Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Scott Bennett, Founder & CEO,
Housefish Design

Scott followed a love of auto racing to a degree in Automotive Engineering from England’s Loughborough University. This led to work designing cars that won the Indy 500 and Indycar championship, as well as the design of racing shock absorbers, vehicle dynamics simulation software, data acquisition and telemetry, Baja off-road trophy trucks, and composite aircraft. In 2002, he helped a new Indycar manufacturer setup a state of the art manufacturing facility incorporating carbon fiber autoclaves, rapid prototyping, and 3 and 5 axis machining, all while simultaneously designing a car under near-impossible time constraints. And then did it all again in 2009 with a new US-based Formula 1 team.

Along the way, an interest in furniture design led to the founding of Housefish, a Denver-based furniture design and manufacturing studio dedicated to combining advanced manufacturing techniques and careful hand craft to produce innovative, evocative, environmentally responsible furniture in the US.

Scott also cofounded Westwood Design, an influential juvenile furniture manufacturer, and has done design work for several major furniture manufacturers.

Scott’s work has been exhibited at ICFF in New York, Ventura Lambrate in Milan, is in the permanent collection of the Denver Art Museum, and has been featured in countless print and internet publications.

Stephanie Frances, Founder and Executive Director,
Prodigy Ventures

Stephanie Frances is Founder and Executive Director of Prodigy Ventures. Her experience includes: Ten years career development and WIA case management experience working with low-income youth and disabled adults with multiple barriers to accessing traditional labor market. Three years managing team of Youth Career Development Facilitators in Denver Public Schools. Led curriculum re-design process for Goodwill’s Youth Career Development Program. Lead for Summer Youth Employment Program and Bridges to Work Professional Internship program as contractor for City and County of Denver. Master’s Nonprofit Management from Regis University.

Patricia Tolentino, Founder,
Stories Not Forgotten

Patricia Tolentino, or Trish or Patty T to her friends and family, is an adventurer and enthusiastic traveler, storyteller and artist. A native Oklahoman, she brings nearly two decades of media experience and creativity to every project. Trish attended Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, then branched out into broadcast production and editing at the local PBS station. Experienced in many video formats, she’s created training and outreach videos for the Department of Veterans Affairs, highlights and fast-paced replays for Fox Sports Midwest, as well as media featuring personal stories, events, marketing, and much more.
Trish is a lover of Texas Hold ‘Em, bourbon tastings, and the outdoors. A seasoned triathlete, she completed a full Ironman in 2014 and is enjoying the Colorado outdoors lifestyle since her move in 2015.

In 2016, she took the leap into entrepreneurship by starting Stories Not Forgotten – a video production service to help families preserve their stories and history for future generations.

Geraldine Kim & Joshua Gertzen, Founding Owners,
Frozen Matter

Gerry and Josh are the founding owners of Frozen Matter, a dairy plant and frozen dessert parlor in Uptown Denver, and Retrograde, a craft cocktail lounge located in the “walk-in freezer” of Frozen Matter. Having lived in San Francisco before Denver, Gerry was spoiled with some amazing ice creams. When a lawyering job moved Gerry to Denver, she found herself in a city with a gap in craft ice cream offerings. Having developed a serious side passion in dessert making, she knew should could do something about it. Through a mutual friend, she met Josh who had moved to Denver for a job at a software consulting firm. They hit it off, ate a lot of ice cream together and started dreaming of a sweeter life—one full of ice cream and happy people, creativity and working with their hands, a life in which, as business owners, they could have greater control. With Josh’s side interest in space science, general geekery and ability to build anything (growing up in Alaska, he and his Dad built their house) combining with Gerry’s culinary interest, the Frozen Matter cow-to-cone concept was born. In the full spirit of great escapes, the Retrograde concept was born shortly thereafter. Josh and Gerry dropped out of their desk jobs and opened Frozen Matter and Retrograde in 2016. With a lot of sweat and luck, Gerry and Josh have been named Rising Stars for Frozen Matter by StarChefs, Retrograde was named Bar of the Year in 2016 by EaterDenver readers and 2017 Top of Town Cocktail Menu in 2017 by 5280 Magazine.

Before finding themselves in a world of rainbow sprinkles, Josh was a software engineer with eighteen years of experience in process automation, website development and online marketing. In addition, he founded various technology start-ups and managed several software development teams. Gerry was a regulatory attorney, representing the California Public Utilities Commission and then Xcel Energy. She graduated from the University of Southern California with studies focused on art history and economics and the Santa Clara University of Law. Josh and Gerry are both graduates of the 123rd class of the Penn State Ice Cream Program, the oldest ice cream school in the world (yes, you can study ice cream).

Jason zumBrunnen, Co-Founder & Brewmaster ,
Ratio Beer Works

Jason zumBrunnen is the co-founder and Brewmaster at Ratio Beerworks in Denver, CO. He is a Colorado native and a CU Boulder graduate in Chemical Engineering. He also attended brewing school in Chicago at the Siebel Institute as well as Doemen’s Academy in Munich, Germany. Upon moving to Denver, he became an award-winning brewer at Wynkoop and AC Golden before forming Ratio Beerworks in February of 2015 at 2920 Larimer St in the RiNo Art District of Denver.

Before starting Ratio, Jason tried his hand at many unusual jobs, including working at Cirque du Soleil (NOT as an acrobat!), working at film studios in LA, selling plastic, and touring the world singing and playing guitar in a punk rock band. He lives in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver with his wife, son, and mini-schnauzer, Levi Honkytonk.