Inc. 5000 Applicant of the Week Enve Composites uses
carbon fiber to make light-weight, durable wheels and parts for the
world's best bikes.
Enve Composites specializes in manufacturing
high-performance wheels and other bicycle parts for serious cyclists
using mostly carbon fiber, which makes the pieces lighter but durable.
As applications for the 2012 Inc. 500|5000 arrive, we thought it
would be worthwhile to shine a spotlight on some of the companies that
are vying to appear on our ranking of the fastest-growing private
companies in the U.S. (For more information and to apply, click here http://www.inc.com/inc5000apply/2012/). One that caught our eye was Ogden, Utah-based Enve Composites.
Formerly known as Edge Composites, Enve Composites specializes in
manufacturing high-performance wheels and other bicycle parts for
serious cyclists using mostly carbon fiber, which makes the pieces
lighter but durable.
The company's founder, Jason Schiers, is a serial entrepreneur.
Schiers founded several other businesses, including a surfwear line and a
window frame manufacturing business. Before he started Enve, he ran a
machine shop that built stage equipment for Las Vegas shows like the
Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil.
After selling that shop, Schiers worked for a company making
composites, a hybrid of other materials, which usually creates a
stronger and lighter one.
"Carbon fiber was the new, whiz kid material, so the idea of working
with it and learning more about it was really exciting to me, and then
of course, the idea of using carbon fiber in bikes just put me over the
edge," the avid cyclist says. "The more I worked with the carbon, the
more I realized I had a knack for it."
So in 2005, he launched Edge Compositions. For the first three years
as the company built its product, Schiers took on various projects,
ranging from making pieces for Burton snowboards to building plates for
horse X-rays.
"While we were developing the wheels, we needed to generate some cash
to offset the costs of all the development," Schiers says. "They were
fun projects, they were learning projects, and they helped offset the
costs a bit, because it allowed us to have some revenue."
Then in 2008, Schiers decided to stop taking on side assignments and
focus on the company’s core product. That year, it launched a full line
of mountain wheels, road wheels, handlebars and forks (which holds up
the wheel).
The company took off from there, headlong into another major problem:
trademark infringement. When Schiers founded the company, he had not
anticipated that it would grow so quickly and had not thought about
licensing Edge Composites abroad. So after almost a year of back and
forth with Europeans who already owned the name, Edge Composites became
Enve Composites, requiring all new branding on everything from catalogs
to the company website.
"It wasn’t an inexpensive venture, but it was absolutely the right
thing for our business to do, and now we own the name Enve," says Sarah
Lehman, who became the company's CEO in 2010.
Despite some road bumps, Enve had a three-year growth rate of 560%
with 2011 revenues of more than $7 million. The company distributes to
bicycle shops domestically and abroad and has 65 employees, many of whom
are avid cyclists. In fact, they often take two-hour bike rides in the
middle of their workday and take weekend bike trips together.
"There’s a lot of lunch-time rides, and they’re strongly encouraged
because we feel strongly that to develop the best product, you actually
have to ride it," Lehman says.