Successes
Millstream’s Strategic Growth: Crafting a New Plan for Craft Brewery
Though she was a teacher for nearly two decades, Teresa Albert always wanted to own her own business. When opportunity arose in 2001 to purchase Millstream Brewing Co., originally founded in 1985, she and her husband Tom and two other ...[ read more ]
Asoyia: CEO Talent Matched with Promising Business
Asoyia's unique soybean oil contains only one percent linolenic acid, resulting in healthier, more stable and better tasting cooking oil. But this promising product didn't happen overnight. The soybean was researched and developed for over 25 years by scientists at ...[ read more ]
AES: Acquisition and Added Talent Drives Growth
Capitalizing on the systems integration experience he acquired at Cherry Burrell, David Garrelts landed a major project, years ago, with processing chip maker, Intel, leading the systems integration effort for a new plant in Arizona, and thus AES was born. Systems ...[ read more ]
Insync Overcomes Merger Challenges
Kris Koberg used his experience as general manager of J&G Custom Printing and The Cotton Gallery to launch Insync Apparel & Promotions in 1998. In 2003, Insync acquired Sports Image, maker of high school and novelty sportswear sold in retail ...[ read more ]
Gluten Evolution: A Recipe for Success
Anna Sobaski had finished her chef's training at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School, Institute for Food and Health in New York City when her friends raved about the taste and texture of her nutritious, gluten-free breads. "You should package and ...[ read more ]
Involta: Serial Entrepreneur Continues to Seek Advice
Thankfully for Iowa, there are guys like Bruce Lehrman, a person that just gets the itch to start things. Having founded LiveWare5, a streaming media event company, in 1996, he is now beginning his third start-up venture. It was while Lehrman ...[ read more ]
Geonetric: Focusing the Model
When you're running a business, everyone knows that getting focused is smart. After all, you can't be all things to everyone. The problem is when you think you are already focused, and it turns out you're not. Eric Engelmann and ...[ read more ]
Security Coverage: Building a Solid Foundation
With an extensive career in Information Technology, including IT consulting, product management for security products at Novell, and serving as AEGON's Information Security Officer, Bob O'Dell knew a few things about PC security. In serving the remote employees at AEGON, ...[ read more ]
Pohaku: World-Class Business Out of Rural Iowa
You could call Wendy Gady a straight shooter, bright and very entrepreneurial. Working in New York for Eastman Kodak, she identified an unmet need in the market and had a hunch she could create a business out of it. "I ...[ read more ]
The Sky is the Limit at the Sky Factory
After the first hour that Bill Witherspoon spent with Curt Nelson, President and CEO of the Entrepreneurial Development Center (EDC), in 2003, he was thinking of things he had never considered for his new business. Having a mixed, yet successful ...[ read more ]
SwitchQuick: Converting Problems into Opportunities
Ever had an embarrassing moment at work? Greg Helton has. One day in 1988, the first day at his new assignment as a terminal supervisor for a major LTL carrier, he asked one of his drivers in the yard to ...[ read more ]
DeerFortress Wraps Talent around Opportunity
The original DeerFortress™ inventor, Clay Chalupsky walked into the Entrepreneurial Development Center (EDC) in 2004 with his home-made deer repellent device. It was made of the plastic cups for icing that come with Pillsbury cinnamon roll dough, tea bag liners ...[ read more ]
Bochner Confections: A Taste of Success
With physics and law degrees, and some profits from the .com era in Silicon Valley, Eric Bochner set off for Chicago where he "took a break" and attended culinary school. It was there where the astute business man in him ...[ read more ]
Mobile Demand: Expertise and Resources = Success
Even a well-educated entrepreneur with industry expertise needs a little help to get to the "next level." That was the case with Matt Miller, president and founder of Mobile Demand, a supplier of rugged mobile computers to the wholesale beer ...[ read more ]
