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Colorado Companies to Watch 2022: Communicators & Educators

Since 2009, the Colorado Companies to Watch program has sought to recognize second-stage enterprises from around the state. These companies often fly under the radar of awards programs of this type, yet they play an enormous role in fueling Colorado’s economy.

From an economic-development perspective, the importance of recognizing second-stage companies — those beyond the startup stage but still developing — is obvious: As these companies grow, not only do they employ an increasing number of people, which benefits their local economies and quality of life; they also create a need for outside services, and thus opportunity for other businesses, from restaurants to accounting firms to pet boarders, to flourish. The ripple effect on the economy is sizable, to say the least.

This year, more than 1,100 companies from industries ranging from biosciences to fitness to food and beverage submitted nominations. A judging panel made up of business and economic-development leaders throughout the state whittled those candidates down to the finalists, and finally to this year’s select cast of 47 Colorado Companies to Watch winners.

Read on to learn more about our favorite Colorado Communicators and Educators.

Core Progression Elite Personal Training

Northglenn

Core Progression gives clients a 360-degree approach to their health and wellness. It offers nutritional guidance, physical therapy, chiropractic, massage and training.

The boutique personal training and wellness company boasts clientele ranging from professional athletes to executives to housewives – even owners of professional sports teams.

“The fitness industry has been flipped on its head in the last two years,” owner and CEO Jonathan Cerf says, citing COVID-19 restrictions and the resulting emergence of digital and virtual offerings. “We have seen a huge demand for people wanting to have the private training experience and social aspect but in a more one-on-one setting. I think the screen fatigue will push people to want to have a safe place to exercise and to get out of the house.”

In business since 2008, Core Progression has gone from two locations in 2018 to seven locations as of 2021, including six in Colorado. Revenues have more than tripled since 2019. The company owns the commercial spaces where it operates and is poised for more growth and national expansion. Providing a one-stop shop and combining rehab, exercise, nutrition and training into one enables the company to attract a wide range of clients.

“By only needing a handful of clients, we can tap into many markets, as our footprint isn’t huge and the population needed for our locations also isn’t massive,” Cerf says.

Intrinsic LLC

Denver

Founded in 2010, Intrinsic is a transaction advisory and valuation firm providing time-critical transaction support and sophisticated valuation advice to private equity firms, family offices, high net worth individuals and estate planning attorneys.

“Our business is shaped and guided by a highly informed group of investors, some of the most accomplished professionals and academics in the fields of private equity and entrepreneurial finance,” the company notes.

Along with transaction advisory, services provided by the firm include transaction opinions, valuation, financial reporting and tax reporting.

Intrinsic’s business is influenced by M&A activity and changes in the tax environment. Recent proposed tax changes and sunsetting tax policies, and the high M&A deal volume have had positive impact on the firm’s recent growth. With two offices in Denver and 30 employees as of year-end 2021, the firm expects to add significantly to its workforce in 2022.

“We believe we have the capacity to continue on our growth trajectory and continue to recruit high-quality individuals,” CEO Alex Hodgkin says.

Knott Laboratory

Centennial

Mike Lowe, President and co-owner of Knott Laboratory

Knott Laboratory provides forensic engineering and animation services for a variety of industries nationwide.

The company produces scientifically accurate graphics and animations to support its engineers in their expert witness testimony.

The company’s team includes mechanical engineers, fire and explosion investigators, forensic animators, accident reconstructionists and digital media forensics experts who have worked on more than 20,000 failure analysis cases for the legal and insurance industries as well as for local and national businesses.

Knott Laboratory has 11 divisions, each serving a unique market, and functioning like a diverse portfolio, helping protect the company from market shifts.

“Our recruitment has focused on building a diverse group of engineers, scientists, physicists, architects and law enforcement officers to form highly specialized teams for each division,” says Sarah Allen, Knott’s marketing manager. “Growth mentality is a huge part of our culture so that technical staff have a continuous stream of interesting and challenging projects.”

Knott Laboratory’s systems and programs support a remote workforce that facilitates relatively easy expansion of the team. This was in place before the pandemic, allowing the company to easily adjust during pandemic stay-at-home orders.

The company is headquartered in Centennial, with locations in Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas and San Antonio.

ResultsLab

Denver

Cindy Eby, Founder and CEO of ResultsLab

ResultsLab is helping nonprofits and humanitarian-focused social enterprises harness the power of data.

The company works with organizations of all sizes, from large-scale state and government agencies and nonprofits to smaller, community-based grassroots organizations. Its goal is to make data approachable and deepen its clients’ ability to make informed decisions to create greater impact.

“I launched ResultsLab because I saw a real need for organizations to better utilize data and elevate voice to strengthen programs and drive real solutions that are centered to meet the needs of our communities,” CEO Cindy Eby notes on the company’s website.

Rising demand for greater transparency and accountability combined with greater expectations for organizations to listen to and elevate the voices of their community factors more heavily into the decision-making process.

ResultsLab walks its clients through a three-step process: design, measure and act. It’s geared toward helping social good organizations assess the performance of a project and make data-informed decisions.

Organizations that partner with ResultsLab are more confident and equipped to engage with data. They gain a clearer understanding of their goals and learn how to measure and use data to deepen their impact.

“Together we develop a culture of data that is sustainable and driving growth and transformative change,” Eby says.

Semantic Arts

Fort Collins

Semantic Arts is breaking down silos by changing the way companies think about data.

Through its transformation programs, Semantic Arts helps companies change their relationship to their information systems. The company promotes a shift in the way its clients think about data and simplifies the data landscape so they can understand it.

“We help companies change their relationship to data,” Semantic Arts President David McComb said. “We call this shift the Data-Centric Revolution. Silos go away, systems integration goes away.”

The company also offers advisory services, including workshops to help businesses grapple with tough issues, and assessments where Semantic Arts reviews projects in progress.

Semantic Arts brought on a business development team in 2020 and has been growing at a rate of 25% annually since — the maximum growth Semantic Arts believes a specialized professional services company should achieve.

The company has published four books on the shift in how data is used. Company representatives also speak at many conferences and webinars.

“We are thought leaders in our niche,” McComb says. “We have a very cohesive and collaborative culture and are able to hire the very rare skills that are needed to do this type of work.”

Storyvine Inc.

Denver

Using videos to get a story across helps consumers feel more connected to a brand, and Storyvine, Inc. makes it easy for companies to create them using nothing more than a phone and its video-management platform.

Founded in 2012, Storyvine’s clients include multi-nationals, corporate marketing and communications, advocacy and nonprofit groups that want to use video to simplify storytelling to move their businesses forward.

Storyvine combines distributed capture, asset management and fully automated video editing to allow clients to capture, produce and share the insights, knowledge and stories that define their brand.

“The rise of professional, user-generated video platforms has given brands the opportunity to create authentic videos from a smartphone,” says Monique Elwell, president and chief operating officer. “There has been a massive shift to digital communications due to COVID-19.”

Many of Storyvine’s pharmaceutical clients began using the platform their sales people could no longer get into the doctors’ offices. They’ve been using Storyvine to film hundreds to thousands of videos per day to continue their relationships and schedule meetings with healthcare providers. Storyvine’s customizable templates with high privacy and security features allow the company’s pharma clients to create authentic content that still meets regulatory guidelines.

“The return on investment they have been seeing has made Storyvine move from a nice to have to a must have,” Elwell says.

Tilt

Fort Collins

Tilt is revolutionizing employee leave in the workplace.

