The third piece of this strategy came in the fall of last year: Mogensen bought Black mountainThe oldest ski area in New Hampshire. He sent a handful of members of his team from their base to Granby, Colorado, in New England. There, they focused on improving software and point of sale hardware at ticketing and lodge.
Mogensen aims to unload the new and improved mountain as a cooperative where its skier members can become co -owners, a business model that becomes popular in Europe. In the meantime, Mogensen uses Black Mountain as a laboratory for the Barred approach – where, by the way, all new equipment, from point of sale systems, used for ticket office and concessions to the intake system used By mountain skiing the school is built internally.
The advantage of tailor -made equipment allows Stabeni (and now Black Mountain) to iterate on the fly, with an approach specially designed only on the ski industry and without an additional integration step. Competing companies, such as SkidataOffer solutions similar to a wider clientele, including stadiums, amusement parks and ski resorts. The hope of Morgensen is that the deep dive he does at Black Mountain will lead to learning that he and his team can apply to the rest of their customers of the ski resort.
Geoff Hatheway, president of the Magic Mountain ski area in Londonderry, Vermont, met Mogensen for the first time through the former owner of Indy Pass, Doug Fish. Mogensen had gathered a conference for independent operators on the Indy collar in Powder Mountain (now owned by Netflix Og Reed Hastings, which has Make the headlines With its plans to offer private subscriptions to the station). Hatheway says that it was immediately taken by Mogensen’s state of mind and the capacity of Escabeni to adapt its solutions to meet the specific needs of each complex and meet its unique points of pain.
“We spend huge sums of money to put a product on the hill,” explains Hatheway, referring to the experience of skiing and actual driving of snow at the ski school and the operation. “We do not have a ton of money to put a product in the company – software and hardware – which requires a lot of initial costs.” Barre absorbs this initial cost for its resort partners, then takes a piece of the action (a percentage with a figure and less for non -profit stations) at the rear. “They are there with us. If we do better, they do better.
In addition, says Hatheway, the global ethics of Mogenson resonates, in that it is all about the small independent operator and also puts the skin in the game. “Since these guys show up in our parking lot, drink beers After work, have a small barbecue to find out all the players in Etabeni is part of the personal approach that ski a unique business, ”he said. Magic Mountain has weekly calls with the Etabeni team to talk about strategy and possible software and hardware upgrades. “Erik adopts this personal approach. The vans are one side: which it comes mainly and lives with you for a week or two. »»
Who wants to evolve anyway?
Janlu Pretorius works at Barre as an engineer for three years. He is a member of the team that recently moved to New Hampshire to work in Black Mountain.
“The practical approach is fundamentally different from what many engineers experience,” he says. “This short feedback loop is remarkable from the point of view of engineering. You can iterate much faster and be much more dynamic in your iterations. This arouses creativity. When I am in the mountains now and I look at the tracks, I can imagine all the things we can apply and integrate into Etabeni as a whole. »»
