These 40 entrepreneurs stand out with distinction as business people who create and innovate.
PLUS THESE 11 OTHER WINNERS
Nafees Alam, Dacia Coffey, Luke Hejl, Michael McCracken, Travis Patterson, Scott Price, Donnie and Colby Siratt, Gary Tonniges Jr. and Cyndy Tonniges, and Jason Webber.
ALL ABOARD
Great places to hold an off-site meeting
GROW TIME City, Chamber working hand in glove on development
Creativity
Professionalism
Risk-taking
Passion
Planning
Knowledge
Social
Open-mindedness towards learning, people, and even failure.
Girl Scouts get to practice all this while having fun with their friends!
Find your cookies by visiting gs-strong.org/findcookies from January 13 to March 5. What does it take to be an entrepreneur?
Interested in becoming a Girl Scout entrepreneur? Learn more by visiting gs-strong.org/join. What is the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world?
The Lexus LX and Sewell’s unmatched customer service. Nothing less than extraordinary.
39 2022 Entrepreneur of Excellence From Vietnam vets to firstgeneration immigrants, Fort Worth’s most successful entrepreneurs are no doubt cut from different cloths. But for these 40 business owners, there is one common thread: taking risks.
60 Meeting Expectations Unloading a clip into a target, hanging out in the Cowboys locker room, and riding shotgun in a car traveling 165 mph make these off-site meeting spaces one of a kind.
6 Publisher’s Note
Bizz Buzz
10 Grow Time: Mayor Mattie Parker and the Fort Worth Chamber present the blueprint for transitioning Cowtown into a world-class city.
18 EO Spotlight: A band nerd who flies planes and has a ranching operation on the side? Yeah, Brian Rodgers of Aeko Technologies is the quintessential anomaly.
Executive Life & Style
24 Health and Fitness: Traveling for business is no excuse to skip leg day. Mike Hanlon of Goss Fitness has the perfect full-body workout for when you’re on the road.
28 Off the Clock: Matthew Avila might be a successful CEO of a construction company, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t simultaneously pursuing his passion: being a rock star.
34 Distinctive Style: A couple of friends are shining a light on a major fashion breakthrough: pockets in women’s blazers.
Bizz Wrap-Up
70 Analyze This/Legal and Tax: According to Prichard Bevis, when purchasing a new home, the health of a property owners’ association is just as important as the plumbing and foundation.
70 Analyze This/ Real Estate: Rapid appreciation has made homeownership seem like a pipe dream to some. Troy A. Fore Jr. offers advice to those who find the process intimidating.
72 1 in 400: With a $148 million grant, Sid O’Bryant, the executive director of the Institute for Translation Research at the UNT Health Science Center, is making new discoveries about Alzheimer’s.
Entrepreneur of Excellence
Luke Hejl, TimelyMD CEO and Co-Founder
TimelyMD is the leading virtual health and well-being solution for students that enables colleges and universities to reduce risk and retain students through equitable, on-demand access to care.
200+ Campus Partners in the U.S. | 1.5 Million+ Students Served Nationwide Top-10 Fastest-Growing Health Services Companies in the Country
OWNER/PUBLISHER HAL A. BROWN
Iwas speaking recently with a colleague who owns a newspaper, and I asked her how her business was doing. Her less-thanenthusiastic response was, “OK,” which meant it was not doing well. However, she went on to share that she had saved up enough in the good times (when magazines and newspapers had much larger margins prior to the digital revolution) such that they could keep the doors open and still have a life.
Hearing this made me sad. She sounded like she had given up hope that her business would ever thrive again. They have been doing things there the same way for so many years and, unfortunately, don’t see the need to change.
This reminded me of the 2011 movie, “Money Ball.” It’s a story about the 2002 Oakland A’s baseball team. Brad Pitt (playing the part of Oakland’s general manager) had just lost three of his best players to bigger market teams, and he and his scouts were meeting around a large conference table discussing the best way to go about replacing the players. The scouts, using conventional knowledge, were conducting business as usual, and Pitt interrupts them and tells them they can no longer “do business as usual.”
Pitt points out that the other ballclubs have a lot more money than Oakland and that they could not “do business as usual” and expect to compete, much less win. So, Pitt decides to reinvent his team. He scraps the traditional method and simply looks at statistics — specifically, he focuses on players who get on base
consistently. One of the key lines from the movie is a scene where Pitt tells his head scout, “Adapt or die.”
The long and short of the story is that his head scout gets fired for refusing to get on board with Pitt, and the Oakland A’s end up winning the 2002 American League West.
There is no question that things are changing. Humanity is always moving forward with innovation. The last 150 years have seen the most remarkable advancement of technology in history. Unfortunately, for my colleague who owns the newspaper, if she does not adapt, she will die.
The entrepreneurs represented in this issue’s cover story have not only adapted and survived — they have thrived. Please join us as we recognize and celebrate the ambition, innovation, and hard work of some of Fort Worth’s most accomplished entrepreneurs.
VOLUME 8, NUMBER 4, WINTER 2022
owner/publisher hal a. brown president mike waldum editorial executive editor john henry creative director craig sylva senior art director spray gleaves advertising art director ed woolf director of photography crystal wise contributing editor brian kendall copy editor sharon casseday advertising main line
817.560.6111 territory manager, fort worth inc. rita hale x133 advertising account supervisor gina burns-wigginton x150 advertising account supervisor marion c. knight x135 account executive tammy denapoli x141 client services manager julia martin x116 marketing director of digital robby kyser director of marketing & audience development sarah benkendorfer events & partnership manager melissa mitchell content marketing specialist grace behr corporate cfo charles newton
To subscribe to Fort Worth Inc. magazine, or to ask questions regarding your subscription, call 817.560.6111 or go to fortworthinc.com.
Fort Worth Inc. is published quarterly by Panther City Media Group LP, 6777 Camp Bowie Blvd, Suite 130, Fort Worth, TX 76116. Postage Paid at Fort Worth, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Worth Magazine, 6777 Camp Bowie Blvd, Suite 130, Fort Worth, TX 76116. Volume 8, Number 4, Winter 2022. Basic Subscription price: $19.95 per year. Single copy price: $6.99
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•Backflow
•Drainage
•Greenhouse/Growing
•Landscape
•Landscape
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The stars at night are big and bright in Cowtown, whose prospects for economic development have never been better because of unprecedented population growth, says Fort Worth Chamber CEO Brandom Gengelbach. To reach the goal of becoming the world-class city envisioned by Mayor Mattie Parker, the chamber and city leadership are working jointly on marketing ventures. It's a relationship seldom seen in a major American city.
