Hi, everyone, I'm Susan Ford.

I'm here with another episode of Rooted in Reaching.

And today we have the privilege of talking to Gage Bagwell from Innovated Manufacturing, hot off of a 19 hour drive from Acadia national park while still doing your day job.

So we'll talk all about that.

But how are you today?

Not too bad, only a little bit tired.

Actually, I'm feeling pretty good.

Pretty good.

Pretty energized.

Yes.

Okay, so the million dollar question.

What did you listen to in the car while you were driving?

Nothing.

I like to enjoy my scenery.

Really?

Plus my girlfriend was sleeping for a little bit.

Okay.

Okay, fair enough.

I wonder what we can read into that.

If you enjoy the scenery, you're envisioning the next big thing.

Maybe.

Probably.

So tell us a little bit about your company.

Let's get started with that.

So innovative manufacturing, what it is today is not what it started as.

As I feel most people that start companies can vouch for.

We started off with the goal to help boy Scouts.

While I'm not a boy scout myself, one of the other owners of the company is he still partakes almost every weekend in some sort of Boy Scout event.

And we learned of a kid, his name's Jack, he was quadriplegic.

So I had very limited mobility and he needed to get his shooting badge.

And there was really no good way of doing it when you have a limited mobility.

So at this point, we're just outta high school.

Well, they were.

I already graduated.

And we're like, we can help them.

And we're like, oh, it's in three months, it'll be fine.

So then like the weekend before, we're like, oh, crap, we're supposed to help.

What are we gonna do?

So we stood up all night, all weekend, and we built now what we call an arm assisted rifle mount.

What it does is it holds a 22 gun and it gives the ability for someone to control it with a joystick and a button.

So think of arcade controls.

Yes.

We try and make it as intuitive as possible.

That way anyone can do it.

Um, and so just like kind of flight, you pull back, it goes up, goes down, and auto unfocused.

So that way he couldn't cheat.

So there was no like backlash from anyone else or say anything?

Um, the very.

That was very Boy Scout code of honor.

Yes.

I was trying to make it as fair as possible.

Innovated me in general, anything I do in life, I try to help as much as possible.

I believe giving back is if everyone just did a Little something every day.

It'd be much happier place in the world.

So their goal was to help, but also make it fair.

I didn't want to make it where he had an unfair advantage, given whatever the circumstances may be.

So we made it, went there, made tweaks, and he was able to get his badge.

So it was super cool.

What year was that?

I believe it was 2023 last year.

We have NRA magazine that we're on the front cover.

I think I could share with you guys.

We'd love that.

We can certainly post that and share that with everybody.

And then we made a second version.

It's a lot more reformed and looks nicer and has all the other things that would be.

When it comes to a product, the goal is not so much to sell these, but to give them out as needed.

The goal is to have what now?

The business is to make enough money where we can help and do little community service projects like that, where you can help Boy Scouts or give back to the community any way we can.

That's incredible.

So, okay, so starting with an idea to help someone, and you guys used your collective skills to make that happen.

Now talk about how the business is performing today.

And I imagine it's pivoted a little, is what I'm hearing you say.

Definitely.

So, like I said, we start out building a business because we're like, well, we have to do this the right way.

We're dealing with something that is a firearm.

So we want to make sure we do it right.

That way we're safe as well.

We want to help, but we also kind of have to cover ourselves.

So we did everything to set up the business in that category.

We all have robotics experience.

We did travel competitive robotics in high school.

So that's kind of what gave us our introduction to this field.

And then I'm a robotics automation engineer for a different company I work at.

Still work there.

It's my 5am to 2:30pm job.

Okay.

So I work early hours.

I get out usually early, but sometimes I stay late.

Yep.

And it's a job shop, so you don't ever have time to go to the next thing.

And as anyone has ever programmed a robot or anything, the last thing you really want to worry about is the next job or what you have to do.

You just want to do what you have.

But it was me and one other person, and now it's only me that does all the robotics there.

I had a lot of problems with getting tooling for robots.

Tooling is the way that A robot operates in its surrounding area.

So just like we have hands, a robot needs something to manipulate its space around it.

And tooling is super expensive, in my opinion, too expensive.

It takes a really long time when you get order custom tooling.

