Our fastest-growing companies for 2020 cut a swath across Tarrant County business, from small firms to some of the largest
Big Job for New Chamber Chief
How new Chamber
President Brandom Gengelbach is confronting a shortfall in fundraising Leaning In
What TCU’s new Neeley dean learned from listening to Fort Worth
Taking Heed of Dad’s Words
Rosa Navejar’s architecture firm is up to five offices, 61 employees, $10 million in sales
Sheffield Clark Coinsource
Whitley Penn was founded in Fort Worth in 1983. Three decades later, the firm has grown to more than 550 employees with locations throughout the State of
ability to recruit top talent, and unwavering commitment to our employees that help make us one of the Fastest Growing Companies.
Contents / Features
January / February 2020
32 Fastest-Growing Companies 2020
In just three years, these 23 locally based businesses saw revenues spike quickly in all sorts of industries. From marketing to making shoes, bitcoin to beauty, here’s how Fort Worth’s fastest-growing companies stack up.
50 Selling the City
The fast growth of Fort Worth is presenting challenges for the chamber’s new president.
Your hometown business school has a bright new face.
The TCU Neeley School of Business recently modernized our facilities and we’re excited to show them to you. But just so you know…we’re so much more than a pretty face.
by The Economist
Open House | January 31, 4-6 p.m.
2900 Lubbock
We invite you to tour our new Spencer and Marlene Hays Business Commons and meet students and professors.
62 EO Spotlight: This Cowtown Angel hopes to become the Henry Ford of the medical device industry.
Bizz Buzz: With a new giving strategy, the Morris Foundation is honing in on two specific city issues.
12 Face Time: From knocking on doors — to opportunity knocking — Rosa Navejar broke tradition on her journey to success.
14 Stay Informed: Being a family-friendly company could get you recognition from the mayor.
14 Around Cowtown: Fort Worth Inc. Best Companies 2019
20 Tech: A former Lockheed Martin employee quits his job to engineer the perfect razor blade.
22 Distinctive Style: From men’s makeup to tailored suits — tips for the polished professional.
24 Wine and Dine: A TCU grad takes to Tolar in hopes of building a business out of his whiskey-and-coffee concoction.
28 Off the Clock: It took a few cutbacks to kick this motorsports park into high gear.
30 Health and Fitness: How boutique gyms are flexing in the industry.
64 Analyze This/Real Estate: Fort Worth’s transit-oriented development could use some acceleration, one columnist writes.
66 Analyze This/FW Chamber Report: Fort Worth execs travel to Phoenix for a little economic inspiration.
70 Business Leadership/Successful Entrepreneurship: Seven ways to get excited about your business again.
72 Day in the Life: New dean, new vision for TCU’s Neeley School.
Special Advertising
57 The Economic Pulse of North Texas
17 Office Space: Boxy spaces and minimal square footage didn’t limit this Legoinspired office.
54 Running Toward the Roar: The first steps to starting a food incubator? Raise baby chicks.
At Gus Bates Insurance, our clients rely on us to help guide them through the complex world of insurance and investments. But before that, we always begin with a hello and a handshake. There are no cookie-cutter clients, so we offer no cookie-cutter solutions. We combine our experience and creativity with close, personal relationships to maximize your options. So call us today, and get on a first-name basis with your insurance provider.
817.335.9547 • GusBates.com
Becoming Relevant and Staying There
Bill Thornton moved to Fort Worth in 1983 as TCU’s offensive coordinator under head coach Jim Wacker. At that time, TCU was a cellar football team in the Southwest Conference, averaging 16 points per game in 1982. In Thornton’s first year, TCU won just one ballgame. In 1984, Thornton and Wacker’s offense averaged 31 points per game, leading to the Frogs’ first bowl game appearance since 1965.
Despite the largest turnaround in college football history, it wasn’t until TCU beat USC in the Sun Bowl in 1998 that they were able to make any real national noise in Division I football. And, it was another decade (2008) before a number of diehard TCU alumni and Fort Worthians did something to make sure TCU was nationally relevant year after year by raising enough capital to completely transform Amon Carter stadium and its athletic facilities to rival any in the country. Three years later, TCU won the Rose Bowl and has become one of the most consistent teams in the country ever since.
After six years with TCU, Thornton was hired by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce as director of local business development. Three years later, he was promoted to vice president of economic development before being named CEO and president in 2000. When Thornton started with the Chamber in 1989, Fort Worth had a population of around 447,000 and was the 29th largest city in the United States. Today, Fort Worth is the 13th largest city in the country, with a population of 933,881, overtaking San Francisco last year.
While Thornton was certainly not solely responsible for Fort Worth’s growth, he undoubtedly played a significant role. With Thornton’s upcoming retirement this summer, the Chamber is in good hands with Brandom Gengelbach, who was recently promoted to president after serving as executive vice president of economic development since 2016.
According to Gengelbach (see the Gengelbach Q&A on page 50}, for the Chamber to be successful they have to do a better job of being the marketing agency for the business community. And, while effective marketing requires a good strategy, it also requires money. The Dallas Regional Chamber has an entry membership level of $3,000; Fort Worth’s is $499. The Fort Worth Chamber’s 2019 fundraising goal for its 2020 budget was $8 million. It fell short by 36% ending up at $5.1 million. In comparison, Oklahoma City has a population of 669,363 and a budget of $16.1 million and Kansas City has a population of 507,652 with a $10.7 million budget.
Gengelbach states that, “We have got to get leaders off the sidelines and help us grow and develop the community the way we want it to look. Because if we don’t, we’re just going to look up one day with all the growth that’s coming here, and whatever happens, happens. We have the ability to help dictate it.”
Like TCU in 2008, if we want our city to be nationally relevant as a business city year after year, a number of diehard Fort Worthians need to step up and provide our Chamber with the funds to do it.
Hal A. Brown owner/publisher
E. Kory Stafford Founder/President & CEO
Bizz Buzz
News / Face Time / Stay Informed
Activist Philanthropy
Fort Worth’s Morris Foundation shifts to new focus on education and health care giving. Two priorities: third-grade reading and increased use of mental health services.
BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
Todd Liles, executive director of the Morris Foundation, founded more than 30 years ago by his parents, Linda and Jack Morris, calls it “activist philanthropy.”
The foundation, which has long served the city’s most vulnerable populations, is moving into an unusual new giving strategy
announced in August under which subject matter experts in education, health care, and social services lead in solving critical challenges to people most in need.
The foundation's main focus in education is third-grade literacy in Fort Worth public schools; in health care, mental health; and in social services, homelessness. Each will
receive 60% of the foundation's financial gifts in the three “pillars” in the future.
In education, only 32% of Fort Worth ISD third-graders read on level today, a critical workforce and economic development issue the city's thought leaders are coalescing around.
“We recognize we can add value,” says
Elizabeth Brands, the Morris head of education giving who is also new executive director of Read Fort Worth, the third-grade literacy initiative launched to attack low literacy by recruiting volunteer tutors to read with children in the schools. “It’s not just the dollars anymore.”
“It’s not typical philanthropy,” Liles, who came aboard the foundation in 2015 to help ensure the continuation of his parents' vision, says. “It’s activist philanthropy.”
The foundation supports about 95 programs each year, with more than $100 million in distributions since 1986, about $11 million given annually, and more than three million people impacted each year. Jack Morris, a businessman who made his money in carpet pad, died in 2004. Linda died in 2019.
In education, charter schools have long received the bulk of the foundation's educational giving. “Elizabeth wanted to toggle over to the ISD,” Liles says.
Read Fort Worth, coming into the 2019-2020 school year, had a goal of 1,000 volunteer tutors it would send into schools. It will surpass that and has set a new goal of 2,500 heading into the fall 2020, Brands says. Outside the district, the foundation wants to help boost summer camps with reading curriculum, ensuring the continuation of reading over the long break. “Our goal is to elevate those summer camps,” Brands says. For families, the foundation wants to help reduce the number of first- and second-graders who are chronically absent — defined as absent one day every two weeks. One idea to help families whose parents work odd hours: organizing community partners such as churches to conduct “walking school buses” to school. “At schools that have a chronically high rate, it’s about doubling down.”
The foundation has identified two other pillars of its education giving strategy: developing nurturing learning environments and cultivating transformational leaders. Both have been identified by community leaders as key and necessary pieces of Fort Worth’s early childhood learning approach.
“If we create 10 outstanding teachers, we would still not transform,” says Brands, a former schoolteacher who was executive
director of Reading Partners, a national nonprofit that runs reading tutoring programs in several Fort Worth ISD schools. “Teachers line up to work for principals that are transformative.”
Brands is the third executive director Read Fort Worth has had since a coalition of community and business leaders, led by Mayor Betsy Price, since-retired BNSF chairman Matt Rose, and Kent Scribner, the Fort Worth ISD superintendent, launched
Teachers line up to work for principals that are transformative.
– Elizabeth Brands
it in 2016. While the ISD can point to improvements on numerous fronts, the third-grade literacy rate hasn’t grown since Read Fort Worth started.
The Read Fort Worth goal is to have 100% of third-graders reading on level by 2025 — or 100x25. “I would say the 100x25 goal is ambitious and audacious,” Brands, who arrived at the foundation in 2017, says. “We are committed to growth. We see bright spots.”
In health care, the foundation has historically given most of its gifts to Cook Children’s, Texas Health Resources, and the Child Study Center, which provides diagnosis, treatment and education to children with complex development and behavioral disabilities. In social services, it’s historically supported nonprofits in food insecurity such as the Tarrant Area Food Bank; homelessness, such as the Presbyterian Night Shelter; support such as job training and Guardianship Services, which provides guardianship and supports and services for at-risk adults in Tarrant County.
Mental health and reducing homelessness will be the foundation’s primary giving focuses in health care and social services under the new strategy. The foundation wants to invest in Fort Worth’s push to become a “trauma-informed commu-
nity” by 2024, with all systems addressing mental health needs from prevention to treatment. The foundation is participating in the Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County, comprising people from various organizations. Fort Worth, for one, has a high infant mortality rate. Even though that’s been long known, “the health care community is not exactly sure what's causing it or how to collectively solve the problem,” says Andy Miller, a nonprofit executive who joined the foundation in 2017 as head of health care and social services giving. “Everything is so siloed; we chose not to work with a single silo in health care.” A big part of what the foundation brings to the table: “They didn’t have a consistent funding partner.” The foundation is interested in impacting systems. “We are moving away from the more typical projectbased approach [of giving] to an approach that is comprehensive and more effectively solves the problem.”
The foundation helped finish the new Northside Community Health Center in Fort Worth and helped design a wellness program.
Why mental health? “It has implications for so many other health care needs in the community,” Miller says. A significant piece the foundation wants to work with is adverse childhood experiences, which can increase risk of cancer, HIV and AIDS, diabetes, drug and alcohol abuse, and unplanned pregnancy. “The more adversity in childhood, the worse your health care outcomes,” Miller says.
In homelessness, the foundation partners with the Presbyterian Night Shelter in Clean Slate, which helps train residents and place them in jobs. Miller is a member of the Clean Slate steering committee. “We’re looking at how we can help grow that program.”
The foundation wants to help build permanent supportive housing that takes people out of homelessness. In the last three years, the foundation has also added John Peter Smith Hospital as a partner, funding an adolescent behavioral health unit. Particularly following voters’ passage of a bond package for JPS facilities, “we think this is the right time to deepen our relationship with JPS,” Miller says.
Rosa Navejar
Opportunity kept knocking at the door, and Rosa Navejar kept answering. Today, she runs a Fort Worth engineering company with offices in five cities statewide.
BY TERESA MCUSIC | PHOTO BY OLAF GROWALD
Rosa Navejar did not start out as an entrepreneur, but after a local career spanning nearly 45 years, the Fort Worth native now runs her own $10 million company in her hometown.
The 63-year-old has been a solid fixture in Fort Worth business since she graduated from Diamond Hill High School, the youngest of 10 children in her family and the daughter of a butcher. “I was always told as a Latina woman that I was going to be a housewife and a mother, and that if I wanted to get I job, I should go work at Tandy on the manufacturing line,” she said. “I kept asking why can’t I get another job? So, I took the bus and went downtown and knocked on all the doors and applied at different places.”
First of Fort Worth (now Bank of America) gave her a try, and she started her 25-year banking career in the proof transit department, ending up as the first bilingual housing lender in DFW, focusing on the low- to moderate-income mortgage market. Her father, a former migrant worker, was a great source of her ambition, Navejar said. “My father told me [that] if you have the will, you can do anything,” she said.
An active member of the community, Navejar has served on numerous boards, including as the former chair of Fort Worth’s Race and Culture Task Force and on the board of the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “My father always told us to give back to your community,” she said.
Turning Point
It was while she was serving on the committee to replace the Hispanic chamber president that Navejar was approached to take the position. So she switched gears
and became the first female president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, growing the organization from 250 to close to 1,400 members by starting a host of programs, including an eight-week course in business development, mentoring programs, and ESL classes for business to teach them to read a contract. When the Barnett Shale boom hit, she worked with TCC and gas producers like Devon Energy to create training for roustabouts. The programs attracted African-American and Anglo small business members as well.
Opportunity Knocks — Twice
Then in 2012, opportunity knocked again. This time, a friend, Brad Gorrondona, was splitting off a branch of his company, an engineering firm specializing in identifying subterranean utilities in construction development. He wanted her to take over the company so much that he was willing to finance the deal. Navejar again was conflicted over whether to once again delve into an area in which she had no background. But after running into an old banking friend after church, she was reminded of what a risk-taker she was.
Today, as president and CEO of The Rios Group in Fort Worth, Navejar has expanded her company to 60 employees from 23, with offices in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. She more than doubled revenues to $10 million, partly through establishing Lunch and Learn programs to educate developers, and last year, she paid off her loan to Gorrondona. Working almost entirely in commercial construction, the Rios Group’s clients include TxDOT, DFW Airport, numerous municipalities and railroads. They also act as a subcontractor to major engineering firms like Freese and Nichols and Kimley-Horn.
Mayor Betsy Price’s Best Place for Working Parents Awards
Think your workplace is one of Fort Worth’s best places for working parents? You can enter the inaugural Best Place for Working Parents 2020. The initiative is part of a community-wide campaign, with Mayor Betsy Price, to build Fort Worth as “The Best Place for Kids.” The strategy includes developing a best-in-class child care model; mapping child care deserts in the city; repurposing buildings for child care or upgrading existing facilities; inspiring family-friendly business practices; using summer school spaces as early education hubs; and publicly recognizing great spaces and places for kids.