Fort Worth, Chamber working in tandem to sell the city to business
The prospects for economic development in the city where the West begins are probably best left for Alvino Rey to describe.
The stars at night are big and bright. (Clap, clap, clap.) The sage in bloom is like perfume. The cowboys cry, “Ki-yippee-yi.” Reminds me of the one I love. (Thanks to the karaoke industry, that’s not the first song butchered by the writer.)
But, no, seriously, the mayor and the Fort Worth Chamber, as well as business
leaders are quite bullish on the future. That’s not exactly a secret.
At the end of September, Mayor Mattie Parker in the annual State of the City address set forth an ambitious vision of Fort Worth as a world-class city.
In the speech to more than 800 at Dickies Arena, she summarized the policy and budgetary objectives at City Hall, all designed to meet this goal for the 13th-largest American city. No longer anyone’s backstop or little brother, Fort
Worth is today a destination for people all over the world.
The data speaks to the truth of population trends and the opportunity those present.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Fort Worth is leading the 50 most populated cities in the U.S. in overall growth at 3.82%. Yes, this edges even Austin, which sits at 3.57% growth.
Fort Worth has packed them in the way Dickies Arena does with can’t-miss events.
To achieve the vision of a world-class city, the cogs of economic development — the city and Fort Worth Chamber — are working in sync, hand in glove. From the industries targeted for relocation to the marketing that “we do together, not separately.”
“It’s a bit unusual,” says Brandom Gengelbach, the Fort Worth Chamber’s CEO. “You won’t find a whole lot of cities and chambers that are as unified as we are in terms of how we go about things.”
The population growth, he notes, will create all the opportunity “that we could ever want in a way the last 20 years hasn’t.” Soon the city will be attracting more and more businesses from around the world. As population booms, so, too, does economic development through increased and more qualified human capital and scope of innovation and creative genius.
The latter will seed an alreadyflourishing entrepreneurial community, which has been a focus of the mayor’s first term. In 2019, new businesses created 30,000 jobs in Tarrant County. The city’s Global Entrepreneurship Week was the No. 1 attended of all those conducted nationwide. Sparkyard, TechFW, and TechStars are all all-star accelerators.
Eosera, TimelyMD, and Nanoscope Therapeutics are all examples of entrepreneurial blooms in Fort Worth.
“There’s an opportunity, and I think people see and feel that,” Gengelbach says of Fort Worth’s emergence. “Leaders like the mayor have helped understand that we’re standing on the shoulders of the men and women before us who have done a great job, and there’s sort of a new future ahead of us. What got us here is not going to get us there. And we have to be willing to rise up to the occasion just like those leaders ahead of us did.”
The Longhorn and Circle Ten Councils of the Boy Scouts of America were honored to present Ross Perot, Jr. with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award at the recent Golden Eagle Luncheon. Through a moderated discussion with Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, Ross shared the positive impact Scouting has had on his life and his family. On behalf of our Scouts, we would like to thank the many generous sponsors who made this event possible.
TITLE SPONSOR
SPONSORS ADVENTURE IMPACT ADVISORS | BALCOM AGENCY | ERIC HAHNFELD & FAMILY | FROST BANK | FROSTY TEMPEL & FAMILY | GORRONDONA & ASSOCIATES, INC. | GLENN & MELINDA ADAMS HIGGINBOTHAM | JAMES HAMILTON & FAMILY | JIM GREER & FAMILY | ONCOR | THE SCHWEITZER GROUP | STONETEX OIL CORP. | THE TILLERSON FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED SPONSORS SANJAY CHANDRA & FAMILY
KENN WARDLE & FAMILY
SPONSORS BEN E. KEITH CO. | BNSF RAILWAY | DAN MEADER & FAMILY | FORT CAPITAL | FREEDOM POWERSPORTS | GM FINANCIAL | KELLY HART | MICHAEL CAWOOD & FAMILY | SUSAN SHEFFIELD & FAMILY
Visit our website to view videos from the event and learn how you can support local Scouting.
The Chamber, with the help of the mayor and business leaders, such as Mike Berry of Hillwood, has been able to make a desperately needed increase of its budget through a bold fundraising campaign, which has generated just under $2 million, Gengelbach says. That will enable the Chamber to increase its budget to just over $6 million for the next year.
That boosted budget, he says, will be used to fund campaigns dedicated to business attraction and marketing efforts.
“The real challenge is that we as an organization have not had the funding we’ve needed to help proactively market Fort Worth and proactively target companies to consider relocation or expanding here,” Gengelbach says.
The goal is to eventually get to a budget of $8 million, he adds.
That’s still lagging behind the Nashvilles and Austins of the world, he says, but it’ll get the ball rolling on strategic marketing initiatives next year.
“This momentum, this growth reminds me of Nashville in 2002,” Gengelbach says. “They transitioned from this small town to a bigger city. They didn’t want to be Atlanta; they wanted to be their own community.
“The last 20 years has been amazing there. I think we have much better bones than Nashville does. Much better knowledge of who we are and want to be, and that’s the world-class city that the mayor has set forth the vision for.”
The next 20 years here will be defined by how well the city builds with the kinds of businesses, industries, and subsectors we want that won’t compromise who we are culturally and historically, Gengelbach says.
Texas A&M’s move here is a perfect example. The Aggies fit the culture perfectly.
Those targets will include mobility, aerospace and defense, energy, tourism, research universities, and technology.
“We don’t want someone else to dictate what a world-class city is and what Fort Worth needs to look like,” Gengelbach says.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Fort Worth-based MSP Blue Jean Networks this week announced it has joined Integris, a national IT Managed Service Provider with offices in Texas.
Blue Jean Networks, founded in 2008, provides expert managed IT services and cybersecurity in the CMMC space to businesses in Dallas and Fort Worth and nationally. BJN partners with clients to support them in the challenges they face with cybersecurity and information technology (IT).
“This is a win for our existing clients, as well as those around the country seeking help with CMMC. Integris is a fantastic company, and we can’t wait to
see what this new partnership can bring to the CMMC community,” says Blue Jean Networks founder Sunny Lowe.
Lowe was a Fort Worth Inc. Entrepreneur of Excellence award winner in 2019.
This integration marks another expansive milestone for Integris, which was named the No. 1 Fastest Growing MSP by Channel Futures in August 2022. The Integris network now has offices in 10 states, with nearly 500 employees, all offering high-end, enterprise IT services and round-the-clock security monitoring scaled for the SMB market.
