Cedar Rapids-based Beratek Industries is helping companies take their ideas from concept-stage to products on the market.
“I’ve always been hands-on, building stuff, tinkering, fixing problems, that sort of thing,” Gerald Beranek, founder and CEO of Beratek said. “So back in 2011, I bought a CNC mill and started making products. I learned how to design products where I was working at the time and really wanted to do some custom one-off type design products.”
Beranek started with a notable product called VuSee, a baby monitor mount that he began 3-D printing and selling online in 2014.
“Within a few months, the printer was running nonstop and couldn’t keep up with sales,” Baranek said. “So I went and had it manufactured by somebody else. Shortly after that, I quit my job to solely focus on VuSee.”
After finding success with VuSee, Beranek decided he wanted to help other companies through the phases of design for manufacturing, tooling, production, warehousing, fulfillment, and marketing.
“Most companies just do one piece of this. They’re either an engineering company, or a prototyping company or a tool manufacturing company,” Beranek said. “We’ve blended all those under one roof so it truly is efficient to get a product to market.”
In addition to helping companies get their products to market, Beratek has their own product line called Story Theory.
Some of the more notable products that have come through Beratek include the Hold & Go Slow Cooker, Power Perch and Repour.
“I think down the road we’ll primarily be doing the same type of work helping people get products to the market but at a larger scale,” Beranek said. “We plan on having a lot more engineering staff and adding on more manufacturing types so we can hit a wider range of products.”