Ascent Spotlights

Ascent Spotlights: Meet Katabatic In our new blog series, Ascent Spotlights, we shine a light on the entrepreneurs and mentors in our Ascent accelerator. Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Katabatic Gear which originated in 2009 out of founder Aaron Martray’s desire to create a warm, light, sleeping experience using quilt-style sleeping bags, known today as simply quilts. Katabatic’s intentional design approach began, and moves forward with, some key tenets in mind such as draft control, lightweight durable construction, and simplicity. Katabatic facilitates positive front and backcountry adventures by providing quilts and other backcountry gear that provide a peaceful and [...]

Ascent Spotlights: Meet Elevation Beer Company In our new blog series, Ascent Spotlights, we shine a light on the entrepreneurs and mentors in our Ascent accelerator. Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Elevation Beer Company, which participated in our 2022 Ascent Cohort. Established in 2012, Elevation is a craft brewery in the rural mountain town of Poncha Springs, Colorado, called the Crossroads of the Rockies. Founded on the principles of hard work, dedication, discipline—and of course playing hard—Elevation believes quality beer is the product of living a quality lifestyle. In this video, you'll discover how Elevation Beer Company founder Christian [...]

Ascent Spotlights: Meet Over It. Raft Covers In our new blog series Ascent Spotlights, we shine a light on the entrepreneurs and mentors in our accelerator. As we wind down our peak summer river season we thought today would be great timing to introduce you to Over It. Raft Covers, an affordable, simple, long-term solution to protect your raft investments in between river trips. Two Salida boaters turned entrepreneurs Kevin Kabler and Aaron Derwingson invented their proprietary covers after growing tired of trying so many cheap options in the market and not seeing the value in custom raft covers. They decided [...]

Ascent Spotlights: Meet Elements Mountain Compost Today we want to introduce you to a new blog series called Ascent Spotlights where we'll shine a light on the entrepreneurs and mentors in our accelerator. For our inaugural episode we're featuring Elements Mountain Compost, an incredible small business in Chaffee County doing big things that has an impact on both our community and the planet.   Ascent Accelerator Elements Compost Video 2022 from Driven By Nature on Vimeo. ABOUT ELEMENTS MOUNTAIN COMPOST:  Elements Mountain Compost is committed to closing the loop on organics waste in our region.  We help businesses & residents reduce [...]