Corridor Native Fall 2018
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Homegrown Businesses in the <strong>Corridor</strong> <strong>Fall</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
INNOVATIVE<br />
Kinze Manufacturing steers<br />
ahead of the curve<br />
TINY BUT MIGHTY<br />
Shellsburg popcorn company<br />
bursts on national scene<br />
BORN OF NECESSITY<br />
BeraTek creates own products,<br />
molds other entrepreneurs<br />
GIFT BLISS<br />
Online wedding registry<br />
offers local experiences<br />
WINNING FORMULA<br />
Engineer finds success in swine<br />
confinement industry
FROM THE EDITOR<br />
<strong>Fall</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Chief Executive Officer & Publisher<br />
John F. Lohman<br />
Vice President<br />
Aspen N. Lohman<br />
Chief Operating Officer &<br />
Associate Publisher<br />
Andrea Rhoades<br />
Magazine & Special Projects Editor<br />
Angela Holmes<br />
Writers<br />
Steve Gravelle<br />
Angela Holmes<br />
Jennie Morton<br />
Emery Styron<br />
Photographers<br />
Brian Draeger<br />
Angela Holmes<br />
Emery Styron<br />
Graphic Design Manager<br />
Becky Lyons<br />
Graphic Designer<br />
Julia Druckmiller<br />
Magazine Media Consultant<br />
Judith Cobb<br />
CBJ Editor<br />
Adam Moore<br />
CBJ Media Consultants<br />
Lauren Fletcher<br />
Kelly Meyer<br />
It only takes a spark<br />
Whether it’s a manufacturer distributing products around the globe or<br />
a small startup still finding its footing, all companies begin with an<br />
entrepreneur’s idea. And often that idea is initially developed in a basement,<br />
garage or small shop.<br />
Kinze Manufacturing in Williamsburg – one<br />
of the largest privately held agricultural equipment<br />
manufacturers in North America – is no<br />
different in its humble beginnings. At age 21,<br />
Jon Kinzenbaw had an idea to make farming<br />
easier and started a welding company in 1965<br />
in Ladora.<br />
His ideas kept coming and within a decade,<br />
he moved his operations to a highly visible<br />
location just off Interstate 80, where Kinze remains<br />
headquartered on a 30-acre site. While<br />
he remains Kinze’s CEO and chairman of the board, his daughter, Susanne<br />
Veatch, runs the day-to-day operations as the company’s president,<br />
carrying on his values and innovation.<br />
Gerald Beranek also had ideas on how to make life – especially parenting<br />
– easier. When his wife, Randi, was expecting their first child in<br />
2014, he came up with a gadget to safely place a baby monitor near<br />
the infant’s crib.<br />
He created VueSee with equipment in his garage and took the product<br />
to market. Sparked by its success, Beranek left his stable engineering<br />
job and went without a paycheck for three years while building up BeraTek<br />
Industries, which focuses on product and contract development.<br />
Since starting BeraTek in 2014, Beranek has been named CBJ’s Entrepreneur<br />
of the Year in 2016 and a Forty Under 40 recipient in 2017.<br />
This type of entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the <strong>Corridor</strong>.<br />
Check out these and other inspiring stories on the pages that follow.<br />
Who knows – maybe you will have the next great idea.<br />
Event & Social Media Marketing Manager<br />
Ashley Levitt<br />
Events Assistant<br />
Tracey Godon<br />
Event Media Consultant<br />
Rhonda Roskos<br />
Marketing & Distribution Manager<br />
Jean Suckow<br />
Contents are registered to <strong>Corridor</strong> Media Group.<br />
Reproductions or other use, in whole or in part, of<br />
the contents of the publication without permission<br />
is strictly prohibited.<br />
2345 Landon Rd., Ste. 100<br />
North Liberty, IA 52317<br />
(319) 665-NEWS (6397)<br />
www.corridorbusiness.com<br />
Angela Holmes, Editor<br />
HOMEGROWN<br />
in the <strong>Corridor</strong><br />
<strong>Corridor</strong> <strong>Native</strong> features<br />
businesses in the 7-county<br />
<strong>Corridor</strong> region<br />
Benton, Linn, Jones,<br />
Iowa, Johnson, Cedar<br />
and Washington<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
Susanne Veatch,<br />
Kinze Manufacturing<br />
president and chief<br />
marketing officer, is the<br />
second generation of<br />
the Kinzenbaw family to<br />
lead the company her<br />
father, Jon Kinzenbaw,<br />
started in 1965.<br />
2 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
CONTENTS<br />
INNOVATIVE<br />
FAMILY<br />
Kinze Manufacturing steers<br />
ahead of the curve<br />
14<br />
20 GIFT<br />
BLISS<br />
5<br />
TINY<br />
BUT<br />
MIGHTY<br />
10<br />
BORN OF<br />
NECESSITY<br />
24<br />
WINNING<br />
FORMULA<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 3
TALENT<br />
ENRICHMENT<br />
MARKETING<br />
DIGITAL<br />
IMAGING<br />
TECHNOLOGY<br />
SERVICES<br />
What’s<br />
cool about<br />
Leverage?<br />
Tim Guenther<br />
Founder/CEO<br />
Clickstop & Leverage<br />
This year, for the sixth time, Clickstop<br />
has made the list of top “Coolest Places<br />
to Work” in the <strong>Corridor</strong>, and for the<br />
second time, taken the prize of “Coolest<br />
of the Cool” overall. And because<br />
Leverage is comprised of the same<br />
entrepreneurial employees that power<br />
the brands of Clickstop, this award<br />
belongs to Leverage too. But the award<br />
isn’t what makes Leverage so cool.<br />
What’s cool is the fact that Leverage<br />
wasn’t formed in hopes of finding<br />
success, rather, it was formed because<br />
of success. We are here to share<br />
Clickstop’s recipe for results with the<br />
<strong>Corridor</strong> and beyond.<br />
Specifically, Leverage helps create<br />
meaningful strategies to drive employee<br />
and customer engagement through<br />
marketing, talent enrichment, digital<br />
imaging, and technology services. We<br />
provide the tools, resources, expertise,<br />
and elbow grease to bring those<br />
strategies to life.<br />
As your partner, we want nothing more<br />
than to see you succeed. And we are<br />
willing to say and do the hard things in<br />
order to get the right results. Your wins<br />
are our wins.<br />
We empower growth by implementing<br />
and executing best practices learned<br />
through our own real-life experiences.<br />
This includes being named a Fastest<br />
Growing Company for 9 of the last 10<br />
years and a Coolest Place to Work for<br />
the last 6 years.<br />
We want to know “what does<br />
success look like for you?” Together<br />
we’ll craft your roadmap to sustained<br />
prosperity. We drive the bus, you sit<br />
shotgun, and together we’ll navigate the<br />
road to measurable results.<br />
When you partner with Leverage,<br />
we become an extension of your<br />
business; and your business becomes<br />
an extension of Clickstop. And that’s a<br />
pretty cool opportunity for all.<br />
Feel that spark? We feel<br />
it too. Let’s get started on<br />
something great together.<br />
