The CEO of one of Utah’s largest tech start-ups Domo made a major announcement this week.
Domo founder and CEO Josh James announced in dramatic fashion what he called the world’s first business cloud. He got some help from actor Alec Baldwin in a promotional video.
“Welcome to the business cloud,” James says with open arms to an applauding crowd. Cut to Baldwin.
“Business cloud. I know, you’re thinking, why didn’t I think of that? ‘Cause that’s what I’m thinking….cause I thought of everything,” Baldwin says.
The idea is to bring data seamlessly together from all kinds of sources, and make it accessible through apps, social and mobile platforms. Domo also announced it has raised $131 million in new funding, and the company is now valued at $2 billion dollars. Devin Thorpe is a Forbes contributor based in Salt Lake City, focused on social entrepreneurship and investment. He predicts this announcement will lead next to an Initial Public Offering.
“That has the potential to change Utah’s economy in permanent lasting ways.” Thorpe says. “We’ve never been, at least in my lifetime, we haven’t had a lot of big companies, and so to have big, fast-growing companies begin to dominate our economy, is an exciting prospect.”
Forbes writer Alex Konrad says Domo is leading the way, along with Utah companies Qualtrics and Inside Sales to making Utah a significant tech center.
”They’re attracting top talent away from Silicon Valley,” Konrad says. “They’re raising hundreds of millions of dollars at these high valuations, and they do have real products and customers worldwide.”
Josh James was co-founder and CEO of Omniture, a web analytics company, which went public in 2006. He later sold the company to Adobe.