CMMC is a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) program that applies to Defense Industrial Base (DIB) contractors.
Fort Worth offers British aerospace company $7 million tax credit
BY JOHN HENRY
The Fort Worth City Council voted to approve an agreement that would give a British aerospace company a $7 million tax incentive if it builds its new research and development facility near Lake Worth.
The city would provide GKN Aerospace up to $7 million in unique tax credit grants that the company could sell to Fort Worth property owners to fund research and development. It's the same program the city used to lure Linear Labs to Fort Worth.
GKN Aerospace makes parts and materials for airplane companies, such as Boeing, as well as for Lockheed Martin’s F-35. Mayor Mattie Parker said during a briefing on the project last month that the offer to GKN aligns with the city's longterm plan to attract more research and development to the city.
As part of the deal, the company would be required to spend at least $20 million on research and development within five years after building in Fort Worth. It also must create 100 new jobs.
Oneworld allows customers to book tickets across companies
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Officials with the oneworld® Alliance announced last month that it will relocate its global headquarters from New York City to Fort Worth, joining founding member American Airlines at its campus.
The move will take place in December, according to a press release. Oneworld will join American on its 300-acre Robert L. Crandall Campus adjacent to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
American’s campus, “Skyview,” is home to the airline’s Flight Academy, DFW Reservations Center, Robert W. Baker Integrated Operations Center, Training and Conference Center, and CR Smith Museum, as well as an office complex that houses the airline’s leadership and support staff.
Oneworld is one of three major airline alliances that allows international airlines to partner with one another. Through alliances, customers can book tickets across companies and redeem miles.
“Oneworld will be a wonderful addition to Fort Worth,” says Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker. “The robust air service that American and other oneworld carriers provide connects our region to the world, and that connectivity is part of what makes Fort Worth such an attractive place for businesses to invest and grow. I’m excited about what the future holds with American and oneworld sharing a home in Fort Worth.”
Oneworld’s new headquarters in Fort Worth will also enable the alliance to tap into the aviation talent pool in Texas. Ranked as the U.S. state with the most air transportation jobs, Texas is home to one of the largest aerospace and aviation labor forces in the country. American has more than 30,000 employees in North Texas as well as host to employees from several other oneworld carriers based at its Fort Worth campus.
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Brian Rodgers is an El Paso native who graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from TCU.
“So, naturally, I went into IT,” he says, deploying his good sense of humor.
In reality, the self-described “band nerd” was tired of school, not to mention he was planning to marry his college sweetie and needed a job.
“Computers were always something I was good at doing,” he says.
Rodgers has made a great career for himself in information technology. He worked in corporate IT for several years before founding Aeko Technologies in 2016 as an IT managed services company. Today, he serves as the company’s president.
“Effectively, it’s doing the same thing I was doing before, but I am being invited in by companies to solve their problems instead of being seen as an impediment,” he says of how IT guys are viewed in the corporate culture. “It’s a subtle change, but it makes all the difference in the world.
“I really want to bless people. This is an area I can bless people in areas they’re not necessarily comfortable in, and I happen to be.”
FW Inc.: Advice you’d give other entrepreneurs?
Brian Rodgers: Go in with your eyes wide open. It’s harder than you envision it will be, but don’t
Brian Rodgers heads Aeko Technologies, but he has his hands in other endeavors.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY IMAGE BY CRYSTAL WISE
let that deter you. There are always opportunities out there for people to help you out.
FW Inc.: Like EO?
BR: Yes. A plug for EO. You’re surrounded by other entrepreneurs who have been there and done that. Doesn’t matter how low you’re feeling, how scared you are with something going on, someone in EO has been there and worse. They can walk you through it.
FW Inc.: You’re also a pilot. Tell us about that?
BR: It was one of those things I always wanted to do. My father-in-law was a pilot, and right after we got married, he told me, “Look, I pay for my kids’ education, you’re one of my kids now, and I consider [earning a pilot’s license] education, so, here you go.” That was in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, I ran out of money before I could finish. I picked it up again in 2014. My son was 9 and got to be very serious about going to the Air Force Academy and flying. So, I wanted to do everything I could for him to be exposed to this stuff and to get him his license before he went. He gave me the reason to justify the expense. [Today, his son is at the Air Force Academy.]
FW Inc.: And you’re a rancher?
BR: I have a ranching operation with my dad and two brothers. My dad and one of my brothers do most of the day-to-day stuff. I’ve had a lot more fun with that and teaching my dogs to herd than I do with IT. We do wagyu beef and Red Wattle pasture hogs, which are amazing. They have the same deep red, marbling like a steak does.
"Go in with your eyes wide open. It's harder than you envision it will be, but don't let that deter you. There are always opportunities out there for people to help you out." — On advice he would give to other entrepreneurs.
Music was the first love of Matthew Avila, and he has certainly never forgotten her. Today, music is more than a mere minor occupation for the Byrne Construction CEO, who plays in two bands and has plans to do engineering and producing as a third career.
A 15-minute workout from your hotel room is here for you.
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY IMAGES BY CRYSTAL WISE
Are you on a business trip and don’t have time for a one- or two-hour workout?
Not a problem. Mike Hanlon, a certified personal trainer with Goss Fitness in Fort Worth, has got you covered.
We asked him to design a 15-minute workout you can do in your hotel room or from home.
Staying active is important and will keep you sharp for your out-of-town meetings.
As always, it’s important you speak to your doctor before engaging in any strenuous activities if it’s been awhile since you’ve done so.
Hanlon devised a routine with five exercises to hit the three corners of flexibility, strength, and cardio. It is designed to ultimately be done in three cycles, but do only what your body feels it can do.
1 PULSE LUNGES These are a variation to the popular lunges. These utilize bodyweight to activate muscles across the lower body. Begin in a standing position, then move your right foot forward and your left backward. Muscles worked: hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps, and adductors (along the inner thigh).
2 SQUAT AND PRESS Hanlon recommends carrying a couple of 5-pound dumbbells in your suitcase for these. Hold a pair of dumbbells next to your shoulders and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat down until the tops of your thighs are parallel to the floor — or as low as you can comfortably go. Push your body up from the squat as you press the dumb-
bells directly above your shoulders. Repeat nine more times or until exhausted. Muscles worked: quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes.
3 SIDE LATERALS More dumbbell work. Stand with the dumbbells by your sides, palms facing your body. Keeping your upper body still, lift the dumbbells out to your side with a slight bend at your elbows. Lift until your arms are parallel to the floor then slowly lower to the start position. Repeat nine more times or until exhausted. Muscles worked: deltoids.