LeverageGrowth.com 4 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL •800.838.3450<br />
<strong>2018</strong>
Shellsburg<br />
popcorn<br />
company<br />
explodes<br />
on national<br />
scene<br />
STORY AND PHOTOS<br />
BY ANGELA HOLMES<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 5
Gene Mealhow is the “guy who likes<br />
to do things first.” When he ventured<br />
into organic farming in the 1980s, the<br />
seldom-used concept resulted in Mealhow’s<br />
unofficial title as the “Weed<br />
Farmer of Benton County.”<br />
Now, as consumers grow more<br />
health-conscious and curious about the origins<br />
of their food, Mealhow’s methods are paying off.<br />
His Shellsburg-based company, Tiny But Mighty<br />
Popcorn, has become a staple in natural grocery<br />
stores nationwide.<br />
Tiny But Mighty Popcorn’s heirloom popcorn<br />
is available in bags of popped corn, microwavable<br />
pouches and the mainstay – unpopped kernels.<br />
The products are on the shelves of area Hy-Vee<br />
and Fareway stores, Natural Grocers in Cedar Rapids<br />
and New Pioneer Food Co-op stores in Iowa<br />
City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids. The company’s<br />
biggest client is Whole Foods, which stocks the<br />
popcorn in all of its stores across the nation.<br />
“We have now hired a sales team to work with<br />
corporate to do the deals,” said Mealhow, more<br />
commonly known as “Farmer Gene.”<br />
That’s quite a feat for a centuries-old seed that<br />
was once moments away from being popped<br />
into extinction.<br />
HISTORY OF THE HEIRLOOM SEED<br />
The unique pointy popcorn seed that grows irregularly<br />
on tiny ears was discovered in Iowa by<br />
Samuel Kelty in the 1800s. It is unclear whether<br />
he found the seed in the wild or traded it with<br />
<strong>Native</strong> Americans.<br />
Fast-forward three generations when Samuel’s<br />
great-great-great-grandson, Richard Kelty, returned<br />
home to Benton County from the Army. Just as<br />
his mother was about to pop the last of the kernels,<br />
Richard grabbed the small jar and eventually<br />
planted them.<br />
With the crop, he started K&K Popcorn (Kelty<br />
and Kramer), a modest, yet respectable, business<br />
in Urbana.<br />
PAGE 5: Gene and Lynn Mealhow stand by the<br />
headquarters of Tiny But Mighty Popcorn in an<br />
old farrowing barn on their Shellsburg farm.<br />
TOP: The heirloom popcorn grows on tiny,<br />
three-inch cobs and is distinctive by its pointy<br />
kernels and irregular rows.<br />
ABOVE: Gene Mealhow adjusts the settings on<br />
his digital corn sorter.<br />
I have the best popcorn<br />
in the world.<br />
Farmer Gene (Gene Mealhow), Tiny But Mighty Popcorn<br />
6 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
Gene Mealhow<br />
checks the crop<br />
of his unique<br />
heirloom popcorn<br />
at his Shellsburg<br />
farm where he also<br />
grows squash and<br />
tomatoes that are<br />
sold to <strong>Corridor</strong><br />
restaurants.<br />
Meanwhile, Mealhow was honing his rockstar<br />
skills as a drummer in a band in the early<br />
1980s. He also worked on the family farm<br />
near Shellsburg, taking care of the hogs in the<br />
farrowing barn, or as he calls it, the “maternity<br />
ward.” When his dad got out of farming in<br />
1989, he bought 33 acres and began his foray<br />
into organic farming.<br />
PRACTICING WHAT HE PREACHED<br />
In the early 1990s Mealhow was using biological<br />
farming techniques he learned from Midwestern<br />
BioAg, a Wisconsin-based company<br />
with an office in Monticello. He joined the<br />
company as a consultant to “spread the word.”<br />
Richard Kelty became one of his clients at<br />
the urging of Kelty’s son, Brett, who told Mealhow<br />
his dad was “having a hard time with his<br />
popcorn crop.”<br />
After conducting a soil test, Mealhow implemented<br />
a program cutting nitrogen in half and<br />
increasing calcium and other nutrients. Under the<br />
program, Kelty’s crop went from 400 pounds per<br />
acre in the early 1990s to 1,000 pounds by 1994.<br />
When Kelty was ready to retire in the late<br />
1990s, Mealhow and his wife, Lynn, bought<br />
K&K Popcorn, securing the rights to the seed.<br />
The Mealhows planted the seed at their Shellsburg<br />
farm and converted their farrowing barn<br />
into the business’ office and processing facility.<br />
They grow and test the seeds, while they contract<br />
farmers to grow the product.<br />
“You need a certain kind of grower; it’s a<br />
food product, not just grain,” Mealhow said.<br />
“A lot more work goes into it; everything has<br />
to be meticulous.”<br />
They start growers with 30-50 acres and increase<br />
their load as they feel more comfortable<br />
with them. Currently, their two growers, from<br />
Cascade and Quasqueton, grow about 100-200<br />
acres each.<br />
The corn is stored in large grain bins on the<br />
Mealhows’ farm until it is ready to be sent to<br />
Rural Route 1 Popcorn in Livingston, Wisconsin,<br />
where it is processed and packaged.<br />
Early this August, 800,000 pounds of corn<br />
was stored in the bins, and Mealhow expected another<br />
200,000 pounds to come in the fall harvest.<br />
FOOT IN THE DOOR<br />
After changing the company’s name to Tiny But<br />
Mighty, the Mealhows wanted to expand their<br />
customer base. While they enjoyed a steady<br />
business of sending out products from Shellsburg<br />
and selling popcorn in area grocery stores,<br />
their big break came a few years ago when they<br />
entered the Whole Foods market.<br />
Mealhow first tried to get into Whole Foods<br />
by sending samples to eight of the company’s 11<br />
regions. After that impersonal approach didn’t<br />
work, he called stores, ready to tell his story to<br />
anybody who picked up the phone.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 7
When he reached a manager at a Chicago<br />
store, he said, “I have the best popcorn in the<br />
world.” The intrigued manager told Mealhow to<br />
send him three cases. If they sold, he would order<br />
more; if they didn’t, Mealhow would have to buy<br />
them back.<br />
Within 10 days, the manager called Mealhow<br />
back, requesting more popcorn because it had<br />
sold out. Mealhow delivered the cases himself<br />
and offered to do presentations in the store – a<br />
personal touch that paid off.<br />
“Customers couldn’t believe the farmer was in<br />
the store selling the product,” he said.<br />
Eventually, Mealhow scored a meeting with<br />
Whole Foods’ representatives, and now Tiny But<br />
Mighty products are available in all 11 regions<br />
nationwide.<br />
Even with this success, the Mealhows haven’t<br />
let their guard down.<br />
“It’s a constant thing to keep it out there,”<br />
Farmer Gene said. CN<br />
Tiny But Mighty Popcorn<br />
3282 62nd St.<br />
Shellsburg, IA 52332<br />
tinybutmightyfoods.com<br />
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by NCUA<br />
