Six decades of innovation
an Iowa manufacturing legacy
The Beginning of Ramco Innovations
In the heart of Valley Junction, an unassuming building holds a deep history of entrepreneurship. It is now home to Maple Studios, a hub for startups and innovation whose foundation was laid decades ago, in 1962, by Tom and Marj Ramsey.
This story explores Tom and Marj Ramsey’s initiative, an entrepreneur couple who took a chance on themselves on June 1, 1962, and set an entrepreneurial flywheel in motion that continues to gain momentum. Much of this story is captured through an interview with Hank Norem, previously CEO of Ramco Innovations and Maple Studios, and Chief Innovation Officer for Sukup Corporation since Sukup’s acquisition of the companies in December 2023.
Mr. Ramsey (the company’s founder continues to be afforded significant respect), an engineer and inventor, started an electrical supply business from the back of his pickup truck and his home in Des Moines. His expertise in modern electronics helped him connect with Gary Vermeer, an engineering pioneer of the time (more on that later). Meanwhile, Marj managed the business operations toward the company’s stability and growth.
The earliest innovations
An early opportunity that Mr. Ramsey recognized involved photoelectric sensors, tiny devices that use light to detect the absence of presence of a material. He found the ideal producer in SunX (pronounced sunnex) based in Japan, a company that began doing business with him in Des Moines and another distributor in Texas. Recognizing the strategic value in a SunX relationship, he flew to Japan and secured a contract to become the exclusive supplier for the entire United States.
Mike and Brian Reelitz, two brothers working for the company, split the country into two halves and established the distribution network for these sensors enabled by this national exclusivity in the 1980s.
That prescience helped him grow beyond Iowa into Nebraska and beyond as Ramco continued to serve areas of sensing vision, early robotics and safety equipment. Though vending machines had dispensed soda since the late 1800s sensing technology allowed for rapid innovation in vending. Ramco sold and integrated sensors into machines where detection was necessary, even bringing automation to bowling pins.
Bowling alleys were one of America’s favorite pastimes, and automation in pinsetters and scorers helped Ramco grow in the 60s and 70s and again with light sensors of the 80s. If you’ve ever wondered how TVs accurately count the number and position of pins left standing after a hit by a bowling ball, now you know! Similarly, if you’ve wondered how an automated coffee dispenser knows the existence of a cup, I’ve just spoiled the magic.
The Ramseys moved from their house and truck to a strip mall within a year of the company’s formation and bought land in Valley Junction in 1967 to build their company’s new home - one that persists to this day. Ramco’s employees were a loyal and dedicated workforce, staying with the company across decades. For example, a recent company statistic highlights this when discussing five employees’ retirement in 2024 representing 177 cumulative years of organizational tenure and memory.
SunX was subsequently acquired by Panasonic in 20171 as Ramco continues its innovation in this technology segment.
Growing across Iowa
Innovators were tinkering and creating across Iowa and Pella was one such home to innovators. Settled in the early 1850s by Dutch immigrants, Pella embodied entrepreneurship and a persistent culture of self-reliance. Two local entrepreneurs, Pete Kuyper of Rolscreen Corporation (now Pella Corp) and Gary Vermeer of Vermeer Manufacturing, created internationally recognized companies of significant stature.
I will tell the Vermeer and Pella stories later but Vermeer Manufacturing’s connection to Ramco is important. Gary Vermeer invented a mechanical hoist in 19482, a machine that fellow farmers liked so much that they wanted him to build one for them. That business grew and saw the hay baler invention in Gary’s hands3 in 1971. The two men forged a business relationship and Mr. Ramsey began a practice of driving to Pella each Tuesday to Vermeer’s Building 1. He’d check-in with Gary and see if he could help with anything on Gary’s mind. That relationship continues to live today as a Ramco truck makes its way to Pella each Tuesday.
Tough Tech in Iowa
Ramco adopted its expertise in electronics into its formal name as it changed from Ramco Company to Ramco Electric Company, Inc in 1983, and again to Ramco Innovations Inc nineteen years later.
Hank Norem was working for Price Waterhouse Coopers in Kansas City when he found a calling at Ramco Innovations in 2009. As a public accountant, his favorite clients were industrial companies. This proximity made him hungry to work with tangible products where he could apply his financial acumen. He found Ramco, which had transitioned from the Ramsey family to employee shareholders and joined as a finance lead for the company.