Price will announce Fort Worth’s first Best Place for Working Parents awards at her 2020 State of the City address Feb. 28. Applications for the awards are open online at bestplace4kids.com, and the deadline is Feb. 10. Employers can also go to the site and take an online assessment of their practices.
Award applications will be judged on family-friendly policies. Best Place for Kids says the top 10 family-friendly policies that positively impact the bottom line are company-paid health coverage; paid time off; parental leave; nursing benefits; having a “Best Place” designation; on-site child care; child care assistance; backup child care; flexible hours; and work by remote.
— Fort Worth Inc.
Save the Dates
Just a few local entrepreneurship events to keep on your radar this year.
Jan. 30: Forte Awards Night Winners announced for Small Business of the Year. business.fortworthchamber.com/ events
April 24 – 25: TCU Values and Ventures
Students from around the world pitch business ideas meant to do good. neeley.tcu.edu/vandv
May (date TBD): Small Business Summit
Learn and connect with small business owners and entrepreneurs. fortworthchamber.com
Applications begin in May (date TBD): Fort Worth Business Plan Competition
Small businesses showcase their business plan for cash prizes, resources and more. fortworthtexas.gov/business-plan
Nov. 16 – 20: Global Entrepreneurship Week Workshops, competitions and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs. gewfortworth.com
Fort Worth Inc. Best Companies 2019
Fort Worth Inc. announced the rankings of its Best Companies to Work For in Fort Worth on Nov. 7, celebrating the honorees with a luncheon at The 4 Eleven.
Photos by Honey Russell
1. Pat & Clyde McCall
2. Scott Nishimura, Ashley Haley
3. Omar Akhtar, Tim Black, Kara McClain
4. Robert Copeland, Brandon Corse, Marion Haidari, Shelby Bruin 1 3 4 2
YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABO
ecoTWX® collection made from 2.5 Million plastic bottles.
Shoe lining made Renewable and Naturally and Invasive algae with ecoTWX® biodegradable organically is harvested material and natural fiber uppers tanned leathers from lakes for a SO/SO bamboo made from Merino dyed using sustainable charcoal blend. sheep wool. vegetable matter. midsoles.
Outsoles made from an eco-friendly rice husk blend.
We are taking responsibility for the environment, are you?
We are committed to doing our part to save the planet by creating products from recycled plastic, agricultural waste, and natural resources, while at the same time, aiding in the reforestation of the troubled tree populations in the United States. We pledge to be carbon neutral by 2020, promoting a greener earth.
To learn more about all of our sustainability efforts, visit twistedx.com/sustainability.
Executive Life & Style
Office Space / Tech / Distinctive Style / Wine & Dine / Off the Clock / Health & Fitness
Like Playing With Legos
How a Fort Worth architecture firm built a shipping container office that doesn’t feel like a box. BY SAMANTHA
CALIMBAHIN
/ PHOTOS BY OLAF
GROWALD
Connex — the office and retail park just off Interstate 35 and East Rosedale Street — has a way of sticking out in its neighborhood. Made from shipping containers, stacked somewhat asymmetrically and splashed with striking colors like orange, red and green, the building is a bit reminiscent of a child’s Lego house.
And that was the idea, says Jie Melchiors, partner at architecture firm MEL/ARCH.
“The inspiration is really from the kids.”
Building a shipping container office wouldn’t be as easy as stacking Legos, though, as Jie and architect/husband Matthijs discovered. Working as their own general contractor with no experience using such nontraditional materials, it would take ingenuity, a little DIY and a few sleepless nights to turn 40 shipping containers into a multi-tenant office that doesn’t feel like a box.
“Staging those containers and building [them] in a very logical order, even think-
ing about how to not block yourself by stacking them — it’s a lot of challenges,” Jie Melchiors says.
One of the main challenges was making the small space feel less restricting. With a 5,000-square-foot lot to work on, MEL/ ARCH brought in 40 shipping containers from China, each ranging from 20-footers to 40-footers and reaching about 9-feet6-inches tall. Despite the limited square footage of each unit, the spaces feel surprisingly open and airy, thanks to not just the
added windows but the arrangement of the boxes themselves — one can stand in their office, peer through the glass and see into the next space.
“[As] a small business owner or entrepreneur, you [can] feel very lonely. You feel you’re all by yourself; you’re isolated from other businesses,” Melchiors says. “But it doesn’t have to be. Visually, you can see other people working in other units. The windows make a huge difference.”
At three stories, the building also offers views of downtown, and leaving one’s unit means stepping outside — a plus or minus, depending on the weather. Containers surround an outdoor common area known as the urban porch, where Connex often hosts events. The solar roof doubles as shade for the urban porch — so do the shipping containers themselves, cantilevered to both provide shade and act as a walkway between units.
The space between the boxes adds more rooms too, like the conference room, created from the negative space of six shipping containers. Here, floor-to-
ceiling windows bring in ample natural light. According to Melchiors, 40% of the windows are made from recycled glass.
Connex is particularly eco-friendly. According to Melchiors, it’s a zero-energy building — the solar array on the roof is a 22.9KW system and provides all the building’s electrical needs, and windows let in so much natural light that tenants hardly have to turn the lights on. In fact, according to Melchiors, “In the hottest summer, August, our electricity was $5.”
The building’s design naturally enhances airflow through open areas, and every unit has its own air conditioning, which means only the spaces being used are the ones being heated or cooled. Additionally, ceilings in each space consist of recycled pegboard, which serves as an acoustical ceiling to quiet down the space. Exterior decking is made of 100% recycled bamboo. The parking lot is a bit different too — the surface is made of permeable paving to reduce stormwater runoff.
As far as interior design, the aesthetic
is relatively minimalist, and tenants can pay a little extra to have their space fully furnished by Connex. One conference room features a DIY project by the Melchiorses themselves — a table with no screws, held together by notches in the wood that connect like a puzzle.
Now open for a little over the year, Connex holds about 32 leasable units. At press time, nine businesses, including MEL/ARCH, were officing in the building. A coffee shop, 5AM Drip, is expected to open in January.
Melchiors says she’s enjoyed the energy the space brings to an average workday, saying the environment inspires efficiency. She’s working on a live roof on the east side of the building — that is, a roof with a garden completely covering the surface. Currently, the garden is nothing more than Bermuda grass growing above a couple inches of dirt, liner and packing peanuts underneath for irrigation. She’s waiting for spring when she’ll spread flower seeds.
In time, she hopes Connex will be the building that spurs more creative development in the neighborhood.
“Let’s build something ourselves; be the pioneer,” Melchiors says. “We think if we design something cool, people will follow.”
Connex is built from about 40 shipping containers.
A small model of Connex is in Matthijs Melchiors' office.
The parking surface is made from permeable paving to reduce stormwater runoff.
This conference room table has no screws, held together by notches in the wood.
Floor-to-ceiling windows help small spaces feel more open.
Connex also offers sweeping views of the surrounding neighborhood and downtown.
Engineering the Perfect Shave
Inside Supply, the aerospace-inspired razor company redefining shaving and drawing bites on “Shark Tank.”
BY MATT PAYNE
Former Lockheed Martin engineer Patrick Coddou, as he colorfully put it, was sick of his face being left a warzone after shredding off his facial hair with common multiblade razors.
Irritation and ingrown hairs never seemed to elude him — that’s until he dialed his search back a few decades and found the original Schick Injector Razor. Coddou, wielding the original injector razor, takes notes of its many components: a single blade and an apparatus requiring disassembly and reassembly, all boiling down to what he calls “a pretty cumbersome process.” Although effective, he saw
room for improvement — inspiration that birthed the Supply Single Edge razor.
After launching the business in 2015, raising more than $250,000 in 45 days on Kickstarter, and landing a $300,000 deal with Robert Herjavec on “Shark Tank” last November, Coddou and his wife, Jennifer, continue to operate the men’s razor company off Stanley Avenue. They’re now shipping around the globe and have expanded into an entire line of grooming products like shaving creams, brushes and the post-shave product.
“Our plans for 2020 are to keep doing what we’re doing,” Coddou says. “But do it better.”
Single blade. Cast from solid stainless steel, Supply’s razor is a thick, weighty blade that effectively wipes away facial hair. The single blade shaves at the skin’s surface without leaving any nicks behind; where multiblade cartridges tug at hair with a leading blade, the Single Edge simplifies the process and yields a smoother shave.
Easier blade loading. An insertion key seamlessly loads the one blade, which can produce up to six shaves, Coddou says. This method helps nearly eliminate hazards from potential cuts, compared to the original injector razor.
Heavy handle. A stainless steel handle makes for a fairly weighty product, but in that weight, shavers are trained to leverage the mass in doing the majority of the work. “When using something this weighty, the inclination and the error is to press hard on razor,” Coddou says. “The advantage to the weight is to let the razor do the work and glide across your skin.”
Engineering and design. Supply wouldn’t exist without Coddou’s background in engineering. Prototype designs were produced via computer drawing technology implemented at Lockheed.
Jennifer and Patrick Coddou of Supply
If the Suit Fits…
When it comes to a polished, professional look, fit is everything, according to Colour Basis’ Christi Schreiber.
BY SAMANTHA CALIMBAHIN / PHOTOS BY OLAF GROWALD
Christi Schreiber can easily tell when something doesn’t fit right — just look at the fabric. “Fabric points to the issue,” she says, noting that creases and pleats on clothing reveal what needs to be corrected, whether it be a sloping shoulder or a leg that’s longer than the other.
Schreiber, president and CEO of Colour Basis, has spent almost 20 years helping clients fine-tune their personal image. In September, she opened a storefront on West Berry Street. While her company does everything from suit fittings to makeup tutorials (for both women and
men), her specialty is styling for professional settings.
But, for Schreiber, styling for work isn’t just about looking good — there’s an element of functionality as well. One of her clients, Worthington National Bank CEO Greg Morse, is eager to show off his suit’s more practical features: a cuff made a bit wider to fit his watch; a jacket with 10 pockets, one of them angled and sized specifically for a cell phone. And, for fun, Schrieber added stitching under the collar that reads “Money Man.”
“Your outward image, a lot of times, reflects what’s going on inside,” she says.
Christi’s Work Wardrobe Tips for Men
1. Fit is everything in a polished and credible look. Have off-rack suits tailored to fit your body.
2. Start with a really strong capsule wardrobe with quality blue and charcoal suits and a sport coat that is interchangeable with them. Add what I call “fashion pieces” (i.e., a good pullover, dress coat, button-down with more print or pattern, suiting with bolder patterns, etc.) to build on your wardrobe as budget allows.
3. Quality not quantity. If you are on a budget, you are better off to have fewer great quality suits and shirts with a large tie collection to make the most impact.
4. Always wear collar stays in dress shirts for the most polished look. Take stays out before you take shirts to the laundry; if they start to bow with age and wear, replace with metal ones.
5. Clean out your closet and get organized. Get rid of any garments that do not fit or have them tailored.
Christi’s Makeup Tips for Men
Makeup for men? Yep, we have been teaching male makeup application for 20 years to TV professionals and executives. The demand is increasing in the business sector due to cameras being everywhere in the business world, from leading webinars, online training, constant social media, online interviews, media interviews, and so much more. CEOs, entrepreneurs, Realtors, consultants and attorneys, all the way to influencers, need to have an approachable, nondistracting appearance on camera.
Biggest distractors we teach you how to correct with a very natural look:
• Shine on skin — the biggest issue on camera for men and women
• Dark under-eye circles
• Redness or blotchy, uneven skin tones
• Dark beard shadow
• Thin/light/uneven brows
Rise and Shine
TCU entrepreneur Evan Sledge uses an old family whiskey recipe to launch himself into spiked coffee. His family’s Sledge Distillery will begin distributing it in January.
BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
Evan Sledge is likely one of the few college students who’d built a business operating in multiple states before he graduated. Well before he graduated from TCU in May with a degree in general studies, Sledge already had several years under his belt as a hunting and fishing guide in Texas and Alaska, and living and working four months of the
year in the Last Frontier.
Sledge, 23 today, and a couple of high school buddies started the business when they were 15 and in high school and ran a lawn mowing business in their hometown of Granbury. Their football coach offered $100 for a guided hunting trip; that launched the young partners into the hunting and fishing guide business. Sledge
studied one year at a college in Alaska and has spent May to August each year there as a guide. “It all started with a Toro lawnmower,” Sledge says.
But things started to get “complicated” this year, Sledge says. His family’s been distilling whiskey on a 160-acre farm in the Hood County city of Tolar, minutes off of U.S. Route 377, south of Benbrook, using recipes saved by Sledge’s grandfather, who distilled moonshine on the side while serving in the Air Force in the Philippines during World War II.
You can buy the whiskey, including a smooth aged Spirit of ’42 for $60, only at the Sledge Distillery on the farm. But in January, the distillery plans to begin distributing its spiked Whiskey Morning Coffee outside the distillery, with Evan Sledge in charge of brand management and one of five partners in the product. Sledge’s parents have also been slowly developing the farm, which
Evan Sledge and partner Carson Becker
today includes the distillery, outdoor party space for rent, and an indoor event venue that includes a bridal suite. Next up in the planning: a saloon and small hotel.
The family moved into the whiskey business after 2008 when Sledge’s grandfather died and the family discovered an old chest containing the handwritten war-era moonshine recipes. According to family folklore, Sledge’s grandfather knew the chemistry behind whiskey-making and decided to put the Philippines’ high humidity to work in the distilling process. He scrounged scraps from the kitchen at his Air Force base, including potatoes, tomatoes and mangos, and combined them with sugar in his recipe. The whiskey was a lucrative sideline. The result by the end of the war: three duffel bags of cash, two that he was able to bring back to the U.S. after the third one was stolen. He soon met his wife-to-be, Sledge says. “My grandma was Church of Christ; she
told him, ‘You can’t drink again,’” Sledge says. “He married my grandmother, never drank again.”
After the family discovered the recipes, Sledge’s father bought a still and began to make whiskey using the recipes. The family obtained a license to sell the whiskey and opened Sledge Distillery’s doors to the public in November 2018. It publicized the opening through word of mouth; the products currently are available for sale only at the distillery, and then only on the first and third Saturdays of each month. “We didn’t do any marketing,” Sledge says of the opening. “We were expecting maybe 50 people to drive out here. We had maybe 1,500.”