4 ONE ARM TRICEPS EXTENSION
Place your left knee and hand on a bench or chair. Your right leg should be on the floor. Grab a dumbbell with your right hand. Your upper arm should be parallel to the floor and arm bent at the elbow with the lower arm straight down. This is starting position. Slowly extend your arm back until your arm is fully extended. Contract and slowly return to the starting position. Repeat nine times (or until exhausted) and then switch arms (and leg position), and repeat 10 times (or until exhausted).
5 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS Here’s some cardio. Performed by leaning onto a wall or chair, alternate bringing one knee forward toward your chest, then back out again, speeding up until you’re running against the floor. Go as fast as you can, but don’t push it if you’re just starting out. Do 10 reps on each leg, Hanlon says. And more, if you’re up to it.
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Fort Worth Inc. would like to congratulate our 2022 Entrepreneur of Excellence winners and thank all our sponsors for a great event.
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We are honored to be finalists for the 2022 Fort Worth Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of Excellence Award.
Thank you for your continued support. It is our privilege to serve the local Fort Worth community.
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By day, Matthew Avila is CEO of Byrne Construction. At night — OK, day, too — he’s thinking about music.
It took a few years for aspiring musician Matthew Avila to realize there was a better platform. He was 20ish, playing guitar, and touring with a Dallas-based avant-garde rock band, complemented fully with all the new and unusual or experimental ideas of, well, an
avant-garde rock band. It was, he recalls, a “semiprofessional run at the music industry.”
“At that time, I’d say I was an OK musician. The guys I was playing with were phenomenally talented musicians, but they were disasters as human beings otherwise,”
he says over the phone as a humorist would before getting to the crux. “They put up with my mediocre musicianship because I was the one who basically served as the tour manager, the business manager, the booking agent; got their instruments out of pawn when they did stupid things; made sure the rehearsal space rent got paid, made sure we showed up in the right cities on the right dates. I had a car that actually worked. Things like that.”
I sense he could have gone on and on.
“It was a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, but after two or three years of that, I was like, ‘This is a lot of work. Maybe, I’ll go to college.’”
That gig was the foundation for the first of a what is now a planned three careers for Avila.
Today, he is the CEO of Byrne Construction, the firm his father John Avila purchased in the mid-1990s. His brother
Paul is the chief operating officer.
But from that centerstage as a very early 20-something, Avila headed to the University of Texas for undergrad and then a master’s in clinical psychology and a Ph.D. in behavioral medicine. He had a faculty position at the University of Maryland in Baltimore doing psychiatric genetics research when he was lured home to join the family business.
He jokingly says of his career transition, “When I bumped my head and decided to join the family construction firm.”
Off the clock, however, you might find Avila at his recording studio because he’s still playing a little music. You might be able to take the kid out of the band, but you can’t take the guitar out of the hands of the kid. Just go with it. I’m on a roll.
“I always kept it up as a hobby,” he says of music, “and would goof. I really didn’t pick it back up in any kind of serious way until about six years ago.”
Today, he is part of two bands, including Kyser, a rock band led by a guy we know well, Robby Kyser, who is director of digital at Fort Worth Inc. Sol Kanthack — the president of Andrews Aerospace — and Andrew Harris are also members. Currently, they are in rebuild mode.
“Sol and I are in YPO [Young Presidents' Organization] and we were talking, and he says something to me about playing guitar
and that they were looking for a guitar player,” Avila says. “And he says, ‘Come jam with us.’ I blew it off as whiskey talk, but he followed up the next week.”
They invited him to join the band and at the encouragement of his wife. “She said, ‘You should do it. It’ll be fun.’” He cracks that she regrets that, now that “I’m neck deep in it.”
Kyser with Avila in the band has cut two studio albums.
“It’s been an absolute ton of fun,” says Avila, who also earned a law degree at Texas A&M in Fort Worth, making him, he says, an Aggie and Longhorn. His Aggie employees have protested this claim, he says, adding that he tells them, “I’ll drink a pitcher of beer if you give me a ring.”
Both of the bands he plays in rehearse at the commercial studio he constructed at the Byrne Construction campus. When the company took over the property on East
Berry, it had a building that wasn’t practical for the firm.
He has a third career envisioned as a music engineer and producer. He already does that for a few bands — more of a hobby at this point — but he’s not where he wants to be as far as “delivering a fantastic product, but I’m getting there.”
“It’s been super, super fun,” he says. “I almost enjoy it as much as the live play. Live play is all technique and music and creativity. The engineering and producing piece is all of that, plus all the awesome technical, computer programming. I don’t actively seek out a bunch of clients at this point. It’s a difficult profession and takes years to get really, really good at it.”
But a third career, his last career, he plans it to be.
“That’s the goal. Unless I get hit by a bus. I can’t plan around that.”
The Fort Worth Zoo isn’t your typical event space. With unexpected wildlife views and a variety of different meeting, event and party venues, you can create a truly memorable experience for your guests. From wild birthday parties to extravagant corporate galas, the Fort Worth Zoo is the perfect backdrop for your next gathering.
Best friends bring blazers that are practical, feminine to the catwalk
WORDS BY JOHN HENRY
Kimberly Borges and Miriam McDonald became best friends working long hours together selling cars. They became business partners over a common cause: pockets in
for women.
When they couldn’t find any on the market, they decided to make their own.
“While working together we came across the same problem over and over,” Borges writes in a blog piece. “How do we carry our stuff around? How do we stay
ready for everything when we can't even carry the most essential things without lugging around a huge purse? And most importantly, who are our blazers representing? It certainly didn't seem like us.”
Their PWR WMN brand came to the marketplace. And, you guessed it, it’s full of pockets and, the two say, ideal for the strong feminine women who now have a seat at the proverbial table.
“Our dreams come to life every time a powerful woman comes to us and lets us know how wearing her PWR WMN blazer emboldened her to be herself, and how having the pockets she deserves prepared her for success.”
The two also were recently named finalists for the inaugural Fort Worth-based EmpowHERment Pitch Competition, which will be held annually on Global Entrepreneurship Week each November.
The three vying for the $10,000 first prize will make their final pitches Nov. 17 at The University of North Texas Health Science Center HSC Next offices.
“We grew tired of never having the tools we needed to be 100% ready for business at all times because we never had the pockets for those tools,” Borges says. “We wanted clothes that helped us portray ourselves like the power women we are but also helped us close that deal because we were ready. So, we created PWR WMN.”
Your loyal, tried and true, never-goingto-let-youdown Navy Everyday Blazer. This is a PWR WMN staple. On the inside you’ll find artwork in the lining for a beautiful pop of color. And, of course, pockets.
