DiamondBack makes heavy-duty pickup bed covers made of 1/8-inch aluminum tread plate. The company also manufactures a full line of accessories for the construction and ATV markets. A new light-duty version is already in the works.

DiamondBack Covers is a classic tale of American entrepreneurship. Two friends have an idea for a new product. They put everything on the line to start a manufacturing company—working out of their homes, spending all their own money, tapping banks and families for startup capital funding, hitting the trade show circuit and constantly refining the product until it's ready for commercialization. And rarely sleeping.

DiamondBack Covers manufactures aluminum bed covers for pickup trucks. Incorporated in May 2003 by former Penn State engineering students Ethan Wendle and Matt Chverchko, the company originally produced a heavy-duty version using 1/8-inch aluminum sheet metal with a 1,600-pound load capacity. Various accessories allow owners to haul heavy loads like construction materials, full-size ATVs and more.

"We initially believed our big market would be commercial sales, targeting people who really put their trucks to work, like municipal fleets and construction vehicles," says Wendle. But the load-bearing capacity quickly caught the eye of people in the outdoor recreation market. "We launched the product at a sportsman show and got a lot of interest from people looking to haul their ATVs without a trailer."

Rapid Expansion
The duo soon brought on board a third partner, Matt Reed, who had graduated from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology with a degree in aluminum fabrication. The company expanded—first to a house with a two-car garage, then in 2005 to the Enterprise Center, an incubator operated by the Moshannon Valley Economic Development Partnership in Philipsburg, where they now occupy a 12,000-foot manufacturing space.

And all along the way, BFTP's Transformation Business Services Network helped the entrepreneurs with critical advice on accounting systems, inventory tracking, strategic marketing plans, plant layout and more. "When it comes right down to it, Ben Franklin helped us focus and position ourselves for growth," says Wendle. BFTP also provided $140,000 in funding.

As with most startup businesses, the market soon put a certain "evolutionary pressure" on DiamondBack's product. "It took a few years for us to figure out that most guys who own a truck don't actually use it for anything but driving around in," says Wendle. Many customers, it turned out, liked the look and feel of the covers but were turned away by the higher cost of the commercial version, which retails for $1,500. The company's 150-dealer network kept asking the team to develop something lighter and cheaper.

Pursuing a Different Market
"Most guys don't haul around big heavy loads," says Wendle. "They just want a cool, shiny metal bed cover that locks." In response, the company developed a unit that uses a lighter gauge aluminum and fewer support studs, reducing the retail cost by nearly 25 percent and the load-bearing capacity to 400 pounds—still substantially stronger than most competing bed covers.

"Now I feel like I'm driving two cars at the same time, chasing these two very different markets," says Wendle. "But that's a good thing. We predict that our light-duty sales will be quadruple our heavy-duty sales in a few years."

The future is promising, but Wendle realizes they're not out of the woods yet. The company now employs 14 people, and sales for 2006 are already up 120 percent over 2005. But sales efforts still take a long time. "I want to get our dealer network working a lot harder for us on that front," says Wendle. "We also have lots of ideas for new accessories, but if there's one thing we learned from Ben Franklin, it's the importance of focusing on your core strengths and not diluting your efforts."

 From the July/August 2006 issue