Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Hendrickson.
Hi Travis, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2016, my brother in law approached me knowing that I had a small design and metal fabrication shop because he was tired of crawling around on hands and knees to clean and inspect the underside of his light turboprop personal aircraft. He was looking for something to replace the customary hodge-podge collection of stacked pillows or a modified office chair – we’ve seen and heard it all from our current list of satisfied customers that have converted to using the AeroCreeper.
Soon after securing the design Patent and launching the first version of the e-commerce website, sales quickly started to pick up amongst the general aviation crowd – owners of single engine aircraft looking to enhance their comfort while working on and around their prized toys.
As sales grew, opportunities arose to innovate and add features around the core function of the AeroCreeper, which to this day is the only creeper that adjusts the seat height along with the backrest angle into 10 unique locked positions.
The latest model – the Power-Lift – uses 18 volt Milwaukee batteries and an electric actuator to elevate the user from laying on their back like a traditional “creeper” to the fully upright seated position. While its still undergoing feature trials, it, along with it’s manually operated counterparts, have already been sold and in use by hobbyists and major manufacturing plants and aerospace production facilities around the globe. These include names like: Bell Helicopter, Siemens, Johns Hopkins, and New Holland.
AeroCreeper will ship its 10,000th unit this month! And looking forward to celebrating 10 years in business next year.
We are proud to wear badges like: “Made in the USA”, “Made in Utah” “Hand assembled” Etc. These values and business ethics can have their challenges to maintain but we intend to stand firm as long as possible.
We continue to add tradeshows to our list of events we exhibit at like EAA AirVenture, Sun-N-Fun, SEMA, & NBAA BACE.
We recently hired a VP of Marketing to help manage the growth we are experiencing and planning to see in the coming decade.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Despite coming from a manufacturing and engineering background, we’ve had to continue to learn about the latest in CNC automation, production, and logistics.
Marketing and sales are also a foreign language but essential to have a working knowledge of. In addition to that, I also sometimes hold the title of head janitor, building maintenance, or IT support.
Keeping up with the fast paced world of business strategy is a daily challenge.
Like many small businesses, we are always looking for talented individuals to add to our workforce.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Most of this was covered in the intro story.
Our brand has been established as being known for high quality and something that lasts. We stand by and support our product quality – even the models we first produced 9 years ago!
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
There’s a lot of satisfaction in creating something useful for others to benefit from. Being an entrepreneur has it’s ups and downs and after having worked at other facilities, you realize that the highs are higher and the lows are lower.
There’s a special sort of feeling when you are at a trade show and a customer walks up and says they bought your tool and it’s saved their back or improved their life in some small, yet meaningful way.
Pricing:
- Original Model $529
- Deluxe Model $698
- Power-Lift $2898
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aerocreeper.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aerocreeper/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aerocreeper
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aerocreeper
