{"id":37827,"date":"2022-10-16T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/companies-look-to-grow-labor-force-through-scape-investors\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:40:12","slug":"companies-look-to-grow-labor-force-through-scape-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/companies-look-to-grow-labor-force-through-scape-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"Companies look to grow labor force through SCAPE investors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jane
Jane Barden, left, and Louise Barton, owners of Farm to Summit, work with fresh vegetables Thursday for the dehydrated meals that they sell at retailers. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs kicked off its 2022 startup showcase Tuesday as companies from around the Four Corners pitched their business to investors.<\/p>\n

To date, SCAPE investors have put $37.5 million behind startup companies.<\/p>\n

The companies create pitch videos for the investors to view and then the investors will generally take two or three months to make a decision based on the company\u2019s capital needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt usually takes a few months, depending on how much money the company is looking to raise and how they\u2019re going to use it,\u201d said SCAPE Executive Director Elizabeth Marsh. \u201cBut historically, we\u2019re able to help the companies raise the amount of money they need, within a few months, so that they can get started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Farm
Farm to Summit team dehydrates peppers to put in a meal package Thursday. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The SCAPE investors are looking for companies that have a unique idea with a potential nationwide customer base because it allows businesses to grow and scale. Another aspect investors evaluate is the company\u2019s potential for employment. SCAPE wants companies that are able to create a positive impact in the community by offering employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s SCAPE companies include:<\/p>\n

Alpine Origins, which <\/strong>is the parent company for TrueFly Supply and Talos Outdoors, headquartered in Montezuma County. TrueFly Supply is a fly fishing subscription service focusing on quality, education and conservation. Talos Outdoors is an outdoor sporting goods company specializing in product development of gear storage and recreational equipment.Base Medical, which provides online, remote and in-person education for wilderness medicine and search and rescue. Cold Case Gear, which is based in Pagosa Springs and creates protective phone cases for the outdoors made with space-age materials. Farm to Summit, which is a Durango-based company that makes nutrient-dense dehydrated meals.GeekPack, based in Durango, which is an online service dedicated to teaching women computer coding.Higher Purpose Homes, which is a Durango company dedicated to building sustainable and affordable homes.TripOutside, which is a Durango-based outdoor-adventure booking site.<\/div>\n

\"Jane
Jane Barden, co-owner, of Farm to Summit, cuts zucchini Thursday to dehydrate at the business on north Main Avenue. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Farm to Summit is one of the companies trying to expand its workforce in manufacturing. The company has a retail location on Durango\u2019s north Main Avenue but also distributes products to 50 retail locations across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to have a really stellar team to be able to increase our production,\u201d said founder Louise Barton. \u201cSo most of that money we\u2019re trying to raise will go toward paying folks to help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the positions will be a production manager so Barton can focus on the finance and marketing side of the company.<\/p>\n

\"Farm
Farm to Summit offers a variety of dehydrated meals and drinks. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She said Farm to Summit will also try to add a farm coordinator to find local produce for its dehydrated meals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of need for produce in Durango, and there\u2019s a lot of seconds produce and things like that and surplus produce in the Front Range and beyond that could be put to use here,\u201d Barton said.<\/p>\n

Seconds are produce that may not be sold in retail because of damage, deformity or surplus.<\/p>\n

Higher Purpose Homes is looking for an investment to fund a facility in the Four Corners to build affordable homes. The facility would be 49,000 square feet on 15 acres of land.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus is really on our community and solving these problems. Specifically for me, my wife\u2019s a teacher, and I saw what\u2019s happening where we can\u2019t keep teachers here because of cost of housing,\u201d said Nick Lemmer, co-founder of Higher Purpose Homes.<\/p>\n

The company is designing the facility for flexibility so they can build a variety of housing options.<\/p>\n

\"Zucchini
Zucchini is ready to dehydrate at Farm to Summit. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re really trying to gear toward permanent foundation homes as opposed to trailers,\u201d Lemmer said.<\/p>\n

The company tries to focus on permanent foundation homes because they have better financing options than mobile homes.<\/p>\n

Higher Purpose Homes also looks to hire about 150 employees to work in the facility. The total cost of the project is an estimated $6.5 million.<\/p>\n

TripOutside looks to make connections in the Durango community and receive funding for marketing purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for mentors and potentially investors that can help us to really grow our business,\u201d said co-founder Julie Singh. \u201cAnd people that kind of understand both the outdoors and maybe even e-commerce or marketplace businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company would like to hire a marketing manager with help from investors. Singh said TripOutside has done a great job of building its platform but wants to further increase website traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be focusing most of our efforts around marketing and driving demand driving traffic to our site,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

GeekPack founder Julia Taylor also looks to add to the company\u2019s labor force. With help from the SCAPE investors she hopes to add a wide array of positions. Because GeekPack is a service-based company that teaches women how to code, she looks to add more instructors, marketing team members and sales associates.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy vision is to reach over 100,000 women in the next five years. And I know that I can achieve that by growing the team faster and providing better support to our current students and future students,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\"Farm
Farm to Summit will look to add a farm coordinator and a production manager from investments received through the SCAPE Start-up Showcase. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Taylor would like to add 12 to 15 employees over the next year. She also would like to use investor money for advertising efforts. She said the company has done a great job with organic marketing but needs paid advertising.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our paid advertising efforts, we know our ideal customer spends their time primarily on Facebook. That being said, next year we will branch out more into Google ads, potentially YouTube ads and things like that,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

SCAPE has bolstered companies like Dolores\u2019 EsoTerra Ciderworks and Durango\u2019s Tectonic Components.<\/p>\n

SCAPE helped EsoTerra<\/a> gain the capital necessary to build its manufacturing facility in Dolores.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really proud of that local support and all hands on deck initiative to help companies get off the ground to enhance the region and create more jobs,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Farm
Farm to Summit offers a variety of dehydrated meals and drinks located on north Main Avenue. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fresh
Fresh onions will be cut and dehydrated at Farm to Summit located on north Main Avenue. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2022 startup showcase features experienced companies looking to expand marketing and employment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[431,950,28,230,310],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-business-general","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-investments","tag-pagosa-springs"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83798,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37827\/revisions\/83798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37827"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}