And when I had a week to design program set up, run the job so I can get out on time to the customer, I didn't have the three or four weeks it normally would take to get custom tooling.

So for about a year, year and a half, I designed tooling that was modular.

It could be made on the fly changes whenever you needed.

Super light.

So you can use it for smaller robots, or if the smaller robots aren't running, you can use it on the bigger robots because it's just as strong as it is light.

And that kind of pivoted the company to a point where we were worried about sustaining the company by giving out and helping.

So that's when I kind of made the decision, let's go towards robotics.

Let's help out in that regard.

We're helping big companies and small companies to like save money and then we still get to help give back.

That is very cool.

Okay, so for both my benefit and our listeners who may not be engineers or may not be deeply scholarly in the land of robotics, can you give me a couple of examples?

This is just so everybody can understand how the modular system works.

What are some examples of what's a customization?

So modular is always interesting, right?

There's a lot you can do with that.

But give me an example of a customization that in your old when you the example you gave, it would have taken four or five weeks.

Talk to me about that.

So normally when you're using an outside company that's not inside the business you're working at, you're working for someone that is housed somewhere else.

You have to email them, send pictures, get ideas.

They have to draw something up, send it back, approval back and forth.

That's what takes a long time.

Okay, then they have to make it.

Yeah, they send it over by normal means.

I would say up until really there's a few other companies kind of in the added manufacturing space for tooling, but not as many as I think there should be.

A lot of it's machined, so it's attractive process.

So you take start out with a big block of something and you take away until you get your end result versus additive is the opposite.

If there's a minor flaw or tweak or miss space dimension, you have to redo it all or hopefully Be able to modify it so that it works.

And that adds a lot of time versus, let's say, with 3D printing, additive manufacturing.

If you mess up, you could print another one.

And the amount of time it takes to print another one is a fraction of the time of going back and forth.

Yes, got it.

And so you're.

So talk about some of the customers that you have now as you've been developing this and continuing to refine your offering.

So when we first started, I never.

Obviously, I feel like with most things to start off, I never wanted to sell it.

I just made it to make my life easier.

I just wanted to get to the next job and next goal and everything else.

And then customers walking through work and everything else were like, well, where do you get this?

And it's just one thing after another.

And distribution companies would come in and try to sell me their stuff.

Like, where did you get this?

And so after about a year and a half of that, I was like, maybe I can sell it.

And so I looked at it.

We work a lot with sheet metal fabrication, glass companies.

A lot of any companies that would benefit from using suction cups.

Okay, pick in place.

So, like, if you need to package things and put them in boxes, that does well, too.

With our tooling, we were doing a lot of business with Lippert.

While it's not actual tooling, we helped them with their production process for prototypes or anything else.

So it's not so much on the side of our tooling, but we're using the additive manufacturing and leveraging it so we can help another company out.

So it's kind of going back to where we're just trying to help out as much as possible.

I feel like we all need to be a little bit more friendly.

I mean, if we're all competitive, that's fine, but if we're all helping each other, it will help you.

Boundaries.

Rising tide lifts all boats.

Feels like that's part of your mentality.

I go, yes, that's very good.

Okay, so in that space, then.

And that's a competitive space.

It's certainly a competitive space.

Tell me a little bit more about your company, then, in terms of how big it is and how you're thinking about bringing people on board.

I know.

I think you said you have a new head of marketing who's just come on board.

Like, how do you decide who and when and what do you look for in the people you bring on board?

So, being completely honest, it's taken me probably six years to learn that delegation is okay.

As a kid, I always wanted to be first.

Didn't matter what it was, it was first in line.

And then eventually the last in line was actually the first.

So I'd be last in line no matter what it'd be.

I wanted to be first, not so much because I always wanted to be the best.

Just because you're a competitive guy and that's how it was showing up when you were a little guy.

Now and then, the two other owners of her company, Cameron Musha and Danny Sterner.

Crack.

We all competed in robotics.

Super competitive.

Um, and then we ended up becoming friends.

And it started out with both, just three of us.

And then eventually got to a point where I was working full time.

They have school full time.

We still work and do school full time on top of running a company.

And then I was like, I kind of want to relax.