Pricing pressures were paramount due to the great recession and Ramco, like others, had to adjust its business model. It made the strategically smart choice to leave commodity businesses that sold pipe, wires, and other supplies and move upstream to robotics and other high-end applications such as value-added assemblies rather than raw materials. It would ensure a growth trajectory for the next decade and more.
For someone who remembers the ‘regrets’ letter of employment from Arthur Anderson dated September 11, 2001, Hank’s humility appears discordant with the image of a growth-focused CEO. Without bluster or appearances, Hank barely remembers the progression from the finance lead to the company’s CEO, relying instead on the LinkedIn profile to remember. What is clear, however, is that he values the founding family, the employees who inherited it, and the stewardship required of him today. The rejection letter remains in his records!
Though the nation moved toward offshoring, Ramco’s shop, engineers and innovation culture cemented the company’s place in Iowa’s manufacturing economy.
if regular readers just experienced deja vu, it is because another innovator shared a similar experience in the Zapperbox story. His detailed thoughts were linked in his blog.
The company was poised for continued growth and achieved inorganic growth via the acquisition of Richard Greene Company in 20204. The growth was accretive in skills and industry and complemented culture with similar values, types of customers and region. Richard Greene Company’s focus on automotive technology and St. Louis HQ brought several adjacencies for growth while maintaining their established brand and customer relationships.
The acquisition closed on January 31, 2020, mere six weeks before the gale force of the Covid pandemic shutdown the world.
Maple
Ramco had maintained a streak of innovation but hadn’t adopted the startup mindset quite yet. As StartupCity Des Moines was capturing attention in the Des Moines metro and the city of West Des Moines had launched its own incubator and coworking space, Ramco decided to push its entrepreneurial spirit further.
Makusafe, a new hardware company led by Gabriel Glynn was showing off its creation. Designed as an arm band, this device would monitor environmental conditions on the manufacturing floor to alert workers of adverse conditions and prompt evasive action. Gabe and business-partner Mark Frederick had the classic ‘designed on a napkin moment’ with Hank at a coffee shop in Valley Junction (I had a similar one at Caribou in Ankeny with Gabe) and stayed in touch. Hank went further and joined the duo on prospecting calls and customers loved the idea. Sensing a similar eagerness for Makusafe from a potential supplier, Hank invited Makusafe to setup shop at Ramco.
A conference room was cleared and Makusafe World Headquarters was born. Between prospective investor visits, Ramco’s own expertise under Hank’s finance guidance helped formalize the Makusafe story. The twelve long-time Ramco shareholders welcomed the energy from the startup and saw the opportunity to learn something impactful for Ramco.
The test was formalized soon thereafter as Maple Studios and became the metro area’s fourth formal mentor-driven accelerator, joining Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA), Iowa Agtech Accelerator, and Techstars. Megan Brandt, with experience as program manager of the GIA was ready for a new challenge and joined Maple as its director.
REAP and Tough Tech
A heart for innovation is what led Hank to join a team of twelve at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study entrepreneurial ecosystems, catalysts of their growth, markers of success and strategies necessary for success. I knew of Hank, but our real connection was forged on a 30-min walk from the Commonwealth Hotel to MIT Campus on the first day of the two-year MIT REAP program in 2022.
As one of the twelve, I sat next to Hank during one of the on-campus events held at The Engine, a non-profit incubator and accelerator on MIT’s Cambridge campus dedicated to supporting Tough Tech companies. Tough Tech, a subset of technology where significant infrastructure and program support are critical to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, was clearly what excited Hank as we continued walking through the MIT Media lab, the MIT.Nano institute. As a steward of Ramco Innovations’ portfolio and assets, it was clear Hank saw the role his company played in this unique part of the Central Iowa ecosystem and that the prospects of innovation were developing furiously in his mind.
Our work may be different from what we saw in Cambridge, but Tough Tech investment is visible across Iowa companies who are creating very-large scale farm machinery, innovations in plant genomics, medicine, aerospace, and energy. It represents significant investments in pure research and development, long-term hypothesis testing, complex field trials, and multi-decade vision. It requires specialized equipment, education coupled with grit, experience coupled with imagination, and more than a desk or cubicle. It also requires tinkerers like Gary Vermeer who created a machine to help him on the farm or Gabriel Glynn who proudly showed a circuit board with as much excitement and prospect as if he were on the CES floor in Las Vegas with a complete shipping product.