These 40 entrepreneurs stand out as preeminent innovators with a knack for can-doism
BY JOHN HENRY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRYSTAL WISE
Fort Worth Inc.’s 2022 Entrepreneurs of Excellence is a portrait of innovative, visionary risk-takers who identified a niche or filled a void in the marketplace.
All of them scratched that itch to go it alone.
These 40 entrepreneurs are in commercial and residential construction, consumer and durable goods, health care and life sciences, hospitality, private equity, professional services, real estate, tech and e-commerce, and four who lead up-andcoming companies.
This is Fort Worth Inc.’s sixth annual Entrepreneur of Excellence edition. As in past years, applications were judged independently of the ownership and staff of the magazine. The judges — business leaders from across the region — reviewed each application confidentially, based on sales and profit growth, best practices, ethical business practices,
innovation, perseverance, and community involvement. The judges made their decisions this summer, choosing finalists and winners in each of 10 categories. Financial performance data in the applications is confidential and not made available to the magazine staff for use in the biographies in this issue.
The category winners’ identities were kept secret until they were revealed Nov. 3 at a gala dinner at the Fort Worth Club. There was no cost associated with applying for, or being considered for, this award.
Eligibility criteria included ownership, co-ownership, or lead of a privately owned business in the Greater Fort Worth area, at least two years in business, and $2 million in annual sales, except for the new Up-and-Coming category for businesses that don’t quite meet the annual sales threshold.
Scott Price says the 2005 founding of Fort Construction can best be summarized using the maxim “Crisis is the mother of all invention.”
“I founded Fort Construction out of necessity,” he says. “Having moved to Fort Worth for a job opportunity that turned out badly, I found myself unemployed in a new town with a wife and two kids who wanted to stay here. Our family decided to stay and start our own company.”
It took about eight months to raise capital to get off the ground, he says. “I rented an executive suite and started making phone calls to prospective clients.”
The first year was spent on two projects for a bonding company for a total of $450,000.
“With controlled growth, we now average $35 million per year,” he says.
“I always wanted to run my own small company and am extremely fortunate to be in Fort Worth. There is no other city in the country that could have supported the success we’ve achieved over the past 16 years.”
FINALIST:
Jonathan Gaspard, a fifth-generation roofer, likes to tell the story of beginning his company with $50 in 2014. Over the past three years, it has navigated the potholes of supply chain snarls and price increases to experience “dynamic growth” that has led to capital investment opportunities. Sonny Menon joined the company as a partner this year.
The two have a goal of reaching $100 million in contracts over the next five years.
“Our team is clear about our goal to reach $100 million over the next five years,” says Gaspard, a graduate of Dallas Baptist. “We will accomplish this by offering unique and cuttingedge solutions to our clients, from carbon neutral roofing products to preventative maintenance allowing our clients investments to last much longer, providing a measurable ROI and delivering our promise to be a partner, not just a transaction.”
Gaspard grew up installing roofs with his father and grandfather.
“Our vision is to be a premier contractor in the private and public sector, and an innovator among our peers in the industry.”
John Avila, a decorated Vietnam veteran who has a degree in architectural engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is a graduate of the United States Army War College, had an early rise in the construction industry. A retired reserve brigadier general, Avila at age 32 was appointed vice president of operations for Linbeck Construction. He also served as metroplex division manager for Manhattan Construction Company, eventually being promoted to executive vice president with oversight of national projects totaling more than $600 million per year.
In 1995, Avila purchased Thos. S. Byrne, the oldest active, continuous operating general contractor, founded in 1923. At that time the firm was a shadow of its former self, down in volume and brand recognition.
Under his leadership over the course of 21 years, Byrne has returned to prominence, providing construction services throughout the Southwest, its versatility exemplified by its range of construction, from high-rise office buildings, complex hospitals and related health care facilities, data and call centers, aviation facilities, sophisticated educational and institutional buildings, major retail centers, distribution and manufacturing facilities to worldrenowned museums, historical renovation/restoration, performing arts centers, high-end residences, and high-quality, high-finish specialty projects.
CATEGORY FINALIST:
Cori Eckley
NATCO Transport
It wasn’t football the family talked about at the Thanksgiving supper table. No, the topic was transportation, Cori Eckley says.
“I’ve really had this industry flowing through my DNA since before I was born,” she says. “My family has long been involved in the transportation industry. My grandfather owned his own truck line, with my grandmother taking care of the office and the bookkeeping. My father apprenticed with him and began his own business in 1982, when I was a year old. My aunt and uncle were also in the business of brokerage and dispatch.”
She had planned to be the generation that skipped the industry, but her father made a deal with her: If she agreed to come back and work for him, he would send her to graduate school. She worked there by day and went to school at night.
“I was intrigued by all the hard work of being self-employed and my dad’s entrepreneurial spirit. When my father passed, I dove into the nuances of the business and quickly grew to appreciate how much time, effort, and sacrifice was involved in making it a success.”
As vice president and co-owner of North American Transport Concepts (NATCO Transport), a third-party, nationwide logistics broker, she is now more than just along for the ride.
“We continue to grow each year, always looking to enhance our efficiency and delivering the highest level of customer service to both our customers and carriers.”
Evin Sisemore’s expedition in entrepreneurism in forklift batteries began with first learning what a forklift was. She got that job right out of college at LSU, and a few years later Interstate Batteries came calling with a job offer in its Motive Power division, selling power primarily in the industrial battery space.
She says she was one of the first females in such a role and, moreover, developed into one of the top sales professionals in the company. Awards from her employer and the battery and charger manufacturer followed.
Fast-forward five years: She was laid off after Interstate Batteries closed her division.
The manufacturer of the batteries and chargers Interstate distributed, however, sought out her interest in starting a business of her own, taking over territories serviced by Interstate.
Texas Motive Solutions was born, today a premier forklift battery and charger service and sales company.
In four years, “we have shown a substantial amount of both growth and profitability,” Sisemore says. “We have built a great culture and reputation while setting record sales targets.”
Sisemore recently sold her company, but she is staying on as its leader.
Cowtown Express is a freight company founded more than 35 years ago by a man with a truck, a pager, and a Mapsco. Under the current leadership, today the company serves all 48 contiguous states and Canada.
Sales has grown by $8 million over the past three years under the CEO-COO husband-wife team of Baskin and Baskin — Colby and Raegan.