I work 50 plus hours a week where I work.

I probably do that more and more in the business.

I have a relationship, I have a family.

I try to spend time with as much as I can.

I have friends, I'm 21.

I try to act my age.

I try to still be a kid.

And so that's when we brought on our first person.

His name's Jackson.

He helped us with operations.

So anything that needed to be done, printer wise operation, fixing, cleaning, kind of just a all in one type of guy.

Which is usually what your first person is.

Yep.

Just throw him at anything you don't want, just give it to him.

And then we brought in another person to help with the setting profiles for 3D printing.

Usually it's the hardest process when it comes to additive manufacturing.

Plastics are very finicky.

So once you get your settings down, it's usually good until the temperature changes and then you have to do it again.

And then it gets a little wonky.

That's my technical term.

Yes.

And then we brought another person for operations.

So now we're at three people.

Yeah.

Outside of the three owners.

Yes.

Founders.

And then I was kind of looking at everything.

I'm like, I'm not really good at marketing.

I was like, I can learn.

I've done anything else I needed to do, I'll just learn it.

And I looked at everything and was like, I think I could bring someone on and make it easier.

There's a point, especially going from the mindset of being competitive to a point of running a business where you have to make the decision, yes, I may be able to do it.

Yes, I may be to do it well enough.

But there's always going to be someone out there better than me.

And why not pay the person that can do it better than me now?

And that way it just pushes us that approach further.

That's great.

I think that's a hard lesson to learn.

I think it's a really hard lesson to learn.

It's taken a long time.

I think you should give yourself more credit because you're learning it and you're enacting it right now.

But I think that's what's so exciting.

Right?

You figure it out and then all of a sudden like it's even better than you thought it was going to be.

Yes, I would say.

Excuse me.

When we started the company, I funded most of it.

I was this point.

I'm a year and a half roughly older than the other SHAIL owners.

So I been.

I've been working for a while at this point and while I save, I saved a lot of it and almost all of it went into the business which my parents don't really like.

But that's okay.

It'll come back.

I realize that I'm one person and given that I'm already working a full time job on top of doing everything and trying to do everything I have in life, I prioritize family.

I never want to be in a situation where I prioritize work over family.

Family is very important to me.

So I just want to prioritize.

And I started realizing that I was giving less time to my family.

And yes, I'm only 21.

You have plenty of your time to do family.

And I've heard all the excuses, but I am a person of habit and I know once they start it's not going to end.

And so I wanted to fix it right away.

And that's kind of what pushed me to.

While we weren't ready for it financially, starting a robotics company takes a lot of money, a lot of time.

It was something that kind of had to be done that way.

Peace of mind on my side as well as the other two owners was where it needed to be so that we can push the company to where it needs to be so we can help other people.

That's wonderful.

I commend you on that.

Like high degree of self awareness and being able to see these things.

And I also appreciate kind of as a person of habit.

Right.

Like let's build good habits from the beginning rather than try to adjust and for the corrections of the bad habits.

Yeah, I tried.

I program robots.

That's my J or my day job.

So I sometimes think of myself as a robot.

I have my tasks on every day.

I try to do it as efficiently as possible.

But sometimes I forget I'm human.

I make mistakes and it's okay.

I'm usually a little hard on myself, but I think I'm hard enough where it forces me to learn past where I'm comfortable so that I can be a better person.

So I love that.

And where my mind immediately goes is you guys are all growing this company together.

I think that companies ultimately have the DNA, as it were.

You might have a different robotics term, but the DNA of the founders and what that means.

And so as you continue to grow and you think about like, have you guys talked about the values of the organization?

Have you talked about what you want to see, like how you make decisions in terms of that side of things.

So big business decisions.

We all three of us have to agree.

We're all pretty much the same person at this point.

Being friends for along, for better or.

Worse, but keep going.

We decided all three of us have to unanimously agree to something.

If one of us doesn't agree, then the other two have to convince by logic, not by opinion as to why their side may be the best or not.

But what our biggest standard is that.

A spoken truth that's written.

Okay, got it.

It was spoken.

And then we decided to write it down just in case someone decided like maybe not okay.

Because again, we're all human.

Sometimes we have moments of flaw.

Yeah.

