliot Bisnow, to 60 in six months. The Summit Series wants to "Creat[e] a center of culture and innovation: a small community with a big impact." The campus at Powder Mountain, which The Summit Series appears to ambitiously branding as Summit Eden, will also serve as a venue for its leadership and cultural events, which have been described in similarly ambitious language as a cross between Burning Man and a TED conference.
These unique outings can include anything from lucid dream tutorials to shark tagging, and help attendants achieve "personal, professional, and altruistic goals." If personal and professional goals revolve around being altruistic to one's own mental and physical health by setting up an office at the base of 5,500 acres of fresh Utah powder accessed by chairlifts and snowcats, what kind of over-the-top verbiage would one need to describe one's business activities with in order to get someone to pay for it?
Investment for the purchase mainly came from selling plots of land on Powder Mountain to investors, while the ski area itself while continue to operate for the public and generate revenue for The Summit Series. While only young ambitious geniuses are apparently allowed at Summit Eden, entrepreneurs with a hot elevator pitch may get lucky and share a chairlift ride with a Mark Cuban or two.
· Part Burning Man, Part TED, A New Mountain Village Opens For Grand Pursuits [Techcrunch]