Winners: Fun, foliage and functional

BOULDER — Shoes that change color, a mobile tour guide and pre-packaged gardens were among the winners as selected by judges at the Boulder County Business Report’s IQ Awards event, held Oct. 3 at the Boulder Theater.

Crocs’ Chameleon shoes won the Natural/Green/Outdoor category. Children who have the shoes like to run inside and outside to see them change color, said Dale Bathum, chief product officer at Crocs Inc. (Nasdaq: CROX) in Niwot. Bathum ran away from a microphone on stage, then back to it to illustrate his point. Ultraviolet light changes the shoes from a translucent color to a vibrant color. Crocs’ patented Croslite material uses photochromic technology.

“It’s fun and interactive for kids, and it’s really amazing for our commercial success,” Bathum said.

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A children’s line of shoes that uses the technology has expanded to 24 styles, Bathum said. The kid-shoe styles make up about 25 percent of Crocs’ business, Bathum said.

Mobile tour guide company Tagwhat in Boulder was recognized with an award in the Mobile Apps category for offering an app that serves as a tour guide for smartphones.

Sporian Microsystems Inc. in Lafayette received the Hardware category award for its temperature/pressure sensor technology used in military applications. The sensor can operate at extremely high temperatures, according to Michael Usrey, Sporian vice president.

“Our sensor has the opportunity to run at higher efficiency and leaner fuel mix,” Usrey said. “It’s the only electrical sensor that operates above 2,000 (degrees) Fahrenheit.”

Vertiba Inc. in Boulder was the winner in the Business Services category. The company customizes software from Salesforce.com — a sales-industry software — for customers such as ConAgra Foods Inc. and the state of Colorado. Vertiba’s revenue has grown to more than $5 million per year after co-founders Jim Hooton and Ted Battreall started it in 2010 as a consulting firm to show users how to use Salesforce.com software, Hooton said.

The Center for Resource Conservation in Boulder won an innovation award in the Nonprofit category. The group’s Garden-in-a-Box program lets customers “buy a garden in a box, and save water and save the planet,” said Keith Frausto, executive director.

The “garden” is a box of xeriscape plants and “plant-by-number” instructions for a professionally designed garden, Frausto said. The garden plants save about 800 gallons of water per year over a traditional grass lawn, he said. Pricing is about half of what it would cost if customers bought the plants at a big-box store, he said. Local nurseries supply the plants, he said.

LeaseRunner Ltd. won an innovation award in the Software category. The Louisville-based company created a web application that helps landlords rent apartments and homes. Statistics show that individuals own more than 20 million rental units nationwide, meaning the company has lots of room to grow, said owner Joe Buczkowski.

“Our competitive advantage is usability,” he said. “No one has integrated the services we have.”