And then we all agreed unanimously and anyone that's in the company that's helped or part of it at this point, agree that we're a company to help our tooling and everything we make.

Product wise.

What we are as a company is to help.

We don't only do tooling.

We also offer services to companies that we don't market, which would probably make us money, help with finances.

But brand is also important.

So we're also worried about that.

So it's the balance act of all the million different things when it comes to running a business, but helping and making sure that we stay true to why we started it.

Okay, so that's, that's, that's the value.

That's the invisible line that you want to carry throughout the ongoing trajectory of the business.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

So congratulations.

I understand you were a recent winner of ecosystem.

I talk about the ecosystem, the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

You just won a big award at the rally the region earlier this year.

Yes.

Can you tell us about that?

Very unexpected.

So we got invited out by Neff Automation to The expo, the 4.0 expo in Elkhart a while back.

First time we've put the tooling public.

We never marketed it beforehand, we never actually put it out there.

But we had a lot made at this point.

So we're like, why not?

But was a perfectionist within you saying, oh my gosh, it's too early, this isn't good enough, not ready.

Yeah, I've learned to kind of more lately than that subside it.

As I said earlier, I always wanted to be first.

And I think with that, anyone that's competitive is perfectionists or being a perfectionist.

Yep.

So I wanted everything to be perfect.

We spent probably in a reasonable amount of money on branded boxes, foam inserts, to make sure that everything was set nicely in the box.

That when they open it, it has a sense of while we don't sell something that's the most expensive, we also don't sell something that you know the great experience is going to buy.

We want it to be something that they're happy with buying.

Yep.

Warranties.

Anything that I always complain about buying tooling or products in general, I want to make sure was perfect for ours.

Fast forward.

It was not perfect.

We had to take what we can get and go with it.

At the Expo event, we thought we're overdoing it and doing it with our booth and ended up being great.

I mean, we had a line for both days.

Talk to us about everything.

We brought four 3D printers just to kind of show the process.

We were 3D printing, I call them kind of like dog bones to show the strings.

So they're half inch thick by 3,4 of an inch.

And we told people if they broke it, they can get a discount on the tooling.

We don't give discounts on toolings.

I don't believe in giving discounts.

We already sell it at a point that is more than affordable afforded gives.

Like I said, we're trying to help.

So we're not.

While we still have to make money as a company, our goal is to help.

So that's where our price standpoint is.

But we believe in the material that we have so much that we're offered to do that there was a way to do it and we eventually let it out.

Our material is carbon fiber infused plastic.

It's PET CF is the technical term.

As for the chemical makeup, that's a little bit far beyond what I understand with a lot of things, but I know it's really strong and I've had tooling on robots for the last two and A half years and I abuse it.

I definitely do not play kindly with what I make.

I'm going to try and stress test it and it's been done just fine.

I made 3D printed dies, so I've been able to bend metal out of the material.

Wow.

But anyway, I.

We made dog bones to let people try and break, and no one could break it.

What's the trick?

So carbon fiber, naturally, as a material, is very brittle.

It does not do well with super high impacts, and so everyone was trying to overpower it.

Got it.

But if I stomped on it.

Stomping on it.

Yes.

But it took quite a few stumps.

Okay.

We're hitting against tables and doing different things, and we had a guy come up that looked like he could be in a strongman competition and he couldn't break it.

And I was like, oh, this is great.

And then one of the people that work for the company was like, what if you just do this?

I'm like, I let it out.

But at the end of the day, it was the second day, so it was just the high schoolers.

So it was fun to see everyone happy.

I think we gave out probably 230, 240 of them.

In hindsight, it had probably been smart to have our logo on it.

Well, next time.

Yes.

But.

So, okay, so.

So it was at that event.

How did you get.

Talk.

Talk about the recent award you just won.

So, like I said, we had a line.

A lot of talking.

Lost my voice.

I think we all did, actually.

And then someone from the.

I can't remember his name.

Off topic.

I always forget his name.

I'm not good with names.

That's okay.

You're good with other things and you're learning what you're great at.

So other people should be good with the names.

That is the goal.

Yes.

During one of the breaks where everyone was able to eat lunch, we finally got a break from everything.

So I went and got pizza at one of the vending trucks.

