Our Story

As any inventor will tell you, big ideas aren’t made. They don’t come out of a big idea laboratory or factory somewhere. They aren’t made at convenient times or in convenient ways. They aren’t the result of methodical research. There isn’t an electronic sign counting down “big idea in 10… 9… 8..”. No, big ideas aren’t made. Big ideas just happen.

And that’s exactly what happened one night. In the wee hours of the morning, Frog Creek Partners founder, Brian Deurloo woke up with an idea. A really big idea. You see, he had dreamt of a stormwater filter. A filter that could protect the watersheds of the world. A filter that could be installed in most any catch basin, easily serviced and most importantly, actually filter the stormwater when it needed to be filtered – in a storm.

Less than 10 minutes later, Brian was in his garage starting to build a prototype. By 4 am he was at Walmart buying more prototype supplies. Did we mention that this day was special for another reason? It was his daughter’s 8th birthday. Within a couple of days, a prototype was built and a provisional patent application submitted. A few weeks later, Brian entered his patent pending Gutter Bin prototype in the Wyoming Technology Business Center Startup Challenge and was one of the competition’s winners.

Shortly thereafter, Frog Creek Partners officially came into existence. Fueled by his recent successes, Brian approached his hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming about participating in a pilot project. The city of Sheridan was happy to try the Gutter Bin because of the sediment problems they experience during stormwater runoff.

In October 2016, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) Nonpoint Source Pollution Taskforce approved a Gutter Bin project in Sheridan. A large portion of these funds were tasked to reduce sediment loading in the Goose Creek and Tongue River watershed.

After closing a successful funding round, Frog Creek Partners has emerged from its stealthy roots and is now working with municipalities, port facilities, developers, NGO’s and others to implement Gutter Bin stormwater filtration systems across the western United States and beyond.