There is a moment — just before a truly new thing enters the world — when everyone says it can't be done. We live in that moment. We work in it. We find what's possible inside it.
At Southpoint Ventures, we don't chase trends. We ask questions no one else considers, and we follow those questions all the way to the answer.
This is where groundbreaking innovation begins.
Southpoint Ventures is a Utah-based creative think tank built around a single, relentless belief: that the best ideas in the world are still out there, waiting to be discovered.
We are part artist, part scientist, part inventor. We explore new materials, new methods, and new possibilities — and when an idea proves worthy, we protect it, develop it, and bring it to the people who need it most.
We are rigorous where others are casual. We are curious where others are satisfied. And we are patient when it matters.
Every breakthrough starts with a question most people walk past. We don't walk past it. We stop. We dig. We pull at every thread until we understand not just what something is, but why it works the way it does — and whether it could work better.
We begin with curiosity minus the assumptions. Every new product development project starts with open inquiry — no predetermined answers, no convenient shortcuts. We explore materials science, systems, forms, and functions with the same intensity an artist brings to a blank canvas.
We work alongside materials scientists, researchers, and domain experts to test our imagination against reality. Ideas that survive contact with science become something worth building.
When an idea proves itself, we protect it. We pursue patents to secure the innovations we develop — because a great idea deserves to be owned, defended, and built upon.
We don't create for the sake of creating. When the work is ready, we bring it forward — to the industries, partners, and markets that can use it to change something.
The easy path makes a well-worn groove. Some would call it a rut. You can see where everyone else has walked. It leads to incremental progress, to refinement, to things that are slightly better than what came before.
That's not our path.
We believe that the most important thing you can do at the beginning of any research and development process is ask the question that makes people uncomfortable. The question that challenges the assumption everyone has agreed to stop questioning.
We are incessantly curious. We investigate details others consider irrelevant. We are not satisfied with "good enough" because good enough has never changed anything.
We believe creativity and science are not opposites — they are partners and they cannot exist without each other. The best innovations live at the intersection of imagination and evidence. That is where we build.
Harder questions build better things.
Joseph Dominguez has spent more than thirty years doing something most people cannot do: he sees what isn't there, and he builds it.
His career as a professional image maker has taken him from broadcast television to the research labs of Silicon Valley — from art directing live news on TV to working inside Apple's Marcom group, where he spent years producing the product imagery that defines how the world sees Apple hardware. iPhone. Apple Watch. MacBook Pro. iPad. If you have ever looked at an Apple product image and believed it, there is a good chance you were looking at his work.
That work was not photography in any conventional sense. It was the construction of reality — compositing 3D-rendered assets with high-resolution photography and precision illustration to build images deployed globally across Apple.com, retail environments, Keynote launch presentations, and worldwide marketing campaigns.
In 2017, Google selected him as one of a small group of professional photographers to evaluate AI-generated imagery for its Machine Perception research team — work that was published on the Google Research Blog.
His extensive body of client work includes some of the most demanding and innovative organizations in the world: Apple, Google Research, Square, Nest, Fitbit, Spotify, National Geographic, Wired, and Toyota.
Dominguez founded Southpoint Ventures because of his incessant curiosity and the persistent question he can't help asking, "Why does this work this way, and how would I do it?"
He brings to this work what no traditional research background produces: child-like curiosity, the eye of a journeyman artist, the precision of a craftsman, the systems thinking of an engineer, and the hard-won credibility of someone who has operated at the highest levels of the most demanding creative organizations on earth.
Kyla Falkenhagen has spent a decade doing something most organizations talk about and few actually achieve: making complexity disappear.
Her career was built inside one of the most data-intensive marketing operations in the world. At LinkedIn, she rose from associate to director over ten years, ultimately overseeing an email channel responsible for more than 4.6 billion sends and over one hundred million dollars in delivered bookings annually. She built the Email Labs function from nothing — designing the experimentation roadmap, formalizing the innovation process, and owning the email design system that formed the operational foundation of LinkedIn's entire member communications infrastructure.
That work was not marketing in any conventional sense. It was systems thinking applied at scale — the kind of rigorous, detail-obsessed operational discipline that turns chaos into process and process into results. Under her watch, campaign production errors dropped fifty-six percent over two years. Quality success held at ninety-nine percent. Those numbers don't happen by accident.
She brings to Southpoint Ventures what most financial operators cannot: the instincts of a strategist, the precision of an analyst, and a genuine appetite for the kind of hard problems that don't have an obvious answer yet.
Falkenhagen joined Southpoint Ventures because the same question that drives all good operational thinking — what is the simplest, most efficient way to do this well — turns out to be exactly the right question to ask inside an innovation firm.
She keeps the engine running. She makes sure the work can happen.
Utah is no longer a secret.
What was once overlooked is now unmistakable: a state with a business and innovation environment unlike any other in the country, where industry investment is accelerating and serious research and development is taking root. The University of Utah and Utah Valley University are not peripheral institutions — they are anchor points for a growing ecosystem of scientific inquiry, innovation, and entrepreneurial energy.
We are here because this is where the work makes sense.
Utah gives us proximity to world-class research, access to emerging materials science, and a community that takes the business of building things seriously. The Mountain West is not waiting for the future. It is building it.
Southpoint Ventures is part of that story. And we are just getting started.
What is Southpoint Ventures?
Southpoint Ventures, LLC is a Utah-based creative think tank and innovation firm focused on the exploration, development, and protection of new ideas. We research emerging materials, collaborate with materials scientists and domain experts, pursue patents for original innovations, and bring proven concepts to market.
What does a creative think tank do?
A creative think tank explores ideas at the intersection of imagination and evidence. At Southpoint Ventures, that means asking hard questions about how things work, why they work that way, and whether they could work better.
Does Southpoint Ventures file patents?
Yes. When an idea survives our research and development process and proves itself worthy, we pursue intellectual property protection through the patent system. We believe a great idea deserves to be owned, defended, and built upon.
What industries does Southpoint Ventures work in?
Southpoint Ventures operates across industries wherever new materials, new methods, or new forms of thinking can create meaningful change. We do not limit ourselves to a single vertical.
Where is Southpoint Ventures located?
Southpoint Ventures is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah's rapidly growing innovation ecosystem — anchored by the University of Utah and Utah Valley University — provides proximity to world-class research, materials science expertise, and a business-friendly environment.
Who leads Southpoint Ventures?
Southpoint Ventures is led by Joseph Dominguez, founder and Principal Investigator, with more than thirty years of experience as a professional image maker, visual artist, and creative technologist. His career includes years at Apple and a research engagement with Google's Machine Perception team.
What makes Southpoint Ventures different?
Most innovation firms begin with data. We begin with a question. The combination of artistic vision, scientific rigor, and intellectual property strategy is not common and neither are we.
Does Southpoint Ventures work with outside partners?
Yes. We are selective about the partnerships we pursue, but collaboration is central to our process. We work with materials scientists, researchers, domain experts, and industry partners whose expertise sharpens and validates our ideas.
Can you keep a secret?
We live in the NDA and IP agreement space. It's crucial for every relationship we create. Dominguez has built a career on protecting his client's ideas. His clients have gotten used to having creative meetings on a bench in the cemetery. If he's secretive enough for Apple…
We are selective about the work we take on and the innovation partnerships we pursue. If you have an idea that demands a harder look, or a curiosity about what materials science and creativity can do together — let's have a conversation.
Southpoint Ventures, LLC · Salt Lake City, Utah
Effective Date: January 1, 2026
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Southpoint Ventures, LLC · Salt Lake City, Utah