Fall 2023 Issue: Top Company Awards, Inside the CHIPS and SCIENCE Act, and More

The Top Company Awards have been an annual staple of ColoradoBiz since 1988, when applications had to be typed on actual paper and faxed, or mailed, or hand-delivered, then passed among judges sitting at a large table in a conference room.

Some aspects of the Top Company application have gotten easier — entries are now submitted online at cobizmag.com, and judges who are on the road can participate in discussions via Zoom — but the competition is no less rigorous than it was 36 years ago. Entrants still submit often-exhaustive accounts of their achievements, their financial performance in recent years, their work in the community and future goals.

READ: Top Company Winners Tapped in 36th Annual Statewide Business Awards

Make no mistake, the competitive fire burns hot. Often, companies that learn they’ve been named finalists email us to ask why they didn’t win, and companies that weren’t named finalists want to know why.

One thing is clear. These companies believe they’re the best at what they do. A memorable example comes from Holidaily Brewing Co., a Golden-based brewer founded seven years ago by Karen Hertz. Asked on the Top Company application about its future goals, the company responded, “World domination!”

That drew a chuckle from judges, but Holidaily was serious. “We want to be the leader and obvious choice for gluten-free beer, the company added. The woman-owned brewer has done just that. Holidaily is now the largest gluten-free brewer in the U.S., and since 2019, its revenues have nearly tripled.

Holidaily is this year’s Top Company winner in the Tourism/Hospitality category, joining winners in 13 other industries, plus the Startup category for companies in business four years or less.

The 41 Top Company winners and finalists highlight this issue of ColoradoBiz, but there are many other compelling stories along with opinion pieces by our columnists. Among the features is Stewart Schley’s look at the business of sports suites, as he examines this relatively high-end segment of the live game-day experience and how the premium-seating concept has evolved at Empower Field, Coors Field, Ball Arena and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Also in this issue, Eric Peterson reports on Colorado’s once-formidable semiconductor industry and how it stands to gain from the CHIPS and SCIENCE Act of 2022 that has earmarked $280 billion over five years to attract high-tech manufacturing back to U.S. soil. The pitfalls of overreliance on foreign manufacturing became painfully evident during supply chain disruptions of the past few years, as the U.S. accounted for just 12 percent of global semiconductor manufacturing as of 2021, fifth behind Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China.

In his heyday, Peterson points out, Colorado’s Front Range earned the nickname “Silicon Mountain,” and Colorado Springs alone had nine semiconductor chip fabrication plants. It’s too early to say whether a semblance of those glory days can be rekindled, but the CHIPS and SCIENCE Act and additional incentives by the state are a step in that direction.

Of course, another incentive, one that goes without saying, resonates throughout this issue: that Colorado remains an enviable place to live and work.

Mike Taylor is the editor of ColoradoBiz.