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their money and reap the benefits. Your money<br />
stays right here, enriching your friends, neighbors,<br />
and community. This ideal is as true today as it<br />
was in 1948, when 10 Dubuque Packing Company<br />
employees founded the credit union on the<br />
philosophy of cooperation and mutual self-help.<br />
Giving you credit for 70, first-rate years. Own it.<br />
Dupaco.com/join<br />
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8 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
Venture and Equity Funds in Iowa<br />
(Listed alphabetically)<br />
RANK<br />
Company<br />
Address Contact Person Contact Information Intended projects<br />
1<br />
AAVIN Equity Partners<br />
1245 First Ave. SE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52402<br />
James Thorp<br />
(319) 247-1072; fax (319) 363-9519<br />
jthorp@aavin.com<br />
www.aavin.com<br />
Growth financing, ownership changes, buy-outs and recapitalizations<br />
2<br />
Ag Ventures Alliance<br />
2009 Fourth St. SW, Ste. 1<br />
Mason City, IA 50401<br />
- -<br />
(641) 494-2368 or (866) 260-5775; fax<br />
(641) 423-2642<br />
jconway@agventuresalliance.com<br />
www.agventuresalliance.com<br />
Value-added agricultural ventures with at least partial farmer ownership<br />
3<br />
Ames Seed Capital LLC<br />
304 Main St.<br />
Ames, IA 50010<br />
Ron Hallenbeck<br />
(515) 232-2310<br />
ron@ameschamber.com<br />
http://amesseedcapital.com/<br />
Focus on Story County early-stage startups with business and proof of<br />
concept determined<br />
4<br />
CMA Ventures<br />
2600 Grand Ave. Ste. 300<br />
Des Moines, IA 50312<br />
- -<br />
(515) 309-3018<br />
info@cipco.net<br />
www.cmaventures.net<br />
Invest in seed, early-stage and growth-stage business that require funding<br />
to develop product or to accelerate growth<br />
5<br />
<strong>Corridor</strong> Angel Investors<br />
415 12th Ave. SE<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401<br />
Aaron Horn<br />
(319) 382-5128<br />
aaron@newbo.co<br />
https://newbo.co<br />
Early-stage, Iowa-connected companies<br />
6<br />
FIN Capital<br />
8345 University Blvd., Ste. F<br />
Clive, IA 50325<br />
Megan Milligan<br />
(515) 282-0940<br />
mmilligan@theiowacenter.org<br />
http://the iowacenter.org/get-started/fincapital/<br />
A network of professional women committed to investing in companies with<br />
strong leadership, unique solutions, scalability and a clear exit strategy<br />
7<br />
Iowa Corn Opportunities LLC<br />
5505 NW 88th St., Ste. 100<br />
Johnston, IA 50131<br />
- -<br />
(515) 225-9242 ; fax (515) 225-0781<br />
bjones@iowacornopportunities.com<br />
www.iowacornopportunities.com<br />
Investment is available in seed and growth stage opportunities, particularly<br />
those related to Midwest agriculture broadly and the corn industry<br />
specifically<br />
8<br />
Iowa Seed Fund II LLC<br />
230 Second St. SE, Ste. 212<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401<br />
Curt Nelson<br />
(319) 369-4955; fax (319) 832-1481<br />
cnelson@edcinc.org<br />
www.edcinc.org<br />
Invests in early-stage scalable interstate commerce businesses<br />
headquartered in Iowa<br />
9<br />
Next Level Ventures<br />
666 Walnut St., Ste. 1280<br />
Des Moines, IA 50309<br />
Craig Ibsen<br />
(515) 369-2600<br />
info@nextlevelvc.com<br />
www.nextlevelvc.com<br />
Iowa businesses that can scale rapidly and operate in the advanced<br />
manufacturing, biosciences and information technology sectors<br />
10<br />
Plains Angels<br />
700 Locust St., Ste. 100<br />
Des Moines, IA 50309<br />
Mike Colwell<br />
(515) 259-0380<br />
mike@plainsangels.com<br />
www.plainsangels.com<br />
Invests in early-stage businesses that have a large market opportunity,<br />
market traction and ability to scale<br />
11<br />
Red Cedar<br />
200 State St., Ste. 202A<br />
Cedar <strong>Fall</strong>s, IA 50613<br />
Danny Laudick<br />
(319) 553-6921<br />
https://redcedarcv.com/<br />
Early-stage companies and technology startups from around the Cedar<br />
Valley<br />
12<br />
Rural Vitality Funds II<br />
5400 University Ave.<br />
West Des Moines, IA 50266<br />
Adam Koppes<br />
(800) 254-9670; fax (515) 225-5577<br />
akoppes@insidefb.com<br />
www.renewruraliowa.com<br />
Biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, agricultural tech and software<br />
companies in early or growth stages in rural Iowa<br />
13<br />
Wellmark Venture Capital Funds - UNI<br />
Business & Community Services, Ste. 128<br />
Cedar <strong>Fall</strong>s, IA 50614<br />
Randy<br />
Pilkington<br />
(319) 273-5732; fax (319) 273-5733<br />
jpec@uni.edu<br />
www.jpec.org<br />
Iowa-based, for-profit corporation engaged in IT, educational technology,<br />
advanced manufacturing, technology-related industries, medical or surgical<br />
advancements and more<br />
14<br />
Wellmark Venture Capital Funds-NIACC<br />
500 College Drive<br />
Mason City, IA 50401<br />
Tim Putnam<br />
(641) 422-4111; fax (641) 422-4129<br />
tim.putnam@niacc.edu<br />
www.niacc.edu/pappajohn<br />
All growth types except for retail and professional<br />
15<br />
Wellmark Venture Capital Funds-UI<br />
108 Pappajohn Business Building., Ste.<br />
160<br />
Iowa City, IA 52242<br />
Paul Heath<br />
(319) 335-3742; fax (319) 353-2445<br />
paul-heath@uiowa.edu<br />
www.iowajpec.org<br />
Source: Staff research. Some funds were not included because they did not respond to requests for information.<br />
Note: Entries may be edited for length and clarity.<br />
All types other than retail and professional services<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 9
BORN of NECESSITY<br />
“It’s a lot easier<br />
now just to get it online<br />
and start selling stuff.”<br />
Gerald Beranek<br />
BeraTek, founder and CEO
BeraTek creates own products,<br />
molds other entrepreneurs<br />
BY STEVE GRAVELLE<br />
PHOTOS BRIAN DRAEGER<br />
Gerald Beranek picks up a<br />
simple plastic box from<br />
the table in BeraTek Industries’<br />
conference room.<br />
When affixed to the wall<br />
with a peel-and-stick adhesive, the simple<br />
plastic box holds colored markers<br />
and erasers for the room’s whiteboards.<br />
“It came from our need,” explained<br />
Beranek, BeraTek’s founder and CEO.<br />
“We needed some holders in here, so<br />
we designed one. In 10 minutes, we designed<br />
one and 3-D printed these. We<br />
were selling them on Amazon to prove it<br />
out, and people were buying 10 or 20 at<br />
a time. We thought, ‘Holy cow, we can’t<br />
keep doing this with 3-D printing.’ We<br />
started to make a mold and now it’s all<br />
[injection] molded.”<br />
That’s a typical development cycle for<br />
products created in BeraTek Industries’<br />
nondescript brick building on a light-industrial<br />
backstreet in southeast Cedar Rapids.<br />
The approach has fueled the growth of<br />
the company, which now has 12 employees,<br />
and helped develop a profitable niche<br />