Besides the Spirit of ’42 and Whiskey Morning Coffee, the distillery produces pecan and peach-infused whiskeys and Mango Moonshine. “Everything we make starts with granddad’s recipe,” Sledge says. “The same recipe he used during the war is the same recipe we use today.”
Sledge started the coffee business out of an entrepreneurship class at TCU’s Neeley School of Business, where Michael Sherrod, the William M. Dickey Entrepreneur in Residence, has teams of students devise and plan and launch a business by the end of each semester. The business levers the distillery’s assets, aging coffee beans in whiskey barrels before fireroasting them and then using them to make the spiked coffee. Whiskey Morning Coffee was born in 2018. The distillery also sells the beans online.
For at least now, the family is seeking only to distribute the coffee, maintaining a conservative posture. His dad’s vision is “I want to keep granddad’s vision going,” Sledge says. “It’s turned into a business.”
The family raises cattle, goats, chickens and hay on the farm. The venue plan began with the distillery and moved into the outdoor party area, including a cooking facility and restrooms. Then the family built the indoor venue and opened it six months ago, and it hosts events such as weddings, reunions and corporate retreats. A large number of friends volunteer as workers. “Most of the people who work here are lawyers, doctors,” Sledge says. “They do it just for fun.”
Sledge figures he’ll have to cut back on the time he spends annually in Alaska. “Maybe four weeks” each year, he says. “Two weeks at the beginning [of the summer season], two weeks at the end.”
The Sledge family is building an attraction in Tolar, including a distillery and event venue.
Tearing It Up
A change in a business plan reshaped the operations at Midlothian’s TexPlex Park, turning it into one of the country’s premier destinations for motorsports. Here’s how your company can get a ride.
BY SAMANTHA CALIMBAHIN
The original vision for TexPlex was ambitious: Take 1,000 acres in Midlothian and turn the land into a park stocked with activities — boating, biking, shooting, motorsports, the works — all grounded in the idea of creating memorable experiences for customers to enjoy.
Then, about a year into the business, founder and president Tommy Kehoe decided to scrap that plan.
“[The business plan] entailed a lot of stuff that didn’t end up working,” he says. When he saw the motorsports side of TexPlex growing, Kehoe decided to dial things down, get “back to that fundamental of creating great experiences” — and close the indoor gun range, jet boat rides, and bike park.
But TexPlex kept motorsports, as well as hired a vice president, Billy Champion, to run day-to-
day operations.
Since then, the business has been thriving, allowing TexPlex to better focus its resources and staff. According to Kehoe, “We gained a combination of credibility and improved branding within the motorsports industry after committing all of our energy into creating an awesome motorsports facility.”
Today, TexPlex is still 1,000 acres but primarily dedicated to UTVs, ATVs, bikes, and trucks, with about 10 tracks for different vehicles and skill levels. The facility also hosts events like the TexPlex UTV Racing Series, a series of eight races with a prize purse of $110,000. And, nearby Blaine Stone Lodge offers luxury accommodations with a rustic, Texas-themed flair.
“The real magic of the property is when those two things [TexPlex and Blaine Stone Lodge] work together,” Kehoe says.
While built for weddings and parties, TexPlex and Blaine Stone Lodge specialize in corporate functions, particularly for motorsports companies like Honda, BRP Can-Am and Toyota, who use the facility to host training events and product launches.
In fact, it was those motorsports companies that helped prompt Kehoe to refocus the property’s offerings.
“They’re looking at me and saying, ‘You’re
the customer we can’t get because your generation isn’t buying stuff like this,’” says Kehoe (who’s 33). “The way our business is being built, how we do these rentals and suite experiences … Millennials don’t want to go buy a $20,000 unit; they’d rather pay a $100 a month and have access to it. Them telling me that … that was where I was like, ‘Okay. We’ve got something special.’”
Smaller companies can book the facility too, with a “ride, shoot [clays], eat, and drink package” being the most popular, according to Kehoe.
The average rate is about $100 – $120 per person, including food and beverage, though the price can vary depending on how many activities are included (for those who bring their own vehicles, the price is about $30).
TexPlex offers BRP Can-Am Maverick Sport UTVs, as well as training, for guests of private parties — but no walk-ups. That is, you can't drive up there and rent a vehicle for a day, but you can walk up and ride on the track if you bring your own vehicle.
Then, at Blaine Stone Lodge, companies can host meetings and other professional activities. The resort has Wi-Fi to run 300 laptops, features a 17-foot, high-definition projection TV and can even flash your company logo on other TVs throughout the building.
“Being in rural Texas, we want this to be a truly great Texas day,” Kehoe says. “Eat some good food, shoot some guns, be out in the country, do some off-roading — we want people to walk away living up to that Texas brand.”
A brand that’s better, Kehoe says, thanks to the decision to refocus the business. His advice to other companies in the same boat — listen to the people around you, then listen to yourself.
“It’s about being true to yourself and being authentic. If you’re the leader of the business, you’ve got to do what you really believe in. How you come to the realization of what’s right, I think everyone has a different path,” Kehoe says. “It’s a painful thing. It sounds easy six months after the fact, but it was a really tough night to go through that stuff, changing teams over and going back to my investors and saying, ‘Well, that didn’t work. Sorry.’ … When that moment comes, you know.”
Booking information can be found at texplexpark.com and blainestonelodge.com.
Working Out
A new micro gym in the Near Southside finds its strength in community.
BY BRIAN KENDALL / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
Among the coffee shops, murals, boutiques, and bakeries that dominate Fort Worth’s flourishing Magnolia Avenue — tucked away in a recently erected two-story building — lies a 2,400-square-foot micro gym. Despite legions of dumbbells and stationary bikes sprawled across its space, Fort Worth Strong, which opened its doors in October 2019, doesn’t seem out of place.
Having a large mural painted by local artist Kristen Soble covering the business’s west-side interior wall doesn’t hurt. Still, it’s the ownership’s commitment to community that makes it such a seamless fit.
“We really try to create community both within the gym and outside the gym,” Nick Redmond, owner and manager of Fort Worth Strong, says. “Being able to put on socials and events and knowing that our mission statement is enhancing or enriching
the lives of members in our community is important for our success.”
And this is one of the local business’s main differentiators as it competes with, what Redmond calls, box gyms — wellestablished gyms with household names and numerous locations that operate under the banner of large corporations able to offer less expensive monthly fees. Such competition is a David and Goliath-like standoff, which means going toe-to-toe will likely result in a knockout. According to Redmond, survival in this arena requires creativity and building a strong bond between the gym and its members.
Redmond, along with his business partner, Tom Lail — both of whom are under 30 — started looking at opening a gym in The Foundry District in early 2019. It wasn’t until after the deposit and first month’s rent were down and Redmond left his job that everything fell through. It was this series
of unfortunate events that led the business duo to the Near Southside, and they’ve since become entrenched in the community, hoping to feed on the influx of young professionals moving into new urban-style apartments popping up throughout the area.
But Redmond is well aware of his competition — after all, he once worked at Anytime Fitness — to a point where it admittedly keeps him up at night.
“[Large box gyms] model is ‘We want to get as many people in the door as we can, and hopefully they never show up,’” Nick says. “Versus ours, where we say, ‘We want a lot of people to come, but we also want retention; we want people to show up and take full advantage of our expertise.’”
According to a 2012 article in Men’s Journal, commercial gyms require 10 times the members its facilities can handle. In other words, if more than a mere 10% of its members started showing up, it wouldn’t have the resources to handle the crowd. So, according to Redmond, it’s not a stretch to suggest that such fitness centers are not invested in the success of their clients.
Redmond explains the necessity to tailor workouts to each person’s physical abilities and needs; it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Fort Worth Strong is not a gym where one shows up during lunch, does a few skull-crushers and curl-ups and takes off. Fort Worth Strong is by-appointmentonly, ensuring that every time one enters the gym, he or she will receive a decent workout.
“We try to provide value from the first time they step in the door,” Redmond says. “That's really the biggest difference from a box gym where you’d walk in, and it’s whatever workout you want to do, you’re all on your own.”
There was a 2014 article in Club Solutions Magazine that asked the question, “Are micro gyms the future of clubs?” It argued that smartphones and social media were creating a space where a gym with a communal atmosphere and well-defined culture had a leg up on the competition. But patrons still have to experience it before they’ll buy into it.
“Honestly, it’s really just trying to get people in the door to experience what we do,” Redmond says. “Because I think if people see our approach, they’ll know very quickly if we’re right for them or not.”
Nick Redmond, owner and manager of Fort Worth Strong
OPEN HOUSE & VIRTUAL INFO SESSIONS 2020
Saturday, February 29 from 9am to 11am (Open House) Wednesday, March 25 at 11am (Virtual) Tuesday, May 19 at 11am (Virtual)
RSVP at uta.edu/OpenForBusiness
At the University of Texas at Arlington’s College of Business, we offer students the chance to gain the knowledge and experience they need to become successful business leaders. Programs at UTA Fort Worth campus:
• Executive MBA
• Master of Business Administration (MBA)
• MS in Health Care Administration
• MS in Real Estate
Aspiring or current CPA? Professional Development is available for Accounting and Finance Professionals. Visit fortworth.uta.edu/academics for more information.
Our second annual class of the area’s Fastest-Growing Companies represents industry ranging from financial services to construction, philanthropy, IT, and services.
BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY
BY OLAF GROWALD
Fort Worth Inc.’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2020, the magazine’s second annual class of companies, represents a big swath of the region’s entrepreneurial landscape: financial services, marketing, construction, investment management, law, philanthropy, manufacturing, information technology, salon services and restaurants. The list is ranked by three-year revenue growth
between 2015 and 2018. Companies were eligible to compete if they’re for-profit; generated revenue by March 31, 2015; had at least $50,000 in 2015 revenue and completed or billed at least $1.5 million in 2018 revenue; and are based in Greater Fort Worth, including several surrounding counties; or their audited, provided financials are based on the performance of a subsidiary in the area.
Coinsource
What they do: Bitcoin ATM network
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 16,923.6%
Sheffield Clark was a history major at the University of Central Arkansas when he happened into a convenience store one evening and made conversation with a man who was servicing an ATM. That led to his $20,000 purchase of several machines, which led to the 300-machine network Clark had by the time he sold the network after college. “I probably sold it too early,” he says. That put Clark into convenience stores and ATMs, which led to a business he founded and still owns selling pump-top video advertising; the Dallas Cowboys are one partner and producer of content. In 2015, Clark ran across an article about a successful operator of ATMs for bitcoin, the digital currency launched in 2009 that’s traded peer-to-peer, not through a trusted third party. That year, Clark, who graduated from Boswell High School in Saginaw before he headed off to college, launched Coinsource in a downtown Fort Worth office building with two partners and other investors.
Today, Coinsource, which Clark subsequently moved onto the 14th floor of the Wells Fargo Tower in Fort Worth’s Sundance Square, has more than 400 bitcoin ATMs in 42 states. Coinsource launched about 100 of those ATMs for third parties in the fall, a new expansion strategy. Coinsource is also poised to take the company international when opportunities arise, Clark says. “It’s a quick software update” that would allow the ATMs
to accept currency other than U.S. dollars.
Coinsource is the fastestgrowing company on Fort Worth Inc.’s 2020 ranking, posting $25.19 million in 2018 revenue, up 16,923.6% since 2015. There are about 4,000 bitcoin ATMs in the U.S. and 6,100 worldwide. Customers can buy bitcoin with cash using the ATMs. Coinsource, a seller of bitcoin, makes its money by charging a 10% markup, compared to what Clark says is a 15% to 20% markup by most of his competitors. If you put $1,000 into the ATM, it sends $900 worth of bitcoin into your digital wallet. You can convert your bitcoin to cash, use it to make digital purchases at outlets that accept it, such as ecommerce marketplaces and the computer giant Dell, or sit on it as an investment. Only 5% of customer transactions have been sales, Clark says. Many of Coinsource’s customers are millennials and baby boomers who like the ease and convenience of trading peer to peer. “They have to give a Social Security number to an exchange.”
Bitcoin has become similar to gold in the position it holds in many investors’ portfolios. When Coinsource got into it, Bitcoin was trading at $170 per bitcoin, Clark says. The currency surged to a value of nearly $20,000 per bitcoin in 2017, then settled, finishing 2019 at around $7,500. The founders of bitcoin set 21 million bitcoins as a finite maximum supply that can be “mined.” Most of Coinsource’s customers buy bitcoin as an investment, rather than viewing it as a liquid asset, Clark says. “I would analogize it to gold. It’s volatile, and it’s risky. But it’s got staying power.”
Coinsource set itself up immediately as a credible player to dispel any concerns in the mysterious financial world of
bitcoin, Clark says. The company recruited its general counsel from a major law firm, where he specialized in money laundering. At Coinsource, he’s helped the firm negotiate a maze of federal and state regulations. “We needed somebody with incredible credibility,” Clark says.
Coinsource has 40 employees today, including 10 in compliance. It has six full-time compliance investigators. Prospective customers must first enroll in Coinsource, where they submit a self-portrait and scan their identification. Coinsource’s facial recognition system looks for matches on various government watch lists. The system blocks transactions to so-called “dark wallets” whose users are anonymous or to other wallets known to support illegal activity, Clark says.
Going forward, Clark wants the company to be in all 50 states and to continue expanding by selling ATMs to other operators. Coinsource charges a fee for management, or the operator can assume management. "We see our market share growing exponentially."
2iCare Emergency Room and Urgent Care
What they do: Run emergency room and urgent care centers
Headquarters: Fort Worth
3-year revenue growth: 14,117.03%
Dr. Shane Cole was an emergency room physician working for a group at Arlington Memorial Hospital when he and a number of other ER doctors decided to go out on their own with a new model: a hybrid free-standing emergency room and urgent care center.
The company iCare ER & Urgent Care was born with Cole as CEO and numbers of ER
physicians as partners. A group opened its first ER and urgent care in December 2015 in Frisco. In September 2017, another iCare group headed by Cole opened the company’s second location on Sycamore School Road in southwest Fort Worth’s Chisholm Trail corridor. In 2018, iCare partnered with the Wise Health System in Wise County and entered a free-standing ER and urgent care in Argyle, assuming management of the ER and ownership of the urgent care clinic.