Because of poor work-life balance, being passed over for promotions, a lack of support from management and mismanaged leave in general, 34% of women don’t return to work after going on maternity leave.

But Tilt’s platform and team of leave experts manages the entire lifecycle before, during and after leave.

Tilt helps companies to incorporate their existing leave management process into its proprietary leave plan management platform. Each client receives a unique URL, and Tilt makes the interface look, feel, act and communicate in the same manner as the solution already in place.

Tilt’s platform creates a collaborative, holistic experience personalized for each leave scenario — including parental and caregiving — communicating clear expectations for all parties involved.

The platform helps companies stay compliant while retaining top talent, improving employee engagement and enhancing employee health and wellness.

“Human resources dislikes leave management, so it’s ripe for tech automation,” Tilt Founder and CEO Jennifer Henderson says.

Colorado Companies to Watch 2022: The Organizers

Read on to learn more about our favorite Colorado Organizers.

Edison Interactive

Denver

Jeremy Ostermiller, CEO of Edison Interactive

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Jeremy Ostermiller and Nick Stanitz-Harper in 2016, Edison Interactive has developed a cloud-based content management system for connected devices that allows brands to manage, optimize and monetize their network of screens across the globe.

Dubbed the Edison Launch Pad, the system allows businesses to incorporate the platform on any type of screen or device in any location. Screens can be completely customized and branded in a manner that enhances the end-user experience while providing real-time data and analytics to the company.

Edison’s digital out-of-home advertising opportunities allow brands, even those with limited ad budgets, to connect to consumers in more meaningful ways and in previously hard-to-reach places like golf courses, hotel rooms, rental vehicles and more.

In 2021, Edison ranked No. 144 on Inc. 500’s list of fastest-growing private companies, and in the past three years revenue has skyrocketed 4,000%. Understandably, Edison plans to increase its workforce, from 27 employees in 2021 to a projected 65 this year.

Such rapid growth presents challenges, including staff recruitment. Edison aims to provide a company culture that not only recruits quality employees, but retains them through new benefits added annually and opportunities for employees to grow their skills within the company.

Orderly Health

Denver

Orderly Health is revolutionizing data management in the health care industry through its suite of application programming interface (API) tools.

The company migrates provider data management to the cloud, cleans and maintains the data using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) and makes the data accessible through a suite of APIs that allow for seamless integrations for payers, health systems and health services organizations.

The company integrates its customers’ data into its proprietary database and leverages its network and cloud system to identify erroneous data. Orderly says the ecosystem it’s building will remove billions of dollars of waste from the healthcare industry.

“Our greatest strength is around our expertise related to data science and data management,” says Kevin Krauth, the company’s CEO.

The company’s Roster Automation Suite (RAS) creates an incentive for large commercial payers and providers to share detailed data on the providers in their network with Orderly, which creates network effects and a closed-feedback loop to continually improve the data it stores in its National Provider Directory.

“Coupled together, these two offerings form the basis of a provider data platform that will improve efficiency and accuracy across the entire healthcare data ecosystem and enable a number of tools that will increase access to all individuals for the best, highest quality and lowest cost care from the best providers,” Krauth says.

TurboTenant

Fort Collins

From screening tenants to creating lease agreements and collecting rent, owning investment property takes a lot of work, one Fort Collins company is making the job easier for independent landlords.

TurboTenant’s free, all-in-one property management software provides online tools to help independent landlords run their business. The platform lets landlords screen tenants, accept rental applications online, collect rent, create lease agreements and track expenses. It doesn’t provide general property or listing search capabilities on its website.

TurboTenants main suite of features is free, but additional services like state-specific leases and document e-signing are optional and may incur a small fee. Users also have the option to sign up for the premium package for $4.92 per month or $59 a year.

“Our mission at TurboTenant is to empower independent landlords to create welcoming rental experiences through positive interactions with their tenants,” says Taylor Marley, the company’s marketing operations manager. “We know that a great home can make a life-changing difference in a renter’s life and that great landlords will make great tenants.”

TurboTenant, which has 38 employees, works with more than 400,000 landlords and 12 million renters in all 50 states. Most TurboTenant users have between one and 50 units.

“We are excited to expand our capabilities by growing the TurboTenant team this year so we can continue to serve more independent landlords and their renters,” Marley says.

Colorado Companies to Watch 2022: The Fixers

Read on to learn more about our favorite Colorado Fixers.

Altitude Control Technology

Edwards

Altitude Control Technology (ACT) has revolutionized altitude simulation and the prevention of altitude sickness. Its primary business is developing altitude-adjustment systems for high-altitude homes and altitude simulation systems for research.

ACT pioneered the use of ceramic sensors, barometric pressure compensation and advanced altitude simulation algorithms. It continues to pave the way as a leader in scientific instruments and their application to better health in homes.

Based in Edwards, 14 miles west of Vail, the enterprise is well-situated for the industry space it occupies. The company engineered the world’s first oxygen-controlled altitude simulation system. The technology it has developed is the most advanced solution for medical research and mountain homes.

Founded in 2020, the company had 10 employees at year-end 2021 and expected to add another two this year. Those additions figure to be well-qualified. “We have the industry-leading, safest, most effective product and the largest, most experienced workforce,” President and CEO William Sinclair says.

One trend that bodes well for the company’s future, Sinclair says, is that an increasing number of people want to stay living at altitude instead of retiring to lower-altitude places. So far, his market observations have paid off. The company increased revenues nearly sixfold from 2020 to 2021 and projects year-over-year revenue growth of 43% this year.

Colorado Computer Support

Colorado Springs

Colorado Computer Support (CCS) has overcome some gut-punches in the past three years that would have overwhelmed lesser firms. In 2019, the IT and cybersecurity company lost its largest client, which was responsible for 50% of CCS’s business. Shortly thereafter, the pandemic hit, and clients canceled their capital projects, a major blow to the Colorado Springs firm’s revenue stream.

And yet, CCS bounced back, partnering with 16 new clients toward the end of 2020 and closing out 2021 eight new clients. The firm is on track to post a year-over-year revenue increase of 45% in 2022, following last year’s 22% revenue increase. One key to CCS’s resurgence was its resolve to focus on larger clients; much of the company’s new business is with clients with more than 100 employees.

“Cybersecurity threats have exploded,” CEO Blake Schwank says. “This has an impact on our clients in several areas, most notably in compliance. Industries are now demanding that layers of cybersecurity are in place. Additionally, cyber insurance policies have very specific requirements that are difficult to meet without assistance from an outside IT vendor that specializes in cybersecurity.”

CCS enables clients to meet those demands so they can go about their business.

“We enable businesses to staff an entire IT department at a fraction of the cost, allowing our clients to scale despite current staffing challenges,” Schwank says. “CCS takes care of the entire process — hiring, training, and managing our IT staff and support, freeing our clients to focus on running and growing their core operations.”

Digital Silence

Denver

Justin Whitehead founded Digital Silence in 2018 with one goal in mind: to do cybersecurity consulting right.

The boutique firm provides a comprehensive set of cybersecurity consulting services including penetration testing, framework-based risk assessments, ransomware reviews, incident response, digital forensics and virtual CISO consulting.

“Even with the headwinds of 2020 COVID, we have been able to have dramatic growth over the past four years,” says Whitehead, the firm’s CEO. “Our focus on delivery excellence and technical talent is what sets us apart from our competitors.”

The industries Digital Silence serves include entertainment, financial services, tech companies and health care. The company’s growth has been spurred by factors that include both an increase in cybersecurity attacks and an increase in compliance requirements from state and federal government.

