WINNER

Founder and CEO Corban Tillemann-Dick says he was gobsmacked in his previous gig as a consultant by the world-changing potential of quantum computing.

He started Maybell in 2021 based on what he saw as a void in the market for reliable dilution refrigerators used in quantum computing research. Quantum computers need to be notably cold, and the merest hint of heat can destroy their ability to function. “It became clear pretty quickly as I researched that the place where I could help the most was on the infrastructure layer,” Tillemann-Dick says.

Three years later, he’s doing exactly that with Maybell by manufacturing a pair of dilution refrigerators for quantum computing research — the Fridge and the Big Fridge — and a line of wiring products.

Customers include the Air Force Research Laboratory, Q Blocks, and the Niels Bohr Institute. With a base temperature on the verge of absolute zero, the Big Fridge is in high demand, Tillemann-Dick says. “You get twice as much cooling power and about four times as much sample volume for only 30 percent higher cost.”

Operating out of a pair of facilities in central Denver, the company has sold into 10 countries and has more than 50 employees after a Series A funding round of about $30 million that closed in early 2024.

Almost 90 percent of Maybell’s employees aren’t physicists, Tillemann-Dick says. “They are welders, machinists, technicians, engineers. They are folks who are building the quantum systems, and the skills needed to build those systems look a lot like the skills needed in aerospace. You are soldering together fine sensitive wires to go into extreme environments. You are welding thin-walled stainless steel. You are gold-plating copper 101 in order to make it reflective of IR and to allow for better thermalization.”

That workforce is a big part of the reason that Colorado’s quantum industry is a juggernaut, he adds. “We’ve got more people working in quantum in Colorado than they have in California,” Tillemann-Dick says. “This is not a per capita statement, this is a raw statement. We’ve got four people in Colorado who have won Nobel Prizes for work in quantum since 2000.”

“No one’s close,” he adds. “Colorado is not only the best state for quantum, we’re better than almost any other country.”

FINALISTS

Now manufacturing next-generation power converters for use in both space and on Earth, CisLunar is developing the Modular Space Foundry to recycle space debris into metal feedstock for use in propellants and in-orbit manufacturing.

The snowboard industry’s leading innovator since its founding in 1991, Never Summer tends to move first, then establish an industry standard. It received the first patent for hybrid camber technology in 2010 and continues to emphasize R&D with every season.

WINNER

Founder and CEO Timothy Moley was a first mover when he started making premium chocolate in 1995.

“Our claim to fame is we actually created the premium chocolate category in the United States,” he says. “There was no premium chocolate manufacturer, and all the premium chocolate from Europe was many months old and often damaged by the time it got here.”

Nearly 30 years later, Chocolove remains the leader in chocolate sales in the natural foods channel. “Overall in the U.S., we’re right around number 10,” Moley says.

Located on 4.2 acres on the east side of Boulder, the company’s 80,000-square-foot chocolate factory now employs more than 80 people. “We run four production lines that can make all varieties of chocolate treats, from bars to nut butter cups to seasonal bites,” Moley says. “And our flavors range from milk chocolate with toffee and almond all the way up to extreme dark.”

Moley credits Patrick Peters, Chocolove’s longtime master chocolatier, for dedication to the craft. “I think you’d have to go to Europe to find another chocolate company that had a master chocolatier,” Moley says.

The Boulder community has supported the company, and Moley says he strives to work with other local businesses as much as possible.

The location also brings benefits to the manufacturing process. “Colorado’s got an ideal climate for running a chocolate factory,” Moley says. “The day-night shift in temperature is very friendly to chocolate, and thus we don’t have high energy costs of cooling that you might have if you ran such a chocolate factory in Texas or Florida, for example. Cool, dry air is naturally occurring in Colorado, and it’s excellent for chocolate making.”

FINALISTS

Now helmed by fourth-generation sausage maker Eric Gutknecht, CharcutNuvo makes natural and organic links with a flair for flavor, like smoked pork and elk jalapeño cheddar bratwurst and jackalope sausage with pork, antelope and rabbit.

One of the state’s green chile giants, Musso Farms is known for firing up its massive roasting operation every autumn. The company not only sells fresh chile, but jarred chile, chile powders and other products.

WINNER

Studio Shed launched in 2008 with stylish bike sheds. The company has since leveled up to backyard offices and even two-bedroom accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

“Since inception, we’ve done over 5,300 projects in all 50 states,” says Mike Koenig, co-founder and president.

Demand for backyard offices skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Studio Shed has continued to see sustained growth. “Even with interest rates increasing, we have continued to see very strong growth on the accessory dwelling unit side,” he adds.  “A lot of that has to do with municipalities here in Colorado continuing to make it easier.”

Koenig commends the state legislature’s passage of HB 24-1152 to reduce fees and streamline regulations for ADUs. “ADUs have become our primary product line in terms of revenue, and about the same in terms of sheer number of units,” he says. “We’re seeing people graduate up into an ADU that were originally considering a smaller structure, which is great. Every little bit counts when we’re talking about a big housing crunch.”

