Entrepreneur Fund honors local businesses – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — It was standing room only as the Entrepreneur Fund recognized nine businesses from northern Minnesota and Wisconsin during its second annual Distinction Awards on Oct. 16.

The event in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center’s Palucci Hall served as a self-fulfilling prophecy to the organization’s founder Mary Mathews, who was recognized with the Trailblazer Award before a crowd exceeding 200 people.

“We did an entrepreneurial showcase here in 1996,” Mathews said. “We were in a small dining room upstairs. Businesses showcased their wares, and we had a meal — cold chicken. I remember saying from the podium that day that, ‘Someday we will fill the DECC.’ Looks like we’ve filled the DECC!”

Since its inception in the late 1980s, the Entrepreneur Fund has been responsible for over $155 million in lending to serve thousands of entrepreneurs — from start-ups to expansions and business successions — helping them to create and sustain tens of thousands of jobs. The organization also provides technical assistance, resources and networking opportunities.

Entrepreneur Fund President and CEO Sean Wellnitz said it has been a “milestone year” for the nonprofit, which has doubled in size. The nonprofit is on pace to deploy over $20 million in loan capital to serve over 1,300 entrepreneurs, in addition to a recent

$9 million gift from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott

.

“With that, we’ve had nearly 250 businesses this year that have either started, improved or grown in a significant way,” Wellnitz said.

Nine business leaders were honored with Distinction Awards:

Benjamin Hugus, CEO and founder of Ursa Minor Brewing. Jason Wobbema, president of Advanced Machine Guarding Solutions. Nicole Wilde, owner and CEO of Love Creamery. Chiamaka Enemuoh, president of Lifestone Health Care. Jessica and Erik Lietz, owners of Boomtown Woodfire Bar & Grill.Larry Pulkrabek, CEO of Trika and Mont du Lac Resort. Chris Olin, CEO and owner of Rox Speed FX.Jeff and Sue Churchill, owners of Round Man Brewing Co., Dock Coffee, Strongman Smokehouse and Parliament Properties. Paul Kirkman, president of Victual.

“While the implications are local, the reach is global, with products from entrepreneurs reaching nearly every corner of the globe,” said Entrepreneur Fund Board Member Jake Robinson. 

Prior to the award ceremony, the award-winners partook in an interactive behind-the-business session highlighting how the Entrepreneur Fund’s services were leveraged to fit their company’s specific needs.

The breakout sessions allowed for audience member questions. Common themes of discussion revolved around how each business’ success translated to broader-reaching benefits to the overall community and region, as well as differing trends or challenges in the varying industries.

Victual, located in Crosby, is a specialty food and gift shop that focuses on house-made ice cream, artisan cheese, charcuterie, deli meats, artisan breads and packaged gourmet maker-made gifts, as well as specialty wines, spirits and liqueurs.

“The thing that I have noticed, especially in a small town, is that everyone roots for you,” Kirkman said. “They want you to succeed. They want you to do well, and they are invested in what we’re doing.”

Kirkman was honored for demonstrating excellence in retail experience and expansion that has sparked a ripple effect benefiting residents and local businesses.

“We set out to do something that looks and feels a little different,” Kirkman said. “If people start to steal little bits and pieces of my inventory and sell it in their store, I tend to move that out and bring in fresh goods, because I don’t want to look like other people. I don’t want to have the goods that they carry. I want to maintain my unique position within the marketplace.”

Last year, Victual doubled in size. The Entrepreneur Fund helped Kirkman purchase his new building.

“When you start looking at the finances involved in everything, it made more and more sense to actually own our own property,” Kirkman said during his behind-the-business session, citing build-out expenses to install a commercial kitchen to make its bread and ice cream on site.

“You don’t want someone else to own it. At the end of the lease, they could take it and lease it to someone else, or they could jack up your rent to such a degree that it doesn’t make it a viable option,” Kirkman said. “I hated that uncertainty.”

Kirkman is currently exploring the possibility of opening a second store in northern Minnesota.

Advanced Machine Guard Solutions is also preparing for an expansion that could quadruple its sales within the next three years, according to Wobbema.

The Hibbing-based company specializes in safety machine guarding for the automation and robotics industry. Wobbema estimates AMGS will bring in around $2 million in sales this year, quite an accomplishment from the company’s modest beginnings three years ago.

“We were on the second wave of COVID. So we were sitting in an empty building preparing to start assembling all the equipment that I had designed at night and weekends while I was employed by somebody else,” Wobbema said. “Steel pricing went to the highest price known to man. It was at $2,000 per ton, and we were almost out of business before we even started. We just put our heads down and worked.”

Once in production, AMGS began making miniature samples to ship nationwide to potential clients.

“We had a couple of large customers that are probably the biggest robotics companies in North America,” Wobbema said. “We built enough equipment to really just get enough product out the door, but we were not set up to compete on a global level with our competitors. That’s what we’re building right now, is our next level.”

About a year ago, the company began looking for a new facility to expand and partnered with the Entrepreneur Fund, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, as well as local lenders and government.

The Entrepreneur Fund provided revenue-based financing to help AMGS secure the working capital it needed to scale.

“It’s paid back by a percentage of our sales,” Wobbema said. “The more we sell, the more we pay back.”

AMGS is also partnering with Minnesota North College to develop the next generation of automation, robotics, mechatronics, networking and security.

“Even now, post-COVID, it is a challenge to find people to work and work a full 40 hours,” said Wobbema, who currently employs 16 people. “What automation and robotics does for us is it gives us the ability to be very profitable. We might not have as many employees, but we will have higher-paid employees. Robotics doesn’t take jobs, it creates opportunities for manufacturers to come back to this country and compete as a global business.”

Following the breakout sessions, networking ensued as attendees sampled regional food and beverages prior to the awards ceremony.

The booth of Duluth-based Love Creamery was a popular stop among attendees. The local company was honored for building a strong, recognizable brand with strategic multi-location growth.

In 2014 Wilde began crafting ice cream on her hobby farm and selling it from a mobile cart at local farmers markets and events.

“I say this truly without a doubt, Love Creamery would not exist without the Entrepreneur Fund,” Wilde said. “I had a vision, and it had a line item to make it happen. They believed in me. They took the risk — not only financially, but gave me some resources from an education standpoint.”

By 2018, Love Creamery expanded into its first retail store. It has since grown into a thriving business, Wilde said, with multiple scoop shops, wholesale accounts and a dedicated team of employees.

A full list of each honoree’s background and story can be found at

efund.org/awards

.