Since 2018 when the firm started out with two employees, Digital Silence has grown to a workforce of 12 full-time equivalent employees and expects to add up to four employees this year. Revenues increased 75% from 2020 to 2021 and are projected to grow another 68% year-over-year in 2022.

HomePride

Centennial

HomePride is a specialty remodeler that focuses on bathroom remodeling and walk-in bath installation. CEO Matthew Colligan knew there was a huge market for these services that had yet to be tapped when he founded the company in 2018.

“People are remodeling as they cannot afford to move,” Colligan says. “People love Colorado, and if they would like to update their home it is a less expensive option to stay in the home they love and give it an update vs. trying to sell and move into a home that is smaller and requiring the same upgrades as the home they are already in.”

So, what sets HomePride apart from other remodelers? One of the keys has been its ability to generate leads and turn those into customers. From 2020 to 2021, the company’s revenues jumped from $6.6 million to $16.7 million, and the company projects a nearly twofold increase, to $33 million, this year.

Meanwhile, HomePride nearly doubled its number of employees from 2020 to 2021 and projects another 42% increase in its workforce for 2022.

“We are opening new locations and have created a lead-generation strategy and recruitment strategy that has allowed us to capitalize on the Colorado real estate market conditions,” Colligan says.

Of course, lead-generation strategies wouldn’t matter if HomePride didn’t also deliver. The Centennial-based remodeler does that.

“We focus on installing a bathroom in as little as a day or two,” Colligan says.

Lion Home Service

Fort Collins

Lion Home Service is setting a new standard of excellence in the residential services industry.

The company provides prompt service, quality fixes and a reliable response its customers can trust. The company understands that problems don’t always occur during normal business hours, so its call center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Lion guarantees all of its repair work and if a manufacturer refuses to honor its warranty, the company will make the necessary repairs at no charge to the customer.

“Barton Palmer, the company’s owner and general manager, plans for the future so Lion Home Service continues to grow and develop more efficient ways to operate,” says Donja Medina, the company’s marketing manager.

“Leadership and vision are our biggest strengths,” Medina says. “A major focus over the past year has been growing leaders and investing in training. We are constantly working on recruiting the best employees and optimizing procedures.”

TNT Home Services

Firestone

TNT Home Services provides residential and commercial plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical services for customers along the Front Range.

The veteran-owned company operates on the three pillars that guide the U.S. Air Force: integrity first; service before self; and excellence in all we do.

TNT’s up-front, flat-rate pricing means customers are not charged by the house. The company provides free estimates for jobs like remodels, re-pipes and tankless water heaters.

The company employs people who have served in the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy who exemplify the company’s commitment to honesty and integrity. It offers veterans, first responders, active-duty military and their families 10$ off its services in appreciation of their service.

Unlike most home service companies, TNT does not operate 24/7. The company has a family-first focus, meaning it wants its technicians home for dinner with their families every night. It also strives not to send them out on weekends — also not typical in the home services industry.

“We know that if we take care of our employees that they will take care of our clients, and they will in turn take care of us,” TNT President Laura Thornton says.

Colorado Companies to Watch 2022: The Techies

Read on to learn more about our favorite Colorado Tech companies.

AppIt Ventures

Denver

AppIt Ventures is a woman-owned custom software development company specializing in custom app development.

“The world of custom software is ever-evolving,” CEO Amanda Moriuchi says. “Every year, more and more companies of all sizes are moving toward developing custom and cloud-based solutions to better serve the needs of both their organization and their customers. This trend toward new app development is largely due to a massive shift in user behavior and user experience.”

As an example, Moriuchi points to mobile phones, which in a few short years have become a part of people’s everyday lives. “Creating a world-class user experience is something that top companies strive for to further engage their employees and users on a more frequent basis,” she says.

The Denver-based firm had 62 employees at the end of 2021 and is expected to add another eight this year. Software is the product, but it’s the people who make it happen at AppIt Ventures.

“Our top strength is our people,” Moriuchi says. “There are thousands of vendors that build custom software, but the key differentiator between AppIt Ventures and other developers is that we have a strong company culture. We are deeply committed to our values of diversity and inclusion, discipline and quality.”

AppIt’s revenues increased 37% year-over-year from 2019 to 2020 and another 4% last year amid the pandemic. The company expects a big jump in 2022, as it projects a year-over-year revenue increase of nearly 50%.

“We are gaining traction with enterprise clients this year and are growing rapidly and on track to have our best year yet,” Moriuchi says.

Darwin Biosciences

Boulder

Darwin Biosciences specializes in the development of saliva-based diagnostics for the early detection of infectious disease. Founded in 2020, the company’s vision is to empower decision-making through diagnostics that are accessible to anyone.

Currently in development is its platform technology that reads molecules in saliva to detect if a person has contracted an infectious disease before the onset of symptoms. Designed to be fully portable, it will enable regular screening by untrained personnel in the field, or the comfort of one’s home.

Darwin Biosciences currently has the exclusive rights to three patents licensed from the University of Colorado Boulder. “Together, they provide protection in developing our platform technology that will enable the hand-held detection of nucleic acids from non-invasive biospecimens,” says Dr. Nicholas Meyerson, CEO of Darwin Biosciences.

Meyerson touts Darwin’s access to world-class scientific research from CU-Boulder and a rapidly growing team that has proven capable of executing on product development milestones.

The company quickly began generating revenue in 2020 by developing and deploying a saliva-based COVID testing service. For 2022, the company is projecting revenue growth of at least 20%.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about rapid change in the infectious disease diagnostics industry, with a heightened interest in bringing diagnostics out of the laboratory and empowering individuals with rapid and accurate results.

“Additionally, there is a growing need to prepare for the next pandemic,” Meyerson says. “Darwin Biosciences is perfectly poised to address these market needs with our platform technology, which is portable, rapid and intended to be used and interpreted by anyone. And because our device is agnostic to the pathogen being detected, it will be broadly applicable to the detection of pathogens beyond the current pandemic.”

Iron-IQ

Grand Junction

Iron-IQ is a cloud-native platform that allows clients to remotely monitor and control any device from anywhere in the world.

With an expertise in oil and gas, Iron-IQ has built its flagship product, Patch-IQ, to make field-level data accessible to other modern oil and gas software products. This enables the digital transformation required for companies to meet environmental, production and ROI goals. With Patch-IQ, data can be fed in real-time between Iron-IQ’s systems the moment it comes in from the field – allowing clients to keep track of tank levels, potential leaks, thresholds, video feeds and more to ensure operations are running smoothly.

The traction the business is gaining is evident in the company’s growth. In 2021, the firm doubled revenues from the previous year and is on track to repeat that growth this year. The company also projects a 33% increase in its workforce this year compared to last.

As the oil and gas industry has evolved, Iron-IQ has adapted to fill emerging needs. “The biggest change is the need for high frequency, normalized data from the field that interacts with other modern software solutions,” Iron-IQ Executive Chairman Matt Showalter says, citing an increased focus industrywide on the environment and operational efficiency.

“Our strength lies in the team of oil and gas, SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) and software experts,” Showalter continues. “In order to fulfill the needs of oil and gas operators, it requires deep domain expertise in all three. Also, our founding team has a track record of building successful companies in Colorado.”

Iterate.ai

Highlands Ranch

Iterate.ai helps companies build production-ready, low-code applications up to 17 times faster than traditional programming.

The company, which ranks No. 407 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, does not employ salespeople and has no marketing expenditures. Most of its business is initiated by word-of-mouth recommendations by existing customers.