The ER and urgent care centers are in fast-growing corridors like the vast Chisholm Trail highway corridor. The emergency rooms have handled everything from strokes to heart attacks and gunshot wounds, Cole says. The urgent care clinics are in the same building, but separate from the ER to maintain branding and patient confidence that urgent care cases won’t be billed like expensive ER visits.
Where the centers “really shine” are Level 3 complaints such as belly pains, relatively minor fractures, pneumonia and kidney infections, Cole says. At iCare, those patients can be treated and going home within an hour, he says.
“All [of iCare’s physicians] are board-certified ER doctors, which differentiates us,” Cole says. iCare’s revenue grew 14,117.03% to $7.13 million in 2018, up from just $50,123 in 2015, the company reported.
The company wants to continue to open new centers but is taking a conservative posture. Each costs about $5 million, paid for with cash and debt financing, and requires partners. “We feel our model is the right model,” Cole says. “But to get big quickly, you need a helping hand. The helping hand comes with a cost.”
Dr. Shane Cole
3
Koddi
What they do: Advertising technology for the travel industry
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 1,261.35%
Koddi, whose advertising technology uses data gleaned from consumers’ web searches for hotels to match them to the right properties worldwide, has been a growth run since it was founded by George Popstefanov and Nicholas Ward in 2013. The company made the Inc. 5000 ranking of fastest-growing U.S. companies for the second year in a row in 2019, at No. 328, after seeing revenue shoot to $27.3 million in 2018 from $2 million just three years earlier.
“We should get a third year, too,” Ward says. Koddi powered $20 billion in transactions in 2019, compared to the $1 trillion in total global digital travel transactions annually. “Two percent starts to sound really impressive,” Ward says.
Koddi’s employee count has grown with revenue, surpassing 150 in late fall, after starting the year at 99, and 2018 at 34 employees. The company has six offices in Fort Worth; Austin; New York; Ann Arbor, Michigan; San Francisco; and Dusseldorf, offering employees opportunity to relocate or to do stints.
4 WinterGreen Synthetic Grass LLC
What they do: Synthetic grass sales and installation
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 878.6%
Winter Moore was working for a pest control company, working at a home in
Southlake when he noticed the artificial grass in the yard. “I’d seen it in football fields, but never in a residential application,” he says. Doing his research, he found synthetic grass was popular in states like California and Arizona, but not in Texas.
Moore and his wife, Ashley, founded WinterGreen Synthetic Grass in September 2014, with Ashley Moore retaining her full-time job at a SherwinWilliams store for two years to ease the transition.
The company posted $1.6 million in 2018 revenue, up 878.6% over 2015. It has 25 employees, with three in sales and three crews, and Moore says he expects to add a fourth crew this spring. “By spring, we’ll be at 30 employees,” Moore says. The company last year bought, rehabbed and moved into a 10,000-square-foot industrial building east of downtown Fort Worth.
The firm sells to commercial contractors, landscapers, homebuilders and retail customers, offering more than 100 kinds of artificial grass from various manufacturers and selling and installing for $8-$10 per square foot. Applications range from putting greens to commercial landscape, recreation fields, playgrounds, dog runs, pool decks, rooftops, and play areas.
WinterGreen has developed its own triple-layer base system to facilitate drainage.
Moore says he considered buying a synthetic grass franchise but opted to start his company from scratch so he could offer any product. The Moores bootstrapped the launch.
Because suppliers can get the product to him typically within a day, Moore doesn’t invest in inventory. With few competitors, Moore says the company sees plenty of poten-
tial in Tarrant County. Growth will slow at some point, but “we really don’t know when it’s going to plateau.”
5
Fort Capital
What they do: Real estate investments
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 739.04%
Fort Capital’s burgeoning River District mixed-use development in west Fort Worth has created a livework-play district for the West Side. With the company substantially done, CEO Chris Powers says Fort Capital’s done with ground-up development. “We’ve just found other, better ways to use our time and our investor dollars.”
The company recently purchased an old family farm fronting the Trinity River off of White Settlement Road near the River District and is taking on a partner that will redevelop the land into mixed-use.
Fort Capital is focused on buying industrial and urban commercial property throughout Texas, Powers says. “I am very bullish that the world will keep moving online,” creating the need for warehouse and distribution, Powers says. The firm also is investing substantially in its own technology to improve processes.
Fort Capital owns and operates more than $250 million worth of property in Tarrant County and surrounding markets. The firm posted 2018 revenue of $25.5 million, up from $3 million in 2015. Fort Capital has about 20 employees and may bring on another two or three in 2020.
Powers is concerned about the economy’s strength, seeing
signs in mixed results for new tech initial public offerings, higher costs, and the scuttled WeWork IPO. “These are signs of a very frothy market.”
6Construction Cost Management, Inc.
What they do: Construction cost estimation
Headquarters: Fort Worth
3-year revenue growth: 358.57%
Construction Cost Management’s headquarters — above PR’s Saloon in a historic building in the Fort Worth Stockyards — belies the company’s steam. Keith Kothmann co-founded the firm in 1979, and his daughter, Katy Abraham, took it over in 2012 and set the company on a growth path. Sales reached $2 million in 2018, up 358.6% from 2015. Employees reached 16 today, up from two. The company placed No. 1,129 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 fastest-growing U.S. companies ranking.
The firm does independent cost estimations for architects and engineers working big projects in the justice, government, health care, science and technology, education, commercial/industrial, aviation, historic restoration, water, railroad, utilities and civil infrastructure, and national parks markets. Most of those projects require a thirdparty estimator, where Abraham steps in.
“Our pipeline is pretty long,” Abraham says. “The government continues to have to build things; they have to continue to remodel.”
Abraham has built the firm’s staff through an internship pipeline with the University of Texas at Arlington’s construction management master’s program. The staff today has
five UTA graduates, Abraham says. The pitch to them: “If you are a budding architect or engineer, you work on a project for a whole year. What we showed them was you can work on four or five projects in a month.”
7Thrive Internet Marketing Agency
What they do: Digital marketing Headquarters: Arlington 3-year revenue growth: 289.5%
Thrive continues to find new growth avenues. Newest, in 2019: The company began offering search engine optimization for Amazon products. “It has huge potential for us,” Matt Bowman, the Thrive founder and CEO, says.
The company in early 2020 will move its headquarters from an office building in south Arlington to a business park nearby, where it’s building a new headquarters building for itself and renting out two existing buildings to tenants. Thrive will occupy 7,000 square feet of the 26,000, moving out of 5,500 square feet. Thrive has 115 employees, with as many as 50 added during 2019, but almost all work by remote, and only a dozen or so come in regularly into the Arlington office.
The company sells search engine optimization, pay per click, social media, and a service called RIZE, launched in 2018, that lets businesses manage reviews and online reputation.
Thrive has been increasing its business with franchises and multilocation businesses. “We’re getting some great results,” Bowman says. For one 35-location restaurant chain that signed up for RIZE, Thrive generated 50,000 reviews in the last year. In December, Thrive signed up a 200-location franchise.
The company posted $6.3 million in 2018 sales, up 289.5% from 2015. In 2019, sales were on track to finish between $10.5 million and $11 million, Bowman says. Thrive has a 96% monthly client retention rate, Bowman says. The company also appeared on the 2019 Inc. 5000 at No. 1,200.
Thrive has been significantly boosting its investment in employee benefits. One coming: a program that will help employees get out of debt. “I have a real heart for helping people,” Bowman says. The program will include grants to employees who apply and agree to education in personal finance. “We’ll come alongside them and make the final payment on some of their personal debt,” Bowman says.
8 The Medlin Law Firm, PLLC
What they do: Criminal defense
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 160.4%
Gary Medlin, managing partner of The Medlin Firm, has been in criminal practice for more than 30 years. His practice runs the gamut, from airport crimes, such as possession of a firearm, to domestic violence, drug, DWI, expungement, failure to appear, fraud, gun, and murder. The firm posted $1.66 million in 2018 revenue, up 160.4% over 2015.
9 M. Gale & Associates, LLC
What they do: Fundraising consulting Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 115.3%
Two years ago, Missy Gale’s
small Fort Worth fundraising consulting firm was a two-woman shop, bringing in subcontractors to work on projects and running a virtual office in the cloud, a familiar industry model.
That’s when she brought in an advisor who suggested she adopt a hybrid model of employees and subcontractors, with the firm developing systems and materials that could be used from campaign to campaign, enabling a greater project volume. “In the subcontractor model, there’s a lot of reinventing the wheel,” she says.
Today, the firm has six employees and several subcontractors who work largely with it. The firm a year ago moved into offices on Fort Worth’s Race Street. It recently completed a campaign for the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and is working on a project for Texas Health Resources and a feasibility study for the Salvation Army in Dallas. Revenue reached $1.6 million in 2018, up 115.3% over three years.
The firm works for small nonprofits, all the way up to major campaigns. It helps nonprofits develop staff and board strength and business savvy, determine strategy, recognize prospects, and build relationships.
It focuses on Fort Worth. “I felt there was enough business here, and we could be stronger if we knew the community well,” Gale says. “We want to be the strongest firm in North Texas. We should see the business double over the next three to five years.”
10 Stanton & Co. What they do: Residential renovation
Headquarters: Aledo and Fort Worth
3-year revenue growth: 114.2%
Stanton Pearce occupies a difficult niche in construction: jobs where the client is living in the space Pearce and his crews are working on. “Almost all of our business is repeat or referral,” Pearce says, citing Dalworthington Gardens, where he’s been working on a string of jobs.
Pearce has been in the business for 23 years, finding it coming out of junior college. He founded the latest of several companies, Stanton & Co., in 2013 in Aledo. Pearce specializes in flooring and kitchen and bath renovations in homes and businesses. “I started off in flooring,” which led to granite, he says. “Then my clients needed paint.”
Revenue rose 114.2 percent to $1.8 million in 2018, compared to 2015. Sales went sideways in 2018, as Pearce grew a new Fort Worth showroom. In 2019, they surged again to about $2.5 million. In 2020, he figures he’ll hit $3.5 million. Pearce, whose 22-year-old son has joined the business, figures $4 million in annual revenue is their top goal. Any bigger, “you can’t do the quality control.”
The company has 10 employees, including two construction managers, two in quality control, and four working with clients and arraying materials. Pearce says he won’t start a job until all products are in hand and in the company’s Aledo warehouse.
The firm sticks to Parker County and Fort Worth, doing in 2019 what Pearce estimated was 80 master bath renovations and 40 kitchens. Pearce estimates he once did a third of his business in Dallas. “There was a time I was driving to Dallas every day.”
Missy Gale M. Gale & Associates,
11
Twisted X
What they do: Footwear Headquarters: Decatur 3-year revenue growth: 103.1%
Twisted X, the fast-growing casual footwear designer, continues its fast growth. The company received another boost in the fall when it learned it’s one of Footwear Plus Magazine’s 2020 sustainability award nominees, nominated with the footwear giants Adidas, Sperry, and Timberland. “To be nominated is a great honor,” Prasad Reddy, Twisted X’s CEO, says.
The company’s ecoTWX line of shoes, made of recycled plastic bottles, has sold 200,000 pairs and recycled 13 million bottles, Reddy says. The company’s goal is to reach 1 million pairs sold by the end of 2020; Reddy thinks Twisted X will near 750,000. “When we started [ecoTWX] three years ago, nobody paid any attention to us.”
Through the One Tree Planted nonprofit, Twisted X plants a tree for every pair of shoes it sells, reaching 150,000 last year, with trees planted in California, Oregon and Colorado. The company mixes sugar cane molasses with petroleum compound in producing midsoles. It has a near-100% plastic-free workplace, and offers an interestfree loan of up to $10,000 to any employee who buys an electric car. The company wants to have a carbon-neutral footprint by the end of 2020. “I’m not so sure we’ll achieve it, but we’re trying,” Reddy says.
Sales reached $72.15 million by the end of 2018, up 103.1% over 2015. In 2019, the company was nearing $83 million in sales by early December. It appeared on the 2019 Inc. 5000 at No. 3,424. It has 48 U.S. employees at its Decatur offices, and 14 in China,
where two contract manufacturers make Twisted X shoes.
Twisted X continues its drive to be product-centered, constantly pushing for new technology, merchandise categories, and construction techniques. One of its newest-technologies: comfort cells that bounce back in insertable insoles or built into the shoe.
The company sells to 3,000 retailers, adding 20 to 30 each month. Besides the Chinese factories, it produces shoes through two exclusive contract factories in Mexico. Margins have been under pressure, given the U.S. trade battle with China. Where Twisted X was paying an extra 10% to 20% tariff based on product classification to buy products from China, it’s now paying 35% to 45% under the tariffs President Trump has added, Reddy says.
He’s been able to get much of that through price reductions from his manufacturers, but the tariffs have cut into margins, he says. “So far, we haven’t passed any cost increase” to retailers, he says.
One of the Chinese factories Twisted X uses has a partner factory in Myanmar, and Twisted X transferred some production there in 2018. “Otherwise, it is extremely hard to transfer from one country to another.”
Reddy says he’s considering doing some final assembly in the U.S. “You need stitching skills. We’re looking at it.”
12
& Freeman
Managers
backlog comes largely from repeat customers. One of its recently completed construction projects, a new Roanoke City Hall, was the latest of several major projects the company has done for the city. Two Roanoke city executives have moved to Flower Mound, creating a Steele & Freeman conduit there. “We do no bid work,” CEO Michael Freeman says. “It’s really mostly repeat clients.”
Revenue reached $87.2 million in 2018, up 99.07% from $43.8 million in 2015, and the firm placed No. 3,536 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list of fastestgrowing U.S. companies. The firm starts working on projects nine months to a year before construction, creating added stability. The firm promulgates 23 values called the Steele & Freeman Way to employees, clients and subcontractors, and makes sure it keeps its subs quickly and on time to retain their loyalty. The firm has 60 employees.
“We’ve got more work than we’ve ever had before,” Freeman says. “It’s very important to keep the positive vibe going on.”
The firm pairs its younger employees with more experienced mentors. Steele & Freeman’s also made sure to maintain a diverse array of industries in its portfolio. “Some markets are stronger than others, and it changes all the time,” Freeman says. “We need to build that resume in every pot.”