“This has come through the hard work of Colby; by surrounding himself with top-tier talent, Cowtown has been able to capitalize on this growth,” reads the EOE application. “One of the messages that Cowtown continues to preach and practice is, ‘We hire for the person, not the position.’ This has enhanced the stability throughout the company over every department. Cowtown continues to build people and promote within. This is the aspect that makes leadership special within Cowtown. They truly care about the people who are making the wheels turn day to day.”
Woven into the fabric of the company culture is that beginning all those years ago.
“I truly have never met someone who immediately can see the good in people and challenge them,” reads Baskin’s application. “Try to push them in a constructive way and make them see what they can become. It’s this type of leadership that I think is lacking today in society, but this is the leadership that Cowtown adheres to.”
CATEGORY WINNER:
Luke Hejl
Luke Hejl is the co-founder and CEO of TimelyMD, which in five years has become the leading virtual health and well-being solution for higher education at nearly 250 colleges and universities.
“My co-founders and I identified higher education as an underserved market where students often waited weeks for campus health center appointments,” Hejl says. “With the increased adoption of virtual care and my previous health care experience, I understood a looming national shortage of primary care providers created a huge market opportunity for a telehealth company focused exclusively on college students.
Financial growth has been exponential, including 573% from 2019 to 2020, 98% from 2020 to 2021, and the company expects 66% from 2021 to 2022.
“Five years ago, TimelyMD pioneered the first telehealth program that offered students access to virtual health care at no cost,” Hejl says. “We were selling a concept that had never been done in higher education to people who initially thought we were trying to replace campus health centers. One of the first challenges we overcame was to quickly refine our messaging to make it clear that we wanted to work with campus professionals to take great care of students together. This partnership message remains central to our business and has been critical to our success.”
In 2006, Ezra and Gina Kuenzi’s nephew suffered severe brain damage because of complications in birth. So much was the struggle to find a reliable, caring home health company that the Kuenzis set out to start a patient-centered pediatric home health care company.
With no industry connections, operations experience, or outside advisers, Gina says, “there was a huge learning curve.”
However, the couple did it, all while
Ezra, a Fort Worth Magazine Top Attorney, kept working, creating and fostering those relationships with patients and clinicians even as demand for the company’s services increased.
Today, Connect Pediatrics, which provides pediatric home health care to children throughout Texas, is among the fastest-growing companies in the country, ranked so by Inc. Magazine in 2021 and No. 18 in the Southwest region in 2022.
“Being in the health care industry, there’s always new challenges, but our challenges pale in comparison to the challenges that the families we serve face each and every day,” says Gina. “With that perspective in mind, we view each challenge as an opportunity to grow and improve as an organization.”
CATEGORY FINALIST:
Sara Camp
Steven Camp MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics
Don’t tell Sara Camp she can’t. A partner with her husband in the practice of Steven Camp MD Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics in Fort Worth, Camp fell behind in school as a teen because of a struggle with meningitis and encephalitis. She wanted to become a nurse, inspired by those who cared for her, but doctors and schools said don’t bother because of brain injuries and poor grades. She did finally get accepted to a university, TCU. Her chance to pursue nursing, “just like my heroes,” was in her reach. However, her adviser there told her to find something else, that her dream was impossible to achieve, and, furthermore, that she had only been accepted “due to family connections.”
Well, mark it down as Sara Camp 1, College Advisers 0. Camp earned a nursing degree and then went on to earn two master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution, mind you. She worked as an RN and acute care nurse practitioner for almost 10 years. After a stint in the health care
corporate world, she joined her husband in the founding of their practice, which has been open for almost six years.
“We have seen strong growth each year, ranging from 16% to 86% growth year over year,” she says.
The practice will move to a new building, featuring two operating rooms, this year.
Rex Benson took over the fabled restaurant his father David Benson and aunt Bette Brozgoldin opened in 1962. The Ol’ South Pancake House turned 60 this year and is stronger than ever, pandemic shutdowns be damned.
Since 2011, when Benson took on operations, Ol’ South has witnessed sales growth of 67% in those 10 years, thanks to technology (point-ofsale, instead of pen and paper), new trends, and new menu items.
He expanded into Burleson in January 2021, the first of what Benson envisions as Ol’ South restaurants dotting GPS devices across North Texas in the years to come. Benson says sales at the Burleson store exceeded expectations for year one.
All of this coming on the heels of lockdowns.
“Going from 8,000 guests a week to zero was like running full speed into a brick wall,” Benson says. “Ol’ South wasn’t built on to-go and delivery. Ol’ South’s success was built on a family-friendly environment, great customer service, and faceto-face interactions for over 50 years. We made a plan and quickly shifted into a to-go business. It wasn’t always pretty, but we kept going, and the guests we had spent the last 58 years serving supported us through it all.”
Magdalena’s
Magdalena’s today is a preferred caterer at many top venues across DFW It took a trip through the hottest oven to get there.
Chef Juan Rodriguez started Magdalena’s catering and events company on a $30,000 loan from his great uncle, who lives in Mexico. “It’s going to be named after my grandma — Magdalena — your sister!” he remembers telling the uncle. “He said, ‘Claro que si.’”
Of course.
He and his wife set up meetings with prospective clients to pitch their services. “I was giving it my all,” he remembers. “Many doors closed; many people ghosted us.” Others took ideas and asked others to recreate them at a lower price.
“In October 2015, I looked at our bank account and saw we were coming down to our last $1,000,” he says. “We thought about closing it down. It was horrible. I was crying on the stairs and just freaking out. We had events booked up. We thought about asking for more money but didn’t know who to ask. My wife said, ‘Just wait. We might have a client pay upfront for her event in January.’ That was a Saturday. On Monday, we got a check for $20,000. We never looked back.”
The company has 38 employees and, Rodriguez says, is on track to reach a goal of $3 million in sales.
Nafees Alam grew up a witness to the Third World as a son of Bangladesh. He has taken full advantage of the chances afforded in the land of opportunity. He earned a bachelor’s in business from UT Arlington and an MBA with a focus on entrepreneurial studies from SMU. He learned the restaurant business with Waffle House, where he directed regional operations.
In 2005, Alam and Mike Hoque founded DRG Concepts. Alam became CEO in 2015. DRG has built profitable brands in Dallas and Fort Worth while, like everyone else, running a pandemic obstacle course of lousy labor, supply, and marketplace conditions.
The Wicked Butcher brand at The Sinclair in Fort Worth has been successful since opening and reopening in 2020. Wild Salsa in downtown Fort Worth and Dallas both closed but will soon reopen, he says. Oven and Cellar will also soon open to guests in downtown Fort Worth.
