Cyclone Power
Born and raised in northwest Iowa by two proud Cyclones, Sarah Van Berkum jokes that she came out of the womb being told she’d one day attend Iowa State. And while Van Berkum (’16) had dreams of attending art school in New York City, she decided to stay closer to home. “Everything happens for a reason, and it ended up being the best decision,” she says.
Van Berkum quickly fell in love with her design program, and over the next few years, she connected with great mentors and lifelong friends. It was at Iowa State that she met Peter Ducato (’14), with whom she’d go on to lead Luno, a company that designs and sells vehicle-based camping gear.
She shares more about her experience as an entrepreneur and her love of ISU.
When you co-founded Luno, you didn’t have a lot of resources for marketing; how do you think that impacted your success?
I believe there’s no one right way to do something; you can always bring your unique perspective to any situation, and that’s totally what Peter and I did. It was a lot of trial and error, and we had that young grit and hustle. In the beginning, we saw every email that came through, every social media comment, and every product review, so it was fun to listen to our customers and learn on the fly.
What did it mean to be recognized with the 2024 Great Companies International Women Entrepreneur award?
It was huge because I’m so tunnel-visioned in my day-to-day at work and can struggle with imposter syndrome a bit. It’s very important to me to try to be a role model for the women in my life, especially for my female employees, so having the award be specific to women entrepreneurs was cool. I started this path when I was in my early 20s; to put in all that hard work, for seven years at this point, and receive recognition for that effort, it really meant a lot.
You’ve employed several Iowa Staters; why is that important to you?
We post our internships and openings on the job board because we love hiring people from ISU. We feel confident in the quality of people that are applying. Staying involved means so much to me and Peter –– Iowa State was such a monumental influence in forming who we are as professional human beings today, and we truly believe in Iowa State and the programs that it offers.