in bringing others’ ideas to market.<br />
“Our contract [product development]<br />
side last year grew 400 percent, and the<br />
product side grew 150 percent,” Beranek<br />
said. “Last year was just about keeping up.<br />
This year, it might have slowed up a little<br />
bit. We’re getting our feet back under us.”<br />
BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING<br />
Beranek, 33, launched BeraTek in 2014,<br />
four years out of the University of Iowa<br />
with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical<br />
engineering. While working at CIVCO<br />
in Coralville and Schneider Electric in<br />
Cedar Rapids, Beranek bought his own<br />
3-D printer and computer numerical<br />
control (CNC) milling machine, and installed<br />
them in the garage at his North<br />
Liberty home.<br />
BeraTek’s first big success came as Beranek<br />
and his wife, Randi, prepared for<br />
their first child, born in 2014.<br />
PAGE 10: Gerald Beranek works<br />
on a project at BeraTek Industries<br />
in southeast Cedar Rapids.<br />
RIGHT: A shelf holding<br />
whiteboard markers and erasers<br />
attached to the wall with peeland-stick<br />
adhesive is one of<br />
BeraTek’s inventions.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 11
“I just hopped on the computer,<br />
and 10 minutes later I had a design.<br />
Gerald Beranek<br />
BeraTek, Founder<br />
and CEO<br />
“We were trying to put the baby monitor somewhere, and the<br />
best place to put it was right on the crib,” he recalled.<br />
But Google searches turned up accounts of infants strangled by<br />
loose monitor cords. Beranek thought a simple plastic holder could<br />
securely hold a camera while keeping its cord safely out of reach.<br />
“I just hopped on the computer, and 10 minutes later I had a<br />
design,” he said.<br />
The result, VuSee, mounts with peel-and-stick adhesive to a wall<br />
or other surface. The camera cord winds around the base of the<br />
mount. Beranek took some of first VueSees to a consumer product<br />
trade show shortly after it was developed.<br />
“It was my first time ever trying to sell a product, and it was funny,”<br />
he said. “The new parents didn’t understand it: ‘Why do I need<br />
that?’ The parents who were on their second child were jumping for<br />
joy: ‘I’m tired of stacking books behind this thing to get that view.’”<br />
VuSee found a ready market via Amazon, where it still enjoys<br />
healthy sales. It’s also sold through stores in the Buybuy Baby<br />
chain, although “usually we don’t push into stores, because retail’s<br />
tough,” Beranek said. “It’s a lot easier now just to get it online and<br />
start selling stuff.”<br />
JUMP TO INJECTION MOLDING<br />
Applying computer-assisted design (CAD) and CNC machining,<br />
Beranek made early VuSee models on the 3-D printer, with e-commerce<br />
revenues funding the jump to injected-molded plastic. Injection<br />
molding, done in-house, is cheaper to produce but requires a<br />
substantial initial investment in mold design and tooling.<br />
Other BeraTek products followed a similar pattern. There’s a<br />
holder to securely mount Amazon’s Echo Dot digital assistant, and<br />
another that holds a Scrub Daddy kitchen-sink sponge. The Café<br />
Wall Caddy organizes instant-brew coffee cups, and another device<br />
holds yogurt cups inside a refrigerator.<br />
“These products aren’t life-changing,” Beranek said. “But they’re<br />
just 10 minutes with the CAD.”<br />
VuSee, a self-adhesive shelf<br />
for baby monitors, is one<br />
of BeraTek’s top-selling<br />
products. The plastic holder<br />
can securely hold a camera<br />
while keeping its cord out of<br />
reach from the baby.<br />
BERATEK ON PAGE 30<br />
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CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 13
INNOVATIVE<br />
Kinze<br />
Manufacturing<br />
steers ahead<br />
of the curve<br />
BY ANGELA HOLMES<br />
PHOTOS BRIAN DRAEGER<br />
Susanne Veatch, Kinze Manufacturing<br />
president and chief marketing officer,<br />
carries on the values her father, Jon<br />
Kinzenbaw, set when he started the<br />
company in 1965.<br />
Although much has changed in the agriculture<br />
and manufacturing industries since<br />
1965 when Jon Kinzenbaw opened a small<br />
welding shop, the core values of his business<br />
remain the same.<br />
The welding shop evolved into Kinze<br />
Manufacturing, one of the largest privately<br />
held agricultural equipment manufacturers<br />
in North America. Based in Williamsburg,<br />
Kinze continues to innovate based on the<br />
needs of its primary customer base – farmers.<br />
“We still rub shoulders with farmers and<br />
dealers; that doesn’t change with technology,”<br />
said Kinzenbaw’s daughter, Susanne<br />
Veatch, who has served as Kinze Manufacturing’s<br />
president and chief marketing officer<br />
since 2016. “He founded the company on<br />
five core values [integrity, customer focus,<br />
excellence, innovation and mutual respect]<br />
and that’s how we define our culture.”<br />
KEEPING AHEAD OF THE TIMES<br />
Ever since Kinzenbaw built the first auger-unloading<br />
grain wagon in 1967, innovation<br />
has always been a trademark of Kinze’s<br />
business model. He has been named inventor<br />
on 19 issued patents, including his most<br />
well-known product – the rear-fold planter<br />
introduced in 1975.<br />
“Dad created solutions for farmers,”<br />
Veatch said. “We all bring different things<br />
to the table.”<br />
Kinzenbaw isn’t the only one who comes<br />
up with ideas, however. The company encourages<br />
ideas from employees, dealers and<br />
farmers, and even has a “Submit Your Idea”<br />
section on its website.<br />
14 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
“Kinze’s goal is to<br />
have the most userfriendly<br />
electronics<br />
in the industry<br />
that are easy to<br />
operate.”<br />
Kinze Manufacturing<br />
2172 M Ave.<br />
Williamsburg, IA 52361<br />
www.kinze.com<br />
Susanne Veatch<br />
President and<br />
Chief Marketing Officer<br />
Kinze Manufacturing<br />
The stacked grain cart display<br />
at Kinze Manufacturing in<br />
Williamsburg is quite a sight<br />
for drivers on Interstate 80.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 15
When Jon Kinzenbaw<br />
started Kinze Welding<br />
in Ladora in 1965<br />
at age 21, he likely<br />
didn’t realize how<br />
influential his company<br />
and innovations<br />
would become<br />
in the agriculture<br />
and manufacturing<br />
industries.<br />
The finishing touches<br />
are put on a 1051<br />
single auger grain<br />
cart at the Kinze<br />
Manufacturing plant<br />
in Williamsburg.<br />
16 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 17
While competitors like John Deere manufacture a wide variety<br />
of products such for agriculture, lawn and garden, construction<br />
and forestry, Kinze focuses on planters, tillage equipment<br />