“We build software, so we don’t own many physical assets — just some personal computers,” Iterate.ai co-founder and CEO Jon Nordmark says. “We own IP — patents, custom-written code, etcetera.”

Iterate.ai built two patented software platforms — Interplay and Signals — that enhance digital transformation and innovation initiatives for the Enterprise.

Interplay is an intelligent, low-code middleware platform that is also used for rapid digital prototyping.

Interplay is supported by Signals, which helps executives evaluate concepts. It monitors 15.7 million startups and hundreds of emerging trends.

“As organizations have embraced low-code strategies to leverage the most cutting-edge and competitively advantageous technologies, our maturing business has grown from small service retainers to now include seven-figure software licenses from global enterprises,” Nordmark said at the time the company was named to the Deloitte list. “Iterate has been at the forefront of enabling customers with low-code access to many of the most innovative technologies.”

Revaluate

Golden

Revaluate creates artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms with machine learning that help mortgage companies and real estate agencies identify people who are likely to move within the next six months.

Marketers in the software, real estate and mortgage industries use the targeted data to increase the efficiency of their campaigns.

Each Revaluate customer has a plan customized to the number of contacts in their database. The company builds profiles for its clients’ leads, prospects and former clients, measuring and scoring each prospect nightly, looking for data that indicates they may be more or less likely to move.

When the score is above 80, Revaluate notifies the user that via text message, email, its dashboard or the client’s customer relationships management system that the prospect is Very Likely to Move.

“Rather than buying new leads every month, mortgage and real estate brands are beginning to work their existing databases, reducing churn and improving the bottom line,” Revaluate CEO Chris Drayer said.

The technology works best for companies that have 2,000 contacts or more in their databases, although it does have benefits for those with less than that. Revaluate can also help its clients build their lists.

Colorado Companies to Watch 2022: The Helpers

From an economic-development perspective, the importance of recognizing second-stage companies — those beyond the startup stage but still developing — is obvious: As these companies grow, not only do they employ an increasing number of people, to the benefit their local economies and quality of life; they also create a need for outside services, and thus opportunity for other businesses, from restaurants to accounting firms to pet boarders, to flourish. The ripple effect on the economy is sizable, to say the least.

Read on to learn more about our favorite Colorado Helpers.

Agile RF Systems LLC

Berthoud

Agile RF Systems specializes in the research and development of advanced antenna technologies for the Department of Defense and commercial and civil space applications.

The company built its technology toolbox with the help of Small Business Innovative Research grants from the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA.

Agile RF Systems specializes in four business segments: small, tactical radars for weather and counter unmanned aircraft systems (UAS); satellite communications on-the-move active electronically steered antennas; millimeter wave antennas for communications and remote sensing; space deployable antennas for communications, radar and remote sensing.

The company offers array-based radar with multichannel digital transceiver for weather and UAS surveillance and tracking; electronically steered antenna for millimeter wave applications; and space-deployable antenna innovations.

Agile RF Systems recently completed the construction of a state-of-the-art facility housing an antenna test range.

“The promise of low-cost systems to fuel the demand in distributed sensors and communications equipment can drive significant growth,” says Kim Kelly, the company’s chief operating officer.

Artifact Uprising

Denver

Artifact Uprising strives to create joy by helping customers honor the “meaningful” in their lives through printed photo gifts, books and more. The Denver-based company has been profitable every year since 2013, the year after it was founded.

Artifact Uprising offers customers an assortment of customizable products that help commemorate the moments and people that are most important to them. Of one its most notable innovations is the Display Box, for which it earned a patent. It came about during the process of re-imagining how customers interact with photo goods.

“Most photo prints in people’s homes are stored in a plastic bin, or, at worst, a cardboard shoebox,” says CEO Brad Kopitz. “Our Display Box is a way for customers to both, keep their photo prints protected while also being able to display them in a way that blends in with and elevates their home decor.”

Through the years, Artifact Uprising has been quick to evolve with changing market trends and conditions, such as inflation and customers who are increasingly pressed for time.

“Our customers lead very busy lives, and demands on their time continue to grow,” Koptiz says. “We’ve had to evolve our marketing to also focus on how easy it is to create a project and to give our customers lots of inspiration by sharing not only what design experts in the field are making, but also what everyday customers are making.”

Wedding-related materials — guestbooks, photo albums and such — are a significant source of business for the company. With weddings widely expected to boom in the coming months, Artifact Uprising is well positioned to capture an even greater portion of that market.

Cloud Campaign

Boulder

Cloud Campaign is a digital platform that helps marketing agencies scale social media management so they can increase the number of brands they manage and charge a higher retainer with a leaner team. The platform is used by more than 1,000 marketing agencies managing social media for nearly 16,000 brands globally including Mazda, Hilton and E&Y, to name a few.

Founded in 2017, the company has seized on a shift in the market whereby more and more brands are hiring marketing agencies to help them with marketing in general. More specifically, “We’ve seen this trend become increasingly true for social media management,” Cloud Campaign CEO Ryan Born says.

From 2020 to 2021, Cloud Campaign increased both its employee count – going from 11 employees to 22 – and its revenues more than twofold. The company expects to double year-over-year revenues again in 2022 and plans to keep expanding its workforce as well.

“We are growing our engineering and go-to-market teams as we build new products,” says Born, who notes that the pandemic has accelerated the need for brands to “go digital” to stay in touch with their audiences as physical storefronts temporarily close down.

“We beat out our competitors when it comes to building a product that is loved by our target market,” the CEO says.

Comcentric Inc.

Lone Tree

Comcentric, a leading provider of staffing solutions to health care, technology and telecom providers, isn’t exactly a newcomer – founded in 2003 and profitable for 19 straight years. But the Lone Tree-based firm has amped up business to a new level in the past two years.

From 2020 to 2021, Comcentric nearly doubled its workforce, from 44 full-time equivalent employees to 87 last year, while increasing revenues by 80% year-over-year during that period, to $10.5 million last year. The company expects a year-over-year revenue increase of 42% this year.

Having the know-how to identify and respond to what clients want in terms of workforce talent, is one reason for the company’s rise. Also, says founder and CEO Eric Grenier, “We are seeing fewer smaller competitors, as there has been consolidation in the industry.”

Comcentric strives to match people with the right organization – taking steps to learn whether that prospect prefers a fast-paced environment or one that’s more quiet – so that the staffer and company are less likely to part ways after six months.

“We have succeeded by structuring our business processes to meet our clients’ needs in terms of quick response, reasonable rates and quality of candidates,” Grenier says. “We utilize a best-practices approach and constantly refine our processes to lead the market in next-level recruiting.”

Grenier also cites social media as a factor in the company’s growth. “A lot of the talent pool we seek is out there on GitHub, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and some of the lesser-known groups and networks as well, so we have to really try to find them there,” he says. “The biggest benefit in social recruiting is in finding passive candidates — people who are not actively seeking employment.”

GavinHeath

Centennial

GavinHeath’s staffing model ensures its clients have the workforce they need to meet their business objectives.

Founded by Holly Steele in 2015, the company provides temporary workers, temporary employees to be converted to permanent staff, direct hire or permanent placement employees. The company recruits employees for positions at all levels, from entry-level and highly technical positions to executive leadership roles.

The company started as an information technology (IT) staffing provider but has expanded to support its clients’ administration and operations needs. It also serves the finance and accounting industry.

