I had expected a rollicking good time when I called up Craig Kruckeberg, one of my favorite Minnesota entrepreneurs, who took over his father’s company, heavy-duty truck supplier Minimizer, when it had less than $1 million in revenue and grew it to a $60 million sale...
Letter From the Editor
A business for the end times
A career in business reporting turns up many unusual ideas, but in 30 years I’ve never seen anything like Fortitude Ranch. On a visit last summer to its central Wisconsin location, which I had to swear to keep secret, I found the ultimate in pandemic-era concepts: a...
A pep talk from a famous ‘Shark Tank’ judge
“The best time to move ahead is the worst times.” So declares Barbara Corcoran, the fast-talking New York real estate mogul and judge on ABC’s hit show “Shark Tank,” who’s the perfect interview as business owners everywhere face tough times. I got a boost from her in an interview recently that I had to share, even though she’s not local as my typical sources are. “Established works against you in bad times because you protect your turf. I can tell you so many times that I could sniff out a weakness in my competitors—cockiness. They were cocky, big and protecting,” Corcoran said. “The larger companies in bad times hide. It’s prudent to wait it out, because they have a lot of money and they don’t want to lose it.”
Fighting for cheaper healthcare—and revenge
The CEO of Nice Healthcare zooms up on his one-wheel electric scooter, removes his helmet and plumps up his dreadlocks for a photo. Then Thompson Aderinkomi describes his mission, to simplify healthcare and cut its cost in half. “The ongoing purpose of the business...
A sharp dose of Jill Johnson
When Jill Johnson saw a job candidate in a client’s lobby, “this gorgeous young woman chomping gum, I said, ‘lose the gum,’” and the woman did and was hired. When a mentee got into Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law but called to say he was struggling, “I said ‘get...
A one-of-a-kind business journey
This November Kirk Hoaglund and his IT consulting company Clientek will celebrate its 30th anniversary. “We have offices in four countries; we have a couple hundred-ish people and we work with clients all over the world,” said the Renaissance man, a bass who sings...
Growing a food brand takes gusto
Sporting bright goldenrod pants on a gray day, Angie Gustafson strides into a Minneapolis coffeeshop to catch Upsize up on her natural food brand, Gustola Granola. “I love the word gusto. I think it’s full of energy and vibrancy,” she says, while perhaps unwittingly...
So much easier in the box
“It’s so weird going from writing about business to running one,” said Robert Lillegard, a former journalist and marketer who now operates Duluth’s Best Bread with his older brother, Michael Lillegard. “You’ve got all those pieces on the floor and only three fit together. It looks so much easier in the box.”
One entrepreneur’s solution for the toxic bed
Mothers of young adult sons may wish to avert their eyes from this story about a St. Paul entrepreneur who is developing clothing and other products that never need laundering. His first major line? Bedsheets for young men, who it turns out rarely wash them — a truth everyone who gave birth to boys intuitively knows but tries to block out when they’re on their own.
Feel the fear and do it anyway
Nicholas Peterson left his comfy corporate job and the fitness industry he knew so well and launched two restaurant chains, the latest in April 2021, using his own money with local restaurant owner and friend Ryan Burnet as minority partner. “I don’t feel the need to have fear in my day-to-day operations when I’m using my own capital to build the companies,” Smiley said when I caught up with him in August. “You’re gambling with your own chips.”