13
Muckleroy & Falls
What they do: Commercial construction Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 87.44%
in corporate office, retail, bank, medical and light industrial construction projects through its four decades. The company in recent years has become active in K-12 school construction, municipal work, hospitality, auto dealerships and churches. The expanded portfolio has provided more stability for the Fort Worth firm. And “it’s provided an environment for our employees to grow,” Harold Muckleroy, the CEO and co-founder, says.
Muckleroy and partner Max Falls several years ago repositioned the company for growth, as new partners and successors came aboard, including Muckleroy’s son, Zach. Revenue reached $86 million in 2018, up 87.44 percent from $45.9 million in 2015.
The firm has outgrown its corporate office building, which it built five years ago in the Clearfork development in southwest Fort Worth. Last fall, it purchased an office building at 3200 Riverfront Drive off of the Trinity River at South University Drive in Fort Worth, with plans to renovate it and move in April or May. The firm has more than 60 employees.
Five years ago, the firm set a 10-year growth goal to become one of the five largest firms in Tarrant County. The firm was 18th then; it’s now seventh.
The firm is comfortable with the economy and recently hired a development officer to cover Dallas County, Muckleroy says.
“The DFW market is still growing very dynamically,” Muckleroy says. “There may be some kind of national slowdown, but we don’t have any signals that we need to start paring back.”
14 ISHIR
Steele & Freeman’s $380 million estimated business
Muckleroy & Falls has historically been strong
What they do: IT outsourcing Headquarters: Plano
3-year revenue growth: 84.9%
Rishi Khanna’s ISHIR — his first name spelled backwards — continues its aggressive growth. Revenue rose 84.9% to $2.5 million in 2018 from 2015. But in 2019, the company doubled, Khanna says.
“It’s going to be crazier” in 2020, says Khanna, who estimated in late November he’d spent 100 days in hotels worldwide during 2019. The company ranked 3,611 on the 2019 Inc. 5000.
ISHIR provides IT outsourcing to consulting firms, software companies, newly funded startups that need to scale up, and enterprises short of IT talent and knowledge, with clients in industries such as insurance, financial services, e-commerce and government, although Khanna says the firm’s strategy is “more horizontally focused than vertically focused.”
The firm, founded in 1999, this fall celebrated its 20th anniversary. The firm has 21 U.S. employees and contractors, with eight in its Plano headquarters, as many in Denver, and the remainder scattered. In its separate India unit, it has 60 employees and contractors, including programmers, developers, project managers and marketers.
15 Comprehensive Finance, Inc.
What they do: Health care payment platforms and plans for providers and patients through Compassionate Finance and Abella brands
There’s little pretense about Comprehensive Finance, which sits in 7,000 square feet on the second floor of a building in a bland logis-
tics park near DFW Airport. The space is cheap, at $4,000 a month, great for a fast-growing small company, Michael Brown, the CEO, says.
Brown, hired in 2015 as the company’s third CEO since the Granbury dentist Bruce Baird founded the company in 2011 to provide payment plans to patients, has kicked the firm into higher gear. Baird launched the company with its Compassionate Finance unit, setting payment plans and processing for dentists to use with patients. In 2019, the firm added its Abella brand, which automates the Compassionate process and offers services like electronic invoicing. The firm in 2019 also added a white label business when a client asked CFI to create a loan processing system that Compassionate Finance manages.
Revenue rose 76.8% to $4.19 million in 2018 over 2015’s $2.37 million. The company, which was No. 4,403 on the 2019 Inc. 5000, has been growing at about 20% annually, and Brown says that’s the goal for 2020. The firm has self-funded all of its growth, he says.
The firm is investing in training infrastructure for employees, important given the company hires a lot of younger employees, Brown says. CFI has 22 staff members and will likely hire another five in 2020, he says.
The firm has client health providers in all 50 states, with Texas representing 22% of the business. Dentists represent 90% of the network, but CFI wants to grow other segments.
CFI’s benefits package includes options and equity grants to all employees. New employees receive grants and are eligible to participate in options. “Coming from a Fortune 50 company, I realized how important great benefits are,” Brown says.
16
DV8 The Salon
What they do: Hair salon
Headquarters: Grapevine
3-year revenue growth: 65.59%
Lisa Justiss and Candice Hammit were working as hairdressers at a popular salon in Arlington when they decided it was time to go into business for themselves. They learned a small salon on Main Street in downtown Grapevine was for sale, and they purchased it 12 years ago.
They later moved it across the street to its current location in a mixed-use residential and commercial development. And in 2016, they expanded it to 5,000 square feet from 1,800, after considering opening another location in Euless. In 2021, they plan to open a second location in a mixed-use commercial and residential building under construction in Roanoke’s rapidly expanding downtown.
Revenue reached $1.7 million in 2018, up 65.6% over three years. The salon has 16 chairs and employs 18 hairdressers, giving them freedom in setting hours across a Monday-Friday workweek; the salon is closed weekends.
Nine years ago, Justiss and Hammit brought in an accountant as a contractor; he installed sophisticated budgeting, profit and loss accounting, forecasting and planning. Justiss and Hammit established an apprenticeship program they use to develop and hire licensed hairdressers. One such apprentice: Kirbi James, now the salon’s third partner. DV8 — “deviate from the norm” — sticks to hairdressing, with no side services. “We’ve kept it very basic and simple,” Justiss says.
17Whitley Penn
What they do: Accounting and audit
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 56.6%
Just within the last five years, Whitley Penn’s headquarters was in a bank building it owned at West Seventh Street near downtown, and the firm’s principals were discussing the possibility of building on a second lot they owned nearby to expand. The firm ultimately took over two floors in the newly built Frost Tower a year ago and sold its old headquarters.
Whitley Penn, founded in 1983, has tentacles in corporate tax and audit; business valuation; wealth management; business consulting; financial and retirement planning; insurance; and asset management. The firm continues to grow, with revenue reaching $114.1 million in 2018, 56.6% over 2015. Whitley Penn ended 2019 at about $130 million in revenue for the year and expects to hit $145 million to $150 million in 2020, Larry Autrey, managing partner, says.
“We keep setting conservative growth goals, thinking the economy’s going to slow down,” Autrey says. The firm sees signs of slowing among clients who are wary of factors like trade — “all of our clients are doing something internationally” — and banks’ conservative lending posture. Private equity and “nonbank” lenders are popular sources of capital for oil and gas firms, viewing their assets as a backstop against the uncertainty of energy prices.
Whitley Penn has staked out differentiation as the local firm, as big firms vie for business in the region, Autrey says. It welcomes clients ranging from
Prasad Reddy
Michael Freeman Steele & Freeman Construction Managers
small firms to public companies, Autrey says. The firm finds efficiencies in use of its technology, he says.
Whitley Penn has also become an outsource provider of services to firms in segments like oil and gas that farm out work, instead of staffing up internally for it and risking layoffs when prices decline. For that business, Whitley Penn’s staff includes controllers, assistant controllers and, recently, a new landman. And if prices decline? “We’ve got long-term holding people who are able to use those services,” Autrey says.
The firm sees a similar opportunity in oil services, he says. “We’ll ramp up into that.” Whitley Penn’s due diligence segment remains strong. “We’re doing a bunch of due diligence.”
Whitley Penn, in the tight labor market, has established a reliable stream of accounting students from universities in Texas and surrounding states, a pool Whitley Penn uses to develop future fulltime employees. “We’re on nine college campuses,” Autrey says. “Nobody hires like we do. When people come in the door, they understand it’s a firm that grows and hires well.”
18 Higginbotham What they
Headquarters: Fort Worth
the 24th largest independent insurance broker in the U.S., selling business and personal insurance and benefits.
The company continues to grow organically and by acquiring or merging with new partner agencies, expanding within existing geographic markets or adding new ones (most recently Atlanta), and expanding existing business segments or adding new ones (most recently, aviation and recreational vehicle dealers and owners). Higginbotham declines to team with an agency unless principals agree to stay on another five or 10 years. “If they can’t assist us in a perpetuation strategy, then we’re not interested,” Reid says.
Higginbotham has 40 offices in Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia, and 1,200 employees. The privately held firm fosters loyalty among employees by granting them stock annually after their first year of employment and, every three to four years, monetizing those grants, allowing employees to turn them into cash.
Higginbotham has also invested heavily in young employees, pairing new employees with veteran mentors and allowing them time to grow. “Our success rate is off the charts,” at about 83% to 85% when it comes to moving young people along into becoming account executives, Reid says.
19 M-Pak
What they do: Designer and distributor of packaging, retailer of tactical gear
Headquarters: Aledo 3-year revenue growth: 44.41%
Debbie Cooley believes her 21-year-old company M-Pak “should be a $50 million company,” she says. “We just need to stay on track.”
M-Pak designs and distributes packaging for needs ranging from aerospace helmets to calibrated equipment. Its products include custom cases, packaging supplies and shipping containers. For one, the company designed a case for the high-tech helmets that F-35 fighter pilots wear. M-Pak also retails tactical gear, including clothing, footwear and accessories, to police officers and agencies.
The company posted $12.14 million in 2018 sales, up 44.4% from 2015’s $8.4 million. M-Pak’s markets continue to grow, says Cooley, who sold packaging at another company for years before leaving to start her own firm.
pany’s business is in packaging. The firm entered tactical gear after one of its sales representatives noted some of the customers that buy packaging also buy tactical gear. “I didn’t want retail, but he kept on,” Cooley says. “We do pretty well.”
20
Baird, Hampton & Brown
What they do: Engineering Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 42.39%
Higginbotham, started in 1948 by Paul Higginbotham, today is one of the nation’s largest independent brokers. The firm reached a record $200.4 million in revenue in 2018, up 51.7% over 2015. It hit another record in 2019 and will do so again in 2020, Rusty Reid, CEO, says. In 2019, it was
Insurance is an “aging industry,” and Higginbotham wants to ensure its future with younger people, Reid says. The average age of an employee in the industry is 58. Higginbotham’s: “We’re 46 and getting younger.”
Higginbotham invests in a fun, family culture, often built around charitable involvement. The company also invests aggressively in technology, which Reid says interests younger employees.
The company sticks to business segments it knows it will do well in. Its federal business continues to grow, Cooley says. “We have a really good presence with the federal government, and it’s picking up.” M-Pak has a very strong 98% approval rate on its federal contracts. “Of course, in my mind, I’m worried about that 2%.”
The company today has 15 employees, primarily at its 10,000-square-foot Aledo headquarters and warehouse. It also has warehouses in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Chicago; customer support in Louisiana; and an employee in Massachusetts.
Eighty percent of the com-
Twenty-six years after John Baird, Merlin Hampton and Les Brown founded their eponymous engineering firm in Fort Worth, it continues to quietly grow. The firm’s latest completed project: The Sinclair hotel downtown, where the company was engineer of record. Baird, Hampton & Brown is also working on TCU’s Neeley School of Business expansion. The firm posted $16.9 million in 2018 revenue, up 42.39% from 2015. It has 110 employees, half in Fort Worth, and the others in Weatherford and Grapevine. The firm, licensed in 34 states, offers services in mechanical engineering, electrical and plumbing engineering and design, civil engineering and site development, land surveying, and landscape architecture.
Clients include ones in retail, health care, industrial and education. It added the Army Corps of Engineers last year.
“We’re fortunate that we have a very broad basket,” Ken Randall, the firm’s chief operating officer, says. In recent years, the firm began re-examining relationships with all of its clients to determine whether it could offer them its other services. “That’s led to more projects,” Shonna Driver, the firm’s marketing director, says.
One example: TCU, where the firm worked on the renovation of the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, now the Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena, and is now working on the Neeley project.
21Best Facility Services
What they do: Commercial janitorial services and decorative stone refurbishing Headquarters: Hurst 3-year revenue growth: 40%
Best Facility Services is closing in on $10 million in annual revenue and, in August, enjoyed its first $1 million month. What differentiates the firm, CEO Mark Borge says: the high compensation it pays its account managers.
“We’ve had zero turnover for more than a decade,” Borge says. “And it’s due to the compensation model for account managers. They get a piece of gross profit in every building they manage, every month.”
Best Facility posted $9 million in 2018 revenue, threeyear revenue growth of 40%. The company specializes in single-tenant commercial and institutional buildings. It serves about 95 properties, Borge estimates. The firm has eight W-2 employees and more than 110 subcontractors, many having their own janitorial companies.
Borge and partner Steven Nobles launched the company in 2004. Borge, a finance man, owned a Minuteman Press franchise he was exiting. Nobles once cleaned buildings himself and was working for a firm that Borge did the numbers work for. Nobles went out on his own; Borge provided the seed capital. “I moonlit a couple of years before this company could afford me,” Borge says. The company has never had debt, he says.
In 2011, the company made the Inc. 5000 list of fastestgrowing U.S. companies. The company has a second operating unit, a stone refurbishing division, it launched with a partner.
Best Facility wants to be a consistent $10 million-a-year performer, and it will likely spin off the refurbishment business at some point, Borge predicts. Borge says the firm has learned a lot over the years, just from doing the monthly totes to pay account managers their shares.
“I have learned the hard way the bottom line number is a lot more important than the top,” Borge says.
22 BoomerJack’s
What they do: Restaurants Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 30.4%
BoomerJack’s continues the aggressive growth path owner Brent Tipps has put it on. The company reached $35 million in 2018 revenue, up 30.4% over 2015. It likely reached $45 million in 2019 revenue, with a full year of results from a new Grapevine restaurant and four months of sales from its big new Sidecar Social venue in Addison, Tipps says. The company in early December opened a BoomerJack’s in Fairview. In 2020, the company plans to open three more BoomerJack’s in Lake Worth, Dallas and Plano.
The company today has nine big BoomerJack’s restaurants, five small locations, the Sidecar Social, and the Bedford Ice House, all in the Fort WorthDallas area.
The 20,000-square-foot Sidecar Social resulted from an initial plan to open a BoomerJack’s in the popular location. But the largest BoomerJack’s is 14,000
square feet. “I just couldn’t make it work,” Tipps says.
The landlord offered a strong deal for what used to be a movie theater, and Tipps set out to launch a venue similar to Punch Bowl Social, but without the bowling, and with a warmer feel and easier traffic flow. The venue, which can accommodate up to 1,000 people, has been so popular Tipps hired two salespeople to book parties and meetings, and by early December, the month’s event schedule was sold out, he says.
