Celebration of Entrepreneurship.
Thursday, April 25th, 2024 from 11:30 - 2:00 p.m. at the Curtis Hotel
BEN Colorado is thrilled to honor our 2023 Entrepreneurs at the 2024 Celebration of Entrepreneurship. These CEOs & Founders are focused on scaling their businesses, elevating their communities, and being a force for good. We will also honor Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser with The Impact Award and Havenly CEO Lee Mayer with The Growth Award.
This event will include: networking opportunities, passed and stationed lunch, and an insightful program.
2024 Honorees
Thank you for considering joining us at BEN Colorado's second annual Celebration of Entrepreneurship. Your support is crucial in advancing our mission to support scale up entrepreneurs to overcome their growth challenges and achieve success together. By partnering with us, you endorse innovation, growth, and inclusivity. This event is a catalyst for change, a platform for inspiration, and an opportunity for meaningful connections.
Explore our sponsorship opportunities to boost your brand visibility, engage with a dynamic audience, and align with a community dedicated to progress. We're excited about the possibility of collaborating with you to exceed our shared vision of excellence. Your participation can leave a lasting impact on both our event and the entrepreneurial landscape.
Thank You to Our Sponsors.
Impact Partner
Growth Partners
Change Agents
Supporters
First Year Success.
On April 26, 2023, BEN Colorado had the privilege of honoring our 2022 Entrepreneurs at our Inaugural Celebration of Entrepreneurship. In addition to honoring BEN Colorado's 2022 Entrepreneurs, we were delighted to recognize our two individual award winners: Brian Egan (Co-Founder & CEO, Evolve), winner of the Growth Award, and Paul Washington (Executive VP, IMA Financial), winner of the Impact Award.
Attended by hundreds, this event also featured a compelling panel of speakers (Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Amy Stursberg, and Mark Hopkins) moderated by BEN Board Member, Lisa Neal-Graves.
How We Work.
Curated Connections
We curate resources and relationships for Colorado companies and CEOs in support of their growth goals. We work to make the right connection to the right resource, and we do it at the right time for your business.
Community
Scale-up companies continue to grow and start-ups continue to emerge in Colorado. This healthy and thriving ecosystem wouldn’t be possible without the support of a collaborative group of entrepreneurs. We build a give-first community where our members are inspired to share their time and expertise with each other.
Peer-to-Peer Value
The members of our network are proven entrepreneurs who serve together and invest in each other's success. We build relationships based on shared experiences, interests, or needs.
News & Blog.
Step into the inaugural Company Spotlight Catalog by BEN Colorado. This marks the beginning of our yearly exploration into cutting-edge consumer experiences. Discover innovation in our 2023 catalog below, setting the stage for an exciting tradition!
Brad has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of Techstars and the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network. Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blog Feld Thoughts.
We held an exclusive interview with Brad Feld on the release of his new book, Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors. Authors Brad Feld, Matt Blumberg, and Mahendra Ramsinghani provide seasoned advice and guidance to CEOs, board members, investors, and anyone aspiring to serve on a board. This comprehensive book covers a wide range of topics with relevant tips, tactics, and best practices.
Angela Healy is the CEO and Co-Owner of AvenueWest Managed Corporate Housing. Angela has a strong record of leadership in real estate investment, real estate management and franchise ownership, business development, and commercial banking with more than 25 years of industry experience. She is the co-owner of multiple AvenueWest Managed Corporate Housing Franchises and AvenueWest Global Franchise, LLC. She guides the real estate franchise’s strategies for growth and ensures that AvenueWest’s core philosophy of investor-centric decision making is reflected throughout the company.
Dr. Heather Underwood joined EvoEndo in 2019 after completing the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship for medical device innovation. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder's ATLAS Institute where she developed and implemented clinical decision support systems for midwives and nurses in Kenya, receiving the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Grant and a Gates Grand Challenges Grant to support her research.
We are thrilled to welcome Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management as BEN Colorado's newest Marketplace Partner. Our partners are individuals and organizations that support the sustainability of Colorado's scale-up ecosystem through their generous contributions and time. The Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management partnership will bring three of its team members who have worked together for over a decade serving entrepreneurs into the BEN Network. We look forward to having Chris Halstedt, Evan Boff, and Joe Murt included in upcoming BEN Colorado programming.
Chris Romer is the CEO of one of the fastest-growing companies in ClimateTech, Project Canary, who just closed $111 million in Series B funding from top climate tech and SaaS-focused investors. His history of public service, economics, and leadership in energy have all combined for his role at this Public Benefit Corporation focused on altering the course of climate change. His background in energy, education, policymaking, B-Corp capital formation, and entrepreneurship is instrumental in achieving Project Canary’s mission-driven growth goals and customer service objectives.
Janine has spent the past 15 years passionately pursuing the art and science of successful grab-and-go retail for commercial real estate operators and developers. She has worked with 1,000's of hotels and CREs to bring incremental revenue opportunities to lobbies and common areas with Impulsify’s proprietary self-service technology and data-driven retail design.
When she is not leading Impulsify’s growth and innovation efforts, she is also Co-Owner of Platte Street Mercantile – a self-service convenience store that serves the Platte Street community in Denver and functions as a lab on product strategy and end-user insights for Impulsify’s self-service technology.
In keeping with our multi-layered focus on diversity and inclusion, we were pleased to interview Helen Young Hayes, BEN Colorado Board Member, Founder/CEO of Activate Workforce Solutions, and Author of Colorado Inclusive Economy (CIE), and CIE’s new CEO, Luella Chavez D’Angelo. Helen and Luella updated us on how Colorado Inclusive Economy is proving effective one year in and the imperative for the continuation of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
DENVER — The Denver ScaleUp Network (DenSUN), a program developed by Denver Economic Development & Opportunity (DEDO), along with partners Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network (BEN Colorado) and Colorado Thought Leaders Forum, is celebrating five years of success supporting Denver’s startup community. The DenSUN is an intensive six-month training program for selected local startups looking to achieve their next level of strategic growth.
Doug Chapiewsky is leading Kanso Software through a reinvention of a 25-year-old company into a modern sustainable going forward entity. As CEO and President, he oversees the company’s ongoing efforts to expand the Kanso platform into new markets. Prior to joining the company in 2012, Doug founded a telecommunications software company that was sold to a publicly-traded Israeli firm. He started his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories and held a variety of engineering and management positions.