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Logan Bates never set out to become a business owner. The recently graduated CU Boulder real estate student spent five years changing majors and picking up jobs.

But he always had an itch to build something.

After one afternoon in a golf simulator league, everything clicked. It took just five months to go from ideation to launch, and Flatiron Fairways just recently opened in Broomfield, Colorado.

It's a fully furnished golf simulator experience which includes amenities like a poker table, a dart board, and even a full kitchen.Ìý

However, what sets his simulator apart from competitors is it's fully autonomous, private business model. With the click of a few buttons on the , you have access to what he describes as an extension of your own home.

The idea came fast. But the instinct behind it had been building for years.

Always Looking

Bates enrolled at CU in 2021, first as a finance student before pivoting to real estate. He took a gap year, worked, and eventually found his footing at Leeds. None of it pointed obviously toward entrepreneurship. But looking back, the thread was always there.

"I've always kind of got that entrepreneurial bug,"Ìýsaid Bates. "I'm always kind of looking for what I could be doing in addition to my education."

When he joined a golf simulator league with his family, run by a close family friend who walked him through the business model, that entrepreneurial itch now had a purpose. Within a week, Bates was searching commercial real estate listing sites for a space of his own.

He was looking for something specific: around 500 square feet with 16-foot ceilings to fit a commercial-grade simulator. In a post-pandemic office market full of vacant space, that combination was harder to find than expected. He stayed patient. Eventually, he found the right spot in Broomfield.

Flatiron Fairways opened shortly after.

Building Everyone's Second Home

From the start, Bates designed Flatiron Fairways around the single vision to build a place people actually want to come back to.

The business runs itself. No employees. No front desk. Bates comes in two or three times a week to clean, manage the league, and handle general upkeep. But the space was never just about efficiency. Behind the tee box sits a poker table, a dartboard, and walls lined with donated sports memorabilia. The mezzanine level overlooks the room below. Every detail was deliberate.

"I wanted this place to be an extension of everyone's home."

For the golfers who've already made it a habit, showing up two or three times a week, it already is. Bates' goal is to have Flatiron Fairways perceived not just as a great business but more like a room in members' own homes. The kind of place you don't need a reason to visit.Ìý

As a result, the business has already turned a profit, breaking the traditional mold of waiting months or even years just to break even.

The People You Know

Bates is quick to credit the support system around him. The family friend who ran the simulator league not only sparked the idea but also helped Bates understand whether it was viable. Family donated the memorabilia now hanging on the walls. Friends spread the word before the doors ever opened.

"It is the people you know that are gonna help you be successful,"Ìýsaid Bates. "I came to this place pretty much just like a blank canvas."

That network carried more weight than any single decision he made along the way. Sixty people showed up for a graduation party shortly after opening. The league filled quickly. Word traveled. For Bates, it was proof that the business model worked, but also that he had built something people genuinely wanted to be part of.

The mental side of launching, he admits, was harder to prepare for. The self-doubt, the questions about whether it could actually work, the pressure of having told everyone about his plans so he couldn't back out. He doesn't shy away from describing it as anxiety-inducing. He also doesn't frame that as a bad thing.

"It's good to have that anxiety. It makes you work even harder at it."

This Is the Time

Bates graduated two days before sitting down to talk about what he had built. He's already thinking about what comes next, and he believes the timing for any young entrepreneur right now is better than it's ever been.

Being a student, he argues, comes with access to resources that is invaluable pre and post graduation. Resources, mentors, equipment, a network still forming around you. The job market, shaped increasingly by AI and automation, makes building something of your own feel less like a risk and more like a hedge.

"This is not the time to be risk averse,"Ìýsaid Bates. "I think this is the time to take those risks."

For Bates, entrepreneurship is simply the practice of staying alert to what's missing. It's noticing the gap between what exists and what people actually need, and having the nerve to step into it. Flatiron Fairways isn't a revolutionary idea. He'd be the first to say so. But it fills a real space in Broomfield - a comfortable, accessible place to golf without the green fees, the tee times, or the weather.

The itch that started with a family golf league has become something real. And if Logan Bates has anything to say about it, it won't be the last time.