and grain carts.<br />
“Our goal isn’t to be an all-solutions provider,” Veatch said.<br />
“We are always looking for opportunities that make sense.”<br />
In 2014, the company opened Kinze Electronics in North<br />
Liberty to develop easy-to-use displays, as well as hardware,<br />
software and user interfaces for planter electronics. The first two<br />
products, the Blue Vantage planter display and the Blue Drive<br />
electric drive, will be available for the 2019 planting season on<br />
certain configurations of the Kinze 3660 and 4900 planters.<br />
Other row-mapping devices exist, but Kinze’s goal is to<br />
have the most user-friendly electronics in the industry.<br />
The staff in North Liberty is a mixture of professionals with<br />
an agriculture background and from other industries such as<br />
aviation and HVAC, providing an outside-the-box<br />
perspective, Veatch said.<br />
“Technology is the future,” she said. “Planters<br />
are no longer just a mechanical piece of equipment.<br />
They need simple-to-use technology in a<br />
complex environment.”<br />
In the current lull of the ag industry, Kinze has<br />
also had to innovate in the way it runs its business.<br />
The new Mach Till hybrid-horizontal tillage equipment<br />
that shreds residue in the fall and prepares<br />
the seedbed in spring at higher speeds is a result of<br />
that innovation.<br />
“A year-and-a-half ago the tillage line came out<br />
of meeting on how to adjust to the market,” Veatch<br />
said. “Farmers need to want to put a Kinze planter<br />
and Mach Till behind their tractor to make them<br />
most successful.”<br />
“We created a five-year strategy and when we<br />
added tillage, we focused on the segment of the tillage<br />
market that is growing,” she added, noting the<br />
product expansion was requested by Kinze dealers<br />
to better serve their customers.<br />
DRAWING TALENT IN TOUGH MARKET<br />
Even though the cyclical agriculture industry is currently<br />
in a down cycle, it is still a challenge to find<br />
skilled employees.<br />
Most of Kinze’s 550 employees live in nearby<br />
Williamsburg and Marengo, but some travel from<br />
up to 60 miles away. The company attracts employees<br />
from engineering schools at University of Iowa,<br />
Iowa State University, University of Colorado and<br />
South Dakota State.<br />
“We need to have an environment with contagious<br />
energy where people want to work in this<br />
tight job market,” Veatch said. “Once we get them<br />
here to experience Kinze, they are sold.”<br />
As it continues to be difficult to attract employees<br />
into manufacturing, Kinze works with<br />
area educational institutions to expose youth to<br />
the industry.<br />
The Williamsburg School District partners with<br />
the local Kirkwood Community College center to<br />
offer more technology-based courses.<br />
KINZE ON PAGE 31<br />
18 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
PAGE 18: The<br />
workbench from<br />
Jon Kinzenbaw’s<br />
garage in Ladora on<br />
display at the Kinze<br />
Innovation Center on<br />
the main campus in<br />
Williamsburg.<br />
RIGHT: Chris Riley<br />
powder coats a piece<br />
of equipment in the<br />
painting booth. The<br />
majority of Kinze’s<br />
equipment is<br />
painted its signature<br />
shade of blue.<br />
Jon Kinzenbaw has<br />
been named inventor<br />
on 19 issued patents,<br />
including his most<br />
well-known product –<br />
the rear-fold planter<br />
introduced in 1975.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 19
Gift<br />
Bliss<br />
20 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
Tallis Strub (left)<br />
and Kaitlin<br />
Byers created<br />
MarryMyCity, an<br />
online gift registry<br />
that offers local<br />
experiences, as<br />
an alternative to<br />
registries at bigbox<br />
stores.<br />
Online wedding registry<br />
aims to draw couples closer<br />
BY JENNIE MORTON<br />
PHOTOS BRIAN DRAEGER<br />
Tired of buying impersonal wedding gifts like wood<br />
bowls and shower curtains, two <strong>Corridor</strong> women<br />
have created a more meaningful shopping option<br />
for wedding guests. MarryMyCity, an online gift<br />
registry that offers local experiences, is the brainchild<br />
of Kaitlin Byers and Tallis Strub.<br />
The women formed a friendship as ImpactCR board members.<br />
While commiserating about attending 62 weddings over<br />
a two-year stretch, the pair wondered if there was an alternative<br />
to registries at big-box stores.<br />
“Statistically, the majority of couples are marrying in their<br />
late 20s rather than right out of college. They are also more<br />
likely to be living together, which means they already have basic<br />
household items,” Byers explained. “Wedding guests want<br />
to purchase something that will help the couple build their<br />
relationship in a way an avocado slicer or spatulas can’t.”<br />
MarryMyCity, with its emphasis on bonding experiences<br />
rather than consumer goods, complements to a traditional<br />
registry. The platform organizes gifts into four categories: food<br />
and drink, arts and culture, health and wellness and active adventures.<br />
Now guests have the option to purchase pans or theater<br />
tickets with equal ease.<br />
“This is not just a millennial trend,” Strub clarified. “Some<br />
of our most successful registries come from second marriages.<br />
These couples already have established careers and homes.<br />
Even if they would prefer no gifts, they know their guests are<br />
going to insist. The experience packages on MarryMyCity are a<br />
great alternative.”<br />
AGILE MINDSET<br />
Byers, who serves as CEO, and Strub, who functions as COO,<br />
attended Venture School through the University of Iowa’s John<br />
Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. After fine-tuning the viability<br />
of their business model, they adopted an agile mindset.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 21
They secured funding from the Proof of Commercial Relevance<br />
program through Iowa Economic Development to hire<br />
a website developer. In 2016, they anonymously launched the<br />
online registry at Byers’ own wedding. The options sold out<br />
quickly and other couples began reaching out to start their<br />
own registry.<br />
Byers and Strub vet all vendor applications to ensure they<br />
have a pool of diverse gift options. They currently partner with<br />
80 small businesses. Packages for beer and wine, art and cooking<br />
classes and show tickets are some of the most popular.<br />
“We offer vendors an open-ended contract rather than a<br />
subscription. We also won’t remove their package if it hasn’t<br />
sold within a certain period. We provide a simple 80/20 split<br />
and minimal credit card fees. Once their information is on our<br />
site, the vendor simply enjoys the free exposure until they need<br />
to ship a gift,” Strub explained.<br />
CORRIDOR AND BEYOND<br />
