The Blog

Photo from Summit

Ok, so this is crazy. NPR reported this morning that a group of entrepreneurs purchased an entire mountain, for $40 million, in Utah. The organization is called Summit, and from what I can gather online, they're trying to merge sharp business leaders with a sense of goodwill, or, to use their words, to create an "epicenter of innovation." But still, a ski resort? 

Summit has previously hosted invite-only events (which if you look at their promo video, have included cruises on giant ships, yoga classes, and speeches by Bill Clinton and Richard Branson), and now they want to put down roots at Utah's Powder Mountain to build a small village/ski resort that also has artist residencies. "The team wants Powder Mountain to be a new creative center to incubate ideas, host events and let smart people come together in a place where they can let their guards down," NPR reports. According to an earlier article in Forbes, this start-up town would be populated by people putting down homes here and hanging at a members-only lodge and events space. 

I'll be honest, my gut reaction to this piece was cynicism. From George Packer's brilliant piece in The New Yorker about the often self-serving ways Silicon Valley elite invest their wealth to the news reports about Sean Parker's lavish Big Sur wedding, I'm growing tired of all the stories of young wealth being tossed around with such senseless grandeur. The tech lifestyle news that floats to the top is often about entrepreneurs invested in helping their own. But there could be a deeper story here. 

Looking at Summit's site, I'm intrigued by the idea of a group founded on driving "positive disruptive innovation." They support a list of commercially-driven entities like Uber and Scopely, but they also work with the Clinton Foundation, Change.org, and groups focused on helping foster non-profits in Israel and developing countries around the world. So I'm equally curious what Summit will use their literal summit to do. 

I mean, yesterday I wrote in support of James Turrell, an artist who purchased a volcanic crater in Arizona to carve out his artistic vision, so I feel like I shouldn't be so quick to judge an alternative take on using private land to inspire people. And traditional artists residencies around the country are based on a similar basic concept of isolating people from the rest of the world so they can concentrate on building their ideas. If Summit does indeed help struggling artists, musicians, and non-profits bring their new things to life, their bold move could encourage a whole new breed of new money that invests in creativity and creative problem-solving.

I just hope that Summit's idea of supporting community is sensitive to the communities around it. The mayor of Ogden, the closest town to Power Mountain, told NPR the people who live there now value the small town feel; they appreciate their rural surroundings, and the fact that Ogden isn't pricey like Aspen or Vail. 

And there's also the issue of bombast. To use the residency idea again, most of those artist communities are built around more humble surroundings. Ski resorts and cruise ships raise the bar of where inspiration can take place to a celebrity level. 

In the end, the trend of young entrepreneurs spending crazy amounts of money on crazy ideas doesn't seem to be going away, and hell, it's their money to burn through in the end. But my hope is that with the dogged way the media is watching these expenditures that the people who hold the purse strings (in the Bay Area and beyond) will foster a culture where the well off seriously invest in creating positive change more than they invest in exclusive, fancy playgrounds for the wealthy.