The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Business Awards celebrate organizations from across the region who are leading in their field and making an impact in the community – writing our next chapter as a great community to live and do business.
Meet the 2018 Start-Up Business of the Year finalists: Guild Education, Hotel Engine and Puzzah! The winner will be announced live on April 27.
Guild Education Bridges the Work-School Gap
“When I think about what it means to be a successful entrepreneur, I think we can learn a lot from our students,” said Brittany Stich, co-founder and head of student experience at Guild Education. “They’re persistent, they’re gritty and they don’t give up.”
Student success stories and organizational values remind you of their mission as you enter Guild Education – like reminders that “students are first”, “reflection and feedback are daily ‘musts’” and “Treat everything like a prototype”.
Guild Education, founded in 2015, is a B-Corporation that partners with employers across the country to offer education as a benefit to their employees. With coaching and advising services, they assist employees in finding the best education program that fits their needs.
“There are 64 million Americans in the U.S. that do not have a college degree. It’s incredibility hard as a working adult to balance work and school. We better connect those worlds,” Stich said.
Guild Education helps students overcome cost barriers by partnering with innovative nonprofit universities and providing college credit for at-work skills training.
“Our people are a mission-driven community that’s really focused on accessibility and affordability of college education. But more importantly, improving mobility for all Americans,” she said.
After moving to Denver in 2016, Guild Education isn’t looking back: “The Denver community has an entrepreneurial spirit; it’s a community of folks who are committed to impact no matter the industry,” Stich said. “We are so fortunate to be connected. with mentorship opportunities, learning opportunities by leaders in this space and this community,” Stitch said. “And we’ve also been fortunate to build partnerships with local organizations.”
“We wake up early every morning and stay late because we so deeply believe in our mission and what we’re focused on.”
Hotel Engine Books Success in Business Travel
Fueled by partnerships and innovation, Hotel Engine is giving its customers what they’ve asked for – a private hotel booking platform for short stays and at a discounted rate.
Serving small to medium-sized businesses, companies can use the platform for business travel, and offer it to their employees as a savings benefit for personal travel.
What started as a four-person team has grown to 60. As a bootstrap start-up – not gaining funds from private equity – they’ve had to fail fast and learn faster.
Employees at Hotel Engine work hard to develop their vision, “to be the most loved hotel booking site on earth,” said Carlos Abisambra, chief strategy office at Hotel Engine. “That will be our guiding light from customer service, products, features, anything that we launch.”
Hotel Engine employees thrive on giving back to the community – locally and nationally. They’ve partnered with organizations like the Red Cross to offer at-cost lodging to those in need during natural disasters. With paid volunteer hours, Hotel Engine employees get to put their can-do attitude to work in the community as well.
As a member of the Chamber, Hotel Engine employees have taken advantage of over 25 different events in 2017. “We’ve benefited from meeting a lot of small-to-medium-size business but also a lot of partners who have helped us, whether it’s products, apps or services,” Abisambra said. “Those networking events have helped us get to meet people who have helped us grow.”
Hotel Engine is always iterating on their ideas and finding the best solution for their customers. The walls of their office tell the story with marker drawings and Post-It notes in every room.
“Anything that we launch is going to be around becoming the most loved hotel site on earth.”
PUZZAH! Finds the Missing Piece in Denver
When you enter a Puzzah! room, you never know what you’re going to find. Whether solving crimes from the past or puzzles of the future, their ever-changing challenges hone in on the spirit of adventure of Coloradans.
“We chose Denver as a place of enthusiastic people who would be willing to try us out and it ended up being a great decision,” Community Outreach and Events Coordinator Nick Lawson said.
Only a few years old, Puzzah! was founded in 2014 fueled by passion. It all started with three guys who wanted to build an immersive puzzle room experience. Now, there are eight rooms in the metro Denver area and continuing to expand.
Partnering within the community, Puzzah! creates custom hunts for nonprofits, schools and organizations to offer team building sessions with skills training.
“You would be amazed at how much better those teams perform inside the rooms after we've talked about those skills,” Lawson said. Schools, corporations and organizations, such as the Denver Zoo, have partnered with Puzzah! to build custom hunts.
The cool factor at Puzzah! is their technology, which is all built in-house. With the ability to be agile and develop new software, they can create new experiences for their customers. Having a group of tech-savvy engineers in the background allows the front-end customer service to be a focal point for their brand.
“Every time we design a new room, we're able to implement our newest technology and we're able to bring our newest ideas to the table,” said Lawson. “That is definitely the most exciting part of working at Puzzah!”
Maggie McEntee is the digital communications and brand manager for the Denver Metro Chamber.
