Start a Business in Greater Grand Junction, CO
Women-owned firms thrive in the Greater Grand Junction region.
Greater Grand Junction, CO, has created a culture where female business leaders can thrive, whether they’re part of a family-owned business or draw on their unique skills to build one from scratch.
Three local business owners share their stories and why it’s a good idea to start a business in Greater Grand Junction, CO. They detail everything, from where they started to how far they’ve come and their secrets to success.
Kodi Imondi
Owner of Imondi Wake Zone in Greater Grand Junction, CO
Growing up in an agricultural family in landlocked Fruita, Kodi Imondi had only one obsession: being on the water. Her family frequented Lake Powell, where they spent vacations boating. After college, Imondi moved to California to surf. However, today, along with her husband, Victor, she owns Colorado’s only cable water park.
“Before we met, I had seen my first cable park in Orlando, and [my husband] had been to one in Texas, and when we realized we both had business plans for a cable park in Colorado, we quickly saw that having two cable parks in the same place wouldn’t work, so we decided to get married and build one together. It’s been a great adventure.”
One of just 25 cable water parks in the U.S., Imondi Wake Zone uses a cable system that attaches to wakeboard riders and pulls them through the water. The park also has a designated space for stand-up paddleboarding and an area full of giant inflatables on the water. Even though the water park has been a boon to the local economy, for Imondi, the most important thing is its impact on people who’ve been introduced to water sports because of the park.
“There have been so many kids who were never into traditional team sports, and they fell in love with water sports here, and it’s completely changed their lives. They’re getting out, being active, enjoying the outdoors and building relationships. That, for me, is the magical part – the lives we’re changing and the impact we’re making within our local community, and it’s been amazing.”
Dominique Bastien
President of Sunshine Polishing Technology and The Gondola Shop in Greater Grand Junction, CO
A native of Montreal, Dominique Bastien first began shredding the slopes at Whistler in the 1990s. When she noticed that the resort’s gondolas were looking a little worse for the wear, she and her partner at the time approached Whistler to restore the cars, polishing graffiti and scratches off of the windows and paneling.
“It’s expensive to replace the plexiglass or panels because much of it comes from Europe, and these things are used all the time,” she says. “Once we were done, 85% of the scratches were cleaned up. When we started, we’d go to resorts and do a demo, and every one resulted in a contract.”
Eventually, Bastien settled near Silverthorne, but when it got too expensive, she relocated to the Greater Grand Junction region seven years ago. In 2018, she acquired all of the gondolas that Killington Resort in Vermont was retiring.
“I asked if I could buy the old ones, not really knowing what I was going to do with them,” she says. “They loaded everything onto nine big trucks and drove them here. When COVID hit, those gondolas were my savior.”
Bastien tapped the creativity of her team to revamp the gondola cabins into one-of-a-kind spaces.
“Polishing plexiglass is brainless work, but when we started redoing the cabins, we had to come up with all these creative ideas. Grand Junction has everything – woodworkers, welders, it’s crazy with creative people.”
Though the ski industry tends to be male-dominated, Bastien and her team have created a hard-won niche for themselves.
“You have to be tough, and it’s really, really hard, but women are more versatile,” she says. “I have five women working in my shop now.”
Katie Munro Powell
President of Munro Companies Inc. in Greater Grand Junction, CO
Working in the male-dominated manufacturing industry, Katie Munro Powell knows how important diversity is in the workplace.
“I think having diversity of ideas and experiences in your work groups is just incredibly valuable, no matter what your background. Women have different experiences and different ways of thinking,” she says. “Understanding why we put so much of ourselves into our work is important, and I feel that, especially for women in leadership, it’s important to get clear about what and how you’re contributing.”
Munro Powell is the president of Munro Companies Inc. in Grand Junction, which distributes industrial goods, such as specialty hoses, pumps, valves and fittings to move water, whether that’s municipal or wastewater, oil and gas mining, or agricultural irrigation. The business also has a manufacturing side, making pumps and related accessories.
Her family first opened a mercantile in Rifle in 1900 and has been in Western Colorado ever since. Her father and grandfather’s manufacturing business is where she had her first job, assembling boxes when she was 12.
She subsequently went away to college at Colorado State University in Fort Collins before a stint as a ski instructor by day and a bartender by night in Winter Park, later moving to New York to work in marketing and business development strategy. She returned to Colorado a decade later and worked for the state before joining the family business in 2012.
“I feel really fortunate to [have] grown up in a family that was starting and running and growing a small business,” she says. “It’s a special type of work ethic teaching.”
Get to Know Greater Grand Junction, CO
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