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Business Ventures, June 19

Marisa Ware

Published June 18, 2008 at 5:22 p.m.

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Optibike

Optibike

Pet Promise

Pet Promise

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Optibike

* Electric/human- powered hybrid bikes

Price: $4,995-$12,995

Where you can get it: optibike.com

Business owner: Jim Turner

Location: Boulder

Tidbits: According to Craig Weakley, marketing director for Optibike, there are three main obstacles to bicycle commuting: time, weather and people not wanting to get sweaty during their commute. The Optibike, capable of going over 30 mph with minimal effort from the rider, eliminates two out of three of those impediments.

"It's changing the way people get to work and run their errands," Weakley said. "We're making bicycle commuting available to a much wider range of people."

The company started more than 11 years ago in Turner's garage. Turner, an ex-professional motocross racer with a master's degree in design from Stanford University, crafted the bikes to allow the rider to either pedal without assistance or cruise effortlessly using only electricity. The bike also has an in-between setting for those who want to pedal and use the electric power simultaneously.

"At current electricity rates, it would take 8 cents to fill up your Optibike, and you can go for 50 miles on one charge," Weakley said. "Our bikes are 40 times more efficient than a Prius."

Optibikes, which are assembled in Boulder, get the energy equivalent of 2,000 miles per gallon. Frames and custom parts are made in the U.S.

"The Optibike is really the Ferrari of the electric bike," Weakley said. "It's the fastest electric bike out there."

For more information: optibike.com

Pet Promise

* "Let byproducts be bygones"

Price: $1.60 for a 5.5-ounce can of cat food, $36 for a 25-pound bag of dog food

Where you can get it: PETCO, Whole Foods, Wild Birds

Business owners: Dave Carter, Myron Lyskanycz, Anthony Zolezzi

Location: Boulder

Tidbits: "Being in Boulder in the pet food business is about the last thing I imagined," said Carter, co-founder and vice president of Pet Promise.

As the former chairman of the USDA National Organic Standards Board and a former president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, Carter started Pet Promise as a way to help family farms that raise animals humanely without growth hormones or added antibiotics. Many of these farms were having trouble competing with commercial farms that sell lower-grade pet food ingredients at cheaper prices.

"So many of the pet foods start off with meat that was rejected for human consumption, mostly animals that are sick or dead," Carter said. "We kind of broke the mold in the pet food world."

All of the farms that Pet Promise buys from, such as Colorado-based Coleman Natural Beef and Great Range Bison, meet requirements for natural meat protocol and humane animal husbandry.

"The thing that's encouraging to me is so many people are realizing that how long and well we live is directly related to what and how we eat," Carter said. "Now people are starting to think, 'Well, if it works for me, what about my companion animals?' "

For more information: petpromiseinc.com