MarryMyCity currently serves three communities: Cedar Rapids,<br />
Iowa City and Des Moines. Byers and Strub have found<br />
success in connecting with vendors by attending events like<br />
One Million Cups, soliciting referrals from wedding couples<br />
and working with chambers of commerce.<br />
“Iowans have some of the largest weddings in the country<br />
with an average of over 200 guests, yet many small companies<br />
have been pushed out of the gifting market. MarryMyCity can<br />
introduce them to local guests as well as those who are traveling<br />
from out of the area or another state,” Byers said.<br />
Des Moines is MarryMyCity’s testing grounds for expansion.<br />
The online registry is scalable, so the pair is fine-tuning<br />
the right mechanisms to build vendor relationships in new locations<br />
and create brand awareness outside of the <strong>Corridor</strong>.<br />
Strub’s recent move to Des Moines has been instrumental in<br />
adding 20 vendors to MarryMyCity’s options.<br />
“We are also excited to be expanding to Madison and Kansas<br />
City in the coming months. We are even testing a wedding<br />
in Austin, Texas. But there is plenty of room to grow right here<br />
in Iowa and we have many towns on our radar,” Strub said.<br />
PLANNING THE FUTURE<br />
MarryMyCity is also looking into the possibility of combination<br />
packages that include options from multiple vendors,<br />
such as a restaurant and a brewery from the same neighborhood.<br />
A feature where couples can build their own experience<br />
packages is forthcoming as well.<br />
More than two years in, Bryers and Strub are energized by<br />
the potential to develop a national footprint yet remain focused<br />
on the Iowa roots that helped their idea blossom.<br />
“You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable with a<br />
startup. You have to be OK with not knowing how to do something<br />
but then figuring it out,” Byers explained. “You also have<br />
to remain focused and committed because not every idea or<br />
decision is going to work out. It’s all about setting goals and<br />
always working toward them.” CN<br />
Wedding guests want to<br />
purchase something that<br />
will help the couple build<br />
their relationship in a<br />
way an avocado slicer or<br />
spatulas can’t.”<br />
Kaitlin Byers, CEO, MarryMyCity<br />
22 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
Kaitlin Byers and Tallis<br />
Strub are testing the<br />
Des Moines market for<br />
their online wedding<br />
registry, MarryMyCity.<br />
Marry My City<br />
https://marrymycity.com<br />
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CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 23
WINNING FORMULA<br />
Engineer finds success in<br />
swine confinement industry<br />
STORY AND PHOTOS BY EMERY STYRON<br />
24 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
It’s much easier to keep an<br />
existing customer happy than to<br />
go find a new customer.<br />
Chris Harmsen, Owner, Precisions Structures Inc.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 25
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“Ag is so volatile. Within a year,<br />
you can be doing half of what<br />
you were doing – and in another<br />
year, one-sixth,” said Precision<br />
Structures Inc. owner Chris<br />
Harmsen, who manages to keep<br />
a serene outlook despite the ever-changing<br />
market forces that<br />
whipsaw the swine industry.<br />
It’s not just because of the view of peaceful, green farm<br />
fields outside his office window at the edge of Wellman.<br />
The business model Harmsen has honed in 20 years of<br />
building swine confinements across an eight-state Midwest<br />
territory also lets him sleep at night.<br />
PSI puts up about 100 buildings a year and on any given<br />
week, has several hundred people at work at 30 job sites<br />
in the region. The vast majority of those are not PSI employees,<br />
but subcontractors doing the concrete, electrical,<br />
carpentry and insulation work on the buildings. That arrangement<br />
allows Harmsen to expand or contract his business<br />
as demand fluctuates. It also leaves him free to focus<br />
on building a strong staff to handle sales, estimating, project<br />
management, warehousing, service and installation of<br />
feed and water systems.<br />
HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE<br />
The staff now numbers 70 but the 6-foot-8-inch Clinton-area<br />
native and former North Dakota State University<br />
basketball player was employee No. 4 when he went to<br />
work for PSI founder Claude Greiner in 1998. He used his<br />
engineering and operations skills to help grow the business<br />
and jumped at the opportunity to buy it in 2010.<br />
“Our people are what makes it click.,” Harmsen said.<br />
“We work hard to take care of them. They work hard to<br />
take care of our customers and subcontractors.”<br />
It’s been “a real interesting process,” to manage the<br />
challenges of growing a small company, he said. He likes<br />
an analogy in the book “Good to Great” that compares a<br />
company to a school bus.<br />
“The first thing you have to do is get the right people on<br />
the bus. Once you figure out who should be on the bus,<br />
then you determine what seat they should be in,” he said.<br />
“If we can hire capable, motivated people, we try to find a<br />
place in the business that’s the best fit for them.”<br />
26 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
PAGE 24: Chris Harmsen explains a watering system installed<br />
in a hog confinement near Wellman.<br />
TOP LEFT: A cornfield is visible beyond the blades of a<br />
ventilation fan in a hog confinement under construction by PSI.<br />
“The first thing you<br />
have to do is get the<br />
right people on the<br />
bus. Once you figure<br />
out who should be<br />
on the bus, then you<br />
determine what seat<br />
they should be in.”<br />
Chris Harmsen<br />
Owner, Precisions Structures Inc.<br />
TOP RIGHT AND LOWER LEFT: Most building materials<br />
for PSI projects are delivered directly from suppliers to the<br />
construction sites, but PSI does stock and warehouse PCV<br />
pipe, electric motors and other components for water and feed<br />
systems it installs in the structures.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 27
Precision Structures<br />
Incorporated, of<br />
Wellman, built<br />
this modern pig<br />
production unit at<br />
Delta Gilt Farm in<br />
southeast Missouri.<br />
PHOTO / PSI<br />
Nicole and Chris<br />
Harmsen provide a<br />
family atmosphere<br />
at PSI.<br />
Ag’s volatility provides an opportunity to<br />
shift people around to find that best fit.<br />
“A market that’s hot now may be cool in six<br />
months and something else may be hot. That<br />
offers a lot of opportunity for cross-training,”<br />
he said.<br />
NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS<br />
Looking at the bigger picture, he sees PSI’s<br />