“I didn’t realize what a niche space we were in,” Tipps says. “If you want to throw a party for 250, 300 people, there’s not a whole lot of places.” Sidecar Social has karaoke rooms and games such as basketball, ping pong, shuffleboard, and bocce ball, and numerous big TV screens.
Tipps has added significant infrastructure to manage growth, most recently including a construction director, marketing director, training director, and office assistant. He also earlier added a CFO and, after he reached hundreds of employees, an HR director. “We’ll be looking at bringing on a culinary director,” Tipps says.
The company has more than 1,000 employees. Along the way, Tipps has built in a family culture, adding paid maternity leave of up to six weeks, paid paternity leave, liberal cash rewards, and a community-giving posture that now includes a BoomerJack’s nonprofit. “We give 10% of profit to charity,” he says. He also has a large warehouse that enables him to buy items in bulk.
Growth goals: “I want to be a $100 million company.” After 2020’s new stores, he figures that will take another 12 to 15. He’s looking at expanding to markets such as Houston.
“We’re going to try to go to Houston in 2021,” where he wants to have a Sidecar Social and three to four BoomerJack’s restaurants.
23
Nix Door & Hardware
What they do: Residential doors, windows, fireplaces, hardware, home automation and security
Headquarters: Fort Worth 3-year revenue growth: 13.06%
Greg and Kathy Spears have been in numerous businesses — fishing camp, marinas, boat dealers. “And looked for value,” Greg Spears says. In 2009, the couple purchased Nix Door & Hardware in Fort Worth through their acquaintance with owner Diane Nix, whose husband had died.
The Spearses — Greg is CEO and Kathy, a CPA, is the accountant — retained Nix as brand ambassador and kept the company’s focus on its people. One of the company’s 56 employees has been with Nix 35 years. It didn’t matter that the Spearses had never been in doors. “A widget is a widget.”
The company has expanded into home security and automation, a segment Spears believes could overtake the company’s historic lines of business in prominence. Nix’s revenue rose to $12.5 million in 2018, up 13.06% over 2015.
To move into home security and automation, Spears recruited two key employees from the space. To Spears, it’s a big potential field. “If you take home security in the Metroplex, only one in five homes has a home security system,” he says.
Personalized Legal Counsel is Found at Blaies & Hightower
By FWTX: Sponsored
For legal capabilities and experiences that span a broad spectrum, look no further than one small, yet formidable office in downtown Fort Worth.
Blaies & Hightower, LLP was formed in 1997 by founding partners Greg Blaies, Wes Hightower, and Grant Blaies. Coming from larger law firms, their initial vision in forming Blaies & Hightower was to provide efficient, high quality legal services, while remaining small enough
to offer a personalized, focused approach to address their clients’ legal needs.
The firm, to this day, ensures that every attorney at the Throckmorton Street office remains dedicated to this vision.
Attorneys at Blaies & Hightower bring a level of sophistication and experience unique among small firms. The firm’s lawyers possess the institutional knowledge and broad interdisciplinary experience necessary to handle almost any type of civil matter.
Specialties at Blaies & Hightower include, but aren’t limited to:
¡ Complex Commercial Litigation
¡ Healthcare and Medical Malpractice
¡ Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation
¡ Products Liability
¡ Professional Liability (Insurance and Legal)
¡ Civil Appellate Law
¡ Business and Corporate
¡ Labor and Employment Law
Over the years, the firm has diversified its practice, successfully representing clients in a wide range of both litigation and transactional matters. However, as a smaller firm, Blaies & Hightower still provides personalized service for each individual client’s legal challenges.
The firm’s clients range from Fortune 500 companies to
¡ Government Entity Litigation
¡ Outside General Counsel Services
¡ Trucking Litigation
¡ Insurance Related Litigation
middle-market and small companies, sole proprietorships and individuals. Whether you are an individual, small business, or large company, their team is prepared to work with you to address and solve your legal needs.
Get an expert in your corner by visiting bhilaw.com/contact-us.
Brandom Gengelbach
SELLING THE CITY
Times are good for Fort Worth. That masks a big challenge for Brandom Gengelbach, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s new CEO and city’s chief salesman.
BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
Fort Worth is an interesting problem. Its pipeline of business relocation and expansion prospects has long been full, and the city historically has let the market play in terms of what business comes to town and what kinds of jobs it’s bringing. Yet despite being one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, Fort Worth is home to only 30% of the jobs in the DFW area. The city has few of the high-profile corporate headquarters that Dallas has. The percentage of the city’s population with a bachelor’s degree or higher is 30.7%, lower than the U.S. average, 31.3%. Fort Worth also spends significantly less on recruiting new business, resulting in the city being one of the nation’s least identifiable big metros. The 2020 budget for the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce — the city’s de facto marketing agency — is $5.1 million, well short of the $8 million four-year goal it set two years ago, after launching an ambitious economic development plan called Fortify in collaboration
with the city. That budget compares to $16.1 million for Oklahoma City and $10.7 million for Kansas City.
The funding shortfall — executive Brandom Gengelbach, who will assume the president's post in July, says the Chamber was unable to sway enough new contributors to support sponsorship from longtime partners — prompted the organization to rethink its strategy and retrench through 2019. Fortify’s four “pillars” remain — business retention, expansion and attraction; talent development, retention and attraction; small business and entrepreneur support; and advocacy — but only two of the four vice presidents recruited two years ago to head them remain. The focus will be on business retention, expansion and attraction, Gengelbach says. In January, the Chamber promoted Vice President Chris Strayer to executive vice president of economic development, the No. 2 post in the organization.
The chamber is “doubling down,” Gengelbach says, on transforming itself into a marketing agency that focuses on business attraction but works efficiently across all four pillars, developing and levering proprietary data for use by members and the selling of Fort Worth. It’s working on establishing a joint economic development website with the city and minority chambers of commerce and is working with Schaefer Advertising on a rebranding, both expected to be rolled out in 2020.
“For us to be successful in business attraction, we have got to do a better job of being the marketing agency for the business community,” Gengelbach says.
Importantly, Fort Worth’s economy continues to move ahead. The city is well ahead of pace on new job creation targets the chamber set in the Fortify plan. The community has coalesced around critical workforce issues like early childhood learning and third-grade literacy. The rate of new college grads moving into the city
is increasing by itself. A Craftsman factory is under construction at AllianceTexas, to open late 2020 and bring 500 jobs, supporting a major distribution center in Northlake. Mid-States Distributing Co., a $6.5 billion-a-year farm store retailer, is moving its corporate headquarters from Minneapolis to the Mercantile Center in north Fort Worth, bringing more than 100 employees.
“We have got to get leaders off the sidelines and help us grow and develop the community the way we want it to look,” Gengelbach says. “Because if we don’t, we’re just going to look up one day with all the growth that’s coming here, and whatever happens, happens. We have the ability to help dictate it.”
FW Inc.: Let’s start with this broader point. There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm in the business community about you.
Brandom: That's great. That's encouraging.
FW Inc.: But there also seems to be a lot of skepticism that we can pull off all of these goals. Why do you think that is?
Brandom: I just think that the challenges and issues that we face as a community are broad. There's a lot of work that needs to be done to be able to address the issues. It's not something that's going to happen overnight. It's something that's going to take some consistent work over time.
FW Inc.: When Fortify was launched, the chamber said, “We've been gambling on business as usual and keeping up with our growth.” How would you characterize business as usual? What needs to change?
Brandom: Over the last 30 years, with all the phone calls and people wanting to move [to Fort Worth], it really shrinks the bandwidth you have to be strategic and be out there marketing Fort Worth to specific companies. I think that has been the biggest challenge. We've experienced growth, and we're sitting here answering the phone. It has created the Fort Worth you see today. But in the next 30 years, do we want to just create the Fort Worth that comes through the door? Or do we want to play an even more active role in determining the type of community that we become?
FW Inc.: How does Fortify change that?
Brandom: The big piece for Fortify is really transforming the Chamber of Commerce to an economic development agency that leverages marketing and that leverages data. That leverages business development to grow and develop the economic landscape. The data helps us to figure out how to target businesses and other industries that we think would be successful here and would raise our economic profiles. The data can help determine the marketing, how and what's being done out there to communicate Fort Worth. Then business development is the third. That's basically having staff on the ground whose sole job is going to Chicago, L.A., New York. Those are the top three net in-migration markets.
FW Inc.: What industry are we most interested in?
Brandom: The Department of Defense and aerospace and aviation is a huge opportunity for us [given the area’s big existing
BIG CLIMB
The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s four-year goals
Business Attraction
• Draw four Fortune 1000 HQs
• 2,000 new jobs with wages above the country average
• 2,000 jobs created by existing businesses, with wages above country average
• Draw 20 Inc. 5000 relocations
Talent Development
• 5% increase in population age 25+ with postsecondary degrees, licenses or certifications
• 10% increase in talent supply of targeted industries
Small Business and Entrepreneur Support
• Increase business startups by 10%
• Achieve Top 20 status in national entrepreneur rankings, one category Advocacy
• Aid in increasing funding to implement the Fort Worth Transportation Authority’s Master Plan
• Increase business sector diversity on advocacy committees
• Promote Fort Worth as a center for political issue discussions
base]. That's a market we are doubling down on in terms of spending time out there trying to promote Fort Worth. We have an aerospace and aviation taskforce — business leaders from these organizations that can give us advice and direction on how we can go about and promote Fort Worth to companies. For example, supply chain. Okay, Lockheed. Bell. Elbit. You all are large companies [with] thousands of suppliers. Can we meet with your supply chain folks and find out the companies that you think would be open to hearing the Fort Worth story? What trade shows and events are you going to? Can we attend those with you? Can we work with you to host a reception or a party? Those are the conversations that we've been able to have, that have resulted in the introductions. These are, as you can appreciate, long sales cycles. There’s oil and gas. Although currently the market is a bit challenging, we have a huge oil and gas presence here. How can we leverage that? There's quite a lot of IT and technology that's in this space; it's located across the country. There's no reason why those individuals couldn't be here in Fort Worth.
FW Inc.: To what extent has this yielded fruit already?
Brandom: We are already two-thirds of the way to our four-year [Fortify] goal of jobs that are above the country average.
FW Inc.: Not just normal growth?
Brandom: Some of it is a combination of knocking on doors. Then some is a combination of just the phone ringing off the hook. Our goal is 2,000 jobs from existing business and 2,000 [from new business], each above the country wage average. As we sit here on Dec. 12, we have 1,400 existing business jobs that were created above the country average and 1,300 new jobs. So, we'll blow through [the goals].
FW Inc.: When you look at our counterparts on the other side of the Metroplex, have they just done a much better job of this? To what extent has the large corporate base over there been accidental? Or was it intentional?
Brandom: No. 1, they have had greater financial means to go about and execute
the strategy. No. 2, they are much more of an economic development-centric organization and do much less chamber of commerce work. The Dallas Regional Chamber, their entry membership level is $3,000. Ours is $499. The number of members they have is a lot less, and those investors have much more of an expectation around economic development functions. The majority of our members join because they're looking for services that can help them grow and develop their business. Third, the market that exists in Dallas is much more conducive toward the attraction of a corporate headquarters than the market is in Fort Worth.
FW Inc.: As you say, things are already changing in Fort Worth on their own. Brandom: As we grow and develop our market, we will have to do less. The percentage of the population with a fouryear degree in Fort Worth is below the national average. The encouraging thing is that from 2012 to 2017, we were the third fastest-growing city in the country of college-educated adults.
FW Inc.: People moving in?
Brandom: Yep. Third fastest. So, guess what's going to happen in a few years? That population piece is going to get larger and larger, and that population piece starts to change the market. People are moving here because of low cost; quality of life; our authentic, laid-back nature; and these are educated people that are moving here.
FW Inc.: Let’s go deeper on what you can do to make chamber membership more relevant.
Brandom: We have the ability to celebrate business in Fort Worth. With 1,800 members, with our size as the Chamber of Commerce, we want to be able to tell the stories. Smaller community associations and organizations don't have that pull that we do. We’re going to market talent solutions. When Junior Achievement or Workforce Solutions has a great thing going on, not everyone is going to know about it. You bring it to the chamber, and we start shouting from the rooftops all the different programs going on; that is a huge value proposition.
FW Inc.: Let’s talk more about how the chamber plans to develop and use data. Obviously, you’ll be using it to pitch prospects.
Brandom: We want to be able to leverage data to be able to identify issues, solve problems, be a resource for our membership. So, for example, Hope [Moon] in our talent department just finished a college and career readiness report where she looked at every ISD in the Fort Worth region [Moon in January left the Chamber for a post at the Mackenzie Eason executive search firm.]. I think there are 48 ISDs, and she compiled maybe 30 different data points on all these different ISDs to be able to show what percentage of students, when they graduate high school, are going on to get some sort of postsecondary attainment and how many of those students are then finishing their postsecondary within six years. If we can get this out to the business community and they see this data and some of the challenges we're facing with college and career readiness, hopefully, they can move to action. That positions us as like a knowledge leader and is something that can help drive revenue for the organization, and it's in alignment with our Fortify strategy. We want to be able to help our members grow and learn through the access to data that they wouldn't get on their own. For example, you are a small business, located at a certain intersection. What is the per capita income of the people in that intersection? What are the spending habits of those people in the area? What is the education level? It's being able to leverage the data that we have, as well as bring on new data partners.
FW Inc.: So, is that a benefit of membership?
Brandom: We're having those discussions now. There would be a baseline that would be included with membership. Then there would be greater accessibility to the data, based on the level that you would pay within the organization.
FW Inc.: And a big part of the strategy is to work across the four Fortify pillars. Brandom: So, when you look at our service offerings and what we want to do moving forward, it's going to be very marketing-
intensive. We're building this team and staff for business attraction, and we're going to share it across all those pillars.
FW Inc.: When did you realize you were going to fall short of the Fortify funding goal?
Brandom: After the first quarter [2019]. We had a $500,000 goal for 2019 of new revenue. After the first quarter, we started to have great concerns. Because the fundraising was coming up short. We knew that we needed to look at making tweaks during the middle of the year.