And I was just going around at the other booths and introducing myself to everyone else.

I believe networking is important just so that I can offer out a help in hand.

That's how we met Lippert and any other companies that we worked with, work with in the area.

Was me just kind of saying hi and offering.

They kind of asked what we do.

Like, you may not need tooling, but if you ever need prototyping or anything, I'm happy we could help.

Yeah.

And I started talking to him.

I believe he is.

He's from Notre Dame.

He Was talking to us and he asked about the business, how it started and just explained it.

Small little conversation.

He was like, you guys could win an award.

I'm like, no, we can't.

I'm like, there's no way we're going to win an award.

I was like, this is our first event we've ever gone to.

And he was like, you guys, I've already had the lines and everything else and we had the news on us.

So there was a little news thing there and they wanted us to be part of it.

And I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool.

But I never really thought about the significance of this is our first event.

We headed lines, everything went well, anything that we went there, goal wise, we met and he kind of was just like putting it in front of my face, spelling it out in other terms.

And I was like, yeah, we could.

Win, go for that.

And so he kind of sent me all their information and I filled it all out and then I forgot about it.

And then you get a call that.

Says, I got an email from Maria and she's like, you're the finalist.

Can we do a phone call?

I'm like, oh, that's cool.

We're finalists.

Again, never really thought much about it.

She was telling me about different things, her profession, what she does, and just kind of had a small conversation about the company and how I started in my profession to the company and where the company's at now.

And she's like, that's amazing.

I'm like, oh, thanks.

I was like, that's the best compliment I think I've got about the company.

I was like, we don't get many compliments, so I'm glad we're on the right track.

And again, never really thought much past it.

And then a couple days later we heard that we won.

I'm like, oh, that's cool.

It didn't really hit.

Yep.

Until I had to say thank you.

And I forgot to say thank you during the speech.

No.

But I'm very appreciative.

It's nice seeing other people show that we're on the right path.

We all are.

All young.

Me being the oldest in the company at 21 is not very old for when it comes to starting a company, let alone a technology company, let alone robotics.

Yep.

It's something that isn't really done.

I don't know of really any other instances I could take inspiration from.

So hearing compliments, it kind of lets me know that we're on the right track.

You're on the right path.

Well, that's interesting.

And I know Maria, who you spoke.

Spoke with and she is not going to give out praises that are not warranted.

So you should.

That's what I was told.

Yes.

So it's great.

But talk a little bit about what is happening in our region and I acknowledge that this is not.

You haven't started a business in another region.

Right.

So you don't have a basis of comparison.

But have you felt supported?

What are some of the resources you're doing A lot of figuring out on your own.

But just kind of talk about your experience being an entrepreneur in our region.

I want to thank Notre Dame for wanting you guys, all your guys.

Kind words has been a lot in a very.

I don't want to say dark in that sense, but in a sense of creating a business seems very lonely.

There's not much help out there, especially free.

There's all these like obviously courses and all the different things you can do and none of that's bad.

But when you're already putting all the money in the business, funds are usually pretty far between.

Yes.

So the words of encouragement, Neff Automation.

Helping us out and inviting us out to things, telling us things that we should do.

Not forcing us, but telling us we need to go to an expo that we don't want to.

Gently encouraging.

Volunteering you.

Yes.

Very familiar that I use that tactic.

Yes.

Very sternly.

Yes.

It's been much help.

And I think it helps that we're as friendly as we are, we're not as secretive.

Like materials we use, our processes are a little bit more closely guarded.

But that's only because I personally have almost 9 years of 3D printing experience.

I have almost 10 years of CAD experience, 8 years of programming.

I've been doing it all throughout school.

And there's things I've learned that kind of help our process to become faster.

But the only reason why that's not so much share is because it allows us to pass our savings into our customer.

And being a business, you have to stay somewhat competitive.

Yes.

So like I said, we have to find a fine balance between helping and staying.

What's the word?

Finding the right way to stay true.

What I hear, you can correct me, but what I hear is the desire to stay true to your core and the principles that are very much who you guys are and to grow a business because to serve a greater good there are like you will need to grow a along the way.

And it's finding the way for your core mission and purpose to kind of grow with you appropriately to serve the greatest good.

