Startup Business of the year: INNOTECH METAL DESIGNS
The million-dollar couple Tim and Tracy Kaptein turn industrial stainless design into industrious painless growth By Sherri Huleatt
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nnotech Metal Designs, a custom metal design company that designs, builds, and installs industrial stainless-steel equipment, has created a stunning start-up success story. It opened in 2012 with just two employees. Six months later, they’d seen a remarkable $500,000 in sales, and reached $800,000 by years’ end. In 2014, they saw more than $1 million in sales.
TIM AND TRACY KAPTEIN founded Innotech Metal Designs in Bellingham in 2012. In 2014, they made over $1 million in sales, and in 2015, they hope to hit $2 million. (Photo courtesy of Innotech Metal Designs)
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Last year the company also increased to seven fulltime employees, and made plans to move into a facility six times larger than their shop on King Tut Road in Bellingham. Innotech equipment is used for food processing, commercial, and industrial industries throughout the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve always been able to envision a better, stronger, and more efficient way to build things,” said Tim Kaptein, the founder of Innotech. “That, along with my desire to create high-quality metalwork, fueled the fire that is Innotech Metal Designs.” Kaptein was groomed for metal work at a young age—his dad worked in the local metal industry for 51 years – and Tim spent his childhood and teen years working in the shop, learning everything there is to know about metal. After spending a few years working for local metal fabrication companies, Kaptein studied business at Whatcom Community College and earned his Washington Association of Building Officials (WABO) certification—the equivalent of a PhD in welding. At 30 years old, Kaptein and his wife, Tracy, opened their