Boulder Report

Boulder gives first incentive to LeftHand Networks

The city of Boulder has awarded its first business incentive -- a rebate of up to $80,698 for building permit fees -- to LeftHand Networks, a Boulder -based data storage company that had been on the hunt for new space outside of the city.

As I wrote earlier, these economic "vitality" moves are worth watching because this is the first go-around for Boulder's pilot economic incentive program. Funding for the program, which was approved by city council in September 2006, will come up for consideration at the end of 2007, when it now appears almost an entirely new council will be in place. 

LeftHand apparently had taken a look at sites in nearby Longmont and Louisville, but as we reported in the Boulder County Business Report, they signed a deal to lease about 36,000 square feet in Boulder's Flatiron Park, keeping a good employer in the city. No doubt, the city and Boulder Economic Council's efforts to talk to the company and get an incentive moving their way helped with the decision.

The flexible rebate program is one of four options available in the city's new bag of business incentives. Earlier, the city approved Umbria, a market research software and services company in Boulder, to receive some funds for employee training assistance. Umbria got the OK for $600 in matching funds; Umbria has about 30 employees here.

Several other businesses have applied for Boulder incentives, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which wants to remodel its Gunbarrel offices to add more employees and Mountain Sports Media, which is looking to consolidate employees into a single location.

For years, neighboring cities like Longmont, Broomfield and Westminster have had active business incentive programs in place, often luring Boulder companies with some attractive packages. It's good to at least see Boulder in the race these days.

For more information on Boulder's economic vitality program and how to apply for incentives, go online to city's vitality program info and contacts.

Rally Software, Room 214 Fastest-Growing in Boulder Valley

We took the Boulder County Business Report's Mercury 100 event, recognizing the fastest-growing private companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties, to the downtown Boulder Theater this past week, and packed the historic theater with a great night of networking. It was really fun to see our newspaper and event name up on the theater's marquee.

The revenue numbers were really something this year, as we recognized companies with the highest percentage growth over two years, from year-end 2004 to year-end 2006. Topping the chart in companies with more than $2 million in revenues was Rally Software Development Corp. Now up to about 65 employees, Rally posted a gain that was hard to beat -- a 13,378 percent growth from just $23,000 to $3.1 million. The company develops Agile software development tools.

Following Rally in that category were #2 Thanasi Foods, #3 The Spitfire Group, #4 Porchfront Homes, and #5 Spark Fun Electronics. Stories on all of the fast growth at these companies can be found by just searching our story archives at the Boulder County Business Report.

In the list of companies with less than $2 million in revenues, the list topper was Room 214, a Boulder-based Internet-based marketing company that grew its revenues 1,847 percent from $38,000 two years ago to $740,000. Rounding out the top 5 were #2 Natural Resource Services Inc., #3 Windward Studios , #4 Pangea Organics, and #5 Boulder Digital Arts.

The two-hour evening event always flies by, but it's a lot of fun to see everyone gathering each year, especially the owners and managers of new companies making the Mercury 100 list for the first time. A lot of excitement as we run the Top 5 companies across the big movie screen at the Boulder Theater, and, of course, everyone seemed to like the big bar as you enter the theater, it was packed with people chatting all night there.