Two Western Slope innovators received Advanced Industries Accelerator grants last month, marking an effort by the Colorado Economic Development Commission to stir technology innovation in rural areas of the state.
Durango’s GitPrime, which crafts productivity analytics software, and Grand Junction’s Mountain Racing Products, which makes high-end bike components including an inventive new suspension fork, were among 18 Colorado companies to get $2.9 million in Advanced Industries Accelerator grants.
GitPrime, which employs 16, including nine in Durango, won a $250,000 grant. The company already has hired two new employees — both recent graduates of Durango’s Fort Lewis College — and plans to hire more with the grant money.
The company makes software that enables managers to measure the progress of code-writing engineers. It’s easy to gauge the success of sales and marketing teams, but engineers have been tricky. The GitPrime software helps managers direct their attention to engineering issues that can be difficult to identify.
“There’s never been a way to think about how productive a team is because you can’t just count lines of code,” said GitPrime co-founder Ben Thompson, a long-time manager whose partner, Travis Kimmel grew up in Durango.
The grant helps GitPrime develop high-paying jobs in Durango with, ironically, software that allows managers to corral a geographically diverse team of engineers.
“Our software actually helps developers live anywhere,” Thompson said. “We are building a world-class business that everybody over the world needs and we are stoked to be able to do it from Durango.”
Mountain Racing Products has built high-end mountain bike components in an industrial pocket of Grand Junction since 2005. The company, founded by Tim and Christy Fry, has grown into a renowned builder of suspension systems and bike parts for bikes costing more than $3,000. The company’s new Ribbon front fork — built for today’s increasingly absorbent, big-wheel mountain bikes — is garnering high praise. The company employs 26 in Grand Junction.
The grants from the Advanced Industries Accelerator program require a two-to-one match, so recipients of, say, a $250,000 grant will need to scrape up $500,000 of their own money.
The grant program received 124 applicants for the cycle, with 18 companies awarded $2.9 million. The Advanced Industry Fund, which delivers grants to early-stage companies and research organizations hoping to drive business-friendly innovation, has awarded $40.1 million since its inception in 2013, creating 492 new jobs and retaining almost 600 existing jobs. In 2016, the program launched a road tour to spread its grant program beyond the Front Range, visiting cities like La Junta, Grand Junction, Montrose, Durango and Alamosa.
GitPrime and MRP join nine other Advanced Industries Accelerator grant recipients from beyond the Front Range:
Adams State, Alamosa.
TopoGen, Buena Vista.
CattleFit, Durango.
ProStar GeoCorp, Grand Junction.
Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction.
Colorado Clean, Palisade.
Graham Equipment, Sterling.
TheraTogs, Telluride.
Telluride Foundation, Telluride.