Hank knew Ramco had played a critical part in Iowa’s Tough Tech history with the original investment in sensors and knew that his stewardship of this legacy required him to move further. A new plan was emerging.
The role of public service
Hank was a member of the State of Iowa’s Technology Commercialization Committee (TCC) for nearly twelve years. The TCC, a function of Iowa Economic Development authority, is a committee appointed by the Executive Director of the authority. Debi Durham, the long-standing director of the authority is a consummate supporter of startups as a critical element of the business climate and has lent tireless support since her original appointment to the office.
Startups at various stages of growth, from pre-revenue, proof of concept stage to rapid expansion, seek public support from one of four IEDA programs. The programs implement a public + private partnership and offer support via low-interest loans and require a match from the private sector. The TCC evaluates these applications for support via conversations with the startups, receives independent evaluations administered on behalf of the TCC by VentureNet Iowa, and makes an independent decision to support financially, offer guidance, and connection.
He began imagining the prospect of additional funding mechanisms with corporate and individual investor dollars to help grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Maple Ventures was born as a third leg of the innovative organization and began attracting startups focused on hardware as their needs were significantly different from those served by software-focused accelerators and coworking spaces.
Acquisition
Sukup Manufacturing is a family-owned Iowa corporation known for its investments and focus on agricultural innovations. Based in Sheffield, IA, it is the world’s largest, family-owned, manufacturer of grain storage, drying and handling equipment and has served 80+ countries5. Emily Schmitt, general counsel and family owner in the corporation is a steady presence in Iowa’s agricultural innovation ecosystem and has served on numerous governing organizations including the board of Iowa Agritech Accelerator. Steve and Charlie Sukup are well-regarded leaders in the state’s economy.
Sukup, recognizing a synergy with Ramco, acquired Ramco and related assets in December 2023. Maple Studios and Maple Ventures also became part of the Sukup family of companies via this acquisition.
I once heard Dan Houston, executive chairman of Principal Financial Group say:
In any acquisition you can get two of the three key variables wrong - culture, strategy, or money. But if you get culture wrong, disaster is certain to follow
Unlike many corporate acquisitions, however, Sukup didn’t simply absorb the decades old company. It recognized the value and the entrepreneurial spirit in Valley Junction and leverages it as part of the innovation ecosystem extending from Sheffield, through the ISU Research Park in Ames and now West Des Moines. It respected and protected the company’s decades-old culture.
A new company, SYNK, is being incubated at Maple Studios as Makusafe continues to grow its international footprint. Maple Studios has a vibe unique to hardware-focused companies with devices in various stages of prototyping in labs and workspaces. Co-working desks are complemented by a walled-off builder, workbench and assembly areas. Shipping, logistics, inventory & storage, assembly and maintenance are accessible to industrial startups, leveraging decades of experience.
Final Thoughts
As I look back to the experience at MIT’s Engine, MIT.Nano, and the Cambridge accelerators, I am filled with a sense of pride for the unassuming yet impactful asset in Sukup - Ramco - Maple. Decades of history are undergoing transition of people, process, startup, and opportunity as two family traditions work to grow this enterprise, ensuring persistence of this critical part of the startup ecosystem.
To the entrepreneurs thinking of building hardware at scale, here in the US, with ingenuity and experience from the state’s colleges and universities, a trip to 11th and Maple might be worth a stopover on your way to Silicon Valley or Shenzhen. It might be the final stop in your pursuit of guidance and build.
I am a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative and the Iowa Startup Collective. Each writer is independent and publishes via Substack across Iowa and I hope you are able to explore my fellow amazing writers’ work.
Tej, thanks for pointing out this story to me last week. Yes, you can see the wheels turning as you walk through Maple Studios. I have fond memories of finding everything electronic I needed as I built prototypes, my 5 year old daughter in tow. There is a culture of enabling creative builders at Ramco - I mentioned to you that they taught this mechanical engineer how to program PLC's in 7 hours at a time when there was no other resource available. You've captured the creative essence well.
Thanks for sharing this story! I suspect most residents of Greater Des Moines are not familiar with Ramco.