2022–23 Innovation Challenge finalist
Traveling Ground: From a dorm room to a Denver bike shop.
Anton Cariffe started Traveling Ground in his Regis dorm room, fixing up used bikes he found online and reselling them on eBay. Today it buys, refurbishes, and sells high-end bikes from its own shop on Santa Fe Drive.
A dorm room at Regis.
Anton studied finance at Regis from 2019 to 2023. Between classes he bought used bikes on online marketplaces, fixed them up in his dorm room, and resold them on eBay.
From side hustle to business.
As a Regis student he entered the Innovation Challenge. It matched him with mentors and stayed with him while the side hustle became a real business. In April 2023, Traveling Ground was one of seven teams in the Finals.
Every bike is cleaned, tuned, safety-checked, and photographed before it’s listed.
The first team in.
A few months after the Finals, the Magis Factory took Traveling Ground in as the first company of its 2023 round, with more funding to make the business stable. Within two years, sales were growing more than 10× year over year.
A shop of its own.
Anton opened his first shop in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood. Traveling Ground has since moved into a new building at 1201 Santa Fe Drive, where its mechanics turn most repairs around in one to two days.
A second life in Africa.
Some high-end road bikes aren’t built for rural roads. Traveling Ground refurbishes and sells them, and gives 50% of the proceeds to Bicycles 4 Humanity, a Colorado nonprofit that builds bike shops and delivers bikes to rural communities in Africa. It donates whole bikes, tires, parts, and tools too.
In the shop.
Follow along on Instagram at @travelinggroundbikes.
Day one: building up a Santa Cruz Super 8 downhill frame 
Day three: the Super 8 comes together 
Bikes for sale in the shop What’s nextA second shop in the coming years.