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The Lobo Rainforest building was largely empty during the pandemic, but Rainforest Innovations maintained programming online. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Long-time angel investor and serial entrepreneur John Chavez had an unenviable front-row seat during the economic devastation wrought by the Great Recession in 2008.
John Chavez
At that time, New Mexico’s incipient startup ecosystem had limited resources to support many struggling businesses that had recently launched prior to the crisis, and investors like Chavez could do little as numerous startups crashed and burned in the downturn.
Now, 13 years later, it’s a very different story as the state and country emerge from the pandemic, which plunged the economy into a far-worse crisis than the one a decade ago. This time, the local ecosystem was well-prepared to weather the storm, armed with an extensive statew
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Justin Crowe, founder and CEO of Parting Stone in Santa Fe, pictured in 2019. The company take human and pet remains and turns them into solidified remains. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Santa Fe-based Parting Stone’s novel technology to turn cremated ashes into beautiful, solidified remains is rapidly gaining ground in the “deathcare” industry.
The company, which launched in fall 2019, offers people a better way to connect with departed loved ones, turning ashes into smooth, polished memorial stones that can be held, shared or displayed, said Parting Stone founder and CEO Justin Crowe.
The company now partners with 340 funeral homes across the country to offer solidification services to families who plan to create remains. That’s up from about 200 funeral partners last fall.
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Homegrown Albuquerque firm Aspen Avionics has joined forces with the AIRO Group, a recently formed aerospace conglomerate that’s seeking to go public on a U.S. stock exchange.
Aspen, a venture capital-backed firm that launched in 2004, merged last fall with the AIRO Group, which now unites nine diverse companies that are pooling their individual strengths in commercial and military markets for unmanned operating systems and aircraft.
The AIRO Group, in turn, announced in March that it’s exploring options for a public listing through a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, potentially putting AIRO Group members on a joint fast track to begin publicly selling stock as a single entity with a diverse array of operations.