When Google acquires a startup, owners of that company (and their clients) typically rejoice. For good reason. Business continues as normal, but they now have the support and resources they need to make their service as awesome as they dreamt it could be when they excitedly scribbled ideas on lunch napkins. Today is one of those moments for me and SlopeFillers. I have so many ideas for the site, but have never had the time to take it up that extra notch. No, it’s not Google that is supporting the cause, but as of today, SlopeFillers has a fabulous new home.

The Story
The NSAA Convention opened my eyes to who was really leading and innovating in the world of resort marketing. As a lover of the mysteries that lie within piles of unique data, Ryan Solution’s combination of marketing and data-mining caught my eye. And I wasn’t alone, their NSAA session was standing room only. I quickly learned that when it comes to database marketing for ski resorts, they rock, in no uncertain terms. It was at that same convention that I met Corey Ryan (the “Ryan” in “Ryan Solutions”). He loved the direction of SlopeFillers and work (albeit humble) that I was putting into the project. A couple months later, Corey called me up and the discussion began.

SlopeFillers: Better Business as Usual
First, we talked about me working for Ryan Solutions. From the beginning, however, Corey insisted that I continue running SlopeFillers. He loved the project and wanted to support it. So, while I will be a Ryan Solutions employee, I’ve been given 25% of my work time to put toward the site. He even specifically asked to not feature Ryan Solutions any more than I have. He wanted to support, but not dominate or ruin it with self promotion.

Gregg (Me): Moving East-ish
With Ryan Solutions in need of someone to manage their communications and my mind made up to leave the self-employment world in search of a “real” job, the match was perfect. So, as of October 3, 2011, I’ll be living in Edwards, Colorado putting my non-SlopeFillers time toward the Ryan Solutions cause. I am super impressed with the company and, as my wife can attest, am extremely (understatement) excited to get started.

Off the Record
Soon I’ll be an actual employee of Ryan Solutions which will brand me with even more bias, but let me just get this off my chest while I can. There’s something to be said about a company that comes in, offers to acquire a site that makes no money, wants it to continue to serve the resort marketing world, then specifically requests they don’t get any extra coverage on the site they now run. Not something you see every day.

So, like I said, SlopeFillers will be business as usual, but it will be better. With the dedicated time I’ll have for SlopeFillers, my hope is to make this a more effective and useful tool than ever before. Can’t wait.

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P.S. – Here’s the Ryan Solutions version of the announcement.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.