Comprise PR firm files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

BOULDER — MAPRagency Inc., a Boulder-based public-relations firm that does business as Comprise, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver, March 4, listing liabilities between $1,000,001 and $10 million, with assets of $50,001 to $100,000. MAPRagency has not yet filed a detailed financial statement that would list more-exact figures.

“To be clear, this is a reorganization; it’s not a closing the doors kind of thing,” Comprise owner and CEO Doyle Albee told BizWest.

Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code enables businesses or individuals to reorganize debts while continuing to operate, rather than liquidate assets.

“What it allows me to do is kind of right-size things to some degree,” Albee said. “I’m going to not have the entire team that I had, and this allows me to do that with fewer restrictions and dramatically less upset to clients.”

Regarding staffing change, “I haven’t made all the decisions yet, (but) I would say we will probably be three to five people lighter for the short term,” Albee said, which he said represents about 30-40% of Comprise’s employee count.

Albee said Comprise’s current financial situation is in part a result of several clients being unable to pay their bills. 

“We’ve had plenty of work, we just haven’t been paid for all of it,” he said. “I absorbed 30% to 35% of my billings last year. Three clients went bankrupt (and others) just have some payment issues. It was just a gut punch that we just couldn’t economically recover from.”

Filing for Chapter 11 was “not a light decision, but it’s one that allows us to move forward.”

A list of MAPRagency’s 20 largest unsecured creditors includes banks, the Internal Revenue Service and employees owed back wages.

Six former employees are included among the 20 largest unsecured creditors, with back salaries ranging from $14,958 to $45,806.

“The employees come first” in terms of who will get priority when debts are repaid, Albee said.

The largest unsecured claim is from the U.S. Small Business Administration, which is owed $898,295. But a “deduction for value of collateral or setoff” offsets that claim, with the unsecured portion totaling $482,122.

A $149,999 debt to Alpine Bank is partially secured. Another $90,833 is owed to Kapitus LLC, a lending platform.

Two debts are owed to the Internal Revenue Services, including $29,023 for payroll taxes and $14,846 for FICA.

The 20 largest unsecured creditors are owed $1,259,656.

“It’s not the first time that I’ve heard of great business leaders pursuing that (Chapter 11 bankruptcy) approach to addressing what can be oftentimes temporary business conditions,” Boulder Chamber CEO John Tayer said Saturday.

Tayer said that the Comprise bankruptcy — and the accounts-payable challenges from the company’s clients that Albee cited as a major contributing factor — could be signs that the economy could be trending toward a more-challenging era of its cycle, a phenomenon potentially exacerbated by policy decisions in Washington related to threats to research and higher-education funding, tariffs and immigration.

The chamber will be keeping a close eye on “the current government’s investment decisions and the impacts (those are) having on the type of stability that is important for business continuity,” Tayer said. “… Hopefully (the Comprise bankruptcy) is an isolated incident. But we also recognize that we have to be vigilant and prepared to support our businesses through not only the thriving times, but the more challenging periods.”

Regardless of the macroeconomic conditions, the reasons for Comprise’s current financial situation or the company’s ability to bounce back through reorganization, employees have missed paychecks, as evidenced by MAPRagency’s bankruptcy filings.

During potentially turbulent economic periods, Boulder’s business community must step up to support not only owners, but must also be proactive in “supporting our workforce,” Tayer said, which includes employees who find themselves out of work as a result of firms’ reorganization efforts. 

MAPRagency originated in 1991 as Metzger Associations Inc., headed by John Metzger. Albee ran his own public-relations firm and merged it with Metzger Associates in 2005, with the combined company operating as Metzger-Albee Public Relations.

Metzger and Albee entered into a stock-purchase agreement in November 2015, with Albee agreeing to purchase Metzger’s stock, and the company’s name was changed to MAPRagency Inc. the following year. MAPRagency began operating as Comprise in 2022.

Comprise and Albee have won numerous awards over the years. The agency was named Business Intelligence’s PR Agency of the Year in 2024 for the fourth consecutive year. The agency was also named to Inc. Magazine’s Power Partner Awards in 2022 and 2024.

Albee was named 2024 Business Person of the Year by the Public Relations Society of America. Other honors include being named to the Denver Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Class of 2002. He received the Boulder Chamber’s Community Impact Award in 2018.

Most recently, Albee was named one of the Top 50 Most-Influential Business Leaders in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado by BizWest.

Case No. 25-11092-TBM, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Denver, filed March 4, 2025.

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