Geoff Foster is paying it forward

Core Technology molds automotive and medical parts, but according to its founder, it’s also committed to making a difference.  

The son of a single mother, Geoff Foster grew up without some of the advantages he saw other kids enjoy. Taught by her to value education, he’s investing the resources of the shop he runs with company VP Tonya Foster, his wife of 33 years, into the next generation, through their nonprofit science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) camps for middle schoolers, Molding Kids for Success. He recently discussed with Senior Staff Reporter Karen Hanna the success of their thriving certified minority-owned Greensboro, N.C., molding shop and how he’s using it to inspire kids like him.  

Your LinkedIn page includes the quote, “Do not measure a man by where he is at present, but by the distance he has traveled to reach that point.” What does that mean for you? 

Foster: I started this company with less than $5,000, and we are now a Tier 1 supplier to 12 major billion-dollar public companies, shipping to over 150 countries and operating 24/7 for the last 10 years. Seventy percent of our customers are the largest biological pharmaceutical companies in the world, and the other 30 percent are the largest automotive OEMs in the world. 

Some people reach high levels of success but were somewhat entitled and their [successes] were handed down from generations. Always consider the obstacles and challenges others had to face, and applaud and encourage them. Everyone does not have the same starting line. 

I grew up in a single-parent home. My father was killed by a drunk driver while I was in kindergarten.  

I think what helped me is my mother pushing education. Had I just wanted to be a jock or play sports, I probably wouldn’t be in this position today. I didn’t realize I even wanted to be an entrepreneur until I was 28, in grad school. That was not on my list.  

Did I think that we would grow it to these numbers? No, to be honest. 

How did you get into plastics? 

Foster: I attended North Carolina A&T (NCAT) State University and received my BS and MS in applied engineering technology. NCAT is the largest HBCU (historically Black college or university) in the country, and the most African American engineers graduate from there.  

While getting my MS at NCAT, I was introduced to plastics as a quality engineer at AMP Inc. (now TE Connectivity) producing electronic connectors. Their largest customer was Ford Motor Co.  

There was a problem with the Ford cars in Louisville, [which] assembles the super heavy-duty trucks. There was a flood from the river. The trucks were underwater, and I had to come up with a quick solution. I changed the connector and the seal. 

[It improves] what they call the landing area. The Engine Control Unit (ECU) is under the hood. There were 104 pins that controlled power like power windows, power seats, sunroof, etc. When these two [particular] parts [would] screw together, if water touched them, they would short out the car. Now, even when they’re underwater, submerged ... water can’t get in there to damage the connector. 

It was really just my job, but Ford pushed me to get a U.S. patent. I received a U.S. patent in 1999. 

It’s not just for North America; I had to go to Ford plants in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain. It was really important to implement this new patented idea ... probably took about six months. You can’t have a new idea and implement it without telling all parties; everybody has to know why ... are we doing this different? I got some really good global experience. 

After getting my MBA from Wake Forest University, I started [Core Technology] five years later. 

How did that experience pique your interest in entrepreneurship?  

Foster: My employer gave me a $99 plaque, and Ford paid my employer $32 million for the patent. 

I think it really led me to want to create wealth. When I saw how much money could be generated by producing something — that was the way to create wealth, create jobs. That’s kind of what led me to entrepreneurship, so I could make more than just an engineering salary. 

It was a great learning experience. I learned how to maneuver in the automotive world, which is very complex.  

Were you always interested in engineering? 

Foster: I liked making things, whether I was in elementary, middle, high school in wood shop, just looking at blueprints, trying to make something off paper into a finished unit. That was always fun for me. That was cool. 

What obstacles did you face in getting started?  

Foster: Financially, it was very difficult to get a loan for an injection molding machine, building, employees, etc. The first loan was for about $200,000 for a new Sumitomo injection molding machine. It was one machine, three people, one shift. 

What were you making initially?  

Foster: Automotive parts, connectors, some heavy truck parts, not really high volumes, but it was enough to get into higher production. That was the cool part about it, where it just scaled.  

Now we have 14 machines, 70 people, and in the next two years, we’ll have another 30, so we’ll have 100 people in the next two years. 

When did your wife join the business? 

Foster: She came on board about six, seven years ago. She was helping out from the beginning, with payroll, things like that. But it was very limited. She got her BS in nursing. I asked her to come on board full-time about six years ago, when we were really growing and had a new building and just needed help. She came on full-time and left nursing, but she’s over safety and environmental [compliance] now. 

What’s your product mix now? 

Foster: Ten years ago, we were probably 90 percent automotive; now, we’re only 30 percent. That’s by design. I’m not going to go over 30 percent because that would worry me. We’re doing BMWs, Mercedes, Toyota, Volvo trucks, Volvo cars. What you’ll probably notice is we’re not doing any of the Big Three; I’m not touching those. The margins are healthier with import luxury cars. 

