We’ve helped thousands of entrepreneurs. Here are some of their

Success Stories

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 start-up, Prieto’s provided catering services in 2017 with sales of just $3,000 in the first year.  In 2019, owner Erika Rojas bought a food truck and realized an immediate jump in sales.  Working with one full-time employee and two part-time employees, Erika was determined to work hard, find new customers, increase sales and hire at least two more employees.  She reflects on her experience with the SBDC:

“I have been taking SBDC classes and consulting with an Aurora-South Metro SBDC business consultant. From the beginning, I have felt supported with resources to resolve my doubts and learn how to manage the business, as well as how to promote my business.  The most valuable service of the SBDC, above all, is the support of not feeling alone.”  With a lot of effort and loyal customers, Erika realistically projects an increase in sales of 350% by the end of 2021.  She is going full steam ahead!

There’s nothing like having steady customers for consistent cash flow.  Prieto’s Catering serves breakfast burritos to a business.  School parent boards, teacher training events and student events is another regular source of sales.  Ten percent of Prieto’s clients are at “Movie at the Park” events.  They also do private parties.  “We want to expand again by finding a stable location in the city of Aurora in the coming year,” says the optimistic and hard-working owner.

Giving back to the community, Prieto’s Catering is a staple at school sporting events, purchasing the food with a special discount and serving young people in soccer between 12-17 years old—at no charge.  When there is food left over, they put together dishes for itinerant people on Colfax Avenue.  Some of their honors and certificates include:

• Best Food Truck 2021 from Lady Boss
• Certificates for finishing entrepreneurial classes

• Training for two years in business management at
El Comal Heritage Food Incubator
• Certified in Food Handling
• The Receta food business training program certificate

The business continues to grow. Prieto’s installed a larger stove in the food truck and purchased equipment to cook in an iron and steam food cart.  CEDS Finance provided Prieto’s Catering with a loan which allowed the business to purchase a vehicle to pull the food cart.  Check out their menu items here and enjoy authentic Mexican food:  https://prietos-catering.business.site

Also, read the story in Spanish (en español: lee esto).

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

Read More »
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

Read More »
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

Read More »
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

Read More »
colorado-safety-supply
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

Read More »
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

Read More »
Skip to content