Rocky Mountain Tech
Rocky Mountain Tech
Our regions seem to have it all: stunning natural beauty, fantastic quality of life, dynamic economies. It's the latter description that would have been difficult to utter just a few years ago, when residential foreclosures and job losses were the norm at many major employers.But "dynamic" is indeed an apt descriptor for the Boulder Valley and...
Final frontier creating tantalizing market for area firms
Whether the mission is helping America return to pre-eminence in manned spaceflight, sending commercial trips to the moon or protecting the planet from a catastrophic collision with an asteroid, companies in the Boulder Valley are keeping the dream alive.The Boulder-area is home to the offices of a number of important aerospace companies,...
Out of the laboratory, into the marketplace
It has been a wild ride for biofuels-focused Solix BioSystems Inc. But since bubbling up from the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University, Solix has kept moving forward despite the gyrations of the biofuels industry.Solix started out with two basic product lines: It designed systems called photobioreactors —...
Area holds right prescription for booming industry
Imagine there’s a test that can tell you if you’re going to have a heart attack in the near future.A group of Boulder researchers at MiRagen Therapeutics Inc. do research that could lead to just such a test. They have found that heightened levels of the molecule they have named MIR-208 in the blood can lead to heart damage and heart...
UQM on road to electrifying transportation
UQM Technologies Inc. has been working to segue from boutique electric-vehicle research lab and supplier to a major player during the past few years. It made one of its most significant leaps in that direction in October.On Oct. 2, the Longmont-based maker of electric motors and related products announced it had signed a memorandum of...
Entrepreneurial itch leads to ethanol production
At first, Dan A. Sanders and his son Dan R. Sanders knew nothing about the fuel-ethanol industry, but that didn’t stop them from diving in.As a result, Northern Colorado is now reaping the benefits of their entrepreneurial itch.The Sanders run Front Range Energy LLC, an ethanol business in Windsor with annual revenue of $150 million. Their...
I-Cubed maps out multidimensional future
Think Intel, and you’ll have an idea of how Fort Collins-based i-Cubed LLC anonymously has touched millions of people.The company uses satellite and aerial imagery to power and enhance myriad products and services. But you’ll never see the i-Cubed logo on your evening newscast or the map you download. During the High Park fires in...
ARC Science's globes reflect dreamer's sense of wonder
As an 11-year-old boy, Tom Ligon got hooked on space. He would gaze into the night sky and wonder about the mysteries of the universe. As the founder and chief product developer for ARC Science Simulations Inc. of Loveland, he has been able to share his passion for the solar system with millions of museum visitors throughout the world. Ligon is...
Great things come from small beginnings
A long-standing American proverb advises that “great things come from small beginnings.”Synkera Technologies Inc., a Longmont-based research and development laboratory and manufacturing firm, is proving that maxim by using the tiniest of mechanisms to accelerate its own growth.The company’s bread-and-butter always has been its...
Natural/organic-foods industry sees healthy future
In the early 1970s, a small group of idealists purchased a five-acre plot of land south of Longmont and started a commune with an alfalfa field, a handful of goats and two beehives, selling honey out of the back of a van in Boulder Canyon to make money.The venture planted a seed that grew into Madhava Honey Ltd., doing business as Madhava Natural...