“Though GavinHeath has become more agile over the last two years, especially in seeking opportunities outside of the IT space, one of the firm’s greatest strengths still rests in doing what they do best — staffing IT professionals,” says Daniel Steele, the company’s president and chief operating officer.

Last year was the best in GavinHeath’s history. The company more than doubled in revenue year over year from 2020 to 2021. It also nearly doubled in size from an average of nine employees in 2020 to 16 employees in 2021, retaining several consultants covering bookkeeping, human resources and investment banking.

“While expanding offerings and seeking to alleviate pain points regardless of vertical, staying true to what the company does best in finding exceptional IT professionals remains GavinHeath’s strong suit,” Steele says. “Hiring recruiters and salespeople with IT staffing experience ensures GavinHeath can serve as their client’s go-to resource with reliable and consistent performance.”

GoQAV

Centennial

GoQAV provides design-focused technology solutions for homes and businesses – thinking beyond “smart homes,” to “pure homes.” The company’s Experience Center in Centennial is designed to help educate the design-build community about the latest advancements in energy-efficient interior lighting, hidden technology solutions, and wellness within the home. Then GoQAV makes it happen.

“Fifty percent of all homes in America by this year will be considered a ‘smart home,’” says GoQAV founder and CEO Tyson Rabani. “The term ‘smart home’ is changing quickly as there are many DIY products on the market for anyone to make their home ‘smart.’ We are seeing a big shift in focus on wellness in the industry, and it’s been said we are heading into the ‘pure home’ phase with smart home products that emphasize lighting solutions for mental health, clean air, clean water and fitness.”

The company, founded in 2006, regards its industry relationships as its greatest strength. That includes relationships with some of Colorado’s best custom homebuilders. GoQAV’s own workforce doubled from 2020 to 2021, and the company expects to increase its employee count by another 33% this year.

“We have an extended team of talented engineers, designers and professionals, helping us create a world-class client experience,” Rabani says. We pride ourselves on providing a great company culture for our growing team. GoQAV remains relevant by exploring the latest trends, consumer education, and providing education to our design-build partners. Our design-focused technology solutions emphasize the experiences that will come to life in the luxury home and the modern business environment.”

Journey Payroll & HR

Fort Collins

Journey Payroll and & HR offers the services its name suggests, and more: payroll tax services, onboarding, time-clock, EAP (Employee Assistance Program), workers’ compensation solutions and more.

Software advancements lead some businesses to believe that they can handle their own accounting, but they often learn that’s best left to the pros.

“We see a lot of businesses thinking they can take payroll in house and do it on their own to save on cost,” Journey Payroll CEO Kevin Welch says. “Businesses think the dot com world saves them money, but in fact, it usually costs clients more. That has been something we’ve seen change in our market over the years.”

Journey Payroll, founded in 2010, cites company culture and “heart” among its strengths. “Our infrastructure is only as solid as our team, and we have proven time and time again that our ability to adapt and change quickly, while always keeping heart in everything we do, is at the core of our business,” Welch says, adding that his Fort Collins-based firm is preparing to introduce a new technology that he believes will spur growth nationwide.

“We are excited about all of our growth over the past years,” he says, “though we believe that was just setting the foundation for 2022 and beyond.”

Kanso Software

Denver

Kanso Software helps tribal and public housing authorities simplify how they manage and adhere to complex rules and regulations associated with providing housing to people in need.

The company’s Doorways tool transforms data into knowledge, giving organizations insight into all aspects of their operations and the people they serve. The software was built with affordable housing as the priority and the open platform easily integrates with third-party apps.

“We have developed the only product to manage subsidized housing for Native American and U.S. homelessness,” says Doug Chapiewsky, the company’s founder and CEO. “No other software vendor has been able to create a platform to manage this distressed problem domain.”

More than 250 Native American tribes and 270 U.S. public housing authorities use Kanso’s software to manage their business operations, including occupancy, finance reporting and maintenance, and make data-driven decisions.

Doorways also is well-suited for providers that manage services for the homeless. The software can be configured to manage the often unpredictable components of people moving in and out of homeless services and helps organizations ensure the careful distribution of limited resources while managing relationships with landlords, housing specialists and others who serve people in need.

“Our culture is one of high empathy and emotional IQ ,which allows us to support the underserved with technology,” Chapiewsky says. “We are very nimble and customer driven.”

Start Talking LLC

Westminster

Many people who need behavioral health therapy put it off because they think they’re too busy to go to a counselor’s office. But Start Talking is changing that dynamic, making it easier for patients to get the therapy they need thought its HIPAA-compliant and encrypted video platform for teletherapy.

Start Talking providers are accessible through the cameras of smartphones, tablets and computers, whether the patient is in the car, at work or at home. The company works through employee assistance programs (EAPs) at companies like Charles Schwab, which has 5,000 employees at its Denver headquarters.

The company generates $500,000 annual recurring revenue through the 400 therapy sessions it facilitates each month. It’s expected to increase that to $1 million ARR doing 1,000 therapy sessions per month by July 1.

“We are doubling and tripling our numbers some years,” Start Talking CEO Mark Nolte says. “We are adding new therapists every month.”

The Christi Reece Group, A Refreshing Real Estate Company

Grand Junction

Real estate agents at The Christi Reece Group focus on customer relationships and building community — it gives 2% of its revenue to local nonprofit organizations selected by its clients.

The brokerage is gearing up for another strong year in real estate sales and development by adding up to 10 new agents to its ranks to help clients buy, sell or invest. The company has a full-time marketing manager and other support staff to ensure its agents stay focused on what they do best.

Founder and CEO Christi Reece says the Grand Junction area was on the cusp of being “discovered” before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Surprisingly, the pandemic accelerated real estate sales, she said.

“Demand for homes in our area is at an all-time high, while inventory is incredibly low,” Reece said. “New construction projects are attempting to provide relief to the housing shortage, but the planning and development processes are challenged by lack of staff. Technology continues to play a bigger part in our industry, making agents, and the buying and selling process, more efficient. But I believe this is still a relationship business.”

Xyleme Inc.

Denver

Xyleme empowers companies to transform how they create and deliver content across their organizations. In this area, Xyleme has become the service provider of choice to the Fortune 500, with a global customer base that includes Cisco, 3M, Kaiser Permanente and VMWare, to name a few.

The Denver-based firm enables customers to use their content as a competitive advantage to scale quicker, deliver products to market faster, and ensure their talent is always ready to respond to ever-changing market dynamics. Xyleme combines capabilities to deliver a scalable solution for collaborative content authoring, publishing, management, delivery and syndication, making it easy for large organizations to deliver the right content to the right audience on the right channel at the right time — anywhere in the world.

While Xyleme’s sole office and corporate headquarters are in Denver, fully remote employees operate across the U.S., Europe & Canada. In the past six months, the company has more than doubled its employee base and is actively hiring across a dozen roles.

In 2021, Xyleme received a major investment from Bow River Capital that will enable the company to accelerate growth and deliver on leading innovation to accelerate modern learning experiences in training and development, and scale operations globally.

Made in Colorado 2022 — Outdoor Edition

LavaBox Portable Campfires

Joshua Thurmond’s background as a rafting guide led to the launch of LavaBox in early 2021.

A fellow board member at the Colorado Whitewater Association asked Thurmond if he could come up with something better than the big, round fire pits used on overnight trips. “I said, ‘Yeah, I can make one out of an ammo can,’” he says. “I went home, made a whole bunch of them, and I think it was the seventh iteration that was the winner.’”

That was the LavaBox. “It was a COVID crisis,” Thurmond says. “I wanted to do something totally different, and just went for it. I have no background in manufacturing and no background in driving sales.”