FW Inc.: Okay. When you guys were out there fundraising, what were you hearing? What kind of response were you getting? Brandom: I think there was general support for what was going on. I think the challenge was a couple of things. Business is going well for most people. They're profitable. They have more cash than they've had before. It's challenging to communicate [the chamber strategy] when times are good. We’re also such a big community and have so many different community players that it puts businesses in this community in a bit of a challenging situation. We've got 22 chambers of commerce in Tarrant County alone. So that splits up the pie. Others, we just didn't have as close enough a relationship as we would like. Dickies was purchased by VF Corp., and that's a new relationship. Justin [Boots] got their new leader when I first moved to town in 2017. Alcon divested from Novartis, and they got a new leader.
New Fort Worth Chamber president Brandom Gengelbach, chatting it up at one of his favorite places: the coffee shop.
Back to the Food-ture
From Navy chick to baby chicks, entrepreneur Cortney Gumbleton hatches
the
food incubator Locavore
in
Fort Worth with partner Carlo Capua.
BY JASON FORREST / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
How do you go from a military police officer to a socially conscious entrepreneur? Just ask Fort Worth’s Cortney Gumbleton. Few stories are more circuitously impactful than Gumbleton’s. Once tasked with guarding military aircraft and safeguarding Naval installations, Gumbleton now finds herself at the head of Locavore, which sports one of the most unique business
models in the Metroplex. Gumbleton, who went into social work after her seven-year military career, saw a gap in the market where local food entrepreneurs didn’t have commercial space to make sellable food items for retail.
It was at that moment in 2018 when Gumbleton stepped into that market gap. “There was nothing like this in Fort Worth,” she said. Gumbleton decided to run toward
the roar and create a home for all of these food entrepreneurs who didn’t have commercial space of their own.
“I decided instead of being the consumer and have the product, that I was going to create a home for all these food entrepreneurs,” Gumbleton said. “That was the first time I ever experienced a pain point and thought, Gosh, I bet there would be a lot of other people who would benefit from a shared commercial kitchen being for them. That’s when I decided I was going to take my social work skills and create this business.”
In 2018 alone, Locavore generated more than $150,000 in revenue, and Gumbleton says that figure will be significantly higher for 2019. In the first five months of the business, Locavore grew from renting one commercial kitchen and an event venue in Fort Worth to four commercial kitchens and an event venue. They also won the 2018 Fort Worth Business Plan competition out of 49 entrants with a 5-month-old business.
The revenue comes in from individuals booking the commercial kitchens Locavore controls for $25 an hour. Locavore doesn’t own the kitchens themselves, but they do have exclusive access to them. This allows the company to keep overhead low while giving life to underutilized kitchen space that would likely sit empty or, at best, underused otherwise.
“What’s really cool is that I’ve cracked something that most entrepreneurs want to do, and that is making money while you sleep, thanks to our tamale food entrepreneurs who are making tamales from midnight to 8 a.m.,” Gumbleton said. “I think it’s great. We are providing a very necessary need here in the community. It’s just such an incredible journey.”
After getting out of a vagabond life in the military, Gumbleton settled down in Fort Worth and went into social work.
How did Cortney Gumbleton go from military police officer to entrepreneur? Please watch Jason Forrest's video interview at fwtx.com/business.
She worked with Catholic Charities, ran the suicide prevention program at TCU, and was executive director of the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation for depression research and suicide awareness, where the foundation’s co-founder pridefully introduced Gumbleton as a “Navy chick” during one of the organization’s popular annual luncheons. To combat fatigue, she sold her house, bought a 7-acre farm in Azle with her husband and two kids, and dreamed up a new life.
The first weekend at the farm, Gumbleton bought 16 baby chicks at her son’s request. That eventually turned into a trove of eggs.
“Twenty-three weeks later, and I ended up with a lot of eggs,” Gumbleton said. So many eggs, in fact, that she started bringing them into the city to sell. She started by giving them away for free at the Rotary Club on Fridays until she realized how in demand they were. Then she had an epiphany: Wait, I dabble in marketing and communication and graphic design, she thought. I’m going to create custom egg cartons with custom labels that say, “The happiest hens in Azle on the Gumbleton homestead.”
As she reached out through social media, interest grew. The first week, she drove for hours delivering eggs in the Tanglewood neighborhood of Fort Worth and realized that for all her effort, she’d only netted $112.
“I was like, ‘There’s got to be a better way,’” she said.
ing local businesses,” Gumbleton said. “I started asking myself, Gosh, I have 7 acres on my farm. I wonder what else I could make and sell?”
Gumbleton then settled on making homemade simple syrups she could package and sell to the bars on Magnolia. But she quickly ran into a problem. The Texas Cottage Food Law stipulates that in order to be sold commercially, most food items must be prepared in a commercial kitchen, including simple syrups. In other words, chefs working out of their own kitchens are severely limited in what they can market and sell to other businesses.
Gumbleton had another idea. If I’m being stopped from selling my products commercially, certainly other small business owners in Fort Worth are as well. Then her background in social work kicked in. What if I could combine my bourgeoning love of the farm-to-table food movement with my passion for helping people who’ve been disadvantaged in some way, she wondered.
“Once you’re passionate and interested in something, it’s addictive,” Gumbleton said. “You just scour the internet looking for more information. And that’s when I stumbled on the commercial kitchen incubator model.”
“What’s really cool is that I’ve cracked something that most entrepreneurs want to do, and that is making money while you sleep, thanks to our tamale food entrepreneurs who are making tamales from midnight to 8 a.m.”
– Cortney Gumbleton
As fortune would have it, there was. At one of her delivery houses, she met a man who asked whether she’d consider selling her eggs to a restaurant. “Of course,” she replied. That man happened to be the new executive chef for a new restaurant opening in the Frost Tower downtown, now called Branch & Bird.
“That’s really what opened up my eyes to the farm-to-table movement and support-
It was at this moment that Gumbleton decided to run toward the roar and start Locavore. Sometimes the safest place to be is the one that feels the scariest. Lions — with their intimidating teeth and deafening roars — are designed to provoke fear. But the real danger lies with the smaller, quieter lionesses. In the animal kingdom, the lion’s job is to roar and send prey scattering away from the startling noise — right into the path of the waiting lionesses, the true hunters. If gazelles knew to run toward the frightening sound, they would have a better chance of survival. The roar doesn’t represent the real danger.
Likewise, humans sometimes have an instinctive desire to shy away from pursuits that look and sound scary. But often, run-
ning toward those challenges and conflicts is the best (or only) way to grow and meet our goals. In business, those who run from the deafening noise never reach their full potential, while those who turn and face the fear thrive.
When Gumbleton embraced the commercial kitchen incubator model despite zero experience starting her own business, that was her moment.
The model goes back to 1960’s Washington, D.C., and it was developed as an initiative to spur local economic development. The model allows food entrepreneurs to rent commercial kitchen space from companies using underutilized, existing kitchen facilities that have the bandwidth.
Gumbleton calls herself and business partner Carlo Capua “proud bootstrappers.” Locavore owns no space of its own, and Gumbleton borrowed $10,000 from her husband’s retirement account to start the business as opposed to looking toward a bank. By exclusively renting existing commercial kitchens in the community, like the Presbyterian Night Shelter near downtown, they draw attention to local businesses while also keeping their own cost and risk extremely low.
Gumbleton envisions the next phase of Locavore is expanding franchises into other major metropolitan areas around the country. Based on the company’s fast growth in Fort Worth, Gumbleton sees no reason why Locavore can’t be a national phenomenon.
“I never call our clients, clients. I call them family members,” Gumbleton said.
“That’s what they are to us. We are a family. We are a community. We interact with our folks in a relational way instead of a transactional way. That has been really special about our brand and our value.”
Forrest is CEO
Fort Worth. With more than a decade of coaching and speaking experience, Jason is an expert at creating highperformance cultures through corporate training programs. He writes this column for each
Jason
of Forrest Performance Group in
issue of Fort Worth Inc.
The Economic Pulse of North Texas
The North Texas region is full of opportunities for corporate relocation, investment, and the purchase of a home. Cities, big and small, offer a range of choices for quality and life and places to run your business. The information in this section is provided by the advertisers and has not been independently vetted by Fort Worth Magazine
Cedar Hill
City of Cedar Hill, Texas Economic Development Office www.CedarHillEDC.com 972.291.5132
Population:
49,000 in Cedar Hill
500,000+ trade area
County: Dallas & Ellis
Top industrial employers: Central States Manufacturing, Forterra Pipe & Precast, iDX Dallas, Total Highway Maintenance, DMI Corporation, MJB Wood Group, P&W Quality Machine, Sampco of Texas, PepWear, and Dallas Aeronautical Services.
Q. What’s your community’s pitch to businesses that want to relocate?
A. Cedar Hill’s unique natural amenities, centralized location, and solid infrastructure supports a wide range of businesses. Many distinguished national and regional brands and a diverse industrial sector call Cedar Hill home. Connectivity to the region, freight-rail availability, and access to a well-educated workforce promote growth and profitability to our thriving community.
Q. What are your community’s strongest markets for commercial development and leasing?
A. Offering 3M+ SF of retail and Class A office space within a 36 square mile area, the city in a park is ideally situated for growing professional and medical office demand.
Q. What are the most important needs of business in site selection?
A. Providing an open, trusting environment where relationships go the distance is the Cedar Hill way. Proper planning facilitates site selection for retail, office, or light industrial operations. Economic Development works closely with city departments to assist companies moving to the area.
Q. What are your biggest recent economic development wins?
A. The Lake Moreno Partners’ adaptive reuse project in historic downtown brings retail, office, and live-work components. We recently broke ground on the Aloft Hotel and Convention Center project to usher enhanced commercial and entertainment amenities. Fuel City and Total Wine & More are seeing phenomenal results.
Q. What housing segments are you seeing the biggest demand in?
A. Those seeking small town ambiance with big city amenities can find it 20 minutes from downtown Dallas in Cedar Hill. The city features diverse housing options including multifamily homes, custom built single-family residences, boutique-style living in historic downtown, and resort-style villas for active seniors.
Q. How has your community been affected by the North Texas region’s economic expansion?
A. Currently 50% developed, significant transportation enhancements are underway to increase capacity and reduce congestion from the area’s rapid growth. Loop 9 will connect Cedar Hill’s industrial and commercial districts directly to I-45 and I-35 providing additional options to travel throughout the metroplex.
For a full profile, visit cedarhilledc.com/fortworthinc.
North Richland Hills
North Richland Hills Economic Development Department www.nrhed.com
Population: 71,269
County: Tarrant
Headquartered Here:
National Headquarters:
A to Z Therapy, ESNA Texas, Health Markets, Prestige Ameritech
Q. What housing segments are you seeing the biggest demand in?
A. The city is primarily a single family home community, where demand exists for medium density single family homes with lot widths averaging around 40 feet. As of this publication, there are over 1,300 vacant platted lots with 362 under construction.
Q. What are your community’s strongest markets for commercial development and leasing?
A. The city is embracing the changes of the traditional workplace and how people shop. We’re seeing growth in omnichannel retail, satellite office and business services, specialty food and beverage, and both entertainment and experiential retail.
Q. What are the most important needs of business in site selection?
A. Aside from the all-important customer reach, access and visibility, we’re seeing more emphasis on controlling construction costs while obtaining consistent and predictable guidance from the public sector.
Q. What are your biggest recent economic development wins?
A. There have been many wins for the City in the past year, but the most significant is the redevelopment of the former North Hills Mall, which was demolished in 2007. Centurion American Development Group purchased the 52 acre site along City Point Drive surrounding North Richland Hills’ City Hall, called City Point. A $187 Million project, City Point is a mixed use development with 70,000 square feet of commercial, single family homes, townhomes, multi-family residences and an upscale hotel.
Q. What’s your community’s pitch to businesses that want to relocate?
A. Centrally located between downtown Fort Worth, DFW Airport and the Alliance Corridor, North Richland Hills reaches a large customer base and labor pool. With strong traffic counts, abundant points of access and lower property taxes compared to Fort Worth and Dallas, NRH is an ideal location.
Q. How has your community been affected by the North Texas region’s economic expansion?
A. For the last five years, new construction has continued at a record pace, prompting the city to update its strategic plan to adapt with changing trends in the marketplace. Recent updates include amendments to the city’s comprehensive land use plan, transportation plan and economic development plan.
Ab DeWeese
Ab DeWeese, a physicist from a small town in Mississippi, figured out how to semiretire in his 30s. He still wants to become the Henry Ford of the medical device industry.
BY TERESA MCUSIC / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
Ab DeWeese did something most of us only dream about. He left his job, built a company, found a management team to run it, and walked away at age 37 to free up his time and pursue other interests. Now 39, DeWeese still serves as owner and chairman of GOOD Automation, a 10-person, Irving-based testing company for medical devices, aerospace, semiconductors, and oil and gas. But he says he does little work for the company. He fills his days as an investor with Fort Worth’s Cowtown Angels group, startup mentor; volunteer with Fort Worth’s Entrepreneur’s Organization; part-time chief information security officer for GuardMax, a company with a simple software solution for managing security guards; and part-time chief information officer of Kwivik Medical Group, which
makes an emergency oxygen device. DeWeese, a physicist from a small town in Mississippi, has lofty goals — to become the Henry Ford of the medical device industry.
Gap in the Marketplace
“When I got the entrepreneurial bug, I took a business model that I really understood and saw there’s kind of a gap in the marketplace where no one was operating in Dallas. I could focus on a medical device market vertical because I knew the inside secrets.”
AGE AB DEWEESE WALKED AWAY FROM ACTIVE MANAGEMENT: 37 YEARS DEWEESE HAS GIVEN HIMSELF TO BECOME HENRY FORD OF MEDICAL DEVICES: 15
Competing “When we started GOOD Automation in 2013, we came into a mature industry. A lot of companies do what we do. But you get out there and hustle and market and sell and solve problems. You build up a good personal reputation. You win a contract here, win a contract there. We beat out
a Goliath in one case. It was being hungry, it was being smart, it was having a good solution and it was having the ability to execute, which was all about speed and quality. I networked my way in.”
Differentiator “So, the word validation tends to show up a lot in FDA land. It’s very nuanced and complex, but it’s driven by specific regulatory requirements. We’re big nerds for the FDA regulatory space. In the aerospace and defense world, they care about the same things, but they don’t call them by the same names. They have the same types of activities to demonstrate that your test set is correctly set up and ready for use. We speak both languages. It’s a differentiator for us.”