It’s all about manufacturing housing more efficiently than you can build it onsite. To boost productivity, Studio Shed brought in Director of Operations Kevin Williams in 2021, just before it doubled the size of its facility to 35,000 square feet in 2022.

About a third of the company’s 50 employees work in manufacturing, with a major assist from automation. “We had more when we first started,” Koenig says. “Now we’re producing 15 times as much product.”

Colorado’s Innovative Housing Incentive Program (IHIP) gives ADU buyers a $2,000 rebate, which Studio Shed is matching. A new carriage house will be available by early 2025, and Koenig has his eyes on an even bigger market. “Just over a year ago, I softly launched a division dedicated to multifamily,” he says. The company’s new design software and panelized system “allows us to build anything. We’re not limited.”

FINALISTS

Ceramicist Lindsey Bricker’s signature stoneware chimes have gone global since she founded Fettle & Fire in her basement in 2011.

Known for her dazzling designs, Margot Binetti handcrafts custom cowboy boots out of a wide range of materials using centuries-old techniques.

WINNER

 Kyle Hanson, founder and CEO, saw a problem with the U.S. Forest Service’s treatment plan in southwestern Colorado. “There was nobody taking ponderosa pine,” Hanson says. “I was trying to figure out a way to be able to use the ponderosa pine to address the housing crisis, since 90 percent of the wood products in Colorado come from out of state.”

With Timber Age, Hanson’s goal is to take that wood and use it to build housing while simultaneously creating good jobs in communities like Mancos and Durango. The company fabricated its first cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels from local pine in 2019 and built a number of small structures to prove the concept.

Then it launched the Timber Age Modular Building System last year to take it to the next level with a 5,500-square-foot structure that’s underway in Boulder County and a project to replace trailers with new builds at the resident-owned Westside Mobile Home Park Co-op in Durango. “We’re really trying to address the fact that it’s expensive to ship things to rural areas, and more than anything, it’s expensive and hard to get people to do framing work,” Hanson says.

As the projects grow in size, Hanson says the company is on solid footing to attack these problems. “We’ve raised $2 million so far in grants; we’ve had about $1.2 million in equity financing, and then we’ve done a pretty decent job of doubling revenue for the last three years,” he says. The state’s Innovative Housing Incentive Program (IHIP) awarded the company $3.8 million in late 2024 as “a low-interest loan to help us scale up.”

Timber Age relocated from Durango to Mancos in June 2024 with plans to develop workforce housing and a new 7,000-square foot factory on the same site. “Our goal is that we can stand a plant up for $5 million, and then it can pay for itself in five to seven years,” Hanson says. “The industry standard is $60 to $100 million to build a CLT factory. It’s a really different approach.”

Hanson describes the plan as “a holistic way of trying to go into a blighted area or an area that’s undeveloped in a growing rural area that has a need for forest treatment, needs jobs, and is interested in doing something that actually has a positive effect on the town and the environment.”

FINALISTS

Founded by Maggie Henricks in 2016, Create Good repurposes old clothing into new fashion and gives 5 percent of each sale to support classrooms across the country.

Named for proprietor Alida Helmer and known for its delectable chocolate-dipped fruits, the company participates in the STRiVE vocational program to give opportunities to adults with developmental disabilities.

Since its founding in 2021, Lightship RV has been building a system to manufacture electric RVs from scratch. “It’s a complex automotive development process, and we have to do it on an exceptionally fast timeline and a very lean budget,” says CEO and co-founder Toby Kraus. “Every day is an adventure.”

The plan is coming to fruition as the first 26-foot towable L1s roll off the company’s assembly line en route to the great outdoors. “We’ll have built our first units by the end of the year,” Kraus says. “Next year, we’ll be ramping up production.”

Designed for extended off-grid expeditions, the L1 (starting at $125,000) features a notably aerodynamic design and roof-mounted solar panels. Inside, a heavily windowed body houses a slick kitchen, bathroom and sleeping spaces.

Staked by about $60 million in venture capital, the company boasts 75 employees who are roughly evenly split between offices in California’s Bay Area and the 30,000-square-foot production facility in Broomfield, but the plan is to ultimately scale the production crew up to about 100 employees.

Manufacturing in Colorado has several benefits, Kraus says. “Cost is a factor, but I’d say, for us, it’s probably more about workforce and connectivity with the customer. It’s a huge market for RVs and outdoor exploration.”

Pre-orders have “exceeded expectations,” he adds. “We have a few years of production booked, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a few years’ wait, because we aren’t going to release every single configuration at once.”

FINALISTS

Founder and President Dr. Jacob Nuechterlein saw a need for innovation in materials to catalyze metal 3D printing when he founded Elementum 3D in 2014. A decade later, the company is at the forefront of the push of 3D-printed metals into the manufacturing mainstream.

After closing on a Series A funding round of nearly $10 million in 2023, the manufacturer of stratospheric imaging “Microballoons” won a $2.6 million grant from NASA in 2024 to monitor wildfires.