Since our inception, we have seen thousands of entrepreneurs launch successful startups, expand existing businesses, or return a business to profitability. Here are a few clients who have shared their small business success stories with us.
Our partners within the city, business community, academic world and media are always looking for the next great entrepreneurial success. Tell us your story and we’ll do our best to share your successes with our network.
Fortified Development Trucking
Fortified Development Trucking strives to be an innovative and solutions-driven minority-owned trucking company, challenging their drivers to provide reliable and excellent customer service while balancing their career and family. Their mission is to become the transporter of choice for construction hauling and short- and long-hauling from coast to coast. With the byline “Realizing Potential at Every Level in the Trucking Industry”, Fortified Development Trucking offers reliable, safe, timely delivery that is the most cost-effective trucking …
Pirate Chef LLC
“Aurora-South Metro SBDC gave us the empowerment, guidance, and connections to realize our dream of owning our own business with sustainability.” Ian and Vanessa Reeves believe that sharing good food is the best way to show love. Pirate Chef specializes in bespoke catering, private parties, in home, and corporate dining. Taking experience from lives well-lived, they bring their clients a gastronomic encounter unlike any other. Their business venture has been a longstanding dream, and they can’t wait to share it with …
Aurora AutoPros
The Aurora AutoPros mission guides owners Edgar and Reneé Leon’s daily operations: to provide the highest quality mechanical repair solutions in a professional, honest, and transparent manner. They keep their environment clean, educate car owners and are family-friendly. Their customers value AutoPros’ personalized service given by ASE certified technicians. As a TechNet Professional Repair Shop, AutoPros’ customers receive a nationwide 36-month/36,000-mile warranty on all repairs that also includes roadside assistance for all invoices of $25 …
Banh & Butter Bakery Café
“The SBDC helped me better understand and prepare my business plan. Growing up in a family business, a business plan was all about going with the flow. I never knew what a cash flow was, but support from the SBDC has increased my business knowledge.” – Thoa Nguyen CEO and owner Thoa Nguyen is a pastry chef by day and a culinary chef by night. Branching out from the family’s restaurant, she studied baking and …
Colorado Safety Supply
Starting out as a dream in 2012, Valerie Boyd developed her knowledge and contacts within the safety equipment industry to move forward with confidence in 2014. Valerie started to make the dream a reality. Coming from a family working in the structural steel industry, Valerie’s top priority is to keep families safe by keeping workers safe. Colorado Safety Supply does just that, providing safety training and equipment for construction job sites. Located in Aurora, Colorado …
ContractsRx
ContractsRx is on a mission to make legal contracting seamless, accessible and repeatable. Shannon Leonard and Ramon Rhymes, co-founders, make it their aim to reduce the time, cost and risk associated with business contracting and business outcomes. The abrupt uncertainty that COVID-19 brought to ContractsRx and other small businesses resulted in an overnight shift from the known to the unknown. While Shannon and Ramon are fortunate to be in a technology industrywith the tools in place to work at home, they …
Cranelli’s Italian Restaurant
In the restaurant world a successful business often begins with family. When Cranelli’s Italian Restaurant, a new hotspot in Lone Tree, opened, the whole family pitched in to help owners Jim and Lasinda Crane make their dreams come true. Hours after the ink was dry on the restaurant lease, the couple began updating the décor and kitchen with the help of friends and family. Lasinda’s father David, a retired electrician, helped build a bar and …
Dry Dock Brewing Company
The award-winning Dry Dock Brewing Company is Aurora’s first microbrewery. Established in October 2005, Dry Dock is co-owned and operated by Kevin DeLange and Michelle Reding. The brewery began with just two employees in a 900 square-foot space with less than 20 seats in the back of Kevin and Michelle’s homebrew supply shop, The Brew Hut. They brewed less than 500 barrels of beer in 2006. How-ever, Dry Dock has enjoyed tremendous success and growth …
GradePower Learning
Robert and Olga Mead, the owners of GradePower Learning, started out with a vision to help build children’s confidence and self-esteem. They found an opportunity to do that not only through tutoring students, but also in teaching them how to learn. The LEADING EDGETM Strategic Planning Series was the perfect tool for Olga to test her business model. She graduated from LEADING EDGETM in 2015 and continued on as a client at the Aurora-South Metro …
Grandma’s Rockin’ Rolls