Now assembled by a growing crew at an 8,000-square-foot facility, the compact, propane-powered product avoids fire bans. Thurmond also designed a grill and grate to round out the catalog. “Pretty soon, we had every retailer knocking at the door,” Thurmond says. “We just went from zero to hero out of the blue. Now we’ve sold thousands of products.”

» Starting at $175

» Made by LavaBox, Denver

Bedrock Bags

Joey Ernst owned a bike shop, Velorution Cycles, in Durango when Andrew Wracher showed him some bike packs he’d made. “I was like, ‘If you make these, I will sell these,’” Ernst says. “He went home and started Bedrock in his spare bedroom.”

Wracher and Ernst took the business partnership one step further by moving the manufacturing operation into the same space as Ernst’s shop in 2015. Sales immediately quadrupled as bike packing boomed in general, and their manufacturing business supplanted the retail business entirely.

Thousands of bags later, the five-employee company “does a few things really well,” says Ernst, who has been in the bicycle business since 1997. “We have decades of sewing experience under this roof, even with just five people. Combining those two, as opposed to just being into bikes and then starting to sew or being into sewing and making stuff for bikes, allows us to come at it from a very holistic perspective.”

» $50 to $300 retail

» Made by Bedrock Bags, Durango

Long Haul Folding Kayaks

Master boat builder Mark Eckhart started working with folding kayaks while he was a firefighter in Westminster. He developed a relationship with Klepper, a German manufacturer, and repaired their boats when he wasn’t at the firehouse. “That all crumbled, so I started to make my own boats,” Eckhart says.

He moved to Cedaredge in 1998 and has built “around 700 or 800” boats as of 2022, including numerous orders for the U.S. military. Beyond folding kayaks, Long Haul also makes a folding kayak branded the York.

Eckhart says tried-and-true craftsmanship is a big differentiator. As most manufacturers moved to aluminum and plastic frames, Long Haul stuck with wood. “The wood frame, when they’re done right, is the best frame,” Eckhart says. “How many products do you buy that can last for 20 years? One reason for that is because the boats are built damn good.”

» Starting at $3,200 retail

» Made by Long Haul Folding Kayaks, Cedaredge

San Util Design

Adam Nicholson moved from Denver to Winter Park to open the Trailhead, an outdoor shop, in late 2019. It closed for four months in the early days of the COVID pandemic, leading Nicholson to try his hand at sewing bags. “I borrowed my mom’s sewing machine and sat down at the kitchen table for days on end,” he says. “I got a little obsessed with it.”

The endeavor morphed into San Util Design, and Nicholson went full-time with the business after a Kickstarter campaign in late 2021. He traded in his mom’s sewing machine and got two industrial machines and a 500-square-foot workspace. “In classic fashion, I go all-in with anything I start doing,” Nicholson says.

San Util now offers tool rolls, six-pack beer totes, frame packs, and a variety of other bags and pouches. Nicholson says his products are “more utilitarian” than the big brands’ bags. “Why do I have nine pockets? I only use
one of them.”

» $14 to $260 retail

» Made by San Util Design, Winter Park

Denver-based writer Eric Peterson is the author of Frommer’s Colorado, Frommer’s Montana & Wyoming, Frommer’s Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks and the Ramble series of guidebooks, featuring first-person travelogues covering everything from atomic landmarks in New Mexico to celebrity gone wrong in Hollywood. Peterson has also recently written about backpacking in Yosemite, cross-country skiing in Yellowstone and downhill skiing in Colorado for such publications as Denver’s Westword and The New York Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected]

Three ways ADUs Go Easy on the Environment

Homeowners thinking about adding freestanding ADUs (accessory dwelling units, a.k.a. in-law apartments, granny flats, or cottages) tend to focus on creating much-needed space without knocking down walls in the houses they’re living in, the addition of rental income, and other practical considerations. The political can also come into play: ADUs provide low-profile, distributed housing, quietly preserving a street’s character and avoiding the ire of neighborhood associations.

In addition to the practical and the political, a third factor plays a role – or least should – in the ADU calculus: the environmental. The environmental advantages of ADUs sort themselves into three broad buckets. The first involves the efficiency of the finished ADU itself; the second is about the benefits of a smaller physical footprint; and the third support greater housing density the distributed, smaller footprints of ADUs enable.

Efficient from the ground up

Freestanding ADUs tend to be much more efficient than the single-family homes they augment. ADU building envelopes typically include above-code insulation and weatherizing with such features as Zip System wall sheathing, OSB with rubberized membranes, and ultrahigh-efficiency doors and windows. ADUs comply with strict building-code standards, which demand that additions and new homes – including ADUs – have enough solar panels to achieve net-zero energy consumption. In addition, ADUs boast tankless water heaters as well as highly efficient mini-split HVAC systems that handle both heating and cooling, and appliances tend to be both right-sized and Energy Star rated.

The high-volume, factory-based production of ADUs also enables a strikingly precise alignment of inputs to outputs. In fact, the waste from the onsite construction of a modular ADU is measured in garbage cans, not dumpsters. That same precision and scale can also enable the efficient recycling of metals and the composting of clean wood waste.

Taken together, a well-built ADU is built tight and runs lean. That translates directly into low utility bills; indirectly, it allows our built environment to tread more lightly on the planet.

Physically (and environmentally) small

When it comes to environmental footprint, a structure’s size matters. A detached ADU of 700 square feet is estimated to have just half the long-term environmental impact of that 2,262-square-foot house.

There are knock-on benefits to going small too. There’s less room to store the stuff that accumulates into the clutter that Marie Kondo has made a career out of curating. Less room means fewer, more deliberate purchases, and less shopping means less embodied energy in the products themselves and, later, less landfilling. As I prepare to move into a 1,000-square-foot prefab home with my family of four, I can attest unequivocally that space constraints modify shopping behavior – for the better, in my opinion.

Low-profile density

ADUs are a thoughtful way to address growing populations. While development on urban fringes consumes open space, reduces natural wildlife habitats, increases air and water pollution, and brings greater risk of mass destruction from wildfires, ADUs in yards closer to downtown translates into less need for cars and more opportunities for public transit.

A 30-mile commute at 23 miles per gallon yields about 2.5-ton annual carbon savings per ADU from commutes not taken. Together, that’s about 42 U.S. households worth of emissions.

There is no shortage of greenwashing in the construction industry, with bold claims about the sustainability of certain materials or techniques that don’t stand up to deeper scrutiny. The environmental advantages of living smaller and more thoughtfully, however, are undeniable.

Backyard studio spaces for work, creativity, or living allow us to extend the life of our existing homes to work in more modern ways. Prefab construction at scale results in meaningful reductions in waste and degradation of the environment. An embrace of these structures at the municipal level will be a key element in solving our housing crisis in a way that results in more livable communities that tread ever more lightly on the planet.

Jeremy Nova is co-founder and creative director of Studio Shed. A longtime professional mountain bike racer who competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics, Nova built the first Studio Shed to store his many wheels. His passion for smart design, efficiency, engineering, and architecture has buoyed Studio Shed’s growth into the only ADU maker that ships nationwide for installation by a comprehensive network of certified installers.

Communication is the Key: High 5 Plumbing Explains the Unique Nature of Working with a Spouse

Starting an independent business can be a difficult venture. Along with having the money to fund the project, one must develop a business plan, create working systems, hire employees, convince customers to purchase the product or service, and a multitude of other important business management issues. It is a long and sometimes daunting task.

