Colorado Inno is celebrating the wins of 2023 and looking ahead to potential accomplishments in 2024 with our annual Startups to Watch. In total, we’ve selected 20 early-stage Colorado startups worth keeping an eye on in the year ahead. Here are three building apps for consumers.
Find the complete list of Startups to Watch in 2024 here.
Founded: 2022
Founder: LaDonna Welch
Headquarters: Denver
Ebony Notes is a stationary company and affirmations app for the Black community. Its website offers journals, notebooks, planners and physical affirmations, while its app gives users a personalized affirmation and positive self-talk experience. The app also offers meditation, mental health resources and a directory of culturally responsive service providers and businesses.
Founder and CEO LaDonna Welch came up with the idea for Ebony Notes after going to therapy. When she moved to Colorado in 2014 for her husband’s military assignment, she was unable to shake her sadness. She found therapy helped but it left her questioning other similar life experiences and why she hadn’t talked to someone sooner.
“There is such a stigma around mental health and overall personal wellness in the Black community,” Welch said. “There are so many underlining factors that contribute to our work ethic, not seeking help and even trusting health professionals.”
Welch wanted to create an outlet for the Black community and landed on affirmations and journaling as a solution. When she couldn’t find affirmation apps that spoke to her background or culture, she launched Ebony Notes.
In addition to being a founder and Ebony Notes’ only employee, Welch is a full-time pre-K to 5th grade coding and robotics teacher. She works part-time on Ebony Notes.
“I went from an area that I’m an expert in to an area that I’m constantly learning more in,” she said. “Being an entrepreneur is not for the birds. It’s tough work. I love the somewhat flexibility with making my own schedule, but I feel like my schedule is always full. The kids bring me joy but with my own company, I can go use the restroom as much as I want. That’s a teacher joke.”
Her goal is to reach 125,000 app downloads and hit her crowdfunding goal of $150,000 before moving to Ebony Notes full-time. (The app has more than 3,200 downloads as of mid-January.)
In the year ahead, Welch said she plans to keep raising capital to bring on team members and improve Ebony Notes’ app. She wants to add mood and goal-tracking tools and incorporate AI tech to manage app operations and create a more customized experience for users.
Founded: 2021
Co-founders: Thayer Hirsh and Ted Coleman
Headquarters: Frisco
Thayer Hirsh’s experience as a first-time homeowner was less than ideal. Within his first year, the basement flooded, the garage door malfunctioned and the furnace died — all of which he refers to as preventable mishaps.
“Although I have some handyman skills, I found myself wishing for a more informed approach to home maintenance and cost-saving strategies,” he said.
Hirsh got his home inspector’s license to learn more about home maintenance. Drawing on his experience scaling operations at startups, Hirsh and former co-worker Ted Coleman co-founded Knome to help homeowners manage repairs and save money.
Frisco-based Knome uses artificial intelligence, insights and data to educate and assist homeowners on routine maintenance, cost-saving measures and more. It can send users alerts when it’s time to change their furnace filter and advise users about when they should replace their hot water heater. It can also give homeowners a heads-up before a hard freeze hits the area. It provides users with crowd-sourced vendors to assist with various maintenance and repairs.
In January 2023, Knome signed its first paying brokerage clients. Six months later, it received a $5,000 grant after winning Startup Colorado’s pitch competition. The grant went toward expanding Knome’s offerings and adding more people to its team.
The startup now serves nearly 1,000 homeowners.
Knome is actively working on rolling out updates, such as allowing users to upload appliance and construction receipts, to serve as a comprehensive and interactive digital homeowner’s manual.
Founded: March 2020
Co-founders: Terra LaRock and Jillian Lee Stout
Headquarters: Englewood
For years, Terra LaRock incorporated meditation and mindfulness into her approach as a psychologist. After experiencing postpartum depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder after her first child’s birth, LaRock had a hard time finding a supportive community that understood what she was going through and resources to help her. This led her to found Mindful Mamas, a space for anyone who identifies as a mother to find community and helpful resources about parenthood and life.
Englewood-based Mindful Mamas is a comprehensive maternal mental health app that supports those in various stages of motherhood, from trying to conceive to becoming an empty nester. The app features meditation and mindfulness practices, affirmations, mood tracking and sleep support. It also helps mothers through miscarriages, divorces, finding work-life balance and supporting children with special needs.
Mindful Mamas gained notable traction last year after Apple named it as a small startup doing big things and a must-have app ranking alongside industry leaders like Calm and Headspace. Mindful Mamas also participated in Launch, an accelerator program backed by startup investor Jason Calacanis, and secured an investment from Launch and a $250,000 grant from OEDIT.
The startup, which supports users in over 150 countries, plans to expand its app to include machine learning and AI tools for personalized programming this year. It also wants to provide resources and tools for all family members, not just mothers, and partner with leading perinatal mental health research institutions and universities.
