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Colorado - Mon. 01/13/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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CU BOULDER LAUNCHED A RECORD-SETTING 35 STARTUPS IN FISCAL 2024
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The University of Colorado Boulder launched a record 35 startup companies derived from university inventions and groundbreaking research in fiscal year 2023-24. This is up from its previous record of 20 launched in fiscal year 2020-21 and places it among the most prolific single-campus institutions nationwide in startup creation. At the heart of the innovations is Venture Partners at CU Boulder, the commercialization arm which is key to transforming inventions and discoveries into the real world. Just a decade ago, CU Boulder was launching just six to eight startups annually. The 35 startups span diverse industries from clean energy to biotech, bringing together the resources and expertise to address global challenges.
The innovators include Mana Battery, which develops sodium-based batteries for sustainable energy storage; Flari Tech, leveraging Nobel Prize-winning technology to detect diseases via breath analysis; and Vitro3D, pioneering volumetric 3D printing for life sciences. Additionally, Mesa Quantum is pioneering next-generation atomic clocks and quantum sensors, showcasing the cutting-edge innovations emerging from CU Boulder.
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DENVER ART MUSEUM’S INDIGENOUS ARTS “SUSTAINED” EXHIBITION
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The Denver Art Museum has many notable features but is world renowned for its Indigenous Arts of North America Collection. It is an area where historically, the DAM was the only serious museum acquiring objects originated by members of Native American Indian tribes. Supporting the museum’s efforts in acquisition, many local collectors over the last century realized supporting and donating collections to the DAM would make it a truly one-of-a-kind institution. The result is the DAM now has an inventory that exceeds 18,000 pieces, ranging from ancient Puebloan and Mississippian ceramics to 19th-century beaded garments and carved masks to cutting-edge contemporary paintings, sculpture, photography and variable media art. The newest arrangement of the museum’s holdings was unveiled last month in a year-long show, “Sustained: The Persistent Genius of Indigenous Art.” The show mixes traditional and contemporary objects together.
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MAJOR ART PIECE COMING TO DIA THIS MONTH
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Denver International Airport ranks as one of the busiest in the U.S. and in the world, but it certainly is also well known for the lore surrounding the airport, with one source of the conspiracies of DIA the so-called demonic Blue Mustang at the entrance to DIA, whom some refer to as “Blucifer.” That sculpture is just part of the 230 pieces in DIA’s art collection. Many of the art pieces had to be warehoused during the renovation of Jeppeson Terminal and only now are coming out of storage.
A dramatic new piece of art will be coming this month as visual artist Thomas “Detour” Evans, a fixture in the Denver art scene for almost two decades whose large-scale murals appear all around the city, will debut an art sculpture for permanent display in Concourse B East on Jan. 22. Over the next week, it will take a team of 12 to 15 people to carefully hang the work, “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back,” above the entrance to Concourse B. Standing ten feet tall and covering around 600 square feet, Evans' piece features colored, upcycled luggage and bags molded into an infinity symbol. Evans wanted the piece to encapsulate the experience of traveling in an airport, where people come and go at all different times. He wanted to highlight the personal side of that ever-moving crowd and showcase the stories and experiences that people gain from traveling. The airport gave Evans a $450,000 budget for the project, which he began in 2021.
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NOTHING BETTER FOR YOU AND FIDO: FREE-RANGE DOGGIE DAY CARE AND A BAR
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A Charlotte-based company brought its rather unorthodox dog service brand to Denver in October. Skiptown is a membership-based dog park/bar, and the Denver location at 3833 Steele St. in the York Street Yard complex is an off-leash dog daycare and dog park with grooming services, boarding, training and a full-service bar with 27,000 square feet of indoor, outdoor and shaded turfed area. The Denver Skiptown had almost 600 members even before it opened. It had offered a discounted rate to early members as well as a client's pet portrait in a mural. Now, just a few months later, membership is close to 1,000. The total size of the facility is 50,000 square feet and the staff totals about 70 people. Skiptown raised about $27 million to fund another location, Atlanta, and is interested in expanding to Dallas, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Houston and Columbus.
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WINTER ACTIVITIES IN RMNP, WITH PARK RANGERS
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There are a variety of activities for visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park led by park rangers. Rangers lead hour-long beginner snowshoe walks on the east side of RMNP (near Estes Park) on Saturdays at 2 p.m. beginning on Jan. 25. On the west side (near Grand Lake), snowshoe walks designed for families with children ages 5 and older will take place at 1 p.m. on Feb. 7, 14, 21, and 28. There are two-hour-long snowshoe hikes on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the east side beginning Jan. 28. There is ice fishing with rangers at Sprague Lake on Sundays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon starting Jan. 10. For cross-country skiers, rangers will guide tours on Saturdays at 10 a.m., continuing through March 15 (weather and snow conditions permitting). Reservations must be made in advance, and space is limited to 12 per outing. Participants must bring or rent their skis and clothing. For more information, visit nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/ranger-led-winter-programs.htm.