15-Year Plan “I started GOOD Automation with a 15-year plan. I am going to be the Henry Ford of the medical device industry. Ford didn’t invent the car; he invented
the assembly line. He brought them to market faster than anyone imagined was possible. In the first five years, I started up a company to give me financial independence and run on its own. Now, in my second five years, I am learning early-stage equity investing and capital formation. In my third five years, I will take a novel medical device to market.”
Getting Time Back “I left my company in 2017 because I wanted to get my time back. The secret to leaving was deciding what was enough. Happiness equals dividing what you have with what you want. For my family, I decided what enough kind of looked like. So, I was able to set up a company that provided that and walk away. Rather than focus on growth, I focused on quality and a good management team. With this certainty, I was able to get all my time back and go pursue other things.”
Hole Card: Transit
Transit could be Fort Worth’s development ace, but will we play the card?
BY JEFF DAVIS
When a Dallas leader asked me about Fort Worth’s transit-oriented development (TOD), I had to think a minute before remembering the sandwich shop and car rental at our central station downtown. I wasn’t certain how to continue the conversation because there has been really no comparison. According to a University of North Texas study, DART’s transit-oriented development has generated $10.8 billion in increased property values and $7.1 billion of demonstrated economic impact to their communities. So, DART and other transit agencies aren’t just about moving people to schools, jobs, churches, and to the supermarkets. Transit is the economic driver that nurtures the communities it serves.
In contrast, Fort Worth’s commercial tax base has declined from 56% in 1998 to 37% in 2018, putting unsustainable pressure on residents to pay the bills in a sprawling city of 330 square miles.
Yet, there are TOD opportunities with the amazing TEXRail commuter line
connecting downtown Fort Worth to DFW Airport and the consequential TOD underway. Grapevine Mayor William Tate has jump-started his station with the $105 million Gateway Main project featuring a food hall and hotel, and North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino has unveiled townhome, patio home, and mixed-use projects at both the Smithfield and Iron Horse stations. Trinity Metro, partnering with the Trinity Lakes developers, is building a station along the TRE line in East Fort Worth that will be a superb mixed-use project.
The goal of any TOD is essentially value capture. Businesses want to be near transit to ensure that employees can get to work and to have access to a talented workforce. Amazon HQ2 required access to a robust transit system in its corporate relocation package, proving that being near transit is important to snag a corporate relocation.
Fort Worth competes against cities such as Nashville, Charlotte and Austin, who spend $151 per capita or more on transit. Dallas spends $254, and Fort Worth,
$71. This is a competition that’s a zerosum game. There is no trophy for second place in the site selection process.
Additionally, TODs make better use of land. A development won’t need as much parking (costing $35,000 per space to build). Good planning for thoughtful workforce housing, densification, and capturing the pedestrian and bicycle access can dramatically enhance the quality of life in any urban village. Bicycling, including electric assisted bicycles, seated scooters and safer bicycle infrastructure, can be a game-changing, first-and-lastmile option that won’t add to congestion, is better for the environment, and better for one’s health.
The case for better public transportation here is clear. We have a declining commercial tax base in Fort Worth; our percentage of Fort Worth’s population with a bachelor’s degree or higher is only 30.7%, whereas Denver’s is 47.4%, Nashville’s 39.8%, and even Columbus, Ohio’s is 39.1%. Our poverty rate is higher than 30 years ago, and one of our ZIP codes has the highest infant mortality rate in the nation.
Currently, the City of Fort Worth and Trinity Metro are encouraging citizens to join in the discussion. On the table is a visionary approach to transit, including the completion of the TEXRail commuter line, several bus rapid transit lines, light rail and more stations. Of course, all transit improvements would be incremental, taking place over decades. However, today’s commitment to building a visionary system will be transformational. Fort Worth’s museum district is the envy of many cities. Our Western heritage and signature downtown make us stand out, and our new arena is stunning. But great cities must have transit, too.
Jeff Davis is chairman of the board, Trinity Metro, and chairman/Fort Worth Division, Republic Title of Texas, Inc. He’s writing this column for the Society of Commercial Realtors, a regular contributor to Fort Worth Inc.
PREFER TOPICAL TO TYPICAL? GO PUBLIC.™
Think with Krys Boyd on KERA 90.1, features indepth interviews on topics ranging from history, politics, and technology to food and wine, travel and entertainment. Go for the compelling guests. Go for the engaging conversation. Go to listen, learn, engage and think. Go Public.
THINK WITH KRYS BOYD
MONDAY-THURSDAY, 12-2 PM, FRIDAY, 1-2 PM
Going to School on Everybody Else
Fort Worth, for the second year, sent a large group to another city to examine its economic development practices. Year one: Kansas City. Year two: Phoenix.
BY CHRIS STRAYER, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FORT WORTH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Fort Worth is the 13th largest city in the U.S. and is a major center for industry, technology, distribution and transportation. It consistently ranks among the top places in the nation to work, live and do business by Money, Fortune, Site Selection and Newsweek magazines.
We are fortified to succeed in Texas, the No. 1-ranked state for doing business. That, however, does not preclude us from visiting counterparts to better educate ourselves, our partners and our Fort Worth Chamber investors on best practices for attracting and retaining business.
Last fall, approximately 50 people from the Fort Worth business community visited Phoenix. Included were elected officials, city staff, Visit Fort Worth and workforce development leaders, developers, contractors, educators and tourism/ hospitality managers.
The visit was planned by the City of Fort Worth, Visit Fort Worth and the chamber. It is an outgrowth of the three organi-
zations’ strategic plans, which call for collaboration on economic development. The trip is sponsored, in part, by American Airlines.
The 2018 trip was to Kansas City, Missouri. Why Phoenix: Phoenix this year because of the emphasis it has on economic development and business attraction efforts and the strong relationship between its educational system and business industry leaders.
The trip’s overall purpose and its outcome: The purpose was to educate our stakeholders on tactics being implemented by some of our peer communities to be more competitive in the global landscape of economic development. Many of the attendees were able to recognize the level of sophistication that other communities are leveraging to raise their profile to companies that are looking to make investments.
Economic development strategies we were trying to learn more about: #CAstruggles (California Struggles) was a great campaign, and we would like to learn more about the development, implementation and success Phoenix saw from it.
Highlights from a network/connections view: Spending two full days and evenings with leaders from a variety of industries leads to deep discussions and making true connections. We purposely build networking and discussion time into these trips to allow for authentic connections to be developed. For the two city visits that have taken place, the feedback of participants clearly shows that the networking/connections made on the trip are worth well more than the cost.
Keen insights we learned: The level of research Greater Phoenix Economic Council is doing. The relationships Arizona State University has with business. The community college taking the reins on entrepreneurship. They’re all achievable (in Fort Worth) through communication and collaboration.
How to get on the invite list for these trips: We plan to continue with these benchmarking trips. The invitation is available to top-level chamber investors first, as a benefit of their investment level, and then all investors on a first-come, first-served basis. The invites typically are extended two to three months before the trip occurs.
For information, contact Beth Pulliam at bpulliam@fortworthchamber.com.
Chris Strayer is executive vice president of economic development of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, a regular contributor to Fort Worth Inc.
FORTE AWARDS - SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
January 30, 2020 | The Ashton Depot Presented by
February 28, 2020 | Fort Worth Convention Center
April 7, 2020 | The Omni Fort Worth Hotel
Presented by
BUSINESS.FORTWORTHCHAMBER.COM/EVENTS CONTACT BETH PULLIAM FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES BPULLIAM@FORTWORTHCHAMBER.COM
During a routine workout my arms began to feel numb and I could not run. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was having a heart attack. My road to recovery has included eating a healthy diet and continuing to exercise, but the biggest change I have made is paying attention to the signals my body is giving me. One in three women die of cardiovascular diseases each year - I’m working hard to ensure I am not one.
To join the movement and support Go Red for Women, visit our website at www.heart.org/fortworthgored
Pictured Kim Gudimetla
Go Red for Women is nationally sponsored by Locally sponsored by
Hey, Boss! Let’s Get Excited About 2020!
BY TONY FORD, CEO, SUCCESS FORT WORTH
After 35 years of observing the Fort Worth business ecosystem, I have never been more excited about the future. Our city is transforming into a hotbed of entrepreneurship, while holding on to its relational business culture. Our people-first, profits-second way of doing business provides the perfect climate for attracting new ideas, startups and corporate relocations.
As an executive coach, I have the privilege of working with many of Fort Worth’s most creative and successful business owners. Their enthusiasm and will to win are inspiring and contagious. Still, like everyone who puts on the mantle of leader, they consistently struggle to gain awareness of the obstacles and opportunities that impact their companies. Each one draws on past experiences and current market conditions when making critical choices and taking actions. Over time, the sheer weight of the struggle wears down their enthusiasm. Allow me to share seven coaching action steps that may help:
1. Innovation — You have heard it said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” — probably great advice in years gone by. Today, getting and staying ahead require a very different mindset, as in, “If it ain’t broke, break it and make it work better, faster and cheaper!” As leaders, we must model this aggressive way of thinking to give our people permission to try and fail at new ideas and methods. Innovation is the lifeblood of growing companies, and modeling it starts at the top. If you have lost your taste for trying new — and maybe risky — approaches to problem-
solving and growth, it may be time to get some help from a coach, mentor or honest friend.
2. Information — Success is a strong motivator toward keeping our excitement and momentum. That said, our decisionmaking must be built on solid facts and information, not just gut feelings and speculation. This is a battle that is won at the front end of every project and opportunity. We must develop the discipline to slow down, get the facts and make a well-informed plan.
3. Automation — A common threat to every company is falling behind in technology. And while most owners will point to how outdated their website is, the real problems and opportunities often lie in the systems that support routine functions, including lead generation, sales, financial controls, customer service and employee training. When leaders try to timeshare their brains to keep up, they rapidly grow to dislike their own companies. By making a list of the most cost-effective/profitreturning areas to improve and then contracting with outside specialists, these functions can become more automated and save the company precious time.
4. Communication — It has been said, “The problem with communication is that people think it is actually taking place.” When we start believing our people understand exactly what we are saying, we’re in big trouble. Providing regular forums for employees to voice questions, concerns and ideas is critical to accurate communications. In my companies as owner, I set aside two hours every Friday
to sit in the lunchroom with a yellow pad. Everyone in the company was invited to bring their lunch and speak their minds. For years, I would come out of those informal interactions with pages of great ideas, workarounds and critical issues that needed my attention. It was the shortcut I needed.
5. Execution — The world’s best plans die of loneliness if there is no one to put them into action. Creating excitement and momentum require ownership and follow-up. Embracing a framework for delegation and goal attainment like the “Traction System” (Entrepreneurial Operating System) is critical.
6. Reflection — In his book, The Flip Side, author Flip Flippen states, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Using this concept, he and his team have worked with professional athletes, NASCAR racing teams, celebrities and business tycoons to help them improve their performance. As leaders, we must find ways to obtain clear, complete and accurate feedback about how we are operating our businesses. Short of that, we will base our decisions and plot our futures on ignorance and guesswork.
7. Appreciation — Making and taking every opportunity to show our appreciation to our employees, customers, vendors and community secures our special place in their hearts. It affirms to them we know who helped us build our company. It also opens the door to understanding and forgiveness when we fall short of our leadership responsibilities.
As you ponder what opportunities 2020 will bring, my hope is you will incorporate many of these action steps into your normal leadership activities. If I can help, I invite your questions and comments. Tony Ford is an awardwinning entrepreneur with a history of growing industryleading companies. As CEO of Success Fort Worth, he now coaches business owners and leaders. He writes this column for each issue of Fort Worth Inc. Contact: tford@sfw.com.
Daniel Pullin
The new TCU Neeley School of Business dean sees an opportunity to create a “business school for the 21st century.”
BY SCOTT NISHIMURA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
In the seven months since Daniel Pullin started as new dean of TCU’s Neeley School of Business, he estimates he’s had more than 200 one-on-one conversations about Neeley’s positioning. Pullin was dean of the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma since 2014, where graduate enrollment grew by 50 percent in five years. He sat down for a Q&A with us
Learning by listening. “What I’m hearing is that the future of Fort Worth is going to
be stronger if TCU and the Neeley School are open to collaboration in the way we prepare the next generation of leaders our workforce needs and in talking about the greatest business issues of our time and how we can be co-creators of knowledge. It could be a micro-challenge that's a specific business opportunity for a company. It could be thinking in partnership with organizations like the Fort Worth Chamber about how we catalyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem of our community. We could be talking about what TCU and the Neeley School can do to be a part of the conversa-
tion when we’re attracting new companies to come to Tarrant County.”
Bearing fruit. “We're celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures business plan competition in April. It’s the largest undergraduate business plan competition in the country. We'd like to see it become largest in the world. We’re going to have students from 60-plus universities in the world competing. We want to take advantage of this talent and show them a pathway to build their companies here.”
Neeley, as part of Fort Worth's strategy to boost the number of adults with degrees. “We’re thinking about the way we leverage the Neeley School of Business as a horizontal across all of TCU, not just as a vertical silo. A few years ago, we launched a very successful business minor. We’re in the process of deep conversations about crafting an interdisciplinary entrepreneurship minor.
“We’re also launching a program through our accounting department next summer, a one-week boot camp for underrepresented high school students, in partnership with the Fort Worth ISD.”
Easing the path for Frogs. “We discovered, by listening to our students, that many were forgoing the job interview or maybe borrowing ill-fitting clothes. We were disappointed and surprised to hear that, but it makes all the sense in the world. So, at our last board of advisors meeting, we had this real conversation. Through the generosity of a number of donors, this spring we're going to launch a program that will provide the capacity for students in need to go and get that proper business suit and have opportunity to receive counsel from professional clothiers.
“Another thing we discovered was that one of the threshold requirements to move from being a pre-business major to a full business major is that you have to pass a series of Microsoft software certification programs. Well, the way you pass those is by taking a preparatory course, and they can be expensive. We had another conversation; we’re going to launch in the spring a need-based scholarship program.”
2018 Awards & Recognitions
U.S. Chamber of CommerceMinority-Owned Business Achievement Award
FW Inc - Top 400 Most Influential People
FW Inc - Entrepreneur of Excellence Finalist
Dallas Business Journal
North Texas’ 13th Largest Hispanic-Owned Businesses
ENX Magazine - Elite Dealer
Just a few of our 2017 Awards & Recognitions
Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce2017 Small Business of the Year
North Dallas Chamber of CommerceNorth Dallas Business of the Year
