USA TODAY International Edition
HED Cycling spins out innovation and growth
Company came together after overcoming tragedy
ROSEVILLE, Minn. – Reinventing the wheel wasn’t easy, but it’s what HED Cycling has been doing ever since Anne Hed and her late husband, Steven, founded the company in 1984. It started with just the two of them striving to make the fastest, most aerodynamic bicycle wheels – in their garage.
“I didn’t have a business background. Steven didn’t have a business background. We didn’t really know what we were doing,” Hed said.
That didn’t stop them from producing wheels that have been bringing athletes across the finish lines at the Olympics, in Ironman competitions and in other prestigious races all over the world, including the Tour de France. Lance Armstrong was an early adopter.
“We were just doing what we thought was the right way to start a business, and it just happened,” Hed said. “Together, we were able to build a company that makes some really cool stuff.”
Steven’s core product was a rear disc wheel that his friends and Anne, a former professional triathlete, were first to test in races. That product line has since expanded to about 80 different wheel varieties, including fairly lightweight but very strong carbon fiber wheels.
Today, HED Cycling employs more than 50 people at a new 24,000-squarefoot facility in the Twin Cities suburb of Roseville. But the move to a larger space from a much smaller factory in Shoreview, Minnesota, almost didn’t happen. Anne Hed considered calling it quits after Steven collapsed and died unexpectedly in 2014. The move took place three weeks after his death.
“After Steven passed, it was pretty scary at first. I didn’t know if I could continue,” Hed said. But it was the support of her family and co-workers that kept her going. Now those co-workers help drive Hed to continue innovating and growing the company.
“When we knew we could help other people and employ them – actually pay them – it’s pretty gratifying,” Hed said. “I can provide health insurance, I can provide a 401(k), I can give vacations ... That’s more satisfying than some of the other reasons people go into business.”
Hed has always strived to build a diverse workforce at her facility, and her employees range in age from 19 to 75 years old. The culture HED Cycling creates at its offices is one that echoes what Hed said are the company’s core values: honesty, excellence, dependability, passion and innovation.
“What gets me up and in here every day is the people I get to work with,” Hed said. “There is an amazing satisfaction knowing that you can make something for somebody that makes them find their dream, too.”
Hed would advise budding entrepreneurs to be ready to push their limits.
“I would go into it knowing it’s going to be hard,” Hed said. “It comes with so much hard work, and you have to realize you can’t give up when you are having one of those days that nothing works.
“You don’t know what you can do until you get challenged.”