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NOW WE HAVE ICE CASTLES, BUT THEY CAN’T MATCH LEADVILLE’S ICE PALACE
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The Ice Castles in Cripple Creek and Eagle are open now and are great attractions. However, they pale in comparison with Colorado’s premier ice structure, the Ice Palace in Leadville in the winter of 1895-96. The Leadville Ice Palace was an enormous, ice-walled building with an exterior in the style of a Norman castle and an interior comprising a large skating rink and two ballrooms. Proposed and constructed in late 1895, the Ice Palace hosted a Crystal Carnival from Jan. 1 to March 28, 1896, before its ice walls melted and its wooden structure was dismantled.
Intended to draw tourists and revive Leadville’s economy, the Ice Palace struggled with high costs and mild weather that made it a financial failure. It was 450 feet long and 320 feet wide, with five-foot-thick walls. Ninety-foot towers flanked the north entrance, while sixty-foot towers anchored the south wall. The ice was supplied by the Leadville Ice Company, which cut huge blocks from its own ponds north of the city as well as from Evergreen Lakes near the Leadville National Fish Hatchery and from Palmer Lake on the Front Range. Horse-drawn sleds carried giant blocks of ice to Leadville, where Canadian ice cutters shaped them for construction.
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YEAR-END DECEMBER JOBS REPORTS MUCH STRONGER THAN EXPECTED
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The U.S. economy closed out 2024 with another month of massive job growth, adding 256,000 positions in December. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent from 4.2 percent, wrapping up a year that marked a return to pre-pandemic norms, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. The jobs number was far above the 155,000 forecast from the Dow Jones consensus. The report brings to a close a year in which employment grew each month, though inconsistently and at times raising questions over whether a recession loomed. However, the final two months showed a labor market still operating at strength as the Fed contemplates its next moves on monetary policy. The December report clearly provided less reason for the Federal Reserve to cut rates in 2025. The lower probability of a rate cut caused stocks to plunge, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting almost 700 points.
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DISNEY, FOX, WARNER BROS. CALL OFF VENU SPORTS STREAMING DEAL
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In a joint statement Friday, Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced they are calling off plans to launch their sports streaming service Venu. In the announcement, Disney, Fox and WBD, who control more than 50 percent of all U.S. sports media rights and at least 60 percent of all nationally broadcast U.S. sports rights, said, “…we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels.” One issue overriding the Venu deal was the potential lawsuit that could develop following Disney’s recently completed deal to merge its Hulu+ Live TV with Fubo, in which the judge questioned the legality of cable bundling in general. Rather than risk an extended lawsuit that could jeopardize bundling in general, including Disney’s efforts to bundle its own streaming entities (ESPN, Hulu, and Disney+) the three companies decided to pull the plug on Venu.
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NEW DOWNTOWN GJ PARKING PAY STATIONS AND PARKING HOURS
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Starting Jan. 13, the city of Grand Junction will begin installing new parking pay stations and launch new parking hours. The hours include four-hour parking only in the lots at the 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Colorado Ave. and at the DMV north and south lot, and 10-hour parking only in the lots at 600 Rood Ave. and 500 Ute Ave. Parking enforcement will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Fees are tiered so meters closer to the downtown core are more expensive than those farther away, with parking meter rates ranging from $.75 per hour to $1 per hour and 10-hour meters from $.10 to $.50 per hour. The city issued a release saying the “adjustments will accommodate 10-hour permit parking, which previously was only monitored for eight hours, ensure designated parking areas for long-term guests, and provide extended safety for downtown visitors in the evening.” Parking will continue to be free on weekends, holidays, and outside of monitored hours.
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FORMER SPORTS EXECUTIVE NAMED TO HEAD LIBERTY MEDIA
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John Malone’s Liberty Media, headquartered in Englewood, has named veteran sports, entertainment and media executive Derek Chang as President and Chief Executive Officer. Chang has led operating, corporate development, and investment teams at prominent companies during various stages of growth including EverPass Media, the NBA, DIRECTV, Scripps, Charter, and TCI, and has been a Liberty Media board member since 2021. Liberty Media owns the global motorsport juggernaut Formula One and has a stake in ticketing-and-events company Live Nation, among other holdings, Chang will look for ways to grow Formula One and MotoGP motorcycle racing.
Liberty Media last year announced it was acquiring Dorna Sports, which owns the rights to MotoGP motorcycle races. John Malone has been simplifying his holdings and reorganizing over the past few months. The 83-year-old Malone oversees Liberty Media and Liberty Global and last fall split off Liberty Sirius XM Holdings into Sirius XM and in November Charter Communications acquired Malone's Liberty Broadband business. Chang will start in his new role on Feb. 1, 2025. Malone will serve as interim CEO until that time. Chang will join the Executive Committee of the Liberty Media Board with John Malone, Vice Chairman Dob Bennett and Chase Carey.
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LOOKING AT CREATION OF STARTUP OPERATIONS AT U.S. UNIVERSITIES
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To compare how good CU Boulder was in creating 35 startups in fiscal year 2024, here is a chart of Startup Creation by Single-Campus U.S. Universities in FYs 1990-2023:
- Stanford: 38; FY2022
- MIT: 32; FY2020
- MIT: 32; FY2018
- Stanford: 32; FY2016
- University of Michigan: 31; FY2020
- Columbia University: 29; FY2018
- MIT: 29; FY2017
- Stanford: 28; FY2018
- Stanford: 28; FY2015
- MIT: 28; FY2015
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MARKET UPDATE - 01/10/2025 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 01/09/2025)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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