It was Laura Neilson’s grandmother who spent hours teaching her children and grandchildren how to bake – while sharing life lessons and family stories. Grandma and her sister-in-law sold cinnamon rolls ‘in town’ to help supplement the farming income. Can you image the commute on horseback during the depression in a Minnesota winter?! Laura had been making Grandma’s rolls and giving them as gifts and holiday treats for over 30 years. But as Laura’s career …
Havana Street Tattoo and Legacy Tattoo Collective
Havana Street Tattoo opened 15 years ago in Aurora. The tattooing industry has shown its potential for significant growth in the past 10 years and continues to do so, because the customer base and artists offering the service have evolved past an old stereotype into a market of true professional artistry and serious collectors. In mid-2019, business partners and co-owners, Larry Foussat and Gilbert Ledesma decided to open a new location in Aurora to expand the shop’s client base and …
Launch Pad Brewery
The end of an unexpectedly volatile 2020 is a great time to tell the success story about one of Aurora’s prized businesses. David LeVesque spent about a decade perfecting his technique of home brewing with some help from The Brew Hut and visiting Colorado breweries. The idea of opening a business location started ‘brewing’ about six years ago, and Launch Pad’s mission came together after working on the start-up’s financials over several meetings with an …
Leatherneck Precision Machine
Leatherneck Precision Machine is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business that specializes in precision machined components for the aerospace, defense, medical, dental, injection molding and other commercial industries that need precision machined parts for their product lines. Sometimes people’s lives depend on special machine parts, such as aircraft structures, automobiles, and human-rated spacecrafts, and Leatherneck is an AS9100D- and ISO9001-certified company able to do that technical work. He also has SDVOSB and SDVBE certifications (for small …
Petersen Custom Glass
After 15 years in the glass industry, Kris and Valerie Petersen opened Petersen Custom Glass, LLC in 2014. Kris has extensive experience designing and installing custom glass products. His specific areas of expertise include high-end frameless shower enclosures, ADA accessible showers and other custom glass projects. With his leadership skills gained from the military and her executive skills, Petersen Custom Glass has become a successful local business in Parker, CO, serving a 25-mile radius in …
Prieto’s Catering
Prieto’s Catering is an Aurora-based food truck selling authentic and delicious Mexican food. Prieto’s serves a variety of tacos, including the famous birria tacos that everyone is excited about! They also serve other popular Mexican dishes made fresh, such as tamales, tortas and burritos. Fully aware that the business needs to be responsive to customer needs during the pandemic, they offer home delivery and pick up from 9AM to 3PM daily. As a family business …
Rustic Nomads
Starting a business in 2020—during the COVID-19 pandemic—has been a journey to say the least, but the owner of Rustic Nomads, Nathan Wiersum, will have bragging rights for life. “The support received from the SBDC is why I continue to move .” With a loan from DreamSpring to purchase a food truck, the rest of the business has been self-funded. Originally, the plan was to grow into a restaurant as soon as possible. With the pandemic, goals were reevaluated. The …
Trunk Nouveau | Squadron
Trunk Nouveau /t^nk/ ‘nju:’veo/ noun: A curated monthly showing and sale from an independent maker who offers handcrafted wares. Trunk Nouveau in Aurora started with a remarkable dream: a busy aviation studio, industrial in nature, doused in the smell of engine oil and creativity. In the back, a room with steam trunks and suitcases filled with forgotten treasures–the kind that people hold on to, handcrafted and meaningful. A trunk showroom was created at Aurora’s Stanley …
Vintage Theatre Productions
Starting out 15 years ago in a basement as a touring theatre group for small audiences, Vintage Theatre has grown from that “tiny” beginning to currently reaching over 20,000 patrons each production season. “It has been amazing to see the growth,” beams Cr aig Bond, Founder. Since moving to Aurora in 2012 into an existing black box theater, Vintage immediately added a second more intimate theatre to augment the season’s offerings. Creating a greater draw …
Yumbana, LLC
To be declared a U.S.A. Taste Champion by the American Masters of Taste national judging panel, especially when the category is “Gluten Free” baked goods, is quite an accomplishment. Yumbana was selected as a winning product line in 2017 and, since its beginning in 2011, has been committed to making products that don’t require self-discipline to eat and enjoy. ‘Yum’ is in the name and comes from the owner Christopher Lehn’s first creation, a YUMmy …
“Thank you to the Aurora-South Metro SBDC for the wonderful Home-Based Childcare program. I will start working in all the changes that I have to make to become a more successful business. I will definitely will set an appointment for help along the way. Thank you again for this remarkable training.” – Jessica Matheson, Adventures in Bethel, Inc., Parker (about the LEADING EDGE Child Care Business Training series)