For some, it becomes a family business that incorporates a husband-wife duo overseeing operations. That is the case when it comes to High 5 Plumbing. The home service company offers a multitude of plumbing solutions to residents in the Denver area, including repair and installation, drain cleaning, pump plumbing, piping, garbage disposal services, sewer line repair, gas plumbing, water heater installation and much more.

The company is led by Levi and Cassi Torres. When running a company with your spouse, keeping a work-life balance can be complicated at times. “Everyone talks about a work-life balance,” said Levi.

“In all reality, when we go home, we are in a different mindset. But we still discuss work. We talk about our plans and the future of the company. The only difference is we don’t go home, open a laptop and start working directly on the business. The balance is we are not working in the company, we are working on the company.”

When starting a business from the ground up, almost every aspect of the business is discussed daily, according to Cassi.

“It comes up naturally,” she said. “Our kids have been around the company ever since they were younger. They were always around the business, so it’s just natural for us to discuss it when we are at home. It comes up all the time.”

The couple, who started High 5 Plumbing in 2012, said there are plenty of advantages of running a business with your spouse. Being able to share a clear vision for the company helps develop a clear company culture.

“We are the leaders of the company, so our relationship with each other is reflected in the company,” said Cassi. “We have a common vision of where we want the company to go. I think having that vision has allowed us to constantly be understanding of each other. Like four years ago, having a common vision and direction helped us develop a plan to grow the business.”

Building a successful plumbing company with two locations and plenty of happy customers isn’t simple, even for a happy couple. Levi said the biggest obstacle to success is a lack of communication.

“It may be a cliché answer, but communication is the answer to a lot of problems,” he said. “If you can communicate how you’re feeling, then you can avoid hurting other people’s feelings. If you can communicate what you want to accomplish, then there won’t be any confusion. Communication is the key.”

While the couple has been together for 21 years, Cassi said they still use a coach to help them communicate better both inside and outside the office.

“Levi and I are completely opposite when it comes to our personalities and how we interact with people,” Cassi said. “We’ve had to learn how to respect how each other communicates. Even though we’ve been together more than two decades, we are actively working with a coach on how we can improve our communication skills, build a stronger relationship, and be aligned in the same direction.”

Both Cassi and Levi agree that getting a mentor is the best thing a couple can do to help run a successful business. Due to the unique nature of running a business together, a coach can help the owners “go through the weeds of it” and come out the other end successfully.

Cassi Torres High 5 Plumbing — Vice President at High 5 Plumbing, Cassi Torres, and the teams behind High 5 Plumbing are innovating the plumbing industry across Denver.

About High 5 PlumbingFounded in 2012, High 5 Plumbing is a local, family-owned company serving residents in the greater Denver metropolitan area. The company was recently recognized by the Denver Metro Chamber Business Awards as a 2022 finalist for Small Business of the Year.

With a professional team that has extensive experience and a commitment to service, High 5 Plumbing offers comprehensive plumbing, sewer, and drain services. The company was built on the values of solving plumbing problems and serving every customer with professionalism and respect. For more information, visit: High 5 Plumbing

Live from Colorado: The Future of Sports Betting

On a sunny Saturday afternoon last October, Denverite Richard Terry did something audacious: bet that the Oklahoma Sooners would win a football game.

It was midway through the annual “Red River Showdown” against the University of Texas. The Sooners were getting drubbed 28-7. Terry, a 37-year-old corporate relocation specialist, was about to leave a friend’s home in Aurora when his buddy tossed out a wild idea: Bet on Oklahoma to win it straight up.

The suggestion seemed implausible, but Terry listened to his friend’s case: Oklahoma had a history of coming from behind, and the Sooners still had home-field advantage. With a few breaks, Oklahoma conceivably could rise up. Intrigued, Terry fired up the DraftKings app on his smartphone and checked the odds: eight-to-one for Oklahoma to storm back. Why not, he figured. He put $5 down and headed out.

Sure enough, Oklahoma began making a run. Alerted by a text message, Terry hurried home to watch backup quarterback Caleb Williams orchestrate one of the great comebacks in Oklahoma football history. With three seconds on the clock, Sooner halfback Kennedy Brooks romped into the end zone from 33 yards out. Terry’s $5 bet instantly turned into $40.

In a state where hundreds of thousands of players bet billions of dollars annually on sports, it was a tiny wager. But encapsulated in that moment were the ingredients of what some people believe will be a revolution not only in how fans bet on sports, but watch them, too.

It’s called “in-game betting,” and it’s just what the name suggests: wagers made live and in the moment during real-time play. It could be whether Rockies’ hitter C.J. Cron will get on base in his next at- bat. It could be whether Real Madrid can sustain a shutout over the final 10 minutes. Or as Richard Terry experienced, it could be whether the Oklahoma Sooners can make a late charge to win a game.

In-game wagers differ from old-school sports bets, like whether the Broncos can beat the spread against the Chiefs. These sorts of “moneyline” bets have long been the bread-and-butter for the sports-gambling business. But they’re somewhat passive. Once a bet is made, bettors can just as easily go shopping for groceries and check the final score later.

Now, with smartphones and wireless data networks, betting on sports is a whole new ballgame, with live, in-game betting a rising factor.

Fantasy successor

Kyle Christensen is the chief marketing officer for PointsBet, an Australia-based sports-gambling company with its U.S. headquarters in Denver. He makes a convincing argument for in-game betting as a sort of souped-up successor to fantasy sports: It’s a way to enrich the betting experience, keep fans interested in games (even blowouts), appeal to an increasingly discriminating sports-betting market, and create a positive impact on the broader sports-entertainment experience.

Momentum seems to favor his argument. Live betting now accounts for roughly half of all PointsBet wagers, up from less than a third as of late 2021. As interest grows, PointsBet and others are working feverishly to keep up with the demand by conceiving of a never-ending torrent of live betting propositions. During the 2022 “March Madness” NCAA men’s basketball tournament, for example, PointsBet offered nearly 60 live-game bets, letting players gamble on everything from which team would prevail in a four-minute interval to “lightning bets” on which team would score the next point.

Christensen grew up in Loveland, cultivating a passion for the Rockies and Broncos before heading west to work for media giants Facebook, Fox Sports and Netflix. He’s now back in Colorado, working at PointsBet’s headquarters office on 17th Street in Denver.

PointsBet employs close to 200 Colorado software developers, graphic designers, customer agents and other professionals who work at king-sized monitors behind an expansive succession of floor-to-ceiling windowed rooms, including a “dugout” space that overlooks Coors Field. To be sure, this is not the backroom gambling operation of a bygone era: the aesthetic divide between PointsBet’s sleek, high-tech downtown office and the streetwise bookmaker of old could not be starker.

Many of these employees are focused on making live betting a locus of distinction for PointsBet. The company has invested in technology designed to assure fast response and continuous “uptime” application availability – both keys for making live betting work. Christensen is convinced the winners in a crowded Colorado sportsbook sector won’t be the gambling giants that are spending heaps of money on advertising, but instead will be those that can out-perform the competition when it comes to the basics of the betting experience. These elements range from how quickly cash gets transferred to accounts, to how well back-end customer service agents handle customer inquiries. One big goal for PointsBet’s tech developers is reducing latency – the micro-second interval that occurs after someone presses a keypad button and when an instruction is completed. With live, in-game betting, low latency becomes a critical point of distinction, which is one reason PointsBet has insisted on building and managing its software in-house, rather than contracting with an outside provider.