And there's probably a rub in that.

Is that accurate?

Yes.

Okay.

There's definitely a few blurry lines that you kind of have to navigate, but for the most part, I feel as if you have your set goals in mind.

The entire process, no matter what you do, whether it's designing, tooling for a customer or helping out a company, or just communicating, networking with other people, even down to, like I said, communication.

I have that in my mind the entire time I go into the conversation wanting to help.

Sometimes helping too much is so.

Is also not negative.

But it's an opportunity.

It will become an opportunity because there's only so much time.

And as you said, you're trying to.

Navigate, trying to learn the delegation.

Yes.

So we've definitely felt that over the last three or four months.

One thing I just want to comment on because I think a lot about our entrepreneurial ecosystem and I think about the established entrepreneurs, the new entrepreneurs, the startups, like how it all fits together.

But I think you model a great example of just you are willing to be out there.

You want to be collaborative, no doubt.

You want to be competitive, you want to do your best.

I get that.

But I think that my experience is that that is well rewarded in our particular community.

It fits with some of the Midwestern values.

There is a big opportunity to get connected to the right customers or the right mentors pretty quickly.

If you just put yourself out there a little.

And it seems to me that you're a great case study of maybe a little against your will.

You were put out there.

And as a function of that, a lot of good things have happened.

Is that.

Is that fair to say?

Yes.

And some of our biggest contracts that we have with tooling or automation in general has come from someone that we just helped prototype something given out a good word for us.

Yep.

Not something I'd ever expect.

Like I said, I was just kind of doing it to help out.

Plus, I like the process of building, so I find it fascinating.

So I do it more on that side of.

I like learning about the different sides of the different industries.

Like I said, we do a lot of stuff with sheet metal, glass pick in place.

But having the opportunity to broaden that range to hopefully maybe get into other sectors to kind of help out other.

People, I love that it kind of segues to what I was thinking about asking next.

So we're rooted and reaching.

So when we talk to you in three years, you've done some more reaching.

Where will you have reached what's, what's the plan?

To be honest, already a lot further than we thought we were going to be.

Okay, that's great.

I expected, you know, the standard five years that you, you know, when you look up online.

Yeah.

Standard Google search.

I would hope that we're at a point where we're self fulfilling.

It funds itself.

We can pay people and what it needs to be to have a decent life in today's economy.

We can help out, we could donate.

We can help the community, not only ours, but any others in the area or not in the area.

You know, hopefully go to a point where we've sparked enough interest where we can get other companies to do it.

Because while I think it'd be great to be the only company, it would help a lot if what comes out of this is we force other people that are a lot smarter, have a lot more money, a lot more manpower to do something to help.

What I would say is a group of people, people that are in the robotics or automation sector, which is kind of what the world's going to.

I would say it's a mission success.

While it would be sad to see something you work on not so much diminish, but kind of slowly fade away, the rewarding factor of seeing something that you started being excelled farther beyond than what you could do by yourself I think is far more rewarding than anything else.

I love that I think in pictures sometimes and the visual that I have, it's like I think about the ecosystem we have and that brings a ton of opportunity to each individual and what does each individual bring to the ecosystem.

And I think you represent a really nice model for what other people can learn and how they connect and what their role in the ecosystem as well.

So I go back to here's, you know, I have an 8 year old who's going to draw a picture and it is the rising tide that lifts all boats.

So it's great to have you be part of that.

It is a pleasure to be part of it.

It's been so nice to be meeting everyone.

Everyone's so friendly.

I haven't met a single person that's been off putting.

Good.

Well, let's knock on wood and hope that that continues.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

It's great to hear your story.

I hope more people can check it out.

Can.

Do you want to tell everybody the website if they want to learn more about your products?

Our website is inn manufacturing.com.

Okay.

So that is great.

And headquarters are.

We're, we're based out of Crown Point.

You're based out of Crown Point, but.

We'Re currently looking at warehouses in Valpo to slowly be kind of surround somewhere where logistics wise shipping would make more sense than Crown Point.

Very good.

Well, welcome.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

All the good stuff.

Thank you so much.

And thank you, listeners.

Another episode of Rooted and Reaching.

We'll talk to you next time.