1A 1A HEALTH CARE BOULDER COUNTY & WELLNESS New techniques reduce pain of back problems BUSINESS 11A Serving Boulder and Broomfield Counties REPORT$1 Volume 31 Issue 3 | Feb. 3-9, 2012 Range Fuels at ‘end of road’ BY PAULA MOORE York-based Bloomberg New Energy [email protected] Failed biofuel production plant Finance. “The problem with them was absolutely technological. Their BROOMFIELD — Range Fuels situation tells you that money doesn’t Inc., a Broomfield-based biofuels takes toll on firm in Broomfield guarantee something’s going to work.” company, appears to be out of busi- by an automated system. Its website, “Range Fuels has met the end of But Christine Shapard, executive ness with the recent foreclosure sale www.rangefuels.com, is inactive. the road,” said Kalib Kersh, an analyst director of the Colorado Cleantech of its troubled cellulosic ethanol plant Recent messages left for Range Fuels at Lux Research Inc. in Boston who Industry Association, believes the near Soperton, Georgia. CEO David Aldous in Colorado and followed the Colorado company. state’s biofuels industry overall still The company’s headquarters office company founder/investor Vinod Kho- “With Range Fuels, the issue wasn’t has plenty of potential. She singled near the Interlocken business park is sla of Khosla Ventures LLC in Menlo funding,” said Alejandro Zamorano out companies such as ZeaChem Inc. vacant, and its phone number is answered Park, California, were not returned. Cadavid, a biofuels analyst at New ➤ See End, 15A FDIC has BOULDER AND BEYOND Mile High Boulder Economic Council’s 2012 forecast event paints brighter picture Banks on short leash Bank’s capital condition ‘continues to deteriorate’ BY BETH POTTER [email protected] LONGMONT — Mile High Banks is “significantly undercapitalized,” according to a document released Jan. 27 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Longmont-based bank is oper- ating under a “supervisory prompt correction action directive” issued by the FDIC on Dec. 1. Its Tier 1 leverage capital ratio was 2.67 percent on Sept. 30, an amount below the 4 percent deemed acceptable by banking regula- tors. At that time, the bank showed a little more than $948 million in assets. Tier 1 leverage capital ratios are one measure of how healthy a bank is. JONATHAN CASTNER If a bank’s Tier 1 ratio is 2 percent or Cindy Schmidt, director of the office of government affairs at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said the less, the law stipulates that a federal White House is interested in promoting collaboration between university labs and the private sector. Schmidt was one of the speakers regulator has to take action, said Greg at the Boulder Economic Council’s 2012 Forecast: Boulder and Beyond, held Jan. 27. See story, 6A. Hernandez, an FDIC spokesman. ➤ See Banks, 19A Visit bcbr.com for breaking news CONTENTS The Edge: Awards .......................8A Leads ........................16A LISTS Wellness Programs ...........13A BCBRdaily .................2A Medical File ..............12A Private-Sector Business Digest .........8A Nonprofit Network .....8A Companies...................... 9A Calendar ...................19A On the Job .................8A Public-Sector CEO Roundtable .......4A Product Update .......15A Companies................... 10A Editorial ....................18A Publisher’s Notebook 18A Eye ..............................3A Real Estate ...............16A 2A 2A 2A | Feb 3-9, 2012 Boulder County Business Report | www.bcbr.com City of Boulder hires condemnation experts Editor’s note: The following is a wrap-up of price with Xcel Energy. company said in a statement. Terms tried to restructure its business, Stuck breaking local business stories published Duncan, Ostrander & Dingess was of the deal were not disclosed. Drakes said at the time. daily on the Boulder County Business chosen from a fi eld of 10 candidates Bay is an intellectual property broker- Posted Jan. 19. Report’s website. Sign up for our free that was narrowed down to three age fi rm. BCBRdaily, an all local e-news report sent fi nalists, according to the release. InPhase developed technology for Evol takes on partner to your e-mail each weekday. Just click Boulder considered the fi rms’ prior holographic data storage, but has been BOULDER — Frozen natural food on “Register for E-Newsletters” at www. experience representing govern- in fi nancial trouble for several years maker Evol Foods received new capi- BCBR.com. ments in condemnation proceed- as it tries to bring the technology to tal from private equity fi rm Alliance ings, and the nature and extent of its market. Consumer Growth in New York. BY BUSINESS REPORT STAFF Colorado practice, the release said. The company’s strategy in selling Financial terms of the investment [email protected] patents is to generate enough inter- were not disclosed, but Alliance Con- est from potential buyers to be able sumer Growth took a