Sports engagement

Live betting also has implications for how people fundamentally engage with sports. As Richard Terry points out, having a betting interest can captivate even casual fans. When Terry and his pal put money down on the Oklahoma Sooners last fall, it wasn’t because of Sooner loyalty. “We’re not really even [University of Oklahoma] fans,” Terry said. But when crunch time came in the second half, he was riveted to the screen. Having a few dollars on the Sooners that day “kept me invested,” he said.

For Christensen and others, this is the point. They see in-game betting contributing to sustained fan interest in games that might otherwise lose their luster: Think eighth inning with the Dodgers up 10-1 at Coors Field and two outs already recorded. It’s a near-certainty that the fan who plops down $3 on whether Charlie Blackmon will reach first base has a keener rooting interest than the ticketholder who’s heading for the exits. The same holds true for those watching on television: PointsBet’s alliance with NBC-owned regional sports networks is designed to use betting possibilities as a foundation for new ways to present and engage fans on the electronic screen.

To be sure, Colorado isn’t the only state where in-game betting is becoming a thing. But because Colorado was early to the legalized sports-betting game (beginning in May 2020) and because of its prominence nationally – the state ranks sixth in the U.S. for total sports-betting wagers, per publisher Legal Sports Report – it offers a preview of what may be ahead. The sportsbook MaximBet launched its sports betting operations in Colorado before any other state partly because the sports betting population here is more experienced than in other states, according to Doug Terfehr, vice president of brand marketing. After racking up $18 million in total sports wagers during its first six months, MaximBet, like PointsBet, has seen a major swing toward in-game action.

“Colorado bettors love in-game betting,” Terfehr said.

Dan Hartman, director of Colorado’s Division of Gaming, thinks one reason Colorado stands out as an archetype for the sports-betting future is because of a symbiotic marriage of interests between bookmakers and the agency that regulates them. The common interest here is money — the more action sportsbooks take in, and the better they are at managing net proceeds, the more money Colorado collects. The formula used in Colorado is that sportsbook operators pay back 10% of net gambling proceeds to the state, expressly to support big-ticket water projects. In the first 12 months after legalized betting began, Colorado had booked some $2.3 billion in wagers, with sportsbooks, after doling out cash to winners, keeping net proceeds of just under $61 million.

Because more bets mean more tax revenue, Hartman says Colorado is determined to work in partnership with sportsbook operators to assure compliance on one hand and to sustain innovation on the other.

Still, guardrails rear up. Earlier this year Hartman’s agency turned down a proposed bet submitted by one Colorado sportsbook operator: a wager on what color of Gatorade would be splashed down the neck of the winning coach after the 2022 Super Bowl. The reason? That particular event hinges on a randomized outcome that’s not tied to game performance – a no-no in the state’s rulebook. “It’s not that I don’t like Gatorade,” deadpans Hartman, an Aurora Central High School graduate who used to sweep sidewalks at the Mile Hi Kennel Club, one of three racing facilities his father owned.

Changing market

PointsBet’s Christensen and others think Colorado’s sports gambling arena looks very different today from what it’s likely to become over the next few years. As of May, 25 sportsbook operators were licensed to take bets on sports in Colorado, with four more in line for later this year. This collective runs a wide gamut: from homegrown operations to big national players like DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM. Bets can be made in person, at several Colorado casino sportsbooks, but more than 95% happen over smartphones or other devices. Hartman has counted 850,000 sportsbook app downloads so far in Colorado, indicating a wide swath of players in a state with an adult population of roughly 3 million. Like Terry, who commonly makes bets of less than $10, most players risk fairly small amounts: The publicly held DraftKings reported average monthly spending per sports-betting customer was $77 last year.

Within this environment, there’s general consensus that a shakeout is inevitable, which is one reason the national giants are spending mightily to capture market share. The advertising industry research firm Kantar estimates that sports betting operators plowed more than $660 million into U.S. advertising in 2021. That flow of money has created a cash-injection for Denver-area television and radio stations, along with media and sports personalities who have been enlisted to help spread the word. In May, the Rockies’ Blackmon became the first Major League Baseball player to endorse a sportsbook, lending his name and influence to MaximBet.

Besides advertising, some sportsbooks are trying to out-do one another with come-ons that promise easy payouts for first-time bettors. But attempting to out-spend the competition is a game Christensen and PointsBet, along with others, are determined not to play. Instead, they’re looking to make a mark elsewhere, figuring that over time, as the betting market matures, a better customer experience is what will differentiate the leaders.

The biggest unknown of all is whether in-game betting, an arena where Colorado sportsbooks are taking a lead role, will have the halo effect Christensen and others are relying on. If it does, it could have a powerful ripple effect across the entire sports-entertainment ecosystem, benefiting teams, leagues, owners, television networks and just about any business – even local sports pubs – that stands to profit from stronger fan interest.

In the background, technology marches on. Early on in the development of legal sports betting in Colorado, Hartman and a few colleagues evaluated the “geo-fencing” chops of the state’s online sportsbooks by driving north on I-25 and traversing back-and-forth across the Colorado-Wyoming border. True to promise, bets they attempted to place over a smartphone within state lines went through like a snap. Those they tried north of the border were intercepted and rejected. The lesson: Whether your bets are live game wagers or classic moneyline bets, in order get in on the sports-betting revolution in Colorado you actually have to be in … Colorado.

Stewart Schley writes about sports, media and technology from Denver. Read this and Schley’s past columns on the Web at cobizmag.com and email him at [email protected]

Strive Health named a Best Place to Work by Built In Colorado

Built In announced that Strive Health, the national leader in value-based kidney care, was honored with a 2022 Best Places to Work Award.

Specifically, Strive earned a place on the Colorado Best Midsize Companies to Work For list. The annual awards program includes companies of all sizes, from startups to those in the enterprise, and honors both remote-first employers as well as companies in the eight largest tech markets across the U.S.

“We are thrilled to be recognized for the culture and benefits we offer at Strive,” said Dave Thornton, Chief People Officer at Strive Health. “The work Strivers are doing to transform kidney care requires high performance and strong commitment to Care for Others First, which is one of Strive’s core values. Our people-first culture is reflected in our quality wellness benefits, flexible work opportunities, competitive compensation and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

Built In determines the winners of Best Places to Work based on an algorithm, using company data about compensation, benefits and companywide programming. To reflect the benefits candidates are searching for more frequently on Built In, the program also weighs criteria like remote and flexible work opportunities, programs for DEI and other people-first cultural offerings.

“It is my honor to extend congratulations to the 2022 Best Places to Work winners,” says Sheridan Orr, Chief Marketing Officer at Built In. “This year saw a record number of entrants — and the past two years fundamentally changed what tech professionals want from work. These honorees have risen to the challenge, evolving to deliver employee experiences that provide the meaning and purpose today’s tech professionals seek.”

In 2021, Strive’s workforce more than doubled in size, going from 150 to 350 Strivers who are setting the standard for value-based kidney care — and creating an incredible place to work while they’re at it. To explore career opportunities at Strive, visit Careers.StriveHealth.com.

Built In is creating the largest platform for technology professionals globally. Monthly, more than 3 million of the industry’s most in-demand professionals visit the site from across the world. They rely on our platform to stay ahead of tech trends and news, develop their careers and find opportunities at companies whose values they share. Built In also serves 1,800 innovative companies of all sizes, ranging from startups to the Fortune 100. By putting their stories in front of our uniquely engaged audience, we help them hire otherwise hard-to-reach tech professionals, locally, nationally or remotely.

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