Coolerado: air-conditioning systems coolerado.com Denver.

• Position: Energy / Environmental

Coolerado's genesis has its roots in the Cold War-era research of Valeriy Maisotsenko, who discovered a thermodynamic cycle developing cooling systems for tanks in the Ukraine. He defected to the U.S and came to Denver in the early 1990s, then teamed with four partners to co-found Coolerado in 1999.

"They worked directly with [the National Renewable Energy Laboratory] NREL to develop and commercialize the technology," says CEO Tom Teynor.

The end result? "We provide air-conditioning-quality air, but we provide it at swamp-cooler prices." First shipped in 2004, Coolerado units can use as little as 10 percent the electricity of traditional AC. The company today has more than 2,500 installations in 30 countries, and exports more units than it sells in the U.S.

The 40-employee...