SCAPE
The Great SCAPE:
by Zach Hively
Turning the Four Corners into an entrepreneurial hot spot Endless hiking trails. A rockin’ live music scene. Sick mountain biking, and sweet skiing. And… a world-class entrepreneurial development program? That’s right. To the list of Four Corners attractions, we must add SCAPE—the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs, which helps budding businesses get off the ground, pairs them with investors and mentors, and works to improve the quality of life in our region. It has powered rocket engines, created more than 150 well-paying jobs, and drawn millions of dollars to our corner of the world. “I get several phone calls a week from people wanting to learn about the entrepreneurial community and the startup scene,” says Elizabeth Marsh, the executive director at SCAPE. “It’s become another thing that people look for when they’re deciding where to vacation, where to relocate, where to become involved and give back.” It’s no secret that the communities SCAPE serves are full of scrappy, hardworking people. We are all here because we want to be here, even when work is seasonal or hard to come by. In the last seven years, SCAPE has turned this innate creative spirit into an economic engine. The program works for about six months with fledgling businesses to develop business
plans, financial projections, marketing strategies, and fundraising opportunities to prepare them for launch and growth. Once viable business ideas get going, SCAPE maintains long-term relationships with these companies, assisting them with different investment rounds, expanded hiring, and other challenges they encounter, all with the help of mentors—many of whom have relocated to the Four Corners in large part because their expertise was welcomed. All told, this program has raised $25 million for 36 local businesses in Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, and San Juan counties in Colorado, and San Juan
County in New Mexico. That’s a lot of success stories. And many of the businesses are not what you might expect to blossom in these places. One such company is Agile Space Industries, which designs, tests, and manufactures integrated aerospace propulsion systems—literally, they are rocket scientists with NASA contracts. Impact Fenders reconceptualized the boat fender and dock bumper, which had remained largely unchanged for half a century. Then there are the companies that choose the Four Corners over Silicon Valley: software-as-aservice companies, like MUNIRevs and its platform LODGINGRevs (which automate
SCAPE 26 Durango Magazine Summer/Fall
