Monday marked Small Business Week, and the Chamber and its Denver Metro Small Business Development Center started it off with a pitch competition focused on social enterprise – combining the mission of a nonprofit with the market-driven approach of a business.
“There are nearly 612,000 small businesses in the state and they employ more than 48 percent of Coloradans,” said Small Business Administration District Director Francis Padilla.
Organizations pitching at this special installment of Trout Tank included Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado, FIRE Within and Science Fair Fun. AATPC was named the winner, receiving votes from the judges and the dozens of investors and lenders in attendance. All three organizations received a tablet from Community Reinvestment Fund.
Connecting organizations with the investing community matters, said Denver Metro SBDC Executive Director Abram Sloss, because “those investments turn into jobs in our community.”
Meet the pitching organizations:
Not a typical counseling center
Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado has outgrown its one-acre Lakewood farm since its founding in 2010 and is moving to a three-acre farm nearby in June. With nearly 30 resident and visiting therapy animals and 10 mental health therapists, they serve 90 clients each year said Executive Director Linda Chassman. The center serves as an international training center for animal assisted therapy.
“We’re really not your normal counseling center, and that’s what we wanted,” Chassman said. “Through relationships (with the animals, people) do change.”
They’ll grow their capacity to 120 clients, and they are committed to remaining accessible to all by continuing to offer their services at a sliding scale, or for no fee. AATPC is continuing to fundraise to upgrade the barn and build a caretaker’s cottage and training facility.
Building tomorrow’s entrepreneurs
FIRE Within
started as a program of the Carson J. Spencer Foundation, but when the organization was winding down its operations in 2017, SPHERE Education’s Jenn Marshall stepped in. Already working closely with those students through SPHERE Education, she taken on FIRE Within to create an avenue to provide “real education,” and give students the chance to create change by taking on a real-world challenge and developing a solution to it through a social enterprise.
She is looking to build more corporate, educator and changemaker partnerships to expand the program from its current schools to a national competitive opportunity through DECA. After the program, students have the opportunity to purchase the enterprise, or sell the idea to investors. It’s important experience, Marshall said: “This is your workforce that’s coming forward.”
Making science fairs accessible
Wendy Wempe wants to inspire the next generation of innovators, and science and engineering fairs are the way to do it. Wempe, a former geophysics research professor, founded Science Fair Fun to close the mentorship gap in these fairs by providing resources to students, as well as parents, teachers and judges.
“Science Fair Fun is about addressing those roadblocks,” Wempe said. That’s because science fairs offer a wealth of additional opportunities, from prize money to internships, and play a role in building the future STEM workforce pipeline. “If students don’t participate, the lose access.”
Wempe aims to expand the program to another 40 schools in Denver and Jefferson County for the 2018-19 school year. The skills students gain are critical to their future, she said: “It’s about using creativity and problem solving skills.”
Have a business you want to pitch? Applications are open for Trout Tank: Food Frenzy, focused on restaurant concepts and food.
Sara Crocker is the communications manager for the Denver Metro Chamber.