Ellen Winkler: New York transplant helped pioneer Denver's community workspace movement.

• Author: Sukin, Giri
• Position: GOOD COMPANY

Before Ellen Winkler made a name for herself in Denver, shaping worspaces, she started her career on costruction sites in New York City. From there, she worked her way westward, moving to Jackson Hole, Wyo, where she met her partner in life and sometimes partner in business Jason Winkler. The couple launched a series of professional pursuits, landing in Denver 15 years later with three kids. Winkler, 44, is perhaps best known for helping to popularize Denver's coworking trend, as the co-founder of Battery 621 and INDUSTRY.

You got your start in construction. What drew you to the industry?

I was from a good Catholic family. I was definitely the black sheep. My two older brothers took over my dad's business. My dad was a contractor and had a quarry business, and I started thinking that's where I was going to end up.

My first job out of college was paving Interstate 17 in upstate New York. I liked that after all the logistics you could see what you created and it wasn't just the transferring of paper.

Then why didn't it quite click?

Every time I walked onsite I had to prove myself again. Plus, I learned that I couldn't just sit behind a desk.

For you, what lies beyond the desk?

I left New York when I was 27. I had learned that I loved to be outside and working with people who were actually building things with their hands.

So I met Jason and moved to Wyoming and was going to open a construction company and do what I already knew. The opportunity fell in front of us to start, with partners, an event management company called Mountain Sports International.

This was right as Red Bull was starting to take off. Because of my past experience, Red Bull saw an opportunity to hire me as a project manager for large-scale events, because I could help build their venues. So I did the first national event ever done by Red Bull in the country in Snowbird, Utah. We did an event called HuckFEST and we did the first Red Bull big air ski and snowboard event.

And you ended up in Denver a few years thereafter?

When Jet (third child) was 6 months old, Jason and I thought maybe it's time to try something else. Television and film had really changed because now there was no barrier to entry with iPhones and HD cameras, and we were having a tough time keeping employees [in Jackson] because it was so expensive. Jason decided that we were going to open a second office.

We started looking at other cities - Salt Lake, Portland, Seattle, and then we looked at Denver...