Announcing the 2023 IQ Award winners

BizWest’s IQ Awards recognizes the “Innovation Quotient” among Boulder Valley & Northern Colorado companies and organizations. Local divisions of national/international companies that have been instrumental in developing the most innovative products and services were also eligible.

Nominations were accepted from the public and carefully evaluated by BizWest’s editorial team.

BizWest will feature the winners in the June edition of BizWest. Winners will be recognized in a celebration co-branded with the Mercury 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies Awards on June 8, 2023, in Berthoud.

In alphabetical order:

Co-founders Eddy Connors, Ethan Mills and Luke Siegert

Goodie Bag Food Co.

Boulder, CO

A Boulder-based company that has created a “mobile app marketplace platform connecting restaurants’ surplus food to customers at a discounted price. Restaurants list available “goodie bags” consisting of their perfectly good, unsold food on that given day and specify a pickup time. The contents of the Goodie Bag remain a mystery to the customers, who browse available bags and make an in-app purchase to reserve one for pickup. Restaurants salvage revenue on sunk costs while attracting new, price-sensitive customers who receive quality food at a discounted price.”

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Goodie Bag pairs eaters with producers


Kokopelli Outdoor Inc.

Longmont, CO

A Longmont-based company that developed Chasm-Lite, “the world’s lightest and most packable stand-up paddleboard, packing down to the size of a small sleeping bag and weighing only 12.9 pounds, …  nearly half the weight of traditional inflatable paddleboards. … This makes it easier to get into adventure whether you’re hiking into a remote alpine lake or taking the family out to the local reservoir.”

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Kokopelli produces lightweight standup paddleboard

Kelley Smith, founder

Jerry Naranjo, president and CEO

Naranjo Civil Constructors Inc.

Garden City, CO

A Garden City-based company that harnesses GPS drones to create 3D interactive and measurable maps using a process called photogrammetry. “Photogrammetry works by capturing hundreds of overlapping photos and stitching them together to produce life-like orthomosaic maps, digital elevation models, digital surface models, 3D models and more. Once the data is processed, our team members and clients can measure stockpiles, calculate slopes, compare design files to real-site conditions and prepare for storm events from a bird’s-eye vantage point.”

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Naranjo harnesses drones to improve engineering

Click to watch interview from the event!


Prometheus Materials Inc.

Longmont, CO

A Longmont-based company that “delivers sustainable building materials that accelerate the world’s transition to a carbon-negative future. Inspired by nature, the company has developed a process that combines naturally-occurring microalgae with sunlight, water, and ambient CO2 to rapidly create bio-cement. When mixed with aggregate, this bio-cement forms a bio-concrete building material that offers a strong and durable ultra-low carbon alternative to carbon-intensive concrete products.”

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Prometheus sets stage for green future of concrete

Loren Burnett, president, CEO and co-founder