By AMY LANE

It’s a mission and commitment to impact the quality of life and economic well-being of communities that have no high-performance broadband service or have few options. And it’s a team effort, said Varenhorst, who started Benzonia’s Eclipse Communications, Inc. in 2016 with one employee – himself – and now employs eight.

“We are all very passionate about what we do. We live in these communities; all of us know to some degree what it’s like not to have Internet service,” said Varenhorst, Eclipse’s president. “It is really rewarding to not only operate a profitable company that’s growing, but also directly impact everyone with the availability of our services.”

“We’re ambassadors of technology. We leverage technology and services in partnership and in true synergy with the needs of our clients.”

Pushing his comfort zone

Growing up in Ludington, Varenhorst graduated from Ludington High School and attended Baker College in Cadillac, at the time also taking on jobs as an information technology (IT) consultant. “Over time, when you do something, become better at it…you push your comfort zone,” Varenhorst said. “Experience is really what gives people their edge…gives people wisdom to make decisions and fix things in a cost-effective manner.

“It’s one thing to be knowledgeable, it’s another thing to be able to apply that knowledge. You have to do the work, to form that fundamental understanding.”

Varenhorst graduated from Baker with a bachelor’s degree in information technology and security and in 2010 he and a friend co-founded SyncWave LLC, a wireless Internet service provider in Scottville. The business venture was the culmination of years of IT consulting and a realization of possibilities to become an entrepreneur – something not an initial goal of Varenhorst’s but an opportunity he seized upon.

SyncWave’s focus was lower Manistee, Mason and Oceana counties and while the company “grew enormously,” Varenhorst also saw untapped opportunities to the north, in Benzie where he and his wife made their home. By 2016, both professional and personal reasons -- including long hours traveling far for SyncWave and a baby daughter on the way -- led Varenhorst to start Eclipse, honing in on a county where he saw much to do.

A call to action

“There is such a dire need for Internet service, and to not do something, is just what I could not abide by over time,” Varenhorst said.

Then in his mid-30s, Varenhorst said he was “100 percent confident” Eclipse would be successful. But it wasn’t without challenge and grind.

“Those days were 100 to 120 hours a week, straight up. There’s always a tremendous amount of work to do. Information technology is not just a job, it’s a lifestyle,” Varenhorst said. “I’m fully invested into my profession. It’s something my life is defined by.”

Three years after starting Eclipse, Varenhorst made another business move, purchasing Arcadia-based M-22 Internet Project. The acquisition of the nearby Internet service provider brought infrastructure and clients that propelled Eclipse’s growth, and it wasn’t a small accomplishment.

“Purchasing M-22 Project was the most complex venture that I’ve ever worked on in my life,” Varenhorst said. “Being risk-averse is something we spent months on. When you’re buying a company, you’re buying a car in a way but you’re disassembling the entire car and putting it back together. You’re really looking under the hood.”

Venture North: a catalyst for growth

Venture North Funding & Development provided an approximately $200,000 loan that paid for a majority of the acquisition, with the remaining financing coming from Eclipse and a private individual. Eclipse also received a grant from Venture North that helped pay for professional services, including an attorney and business consultant.

Varenhorst said Venture North President Laura Galbraith and portfolio manager Sara Christensen were “professional, passionate individuals who were very important for us to fund the type of acquisition that we were trying to fund. They were there every step of the way and were fundamental to the success of the funding aspect of purchasing the company, from start to finish.”

He added that as a service business, a conventional financing path can be difficult. “It’s hard to acquire funding in our type of industry. We don’t have a shop floor full of machinery that can go on the auction block if we don’t meet our debts.”

Venture North – including how it operates and the funding sources to which it has access – was “phenomenal” to work with, Varenhorst said. “We will be working with them on anything that we can possibly work on with them going forward. They are first on our call list.”

In Benzie County, Venture North also manages the Community Development Block Grant Loan Program, a federally authorized program that provides small-business loans for a variety of business purposes, tied to job creation for low-to-moderate income individuals.

Eclipse received an initial $70,000 CDBG loan that enabled it to purchase heavy equipment and build infrastructure, hiring two people, and was recently approved for a second, $50,000 loan. Eclipse will use the money to purchase additional equipment it needs to build out its fiber network, with plans to hire two more employees.