In the three years since it was founded, GitPrime started serving customers all over the world and aims to grow into a major employer in Durango.
Founders Travis Kimmel and Ben Thompson started the company focused on providing productivity analytics for software teams in DurangoSpace in early 2015.
“Back then, Ben and I were two guys with a PowerPoint and a dream,” Kimmel said.
Kimmel, who managed software engineers for years, and Thompson, who was in digital product design, both saw the need to better evaluate the progress of software engineering teams and started the company to solve this problem.
The company employs 20 people and has offices in Durango, Boulder and San Francisco.
“More than anything, we’re really about software engineering productivity,” Kimmel said.
The company has a broad appeal because many organizations outside of software companies, such as banks and utilities, have software teams.
Companies that work with GitPrime tend to see about 20 percent increase in productivity in about six months, he said.
The first year, they built a minimal viable product and acquired seed funding. In 2016, the startup was accepted to Y Combinator, a California-based accelerator for businesses in which big national names, such as Dropbox and Reddit, participated.
The accelerator helped the founders build their business and network. They also participated in the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs (SCAPE) in Durango.
Last year, GitPrime focused on improving its software and building it out for customers.
“There really is no substitute for getting out there and having good ground game,” he said.
This year, the company, now located in the Main Mall on Main Avenue, has focused on growth. It received $250,000 from the state’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant, which the company used to hire new employees in Durango and Boulder, Kimmel said.
The company’s goal is to become a major employer similar to Mercury Payment Systems, which was founded in Durango in the early 2000s, Kimmel said. Mercury was bought by Vantiv in 2014.
Mercury helped stabilize the local tourism economy by bringing in software engineering jobs and other white-collar work.
“We think that Mercury was awesome. Mercury created a whole new aspect of Durango,” Kimmel said.
DurangoSpace, SCAPE, gatherings for coders and fiber internet are all helping bolster the tech sector in Durango, he said.
This fall, Fort Lewis College is starting a computer engineering degree that will encourage interest and growth in the tech sector. GitPrime expects to draw on that pool of students for interns and eventually employees.
“This place is ready for a bunch of strong startups to be founded here,” Kimmel said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