Sales are on an uptick.
“Even throughout these current challenging market conditions, Nafees has been able to be an industry standard-setting steward of financial resources to reopen his restaurants, when others have had to permanently shutter their businesses,” reads his EOE application.
Michael McCracken
Michael McCracken, an oil and gas industry veteran with a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. from Purdue, is CEO of Fort Worth-based Flat Creek Resources, which manages oil and gas assets in West Texas and New Mexico.
Battling out of the COVID-era catastrophe in the industry, the McCracken-led team formed a joint venture company, Stateline Operating, in partnership with Vortus Investments. Vortus committed capital to Stateline and Flat Creek contributed assets and capital. The assets contributed by Flat Creek were undeveloped with no preexisting cash flow. They called capital and began developing a tract in the Northern Delaware Basin in New Mexico. They were able to bring wells online in October 2021 through creative, capital-efficient solutions.
“These efforts bridged Stateline from a greenfield operation to one that is now self-funded from operating cash flow,”
McCracken says. “In Q4 2021, we generated $18 million of revenue from our first four well program. The four well pad paid out in approximately six months and as of April 2022 had a forecasted PDP [proved developed producing] cash flow stream of $45 million,” three times the invested capital.
The company recommenced development drilling in January 2022, six months ahead of schedule because of the strong financial performance from the initial wells.
“By reinvesting Stateline’s operating cash flow into the drill bit, we were able to drill and complete the second round of development without calling additional equity capital.”
CATEGORY FINALIST:
Russell English
Trailhead Exploration
Fort Worth-based Trailhead Exploration, LLC, an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company focused in the Midcontinent Region, has grown from a small investor in other operators’ wells into an operator generating meaningful investment project returns. Revenue from crude and natural gas production has grown from $68,000 for 2019 to a projection of more than $2.5 million in 2022.
It is the life’s work of Russell English, CEO, a former football player at the Oklahoma University who earned an MBA at TCU.
English cut his teeth at XTO, “a fantastic place to learn,” as the shale boom rose like a Bezos rocket ship. He stayed onboard through the transition with ExxonMobil but began to rethink after the company’s move to Houston.
“I determined it was time to scratch my entrepreneurial itch,” English says.
The company accomplished an “outstanding exit result” from the Permian Basin in a partnership with Silver Hill Energy Partners of Dallas in 2016. With Silver Hill’s input and support, Trailhead was able to begin acquiring leasehold to participate in its own project area and subsequently raise a substantial private equity commitment from Old Ironsides Energy.
As with many, COVID required creative strategies to stay alive and position the company for ultimate value-creation. But, as a result, “we are now well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunity with industry resurgence.”
Summit Peak Investments
Summit Peak Investments, LLC, is an SEC registered investment adviser, managing roughly $676 million in regulatory assets, which are invested in a diversified manner, across different vintage years, sectors, and fund managers that have a large amount of growth potential.
Co-founders and managing partners Apurva
Mehta, pictured, and Patrick O’Connor write that they came from humble backgrounds and when starting Summit Peak “bootstrapped the business the first two years without knowing if it would ultimately succeed.” As the former Deputy CIO for Cook Children’s Medical Center, O’Connor helped grow the endowment specifically in early stage venture capital in which he deployed more than $250 million and generated more than $1 billion in venture returns. In 2018, Summit Peak was founded replicating the investment strategy the founders had at the endowment.
Starting out, the founders committed a significant amount of capital to investments without having raised capital from investors yet. Today, the founders say they “bite off more than they can chew and then chew like hell.”
“It was a stressful journey,” they say, “one with many sleepless nights.”
Their first fund ultimately did get off the ground, and they’d raised enough capital only to be back in a less than ideal fundraising environment at the start of the pandemic. Yet, despite the challenges from 2020 to 2021, the firm not only raised capital but were able to grow the team and further institutionalize the business.
E. Kim Dignum and her Dignum Financial Partners made a strategic decision long ago that seemed counterintuitive to building a business: purposely limiting the clients served.
“What differentiates us from most financial service companies is that we work on a referral-only basis,” Dignum says. “We do not advertise. We recognized that putting our focus of our clients’ needs above ours gives us the time to do what we do best and ultimately accomplishes our vision — helping our clients realize their dreams. We’ve never looked back.”
She says her profit margins are “regarded as the best in the industry,” the strategic processes the “secret sauce.” The staff, lean with three full-time employees, including Dignum, and one part-time assistant, managed 376 households, according to the firm, founded in 1986.
The paradigm has been successful. The average client has a tenure of more than 25 years.
And that is what has taken Dignum Financial Partners from startup to multimillion-dollar company.
Facing the obstacles of any new business, she managed to build it without any outside financing; capitalizing it entirely herself as the company grew.
Dignum, author of Perfect Makes Practice, was selected a Top Women Wealth Adviser by Forbes in 2020, ’21, and ’22, as well as a Forbes Best in State Wealth Adviser from 2019-22.
Jon and Kim Vidaurri’s Vidaurri Management Group, a real estate and project management firm, was founded in 2016 on the precept that “the success of the client comes first through servant leadership.”
That has taken them places. Since 2016, the firm’s revenue has grown 1,130%. Profit has never been below 34% over the past six years.
That’s even through pandemic lockdowns and associated downturns.
VMG’s journey started in 2015, when after spending the previous 12 years working for a publicly traded, global real estate and project management firm with more than 55,000 employees, Jon realized “he was spending an increasing amount of time writing reports, tracking metrics, attending nonproject client-related meetings, and using cumbersome electronic project management systems that did not support the clients’ needs or create tangible value for the client.”
In other words, Jon was spending more time managing corporate compliance requirements versus serving his clients’ needs.
“He saw there was a need in the market for a nimble, entrepreneurial, client-centric firm that could differentiate itself with a servant-leader culture and have the ability to pivot in order to meet the client’s evolving needs.”
This year, they both say, they have decided “it’s time to deploy a website.”
That’s movin’ on up.
CATEGORY WINNER:
Travis Patterson says he became a lawyer to help people.
Patterson Law Group, headed by the family triumvirate of Patterson, his wife, Anna Patterson, and his father, Mike Patterson, has grown into the largest personal injury firm in Tarrant County and is expanding across the state with offices open or soon to open in El Paso, Lubbock, Midland, Plano, and Austin.
The firm’s mantra: “Work hard. Be nice.”
