The Next Great Manitoba Company Might Still Be in a Garage
By Kristine Derksen, Director of Marketing & Communications, North Forge™️
When we tell the story of entrepreneurship, we often begin at the wrong chapter.
We celebrate the company that landed its first major customer, the manufacturer that expanded into a larger facility, or the founder whose products are now sold across the country.
Those milestones deserve recognition, but they can obscure how difficult it is to reach them, particularly in manufacturing.
Unlike many other industries, manufacturing demands significant capital before a business has proven itself. Industrial equipment is expensive. Specialized machinery can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even prototyping often requires technologies that are simply beyond the reach of someone with a great idea but limited resources.
For many aspiring entrepreneurs, the obstacle is not a lack of ambition or ability. It is the price of admission.
That is why stories like Graeson Fehr’s matter.
Fehr Forgeworks did not begin as a polished business plan backed by investors. It began in a home garage, where Graeson spent years making knives by hand, learning through trial and error, and gradually refining his craft. As demand grew, so did the limitations of his workspace.
Processes that should have taken hours stretched into weeks as he coordinated with multiple manufacturers for laser cutting, CNC routing, waterjet work, and other specialized services.Every outsourced step added cost, complexity, and time.
That experience is familiar to many entrepreneurs building physical products. The challenge is rarely just designing something worth selling. It is finding an affordable way to manufacture it.
When Graeson became a member of the North Forge Fabrication Lab in 2019, his business changed in ways that had little to do with luck and everything to do with access. Instead of navigating a network of outside suppliers, he could prototype, test, revise, and manufacture under one roof.
More importantly, he could experiment. He could determine which machines
produced the best results for different materials, refine his workflow, and make decisions basedon experience rather than assumption.
That freedom to experiment is one of the most overlooked advantages in manufacturing.
Innovation is rarely the product of getting everything right the first time. It comes from trying, failing, adjusting, and trying again. Yet entrepreneurs are often expected to make expensive purchasing decisions before discovering what their business actually needs. Shared access to industrial equipment changes that equation. It allows founders to develop confidence before making significant capital investments, reducing financial risk and shortening the path from idea to market.
The impact extends beyond one company.
Today, Fehr Forgeworks not only produces its own line of premium hunting and kitchen knives, but also manufactures precision components for other knife makers. The same equipment that once seemed financially out of reach has allowed Graeson to diversify his business, improve margins by bringing production in house, and shorten lead times for customers.
There is a tendency to think of manufacturing equipment as simply another business expense. In reality, access to the right tools influences every part of a company’s trajectory. It shapes how quickly products evolve, how efficiently they are produced, and whether a founder can spend time creating value instead of managing logistical obstacles.
Graeson describes the waterjet as one of the most critical pieces of equipment for his operation because it allows him to cut specialized stainless steels without damaging the material. That capability is essential to the quality of his products, but it also illustrates a larger point. Manufacturing is increasingly driven by precision. Entrepreneurs need access not just to equipment, but to the right equipment for the products they are trying to build.
The equipment, however, is only part of the story.
Every successful innovation ecosystem is built on the exchange of knowledge. At the
Fabrication Lab, entrepreneurs share more than workshop space. They share suppliers,
production techniques, business advice, shipping recommendations, and lessons learned through experience. Graeson speaks about learning from other members every day, whether through conversations about machinery, sourcing materials, or solving practical business challenges that rarely appear in textbooks.
That kind of collaboration cannot be manufactured overnight. It develops over years as people with different skills and experiences work alongside one another, united by a common goal of building something meaningful.
As Director of Marketing and Communications at North Forge, I have the privilege of telling many founder stories. While every entrepreneur’s journey is different, one theme appears again and again. Success is rarely the result of one breakthrough moment. It is built through countless opportunities to learn faster, test sooner, solve problems collaboratively, and continue moving forward when the easier option would be to stop.
Graeson’s story reminds us that the greatest investment we can make in entrepreneurship is not always direct funding. Sometimes it is creating the conditions where entrepreneurs can access the tools, expertise, and community they need to prove that their ideas deserve to exist.
The next generation of Manitoba manufacturers will not emerge because the barriers to starting have disappeared. Manufacturing will always demand resilience, persistence, and hard work.
But we can decide whether those barriers are defined by talent and determination or by whether someone can afford a six-figure piece of equipment before making their first sale.
If Manitoba wants to continue building companies that design, manufacture, and compete on a global stage, we must continue investing in places that make entrepreneurship accessible. Because when access replaces barriers, entrepreneurs like Graeson Fehr are able to do far more than build exceptional products.
They build businesses that strengthen our economy, create opportunities for others, and prove that world class manufacturing can begin in a garage, provided someone is given the opportunity to take the next step.
