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Gustavo
Tela, founder-president of Irvine, CA’s
Tela Engineering, Inc.,
graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the National
University of La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1989.
His father, who operated a small machining job shop in Buenos
Aires, was an Italian transplanted to Argentina. His father told
him, “Gustavo, you’re young. Take a vacation. Go see the world.
Then decide what to do.”
“I
took my dad’s advice,” says Tela. “In 1990 I set out on an adventure
trip. I came to California with the idea of going around the country
for a while, and then maybe visiting Europe to see where my dad
grew up. It was a good plan, but it didn’t work out that way.
I liked America so much I just stopped here in southern California.
I didn’t know anybody, but like a typical immigrant, I had a phone
number from a friend in Argentina who said he had a friend in
California. He said, ‘If you have problems, give him a call.’
And that’s what I did.”
Tela’s contact told him, “I have a neighbor who has a small machine
shop in Lake Elsinore, California and he's looking for help. Maybe
you should go talk to him.”
Tela
jumped at the chance. “I had grown up helping in my dad’s shop,
so I knew I could do whatever was needed,” he says. “I was excited.
I was going to make money in America. I got the job. The shop,
Lee Performance, made parts for engines, V8 engines for boats
and cars. I worked there for eight months. It was a great experience.”
Budding
Entrepreneur
Like
many young people seeking experience, Tela moved around and worked
in different shops over the next three years.
“The
thing was I couldn't get a job I really liked because back then
everything depended on your paper work,” he says. “I didn't have
a residence visa, so people couldn’t look at me for long-term
employment.” In 1993 Tela landed the first job he liked, one that
suited his level of education and training.
“I
got a job as quality control manager at Republic Lagun in Harbor
City,” he says.
“They were making CNC mills, so I learned a lot about equipment
and CNC. That was my first job as an engineer.”
One
of Tela’s jobs at Republic Lagun was to use lasers to calibrate
the machines before shipment.
“Every
machine needs to be calibrated,” he said, “but to be honest it
was very routine, so I got bored after a year. I discovered then
that I’m not good at repetitive work. I needed to do something
else.”
Tela asked himself the question most entrepreneurs eventually
ask.
He
says, “I asked myself, ‘Why am I doing this for this company when
I could be out doing it on my own?’ Anyway, having my own business
was always in the back of my mind. I got that from watching my
dad run his own business, I guess. The truth is you have to have
three things to get started. You need a little bit of money, a
little bit of luck and you need someone to give you a helping
hand. I think I had all three.”
Tela’s
luck came when he went out to buy the laser calibration equipment
he needed to get his freelance business going.
Tela:
“I quit my job and went out and bought a laser calibrator from
a company in Compton, California called Optodyne. I went to them
and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been doing calibration for a year and a half,
and I know exactly how your equipment works. I don’t have much
money, so how can you guys help me buy your equipment?”
Tela
says the equipment was really expensive for him at the time.
“I
really didn’t have any record in the country.” he says, “I didn't
have anything but good luck. The owners of the company are from
China. And they understood what it is to be a immigrant. So they
said, ‘Okay, we’re going to give you a hand.’ So they put me in
a payment program, and I paid them off in a year.”
Second
Major Education
After
a year of struggling on his own, Tela finally had to give up his
calibration business as a full-time proposition.
“It was just too hard,” he says. “When I was working, I wasn’t
selling. When I was selling, I wasn’t working. It was feast or
famine. I really needed help, but I couldn’t afford it. It hurt
me to do it, but one of my customers, a company called Metalcrafters,
offered me a job calibrating equipment and working in the machine
shop, and I took it.”
Metalcrafters
builds working concept cars for most of the major auto manufacturers,
including Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, you name it.
“I
stayed there four and a half years,” Tela says. “I always say
that company was my second university, because all the car companies
wanted to show off the latest in everything. The latest computers,
the latest materials, everything new at the cutting edge in their
concept cars. As a result, I got to see all the latest ideas and
try all the new materials. For me it was an incredible experience.”
Help
Arrives
In
1996, after graduating from National University of La Plata with
a degree in metallurgical engineering, Tela’s 18-month younger
brother Fernando joined him at Metalcrafters, also working in
the machine shop.
“It
was great having Fernando here,” Tela says. “First, I didn’t feel
so alone, and second, we were able to save money twice as fast.
We worked together at Metalcrafters for two and a half years,
before we were ready to jump out again. Keeping the calibration
business alive nights and weekends, we had been working eighteen
hours a day, seven days a week, so we decided it was time to make
a move. This time we were in much better shape financially.”
The
Job Shop
The
brothers moved into a small (about 1700 sq ft) facility and set
up the Tela Engineering, Inc. job shop.
“We
felt confident that we could succeed,” says Gustavo Tela. “We
had alot of experience, and we had just bought our first Fadal
CNC mill. We stayed in that facility from 1999 until April 2005
when we moved into our new 5,000 sq ft facility here in Irvine,
California.”
“During
that time we bought a lot of equipment,” says Fernando Tela, who
is a 50-50 partner and vp of the company. “We bought 3 Fadal mills,
a Haas SL-20 turning center and two Charmilles EDM machines, a
Robofil 240 wire machine and a Roboform 31 sinker.”
“We
went with the combination of mills and EDM for a good reason,”
Gustavo Tela adds. “I didn’t want to be tied up producing thousands
of parts at pennies of profit each. I wanted a setup that would
let us get work that would yield maximum income per machine hour,
which is what the EDM equipment does. Our five employees produce
50% more revenue per hour than the industry standard. That’s the
only way to do it in my opinion.”
The
Service Spec
When
it comes to buying equipment, the Tela brothers agree completely
on the specifications that have to be met.
“First,
any equipment we buy has to be able to do the work we need,” says
Fernando Tela. “That’s a given, and there’s a lot of great equipment
out there that can do the work.”
“But
the biggest thing for us, with performance given, is service and
support,” Gustavo Tela adds. “We bought Fadal and Haass because
they were close and gave us good service. We bought the Charmilles
for the same reason. We have a really good relation with their
dealer, Infinity Machine Tools in Anaheim. We feel we’ve become
friends. We go to their house and they come to our shop. It a
close, friendly relationship that we like. Gary Gustafson, the
Charmilles rep comes here just about every week. He just stops
by, you know and says, ‘You guys need anything?’ He comes at our
coffee time at nine o’clock and we sit down and talk. That’s what
we like about Charmilles.”
“But
if you need help, they’re there,” says Fernando. “Once we had
a really tight deadline on a job for Raytheon and we were very
busy. We needed a program for a complex part on the wire. We called
them and asked if they could do us a favor and do the program
for us. Within hours we had an email with the program attached.
That’s service.”
“And,
of course, Charmilles has a great reputation for producing quality
parts with super tight tolerances,” adds Gustavo. “We don’t mean
to skip over that, but as I said before, that was a given for
us. It’s all about service.”
The
Bottom Rung
Both
Tela brothers feel they already have climbed a high mountain to
get where they are.
“We’ve
worked really hard,” says Gustavo Tela, “just like most other
entrepreneurs. But we also know that in America we’ve really just
climbed up to the bottom rung of the ladder to success. We believe
we can go anywhere from here we want to. No other place in the
world would give us that kind of opportunity.”
So
how high up the ladder do they want to climb?
“We
want a company ten times bigger than this one,” Gustavo Tela says.
“We want it full of great equipment as automated as possible.
In the future that’s the only way to succeed in my opinion.”
So
what does Tela think of his vacation in America?
“I love it,” he says. “Where else can you take a vacation and
build a successful business at the same time.”
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