Rising stars: the 100 hottest new small businesses in America - Cover Story

Entrepreneur, June, 1996 by Debra Phillips, Lynn Beresford

What now for these high-tech hotshots? Getting their products onto shelves at CompUSA and Circuit City is the next goal--although Garnick and Harris are careful to pace themselves. "We don't want to do it prematurely," says Garnick. "Before you go into national channels, you have to think to yourself, 'If we get on the shelf, how are we going to create pull-through?'" It's just a guess, but considering how they've wooed the industry so far, we don't foresee any problems. --L.B.

Carry On

"It's certainly a roller-coaster ride, says Larry Gutkin of running a backpack manufacturing company. "There are days when you're down, and there are days when you're higher than a kite. All in all, if I had to do it over again, I certainly would."

And why not? Together with partners Kevin Achatz, 41, and Larry Wojciak, 37, the 36-year-old Gutkin gathered $850,000 from investors to create a thriving company with sales projections of $18 million this fiscal year. Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Ingear Corp., which placed No. 11 in our ranking, is clearly on target with its line of backpacks, sports bags and water sports accessories.

Success IS sweet, no question--especially considering the fact that the three partners left a major company in the same industry to pursue their entrepreneurial venture. "We didn't like the direction that company was going," explains Gutkin, who, along with his partners, is a longtime retail veteran. "So we decided to strike off on our own and see if we could make it work."

That was two years ago. Today, Ingear Corp. sells its 300 or so moderately priced products through giant retail chains the likes of Target, Kmart and Sears. Gutkin attributes much of his company's rapid growth--averaging 400 percent a year since the company started--to the founders' collective ability to stay on top of trends. Given that their primary customers are in the rather fickle 8-to-20-year-old age group, trend tracking ability is a must.

This explains, perhaps, why Ingear Corp. is hip enough to include inline skate carrying cases and water-bottle-toting bags with more conventional backpacks in its product line. There's even talk of a possible licensing arrangement with Disney.

"We've become a more mobile society, and with that mobility comes the need to carry stuff around with you," muses Gutkin.

All of which, needless to say, is just fine with Gutkin. Life on the corporate fast track isn't something he'd return to--except under the direst of circumstances. " [I wouldn't go back] unless someone held a loaded gun to my head," he says. "And even then, I'd have to ask what caliber the bullet was."--D.P.