role as “basically helping family farms grow<br />
and be profitable.”<br />
“Families still in farming have had to become<br />
larger and more business-like units. They are<br />
selling products at the same price they’ve been<br />
at for many decades. The only way to have more<br />
money is through volume and efficiency. They<br />
need to rely on support companies like ours to<br />
be the professional option they need to become<br />
more professional themselves.”<br />
Having grown up on a family farm, Harmsen<br />
enjoys the multi-generational relationships that<br />
are the heart of PSI’s business. Nurturing those<br />
relationships has powered PSI’s growth.<br />
“It’s key that we take care of them and make<br />
them happy. It’s much easier to keep an existing<br />
customer happy than to go find a new customer,”<br />
he said.<br />
Keeping customers happy includes service<br />
after the sale. With 2,000-3,000 existing facilities,<br />
“things break,” so service employees are on<br />
call seven days a week.<br />
“If a feed system or a watering system goes out,<br />
it’s urgent that it gets up and running,” he said.<br />
A GROWING ‘FAMILY’<br />
Harmsen and his wife, Nicole, lived for eightand-a-half<br />
years in the house where the Greiners<br />
started the business in 1983. They have<br />
three children, 16, 14 and 12, who all work at<br />
PSI around school activities.<br />
“It’s like the way I grew up on the farm. I<br />
wanted the kids to be involved in some way,”<br />
Chris said.<br />
Five years ago, the family moved to the south<br />
edge of Wellman, freeing the house up for office<br />
space. Existing buildings were connected to<br />
the house and the former two-bay garage was<br />
remodeled into a conference room that seats 14,<br />
but the kitchen where Nicole prepared family<br />
meals remained intact. She now uses it to fix<br />
lunch for the whole staff on Fridays.<br />
Nicole also works in the office, where Chris<br />
notes, “She has a way of making sure everyone’s<br />
happy and taken care of, sort of mothering the<br />
people around here that we care about.”<br />
In 2015, the Harmsens purchased Keith’s<br />
Parts & Service, a grain storage and handling<br />
equipment company, to broaden PSI’s<br />
base. PSI leases the Keith facility south of<br />
Ainsworth. The grain business is on a smaller<br />
scale, covering an area within an hour or two<br />
from Wellman.<br />
“We hope to grow it,” Harmsen said.<br />
Those aren’t words he takes lightly.<br />
“When we say we’re going to do something,<br />
we do it. It sounds like a simple thing, but it’s<br />
something we live by.” CN<br />
Precision Structures Inc.<br />
1204 First Ave. N.<br />
Wellman, IA 52356<br />
www.precisionstructures-inc.com<br />
28 CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong>
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CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 29
“Our contract side last year grew 400 percent,<br />
and the product side grew 150 percent.<br />
Gerald Beranek<br />
BeraTek, founder<br />
and CEO<br />
Sokreth Luongvan<br />
and Nink Baccam<br />
work on the injection<br />
molding machine at<br />
BeraTek Industries.<br />
BERATEK<br />
FROM PAGE 13<br />
MOLDING NEW ENTREPRENEURS<br />
Soon after the company launched, a wouldbe<br />
entrepreneur brought in his idea for what<br />
became the repour Winesaver, a bottle stopper<br />
that blocks oxygen to preserve the aroma<br />
and flavor of an unfinished bottle of wine.<br />
“He had a very crude prototype,” Beranek<br />
recalled. “We actually designed his entire<br />
product specifically for manufacturing at<br />
high volume. He’s truly gone from nothing<br />
and now we’re running 100,000 units a<br />
month. He’s one of our bigger customers.”<br />
To encourage clients to manufacture their<br />
products at BeraTek, the firm offers a million-piece<br />
guarantee.<br />
“They own the molds, they can take them<br />
wherever they want,” Beranek said. “We’ll<br />
actually make sure that mold is in top running<br />
shape for the first million parts. But as<br />
soon as they take it out of here, there’s no<br />
more warranty.”<br />
Beranek said BeraTek’s production costs are<br />
competitive with cheap offshore competition.<br />
“We’ve looked at, ‘Let’s see what these<br />
would cost. Let’s ship the molds to China<br />
and see their per-unit costs,’” he said. “And<br />
they can’t even touch what we can do. It was<br />
40 to 50 percent more than what we can do<br />
– without tariffs.”<br />
DEVOTED TO COMPANY<br />
FROM START<br />
Beranek’s priorities for the next year or so<br />
are to establish BeraTek’s consumer products<br />
under the new Storage Theory brand<br />
while boosting awareness of the company’s<br />
contract development, production and marketing<br />
services.<br />
“BeraTek, that’s our contract side,” he<br />
said. “Storage Theory will be our product<br />
brand, the consumer-facing side.”<br />
Marketing might seem a stretch for a company<br />
built on product design, planning and<br />
development, but it’s really just another case<br />
of applied experience.<br />
“We already do the marketing for our own<br />
products, so it’s a natural for us to do it for<br />
our customers,” Beranek said. “We haven’t<br />
had too many people do it, because if you’re<br />
an inventor or an entrepreneur, it’s hard<br />
to justify spending money on marketing.<br />
Whereas we know we have to spend to make<br />
money and marketing’s tough when you’re<br />
new in the business.”<br />
Beranek said he went without a paycheck<br />
for three years after starting BeraTek.<br />
“I knew I wouldn’t do it if I had a backup,”<br />
he said. “Because my backup as an engineer<br />
was alright.”<br />
But applying his engineering knowledge<br />
helped BeraTek find its unique niche.<br />
“I knew I liked to design things and solve<br />
problems,” Beranek said. CN<br />
30
MANUFACTURING IN IOWA<br />
Employs 13.3%<br />
of the workforce<br />
210,600<br />
manufacturing<br />
employees (2016)<br />
$68,080 average<br />
annual compensation<br />
Accounts for 18.3%<br />
of total state output<br />
$10.34 billion in<br />
manufactured goods<br />
exports<br />
$32.65 billion in<br />
total manufacturing<br />
output (2016)<br />
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau<br />
KINZE<br />
FROM PAGE 18<br />
“We then bring various classes to<br />
Kinze for tours so they can realize there<br />
are careers in manufacturing that enable<br />
people to earn a great living,” Veatch said.<br />
An internship program gives college<br />
students an entire year to hone their<br />
skills, benefiting both the student and<br />
the company.<br />
STILL FAMILY-OWNED<br />
AND OPERATED<br />
When Jon Kinzenbaw started Kinze<br />
Welding in Ladora at age 21, he likely<br />
didn’t realize how influential his company<br />
and innovations would become in the<br />
agriculture and manufacturing industries.<br />