What’s the other 70 percent? 

Foster: Biopharm(aceuticals), life sciences. High volume, high margin.  

How did you get into the biomedical sector? 

Foster: I was a tissue-culture operations manager at Becton Dickinson for five years. When I was in high school and college, they had Petri dishes. You would drop a dish, and it would break. [At Becton Dickinson], we [did] injection molding, so it’s not glass. Now, it’s disposable, single-use plastic. We would treat [the Petri dishes] with plasma, so it would help the cells grow [and] expedite the experiment. With IVF, with the sperm and eggs, they’re able to grow these cells quickly, [for] in vitro fertilization. It was pretty cool where they could do experiments very quickly, but the cost would go down because they’re not trying to wash the glass, and all this is disposable. We would ship them to R&D companies, as well as medical schools. They’re making it for pennies, but it was actually a good business. So, I learned a lot about running a business for sure. 

That really sold me on getting into medical because I understood it.  

That landscape was key, because 90 percent automotive is not a good model, but now we’re able to really grow into biopharm, which is phenomenal. 

What do you think has allowed you to be successful? 

Foster: Just being focused. Internal fortitude has guided me to keep pushing, don’t give up. I tell people, “Block out the noise, because you’re going to get people who tell you, ‘It can’t be done. Look how many other people tried blah, blah, blah.’ ”  

As a kid, living without some of the things that others had, you had to be a little more creative, coming from a humble beginning. I think that’s what drove me all my life. You might not start where other people started, but you still have to drive to be the best you can be. Coming from those beginnings, it just became part of my DNA. 

Perseverance and drive, wanting to be a Tier 1 supplier, that was always my goal. Traveling, meeting the right people, being patient as a Tier 2 supplier, just getting our credibility up, our resources, equipment, bank financing, all of those things, it’s not overnight. 

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs or plastics professionals? 

Foster: Aspire to be a Tier 2 or Tier 3 supplier initially and build credibility. We have been Tier 1 since 2015. We did not have the resources or infrastructure to be a Tier 1 supplier in 2006. People will find out about your capabilities as a Tier 2 supplier and you will get an opportunity, if you deliver on time, have great safety records and a high-quality scorecard with regards to low (defects in parts per million) PPMs ... along with competitive costs. 

Do your homework and whatever amount of cash you think you need, multiply that number by 2. 

Tell me about Molding Kids for Success. 

Foster: I wanted to start a nonprofit helping kids from underrepresented groups that did not have access to STEM education. 

We provide free hands-on summer camps at the plant with exposure to injection molding, robotics, 3D printing, clean-room molding, advanced manufacturing, etc. Engineers, usually with robotics, with maintenance, with tool making, they’re getting hands-on experience with real people, in the classroom, and then they go out to the manufacturing pool or back to the classroom. We buy lunch and meals, 100 percent free — that was the other goal. 

When the local schools found out what we were doing, they gave us some press coverage, and then schools were signing up. Now, we have eight [one-week sessions] of camp where the kids are here. The kids from out of state, we put them up in a hotel. Local campers, they’re like, 30 minutes away. 

This is our third year. We started during COVID. We went from 20 kids to over 100 kids this summer, and we do industry tours during the school year. We had 800 kids go through industry tours, which last 2 hours ... for Manufacturing Month in October. We have summer tours going on already. 

Several children have gone through the STEM camp ... and are now ready to work internships in high school. 

What kinds of responses do you see from participants?  

Foster: They’re excited. Their eyes light up. They love gaming. We let them [get] hands-on with the Wittmann robots, Yushin robots, and we let them program a robot. I can tell the light kind of kicks in, that programming this robot [is] similar to gaming. They see the correlation. They’re like, “Whoa.” Most of them are really smart kids.  

We’re starting to get a little traction. We’re getting people from Detroit, Los Angeles, Colorado who are contacting us. We’re really trying to figure out how we can scale this bigger.  

How many kids do you typically get in a week? 

Foster: We try to do 15 a week. We have laptops for everybody, and they 3D print with their own laptop, so they’re not sharing time with others.  

Is it competitive to get into the camps? 

Foster: It is a little competitive. It was just first-come, first-serve, but now we’ve got kids who have really a strong STEM background. We don’t necessarily just take them automatically anymore. We have a couple camps near the end that aren’t necessarily STEM students thus far, but we still want to get them exposure, so we let them come to camp, but they might not come with the really high-achieving kids. We call it the general STEM camp, so we don’t exclude them at all. They still get to attend. 

How old are the campers? 

