Meet Andrew Curtis | Owner & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrew Curtis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My original impetus behind starting my own business was to provide a professional, insured face for my independent contracting work as well as be able to establish a branded reputation for safety and quality work in the music and event industry.

The event industry is a very peculiar industry, business-wise. So much of the work used to be done under the guise of independent contracting, though due to increasing insurance requirements over the last few years that has drastically reduced. When I founded Peritus Events in 2016, a few mentors lead me through the steps and procedures to set up the right kind of business for event work that would allow for the right kind of insurance, the smoothest execution of accounting and taxes and continued business growth as well. That foundation still proves effective to this day as I look towards growth in 2023.

Many elements of the music and event industry were famously, ah, “loose” for many years. In my work in the industry in my younger years, long hours, tiny paychecks, excessive travel and a lack of any semblance of professionalism on the event site were just some of the challenges the industry faced. While no killer of fun, I do believe that there are lines of safety and self-care that should be established, as our industry is naturally hard on people! One of my principal values with my company is to ensure that I am able to provide a safe, supportive, and fair workplace environment that is geared towards mental health as much as possible given the rigors of event production.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
The road to my seventh season as a successful event producer and company owner has been remarkably scenic and not without its challenges! The road began with a passion- in my late teenage years, I was living in Minneapolis, MN, attending a local community college while bartending and enjoying my youth, though without much long-term vision. At the time, I also volunteered at a couple small local festivals in exchange for a ticket to offset the high cost of live music on a college budget. After some time, I was offered an extremely low-level paid position at one of those festivals and the first brick of the road was lain.

While working a festival in southern MN, I made friends with a touring sound engineer who recommended I intern at the Fox and Boulder Theaters in Boulder, CO, and, in an interesting twist of fate, a month later a friend offered to rent me a room in Fort Collins, and with that moved to the beautiful front range in 2011 and spent the first few years residentially pinballing up and down US-287! The internship at the Fox and Boulder proved to be very fruitful and lead to many of the professional connections whom I still work with today.

After a brief hiatus from the event industry working in craft beer (packaging and event development at Upslope Brewing, Marketing at Wynkoop Brewing and Sales at Pug Ryan’s), I had a full realization that the festival and event industry was the best fit for me and, armed with that resolve, founded Peritus in 2016. The rest is both history and still being written!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Having lived all over the Front Range, we all know that a week just isn’t enough to enjoy everything Colorado has to offer! Here’s the shortest taste I can provide-

Fort Collins- Sunny afternoon dip in the Poudre River, paddleboarding in Horsetooth Reservoir, the required tourist hike up Horsetooth Mountain, an afternoon exploring Old Town Square (for those more commercially-minded) and a film and snacks at the Lyric Cinema Cafe are a couple of the great essential activities. A visit to the Fort without at least one (or three) breweries is a bit sacrilege- my favorites are O’Dells, Horse and Dragon, Stodgy and Maxline. In case you haven’t had enough beer, Tap and Handle has one of the best beer selections of any beer bars in the USA! For food, it’s hard to go wrong. Consuelo’s burritos, Choice City Butcher sandwiches, some green chili overlooking the Poudre at the Mishawaka Amphitheater, and Tom Kha Thai are a few of my favorites.

A few other recommendations- I’ve yet to find better BBQ in Colorado than Georgia Boys’ in Longmont (though while the new restaurant is fantastic, I do miss the old house). Don’t be scared- try the delicious Indian Food at the restaurant in the Conoco Gas Station on I-25 and Hwy 119. As a former Boulder resident, La Choza tacos, old-school Italian at Pasta Jay’s, and anything from the Mountain Sun Pub bring me joy.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have had many mentors along the way, some of whom have taught me directly and others by example! Some of the most notable include Sage Plakosh for lighting the fire, Scotty Nichols for showing the way, and Judd Kleinmann and Jon Garbus for being examples of leadership among many others.

Website: www.peritus.events

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/andrewcurtisevents

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peritusevents