The operation moved to Williamsburg<br />
in 1975 when Kinze introduced<br />
the rear-fold planter, skyrocketing the<br />
company’s growth trajectory. The corporate<br />
headquarters and production<br />
plants remain in the high-profile location<br />
along Interstate 80, as well as an innovation<br />
center which opened in 2013.<br />
Kinze Europe UAB is located in Vilnius,<br />
Lithuania, and Kinze Electronics in<br />
North Liberty.<br />
Kinze remains privately-owned by<br />
the Kinzenbaw family, a strategy that<br />
allows the company to quickly make decisions<br />
without going through layers of<br />
leaders and stockholders.<br />
“At the end of the day, we want to<br />
make the final decisions; nobody else<br />
has to weigh in,” Veatch said.<br />
Neither Veatch or her brother, Jonathan,<br />
were pressured to join the family<br />
business while they were growing up.<br />
While Jonathan wasn’t interested in<br />
joining Kinze and works for Pioneer in<br />
Des Moines, Veatch always had a soft<br />
spot for the big blue machinery.<br />
“I loved the business growing up,”<br />
she said. “In the summer, I loved coming<br />
out here and watching my dad work.<br />
It’s all I’ve ever known. I’m very passionate<br />
about it.”<br />
Kinzenbaw welcomed his daughter<br />
into the business, but he wanted her to<br />
work at another organization first. So, after<br />
she graduated from Iowa State University<br />
with a degree in business, she worked<br />
for Caterpillar as a systems analyst for<br />
four years before joining Kinze in 2005.<br />
“Working for a very large company<br />
gave me a greater appreciation of a<br />
smaller, privately held business,” she<br />
said. “Ideas can come from anywhere;<br />
we’re a flat company. We, as owners,<br />
love what we do.” CN<br />
Kinze Manufacturing’s<br />
corporate office facility built<br />
in 2010 is part of a 30-acre<br />
campus that includes the<br />
Kinze Innovation Center<br />
and manufacturing facilities<br />
just off Interstate 80 near<br />
Williamsburg.<br />
CORRIDOR NATIVE FALL <strong>2018</strong> 31
<strong>Corridor</strong> Business Journal<br />
2345 Landon Road, Ste. 100<br />
North Liberty, IA 52317<br />
325 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 319-337-9637 www.iowacityarea.com<br />
Affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders & Home Builders Association of Iowa<br />
Iowa Va ley Habitat for Humanity<br />
2017 GIVING GUIDE<br />
egional Philanthropic Opportunities<br />
“The best way to find<br />
yourself is to lose yourself in<br />
the service of others.”<br />
Mahatma Gandhi<br />
PRESENTING SPONSOR<br />
THE GREATER IOWA CITY AREA HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION I www.iowacityhomes.com<br />
Student Built House<br />
Groundbreaking<br />
Tell Your Story<br />
A Passion for Growth<br />
Celebrating Our New Office<br />
Vocational Training Council Chair, Aaron McGlynn with Cabinet Works, welcomes everyone to the groundbreaking.<br />
A ceremonial groundbreaking was held Thursday, June<br />
28, <strong>2018</strong> at 3:00 pm a the site of a future home of Reach<br />
AUGUST <strong>2018</strong><br />
Check the Calendar of Events<br />
at www.iowacityhomes.com<br />
for more information!<br />
<strong>2018</strong><br />
Remodelers Council<br />
Board Meeting<br />
AUGUST 7TH NOON - 1:00 PM<br />
IC HBA Conference Room<br />
Women’s Council Build Day<br />
AUGUST 30TH<br />
Iowa Va ley Habitat for Humanity<br />
Katie Lammers Women Build<br />
924 N Governor St, Iowa City<br />
IC/CR <strong>Fall</strong> Mixer<br />
AUGUST 30TH 6:00 - 8:00 PM<br />
The Hotel Kirkwood<br />
7725 Kirkwood Blvd SW<br />
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404<br />
Membership Committee<br />
Membership Drive<br />
SEPTEMBER 6TH NOON - 2:00 PM<br />
IC HBA Conference Room<br />
for Your Potential clients. The home is being built at<br />
1881 Dickenson Lane in Iowa City by local students.<br />
IC Area HBA Build Day<br />
SEPTEMBER 7TH<br />
lifestyle<br />
munity<br />
business<br />
chnology<br />
425 E. Oakdale Blvd. - Suite 101 - Coralville - 319.338.4100<br />
www.WattsGroup.com<br />
The groundbreaking is the beginning of a new project<br />
put on by our Vocational Training Council. The<br />
council organizes workforce development projects in<br />
the greater Iowa City area. Students participating in<br />
the program learn an important skill set, earn college<br />
credit, and help give back to the community.<br />
Partner with the <strong>Corridor</strong> Business Journal to design your own custom magazine.<br />
North<br />
Liberty<br />
NORTH LIBERTY<br />
We were excited to have Governor Kim Reynolds at<br />
the groundbreaking as well as many other elected<br />
officials and members of the IC Area HBA, Vocational<br />
Training Council, the student and their parents.<br />
The project includes 13 students of all different ages<br />
building a home for a local non-profit organization<br />
called Reach for Your Potential. RFYP supplies<br />
housing for adults with disabilities. This project<br />
also partners with Kirkwood Community College,<br />
allowing each student working on the house to<br />
receive two hours of construction credits. Members<br />
of the Homebuilders Association are paying for the<br />
college credits, and students will also complete their<br />
10 hours of OSHA certification.<br />
STUDENT BUILD PAGE 4<br />
Dr. Mick Starcevich,<br />
outgoing President of<br />
Kirkwood Community<br />
College, talks about<br />
the valuable skills the<br />
students are learning.<br />
Governor Kim Reynolds<br />
talks about everything<br />
we are doing right<br />
for students and<br />
homeowners in Iowa City.<br />
Katie Lammers Women Build<br />
924 N Governor St, Iowa City<br />
September Membership<br />
Meeting<br />
SEPTEMBER 13TH 6:00 - 8:00 PM<br />
Hawkeye Ready Mix<br />
3375 Klein Rd, Iowa City<br />
Remodelers Social<br />
SEPTEMBER 18TH 6:00 - 8:00 PM<br />
Water Concepts<br />
214 Southgate Ave, Iowa City<br />
Board of Directors Meeting<br />
SEPTEMBER 20TH NOON - 1:00 PM<br />
IC HBA Conference Room<br />
2012 - 2013 PROGRESS REPORT<br />
GREATER IOWA CITY AREA HBA<br />
Remodelers Council<br />
Build Day<br />
OCTOBER 25TH<br />
Iowa Va ley Habitat for Humanity<br />
Katie Lammers Women Build<br />
924 N Governor St, Iowa City<br />
MEMBERSHIP<br />
on advancing<br />
WOMEN’S<br />
DIRECTORY<br />
LEADERSHIP<br />
PO BOX 3396 11 S. GILBERT ST. IOWA CITY, IA 52244-3396 PHONE: 319-351-5333 FAX: 319-358-2443 WWW.IOWACITYHOMES.COM<br />
exhilaration.<br />
inspiration.<br />
momentum.<br />
results.<br />
CORALVILLE<br />
Official 2015 Cedar Rapids Area Activities Guide<br />
MARION<br />
MT. VERNON<br />
LINN COUNTY<br />
HIAWATHA<br />
IOWA CITY<br />
Visit www.corridorbusiness.com/custom-publications<br />
to view the most recently published magazines.<br />
For more information contact Andrea Rhoades at<br />
andrea@corridorbusiness.com or 319.665.6397 x304<br />
A City on the Rise