Business Spotlight: Forward Tinker

Dante LaCivita and Reuben Uhlmann are making wood products to outlive them and their owners.

Formally known as The 1906 Gents, the business partners are building on momentum started a few years ago in LaCivita’s basement and next month will seek to raise $16,000 from the Kickstarter crowd.

They’re makers at heart, their medium is handcrafted wood and their end goal is heirloom-quality shave brushes, tampers for tobacco or coffee and accessories for beverages. Business acumen? They’re learning as they go.

“We’re real green in a lot of ways,” LaCivita says, surrounded by woodturning tools and sawdust in the company’s 1,300-square-foot shop.

The Commercial Street space is further evidence the business partners are intent on turning a hobby into a full-fledged business. Six specialty retailers were added to the client roster this year, and LaCivita says about 10 now regularly place orders, ranging from a $12 pipe tamper made from locally sourced wood to a $200 shave brush of exotic zebrawood.

Tipping point
Online retailer Rick Stagner spotted the Gents’ products in late 2012.

A Springfield native now based in Fayetteville, Ark., Stagner sources outdoor goods unique to the Ozarks for Mollyjogger.com.

“We get a lot of inspiration from the region’s history, folklore and outdoor recreation. We came across handcrafted shaving brushes from Springfield, Mo., and we got pretty excited,” he says.

The Mollyjogger brand is rooted in Springfield. Named after a minnow considered worthless even as bait, the term colloquially refers to local businessmen known in the late 1800s for their drinking, practical jokes and hunting and fishing on the weekends. Stagner says the mollyjoggers’ regular spot was a campground on his grandparent’s farm near the mouth of the James and Finley rivers.

His first order for three styles of brushes was small, but to The 1906 Gents, it was a springboard.

“Before that, it was one for one,” LaCivita says of the company’s Etsy days. “We learned about retail through a crash course.”

Stagner has placed only one other order with the Gents. But he’s committed to purchasing locally sourced and American made products from a pool of roughly 25 manufacturers.

“We’re in the shadow of Wal-Mart and cranking out goods from China is not good for anyone in the long run,” he says.

With The 1906 Gents, a brush exclusive to Mollyjogger.com is in the works.

In town, Hudson Hawk and Brick & Mortar Coffee buy and display 1906 wood products. But greater volume is shipped as far as coastal Maine and Houston, Texas.

Turning to the crowd
Men’s grooming is clearly the flagship of 1906’s four lines. Keeping a tight focus on quality over quantity, the partners sell four styles of shave brushes – the most variety of any one product.

LaCivita admittedly is late to the game keeping close tabs on financial indicators, but he knows now grooming comprises 45 percent of sales and the brushes are the profit leaders.

Of course, beards are trendy. The 1906 Gents made a wooden beard comb for that.

So far, most products began with the thought, “What if we made … .”

Uhlmann is the woodworker, following in the footsteps of family members. His father-in-law, David Jessee, taught him how to turn wood and his grandfather made white oak baskets on the family’s south-central Missouri farm. “We were drafted into making a lot of them,” he says.

He’s turned the trade into now making products including wooden beer crates to hold six packs, custom microbrew taps and pour-over coffee brewing units.

Declining to disclose sales volumes, the partners have set a bull’s eye on $16,000 for their Kickstarter campaign beginning Aug. 1. The promotional video is prepped and contribution rewards include the silver-tip Badger shave brush with cocobolo handles.

Crowdfunding can be a financial resource for startups, but 1 Million Cups-Springfield organizer Chad Carleton warns against the downsides of the very public pursuit of money. “Not all projects are fundable,” he says. “A lot of companies look at Kickstarter and think customers and money.”

Carleton says the successful social media campaigns seem to have investors lined up to back the projects when the clock starts, and that creates the viral nature. “People rarely want to be the first to the show,” he says.

If Kickstarter doesn’t pan out for The 1906 Gents, Carleton suggests conceding some equity in the business to committed investors. He says selling custom products for “a man’s man” has pros and cons in the broader marketplace. “When you’re creating a novelty product, I don’t know there’s a real problem to solve,” he says, citing a core qualifier for vetting startups.

The 1906 Gents’ crowdfunding effort is aimed at buying new woodturning equipment to keep up with orders. LaCivita says sales are on pace to double this year to at least 400 units.

The partners recall the startup’s early growing pains.

“We needed to make that jump from a tinkering hobby to a shop – in three weeks,” LaCivita says.

“We’re getting to that point again,” Uhlmann adds.[[In-content Ad]]