San Francisco-based Liftopia.com launched in October 2006 as an online resource for skiers and riders to find and buy lift tickets for less. Liftopia helps alpine resorts utilize yield management and distribution strategies from the online travel industry to generate incremental revenue. Liftopia co-founders Ron Schneidermann and Evan Reece have a background in online travel, where they worked at Hotwire.com to help partners sell excess inventory online. They took those principles and applied them to an area where both are passionate -- skiing.