Kim Jones is the CEO and Founder of Vérité, a successful Utah-based digital communications agency. Vérité focuses on making the marketing experience painless for clients, while providing them with top notch communication campaigns and Web-based solutions. Kim is actively involved in the Utah technology community, having served as the Chairman of the Board for the Utah Technology Council (formerly the Utah Information Technology Association). Also, she recently founded an organization to provide resources for women in the Utah tech industry called the Women Tech Council. Silicon Slopes recently sat down with Kim to discuss her involvement in the community and to find out more about Vérité and its approach to digital communications.

Silicon Slopes: You offer a large array of different marketing services and products. Can you summarize for our readers what you offer your customers?

Kim Jones: Vérité is a digital communications agency founded in July 1993 that produces unique and effective online tools and communications campaigns for sales, marketing and training organizations. Design, Production and Development services include:

CD • DVD • Web • Kiosk • Print • Radio • Video & Film • eTools

We also provide eTools: Web-based products for registering, testing, buying and more. These Tools support the business processes on the Web in a secure environment. Clients turn to Vérité for completely integrated digital solutions.

Silicon Slopes: Where do you really excel?

Kim Jones: We excel in two key areas: Creative Services for cutting edge creative productions and Technology Services for implementation and metrics. We are equally devoted to both proficiencies. It’s our belief that once we understand the key creative objectives, we are in a good position to design and implement web tools that facilitate the campaign.

Silicon Slopes: What’s the story behind the name Vérité? Do you have French roots?

Kim Jones: No I don’t have any French roots. Originally the name Vérité came about because it stood for a cinematic film style and we started off shooting a lot of video and putting it on CD-ROMs. Over the years we have tied in the meaning of the word Vérité, which is "truth", to our mission statement when we reference our true mission.

Silicon Slopes: You spent a good part of your career in the Silicon Valley. What drew you to Utah and to eventually start Vérité?

Kim Jones: My husband has family in Utah and once I started spending time here on ski vacations I fell in love with Utah and wanted to move here. My husband got re-located with his job and that sealed the deal. I didn’t start Vérité until I had been in Utah for about three years. I had been producing video for large corporations and had a vision to take video and other communications to CD and DVD platforms. My employer did not agree with my vision so I left and started the company.

Silicon Slopes: What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of doing business here verses Silicon Valley?

Kim Jones: Mostly there are advantages. Utah is a much more affordable place to start a business than Silicon Valley and I’ve been very fortunate to have found such great employees here. We have a lot of customers in Silicon Valley so the only advantages we might have being located there would be close proximity. So far however, it hasn’t really affected us since we travel and offer a lot of options for working with us.

Silicon Slopes: Can you talk about the environment for female CEOs and entrepreneurs in Utah?

Kim Jones: What female CEO’s in Utah? Just kidding. Okay, there aren’t a whole lot of us, but we are out there. I think the environment in Utah has given me every opportunity to succeed. Having been the Chair of the Board of the Utah Tech Council a few years ago, I can say that I have had the backing of some well-respected board members and CEOs in the state. I’m not sure how other women in the state see it, but I’ve been very fortunate.

One of the downsides is that there aren’t a whole lot of resources for women entrepreneurs and also women in the tech industry in Utah. To address this, I have formed the Women Tech Council along with a core team of eight other women. We have enjoyed tremendous interest and participation from women CTOs, CIOs and other professionals across the state. We have been supported by some of the top companies in the state such as Omniture, Symantec, Canon, Energy Solutions and quite a few others.

Silicon Slopes: What up-and-coming digital media technology are you most excited about?

Kim Jones: I’m really excited about Flash and some of the cool things we can do with it now. We can embed video hosts into flash animations with ease and design compelling mini-sites that can be passed along virally and placed on social networking sites. I’m excited about the future of viral marketing and the alternative marketing methods that Web 2.0 affords.

Another thing that I’m excited about is how Flash handles eLearning production. We do a lot of it and new advances have made producing compelling courses and exercises easier than ever, and they also make localizing production much easier due to integration with XML.

Silicon Slopes: Your company has been around for quite awhile (founded in 1993). In that time, can you recall your favorite project?

Kim Jones: My favorite project when we were just starting out was a large ISV Partners CD that we did for Novell. There was nothing like it at the time and we had to deal with floppy disks (yes floppy disks), faxes, and old fashioned ways of dealing with the CD content. It was a very successful project and we had a lot of fun coordinating the whole thing with Novell and their partners.

Silicon Slopes: Finally, what's been the biggest key to success for you?

Kim Jones: I think the biggest key to success for me has been my sales background and unwavering commitment to succeed even in the face of adversity. I realized early on in that a great idea was nothing without customers so my background came in handy when it came to closing deals and landing new accounts. However, all the customers in the world will not make you successful if you don’t have tenacity and a strong commitment to overcome challenges and succeed, and as you know, challenges are an everyday reality for a start up.