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Upsize Business Builder of the Year waterfilters.net Founder pushes the 'why' to write his company's tale photos by jonathan hankin "We're in the first chapter of our company," says Jamin Arvig, founder of WaterFilters.net, and it's a page-turner. His company is the Upsize Business Builder of the Year, as selected by a panel of judges after presentations from five finalists, themselves selected from nominations. Revenue last year hit $37 million, up from $17 million in 2011 and $10 million in 2010, all from selling lots and lots and lots of water filters, mostly online, from a distribution center employing 60 people in Zumbrota. "We've doubled every year for 10 years," says Arvig, who holds a law degree but decided to commit to the water filter business, starting in 2002 with a website out of a tiny apartment in Minneapolis, which he operated with his wife. "The challenge of this is, how are you able to grow a company that long at that rate?" One essential is crafting "pillars of excellence," as he calls them, and he proceeds to explain several elaborate elements that he says guide his company's actions. For example, the first core value is service, by employees and managers alike. "We judge our leaders on how well they help others succeed," Arvig says. "Everything starts with an idea before going through a culture filter, where it is matched against our core values," Arvig explains on his nomination form for the Upsize Business Builder project. "Ideas then go to the next level to be fit into our strategic vision, before finally going to resource allocation." But partway through his wonkish presentation, Arvig reveals the company's secret weapon: he's passionate about clean drinking water, and he becomes emotional when talking about it. "Our mission is to make sure everyone has access to clean water, so that's the 'why,'" he says. "We do carry it through every thread of the business." Suddenly, employees fulfilling hundreds of orders a day for something as 16 upsize december 2013 • january 2014 simple as a water filter from a warehouse in southeast Minnesota are unified by a larger vision—and motivated to be part of a long story. At least, that's what this CEO is striving to achieve. Four Daughters Vineyard Allure of the grape brings farm family back together Vicky Vogt and her husband, Gary, farmed 5,000 acres of corn and soybeans for decades in southeastern Minnesota, raising their four daughters but then watching with regret as they moved away for jobs and life. Then Vicky had an idea many mothers could love. "I wanted to get my children to come home and work in agriculture," she says, so they launched Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery in Spring Valley, one of the finalists, along with the other three companies that follow, for the Upsize Business Builder of the Year award. The family affair attracted three of those daughters home, plus a son-in-law, Justin Osborne, who went to wine-making school and now has developed the palate and the "nose" to make Four Daughters' wine. He believes their most profitable opportunity is wholesale sales to liquor stores, because that takes less staff than their 40-employee restaurant and event operation. Kristin Osborne, his wife and one of the daughters, heads up marketing, already her area of expertise honed while operating a public relations practice, while Vicky serves as president and others fill roles suited to each. Those farm values are key to their growth plan, which in their second full season hit $1.2 million in revenue, up from $48,000 the year before. "We have a common sense mentality, a farmer mentality," says Justin, speaking for the family even though he was raised a city slicker, the son of a corporate executive, "We like to have money in hand." Four Daughters is doubling wine prowww.upsizemag.com

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