Foster: Middle school, so 10- to 14-year-olds. We have one — this is his third year in camp; he’s 14 — this is his last year, but he’s already applied to get hired next summer. He’s got a real advantage over other 15-year-olds who have never worked, never saw plastic; he’s going to be way advanced. 

What would 14-year-old Geoff think of the opportunity? 

Foster: That would have been awesome, just to see manufacturing, what takes place and see the shipping docks, see incoming material coming out, seeing the conversion to a finished good, seeing outgoing shipping, quality checks, quality inspection equipment. All of that would have been like, “Wow.” I didn’t see manufacturing until I was 20 years old.  

I probably wouldn’t have waited till I was 39 to start the company. I’d have been years ahead. 

I think it’s somewhat personal for me, but, also, we’re creating a talent pipeline. Some of my competitors will ask, “How are you doing this?” They won’t do it. Some of these kids are eligible for jobs here. They understand plastic; we’re going to give them a shot. We have talent now that — no pun intended — we’ve molded. 

How do you think being a minority has affected your own career path? 

Foster: I think it’s motivated me. I didn’t think we would be the largest minority-, 100 percent owned manufacturer injection molder in the world. There wasn’t a lot of competition. It’s very capital-intense. So, for that reason, there weren’t a lot of African American competitors. If there were, they were Tier 2 or Tier 3 or Tier 4, which [is] not sustainable because, as costs go up, or [with] tariffs or COVID, one little hiccup, with 3 and 5 percent margins, we’re putting them out of business. 

I think it changed my perspective. I think some of the more forward-thinking molders respect what I’m doing, and even though they’re not Black, they know I had some bigger hurdles than they did. I think they respect that, and I appreciate that. And there’s some that, because of the color of my skin, they’re not going to like me no matter what. I grew up in in the ’70s, so racism doesn’t bother me. But I think people do respect what we’re doing and quite honestly, a lot of them, the reality is, we passed them. 

How does your mother feel about your success? 

Foster: She’s very proud. She’s 85, so I talk to her every day. 

What gives you the most satisfaction when you consider your journey? 

Foster: Having a start-up company, following my dream and creating jobs, creating opportunities for others. That’s kind of the cool part to me, where people saw my vision, and they believed in my vision, and they came on board. It was hard to get people to leave a job, when we didn’t even have benefits. Being able to sell that to others, and now they have careers; they make more than they made at their last job, and they have better benefits. We do an annual employee appreciation trip. We’re taking everybody to Jamaica in two weeks. 

Everybody? 

Foster: We’ve been doing this for 10 years, usually about four days. Last year, we took everybody to the DR (Dominican Republic); the year before that, we took everybody to Cabo San Lucas. The year before that, it might have been Jamaica. If you’ve been here a year, you’re eligible. 

You can trust the plant’s operations to people who started within the past year? 

Foster: We have about 30 people who will be here, and some of them have been here for a long time. There’s a few people that have been here from the beginning, so they either take care of their parents or home school; a couple are afraid to get on an airplane.  

Do you have any kids of your own? 

Foster: Our daughter [will] be 30 this year. She’s a high school teacher in Charleston, S.C., and she’s passionate about special education ... actually got a BS and master’s in special education. And our son works [as] a business development manager here. He got his MBA last December. So he’s really passionate about what we're doing here; he worked here in high school.  

If you were trying to start a business today, could it be done? 

Foster: There’s a lot of competitors that can’t get in those spaces. We’ve got several certifications: ISO 13485 for medical devices, IATF 16949 for automotive, ISO 14001 for environmental. We’re recycling water; the building is LEED-certified. The investments we made in our software, our ERP, in our certifications has set us apart from competitors. I think some of these certifications, they’re barriers to entry for some of my competitors who may be mom-and-pop shops. A lot of these competitors who are in their garage or an A-frame metal tin roof, they can’t compete with us anymore. The requirements are tighter for medical, as well as automotive. And for good reason. You look at how many people get killed in automobiles; way more testing has to be done on biopharm, as well. It’s a lot more stringent, but it’s a lot more expensive. Your customers aren’t going to say, “Oh, we’ll pay 50 grand.” They want you to pay for the testing. This is a world now where people will sue you if they think that you had something to do with [a problem]. You have to have the resources in place, attorneys. Some of those things we didn’t worry about 20 years ago. So, I think it’s a lot more difficult to start up. 

What do you like to do outside work? 

Foster: Enjoy golf and attending collegiate and professional sporting events. 

How would you like to be remembered?  

Foster: Entrepreneur who started a minority business and the largest 100 percent owned minority injection molder in the world. Also, created opportunities for others to get STEM exposure and start them thinking about advanced manufacturing careers while in middle school.