minority stake BOULDER — The city of Boul- BCBRdaily to continue its work in one form or in the company. der has hired a Denver-based law Duncan, Ostrander & Dingess another, said Bart Stuck, managing Alliance’s managing partner, Trev- firm that specializes in eminent have served as lead counsel for proj- director of Signal Lake, an investment or Nelson, will join Evol’s board of domain condemnations to assist it as ects such as the Regional Transpor- company in Westport, Connecti- directors, said Tom Spier, Evol’s co- it considers whether to municipalize tation District’s FasTracks project, cut. InPhase employees currently are founder and chief executive offi cer. the city’s electrical system. the E-470 toll road, the “T-REX” working from their homes, Stuck said. San Francisco-based Bee Partners also Boulder chose the fi rm of Dun- highway expansion of Interstate 25 The intellectual property is valued participated in the transaction. can, Ostrander & Dingess PC to act in the south metro Denver area, and in the “tens of millions of dollars,” Boulder-based Evol plans to use as an adviser and to represent it in the White Cliffs Pipeline and the Stuck said. the funds to add new products, mar- any potential condemnation pro- Rocky Mountain Express Pipeline, “We believe this will help us get ket them and expand nationwide dis- ceedings, the city said in a release according to the release. money, and that’s why we’re doing it,” tribution, Spier said. Evol makes and Monday. Posted Jan. 18. Stuck said. sells frozen burritos, frozen pizzas, In November, voters narrowly InPhase has an intellectual prop- frozen fl atbreads and frozen entrees approved two measures that gave InPhase to sell patents erty portfolio of more than 200 U.S. packaged in bowls. Boulder the authority to take over LONGMONT — The intellectual and foreign patents and applications, “We will be launching new prod- the electric distribution system from property of holographic data-storage the company said. Previous InPhase ucts this year,” Spier said, point- Xcel Energy Inc. and extended a tax fi rm InPhase Technologies Inc. will patent licensees include Hitachi Max- ing to the company’s burrito and to provide the money needed for be up for sale or license, starting in ell Ltd., Bayer Material Science, and entree products as potential areas for engineering and legal work. February. Nichia Corp., the company said. growth. “We will continue to inno- Duncan, Ostrander & Dingess Signal Lake Management LLC, InPhase fi led for Chapter 11 bank- vate, and maximize our opportunity. will help the city determine the fair majority shareholder of Longmont- ruptcy protection in October to stave There’s a lot in the works.” value of the system and lead the legal based InPhase, has hired Drakes Bay off an auction of assets to satisfy Evol generated revenue of about fi ght if the city does decide to acquire Company LLC in California to han- creditors. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court $10 million in 2011, after experienc- the system and cannot agree to a sale dle sale or license transactions, the fi ling in Denver came as the company ➤ See BCBRdaily, 17A 3A 3A Boulder County Business Report | www.bcbr.com Feb. 3-9, 2012 | 3A TechStars scores free Microsoft software BY BETH POTTER to use the Windows Azure computing said David Cohen, founder and CEO 2010 as part of the White House’s [email protected] and data-storage programs, under the of TechStars. Startup America Initiative. The gov- BizSpark Plus program. Microsoft also will make the soft- ernment program’s goal is to create BOULDER — Startup companies Windows Azure software offers ware available to groups involved in 25,000 new jobs by 2015 across the in the business incubator TechStars computer users a platform to access the Global Accelerator Network. The country. will be able to use $60,000 worth of Web applications and services. network is a group of nearly 40 orga- TechStars was founded in 2006 and computer software for free for two “Access to technologies such as nizations around the globe that use a is funded by more than 50 venture years under a new arrangement with Windows Azure and other software mentorship-based startup accelerator capital firms and 25 angel investors. Microsoft Corp. and services from Microsoft through model similar to the TechStars model The TechStars community currently Companies involved in TechStars’ the BizSpark Plus program gives our to help new companies. includes more than 300 mentors, more programs in Boulder, Boston, New companies a leg up in the all-encom- TechStars led the effort to form than 1,500 investors and more than York, Seattle and Texas will be able passing race to scale and succeed,” the Global Accelerator Network in 120 alumni TechStars companies. Tebo acquires Music mixer hearse that carried JFK Real estate developer and investor Stephen Tebo’s famous car collection just got a new, somewhat morbid addition.