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This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.
Pete Ashdown would tell you that 90 percent of being an entrepreneur is sensing an opportunity and the rest is having the courage to act on it. This instinct is what enabled him to start his Internet service company, XMission, just as the Internet was beginning to take off. The company remains strong in an increasingly competitive industry 20 years later.
Pete was pursuing his computer science degree at the University of Utah when he happened upon an opportunity to get involved with the Internet. And less than a year before graduation, the company he founded was doing so well, Pete dropped out of school to run it full time. That company, XMission, is now celebrating their 20th anniversary of being in business.
The company's 39 employees are primarily involved with in-house tech support. Pete feels strongly about employing local Utah professionals who can provide tech support close to where the equipment and service are being used.
A majority of XMission's business is centered on hosted services for businesses, which includes hosting websites, email, office and organizational emails. They manage the products, perform maintenance and try to relieve businesses of some in-house stress that often occurs when handling these things themselves. Right now an important task for any business operating a website is to maintain it, for security reasons as well as to stay current, as products and services change. Many of them rely on XMission to help with this.
But XMission is so much more, realizing and fulfilling their customers' service needs while also supporting the community. They're proud sponsors of the Utah Arts Festival, Twilight Concert Series and other community events. Pete also has a policy of donating monthly services to any nonprofits that come to him, which is why XMission has over hundreds of nonprofits they're providing monthly Internet service to.
Pete says the future is bright for his 20-year-old company. He sees XMission continuing to grow, perhaps transitioning into managed and boutique services where the customer selects the exact specialized services they need for their home or business.
For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.
XMission 51 E. 400 South Salt Lake City, UT 84111 801-539-0852; www.xmission.com
