Running Like a Well-Oiled Machine

By Elaine Whitesides
Morgan County Business Leader

“It tickles me to death that he’s got the fire, enthusiasm, and ability to keep it going,” said Brian DeFelice about his son, Matt, taking over the helm at DeFelice Engineering, Inc.

Those might not be the words you would expect to hear from a burly man who built a business designing and building metal products in a shop as big as some houses, but you can tell those are words from the heart. As of January 1, 2016, son Matt took the reins of the business started in 1983 by Brian.

From a young age, Brian had an interest in anything mechanical. By age 14 he took over his father’s garage and filled it with machines he’d built and motor scooters. He entered the field professionally as an adult and worked in job shops and at an aerospace company. But there was a nagging desire, his dream to build something – a product – of his own design. So he did.

In 1981 he designed and starting building a recumbent bicycle in his off time. By 1983 he had shop space in New Palestine and he built and sold more than 650 bikes over five years. Along with his product, his business acumen was developing. “It’s hard to build a product from the ground up, manufacture it, sell it and make a profit,” Brian said. He started taking on other tooling work, “to support my bicycle habit,” he quipped. “I found I could do a job shop and it was fun. So I scaled the bikes back to about 10 percent of the business and started doing more tool work.”

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