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Hybrid Microcircuits

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Tim Mullen dreamed of starting his own business for years, but never once fantasized about building the world’s smallest hearing-aid amplifier. Now he’s done both.

In December of 1991, Mullen and three like-minded partners put their new company together on paper, incorporating as Hybrid MicroCircuits, Inc.. In February of 1992, they opened their doors in Belle Plaine, long on experience but a tad short on capital and pinched for space. In 1993, they alleviated their capital and space situations by moving 110 miles south on Hwy. 169 to Blue Earth.

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Haala Industries

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Eight magic words give job applicants an edge anywhere in Brown County. All they need to say is “I grew up on a farm near Leavenworth.” To prospective employers, that short sentence means an applicant understands order, discipline and hard work.

Leavenworth is a tiny settlement southwest of Sleepy Eye with a few houses and a large Catholic church, the Church of the Japanese Martyrs. Big families from small farms make up most of the congregation.

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Thin Film Technology Corporation

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True or false: Only in America do brainstorms strike adventuresome folks, who quit their jobs, convert their garages to makeshift factories and grow multimillion dollar companies. False.

It also happens in Japan. Despite that country’s industrial reputation for patient teamwork and polite consensus, entrepreneurial adrenaline and rugged individualism flow just as strongly and swiftly through Japanese veins.

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Davisco Foods International

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It sounds like a fairy tale, but once upon a time creameries discarded whey and buttermilk, giving it to farmers who spread it on fields or fed it to calves.

Now an entire industry exists to capture the nutritious ingredients locked in these once-snubbed fluids. One of the leaders in that industry is Davisco Foods International, Inc., based in Le Sueur, where veteran employees still remember the days of whey-splattered fields and calves suckled on buttermilk.

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Rainbow Woods

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Lessons learned the hard way tend to be lessons remembered. Richard and Debbie Halvorson, who are tantalizingly close to profitability at Rainbow Woods, Inc. in Le Center, digested their share along a red-ink road since 1990. After nurturing two radically different product lines in three different communities for eight years, the Halvorsons now realize: Marketing means making more than one sales call.

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Internet Connections

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When future historians get around to naming eras and establishing turning points, expect 1993 to be a year students must memorize. That’s when commoners gained entrance to a domain previously reserved for Knights of Academia (colleges and universities) and the Ruling Elite (government agencies).

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Four Flags Over Aspen

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Ever tried to muzzle a ferret? What about a timber wolf? Probably not. But if the need arises, Cindi Gaterud of rural Janesville has already designed muzzles or hoods for ferrets, wolves, elk and other creatures. She helps veterinarians and a variety of animal-handlers minimize one of their major occupational hazards – puncture wounds from sharp teeth.

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Baroda Auction Realty

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Some say there’s a sad and final note to the bang of anauctioneer’s gavel.

It signals the end of an antique collection, the breakup of a farm or the dispersal of family heirlooms. “Sold!” cries an auctioneer, and someone walks away with your father’s favorite chair.

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