From a ‘Leap of Faith’ to an Enduring Business
It started in a basement.
In 2000, Kevin Lentz faced a career crossroads when the company he worked for was acquired by a larger company. He found himself not wanting to do the corporate grind and told his wife “I don’t want to be part of this.”
Her response: “Do you think you could do it on your own?”
The idea for Anthologic was born.
Lentz started the company by himself with no clients in his basement. Soon after, two former coworkers joined him. They picked up their first two clients, who are still clients today.
“I took a leap of faith. My wife took a leap of faith. My business partners took a leap of faith,” he said.
Still, Lentz went an entire year without a paycheck.
“I didn’t want a job. I wanted a career,” Lentz said. “I didn’t put plan B out there. Just plan A, which was ‘work hard, do good work, treat people well.’ If you do those things, you’ll always have a chance to succeed.”
Success did follow. Anthologic eventually moved out of Lentz’ basement and grew methodically over the years, and today employs around 75 people in its Historic East Village office. Revenue has grown nearly every year of the company’s existence and 2025 was the company’s best year ever.
Lentz wanted to make Anthologic a place where employees came first. He has always encouraged employees to go home and spend time with their families.
“You’re going to have a rewarding career, but enjoy the fruits of that labor,” he said.
As a result, he said, the company has benefited from a low turnover rate, which is good for recruiting future employees and serving clients. “We know our clients inside and out.”
The company has historically seen referrals drive a lot of its growth, and it has proven effective both in picking up clients and in hiring employees.
Anthologic Embraces Technology and Change
Greater Des Moines was a perfect place to grow the company. The market was large enough that he could find clients, but not so large that his agency would get lost. He could start a company without a tremendous amount of costs. He could find talent.
Lentz has found that it was easy to get involved in the community and have access to businesses of all sizes.
“In some places, there might be a huge gap between the CEO of a large company and the owner of a small company. But here, we go to the same club, and the same Civic Center,” Lentz said. “There’s an opportunity to network and get to know people. If you are here, you want to be here.”
He has made a point to get involved on boards and committees in organizations including the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Iowa Association of Business and Industry and more. Anthologic does pro bono work for local nonprofits.
“We have been extremely blessed by how Greater Des Moines has been very good to me, my family and my company,” he said. “We just feel it’s an obligation to give back as best we can through charitable donations, events and things we try to support. Whether it’s our time or resources, we try to spread it out because they are all amazing causes.”
During Anthologic’s 25+ years in business, Lentz and the team have worked on some memorable projects.
His favorite project? The first one, picked up in his basement, in 2000. He still has the first invoice framed in his office.
“You can’t have project two without project one,” he said.
Learn more about Anthologic at anthologic.com.
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