Q: How did you get hooked up with Gerald Petitt, the owner of Echo Mountain terrain park?
A: I was at University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business getting my MBA, and I knew I wanted to get into the ski industry. So I had checked out all the books that had anything to do with ski area development.
Eric Petitt, the landowner’s son, was also a student there. He heard I had all the ski books, so we started talking. I put together a basic business plan for them. I said that if you want to make money in this industry, you should build a skateboard park on snow near a metropolitan area.
When this piece of land was shown to me, my eyes lit up. It’s exactly 35 miles from Denver, it’s north-facing, and it’s 10,000 feet high so you can make snow. You just couldn’t ask for a better situation.
Q: Did you have any management experience?
A: I’ve always done my own thing in the past. Before I went back to school, I built my own company developing SmashCast, a media software that allows people to work with different media files online.
We started back in 1996 as two guys in a basement and eventually grew to 30 employees. We finished the software just as everything totally collapsed. Perfect timing.
I never thought I’d be part of a startup like this, because there are so few startups in this industry. But I think Jerry Petitt realized that I had been through this type of thing before. I think my hiring and management skills are so much better the second time around.
Q: Echo Mountain opened last spring for about two months. What new features can skiers and riders expect this season?
A: You’re going to see 30 percent more terrain and twice as much lighted area. We’ve also added a video lounge that will have a bunch of flat-screen TVs, Xboxes and loud music that your parents won’t like. We’re trying to let people know who this place is built for. It’s not built for parents; it’s built for teenagers and young adults.
Q: Is the park going to be profitable this year?
A: In a business like this, the payback always takes a couple of years. But my hope is to break even this year on an operational level. We’re small, and we run a lean operation.
Skier visits are important to us, but they’re not the end-all, be-all. We want to be the leader in this part of the industry, to have the Vails look to us when it comes to this market. That doesn’t happen overnight.
Q: Why did Echo Mountain team up with Winter Park and Copper Mountain to offer discounts on each other’s season passes this winter?
A: Their marketing reach was appealing to us, and they think we’re a nice complement to what they do. We have a longer season because we’re on private land, so we can run into May. We also have night skiing and riding. And it’s important to them to touch the younger customer. We’re really good at reaching out to that core.
Q: Do you sample Echo Mountain’s terrain park features?
A: I play on the small stuff, but I’m 33. My body doesn’t respond the way it used to. I’ve always been a big skier, but not someone who grew up skiing every weekend or anything like that.
That’s why, when it comes to the design of the park, I stay out of it. We have 22-year-olds designing it, because they’re the ones who are going to be using it.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Julie Dunn.