“They say when you own your own business, you get to decide which hours of the day you work, but you still have to work 16 hours a day,” Travis Patterson says. “That’s pretty much how it was in the beginning as we were learning what it would take to build a different type of law firm in a class of its own. From day one, we have been laser-focused on our financial performance but never at the expense of our customer service. We have grown through high-level service, strategic partnerships with other community leaders and professionals, and our public reputation. That is the model that has supported our organic growth and sustainability.”
Gross revenue and profits at the firm have risen each of the past three years.
“We have steady revenue and profitability each and every quarter. We utilize debt very minimally to invest in our cases.”
Twice a finalist, Patterson is now an Entrepreneur of Excellence.
Montserrat Hills, LLC
In 2003, the Siratt family, headed by patriarch and entrepreneur Don Siratt, purchased the first piece of property that would become the highly successful gated community of Montserrat. The plan was for all of the Siratts to live there as a sort of ranch or family compound.
That plan, the family soon discovered, would be too costly and impractical. “Plus, as we showed friends and family members our plans, they started expressing interest in living up on ‘the hill’ with us.”
Fast-forward to 2017, just a few months after Don Siratt had passed away, the Siratts were approached about buying the property just west of Montserrat.
“With land and construction prices dramatically higher than 2003, we knew it would be a huge risk but also an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up,” the Siratts say.
After a couple years of planning, brothers Donnie and Colby Sirrat, head of Montserrat Hills, LLC, broke ground in early 2020 on Montrachet. Despite the pandemic and fearing an economic downturn, the brothers pressed forward.
“We are currently way ahead of schedule, with approximately 75% of our homesites accounted for,” they say.
Montserrat Hills was formed to develop the Montrachet neighborhood which consists of 169 lots on 255 acres in west Fort Worth. Originally projected to take up to 10 years to sell out, it is significantly ahead of schedule, and all investor capital returned in less than a year after the first lot was sold.
CATEGORY FINALIST:
Ronald Sturgeon
Salon Professionals
As self-made as a self-made man can be, Ron Sturgeon began a life of entrepreneurism at the tender age of 17, left on his own and nowhere to go and with no money after the death of his father. He opened an auto repair shop in Haltom City, leading to his developing a chain of hightech salvage yards, which he sold to Greenleaf Acquisitions, a wholly owned Ford Motor Co. subsidiary, in 1999.
He bought it back and sold it again, at which point he pivoted to the world of real estate as an investor, landlord, and developer.
He is the author of 10 books, all on Amazon, the most recent, Keeping the Lights on Downtown in America’s Small Cities — the Struggle Is Real.
Sturgeon is a finalist as founder of Salon Professionals, which leases space to independent beauty and wellness professionals. For 2021, its revenues represented a 79% increase over 2020. Salon Professionals has 476 tenants in 17 locations, including three that opened or will open in 2022.
“The vision of Salon Professionals is to give ambitious beauty professionals all the tools they need to become successful independent business owners and help them uncap their earnings through turnkey salon spaces,” Sturgeon says.
Thomas Black, pictured above, was a medical doctor with a thriving practice but who discovered he would never find fulfillment in the profession. Namely, the financial freedom that only comes through ownership. That’s not to say he doesn’t love it. He still practices emergency medicine.
However, with his brother, Tim, he co-founded Napali Capital, a real estate investment company that partners with physicians to increase their wealth beyond traditional investment platforms. The company was founded in 2016 by the Blacks, brothers with a passion for real estate.
In addition to medicine, Thomas is a 13-year veteran and author who was looking for a way to provide alternative income streams for himself and colleagues. Tim spent 30 years as an executive in hospitality, operations, and real estate development.
The Black brothers have built a brand providing profitable opportunities for investors. Napali Capital works with more than 2,000 investors in 40 states.
The firm has more than $500 million in assets under management
“We have seen year over year sales and profit growth,” Thomas says. “Each of our properties has experienced equity growth [between 24% and 160%] during their hold periods. Hold periods have ranged from 22 to 42 months.”
Chris Lee and Zac Chaffin
EarthWorks, Inc.
EarthWorks, Inc., was started in the late 1970s with a $1,000 loan to Mark Chaffin and his wife, Mana, from his parents. With that, he purchased equipment, a truck, and a trailer.
The husband and wife steadily built the company over the course of 20 years, to the point they needed help. So, they asked their son, Chris Lee, then in Wyoming working as a loan officer for a car dealership, to move to Texas to join the company.
Over the next 15 years, those three had grown the company to more than $10 million in revenue, more than 200 employees, expansion to two locations, and more than 600 pieces of equipment and 60 vehicles in the company fleet.
Mark and Mana’s youngest son, Zac, an Aggie with a business degree from A&M, joined the company shortly after that. In the past nine years, the brothers — “with a lot of help and great employees” — have taken the company to more than $30 million in revenue, more than 350 employees, offices in Irving, Garland, and Houston, and more than 100 vehicles in the fleet.
EarthWorks is one of the largest landscape companies in the country, according to Lawn and Landscape.
That’s quite a return on a $1,000 loan.
“While today Mark and Mana would say they are not active members of EarthWorks, they still serve as a compass and sound voice when the team has to make big decisions,” according to the brothers.
Ginger Curtis’ Urbanology Designs, a luxury design firm based in North Richland Hills, was birthed in the aftermath of grueling chemotherapy treat-
ment seven years ago. With no formal training in design but what she calls a “surplus of raw talent and a fiery entrepreneurial spirit,” she went to work.
She hired her first employee in less than a year.
“I knew I needed to put the right people around me with the strengths and skills that complemented my own gaps and weaknesses,” she writes.
In 2017, she purchased an abandoned fire station in North Richland Hills and renovated it into a multipurpose office space. The office building is now home base of Urbanology Designs. It also leases executive offices to other local entrepreneurs and doubles as an event center during nights and weekends. The space is affectionately named the Urban Fire House.
Urbanology Designs offers a walk-through consultation service for clients who prefer advice only for a do-it-yourself project. That service accounted for 13% of revenue in 2021. The rest of revenue comes from full-service design, which covers design, procurement of furnishings and décor, and any necessary construction.
The firm has already reached its highest sales goals in three years and on pace to reach its goal for 2022.
JWC General Contractors
Jason Webber, a finalist in this category a year ago, is a testament to what can be despite starting life in a hole. Born to parents who were addicts and drug dealers, it was no surprise that Webber, too, tried his hand at it.
Too many times, it ended as one would expect, including encounters with the law. It took a while, but Webber finally adopted the First Law of Holes: If you find yourself in a hole, quit digging. His first positive step was meeting his wife, 15 years ago. They got out of the environment, moving to California and surrounding themselves with the right people.
“I started living my life for the right reasons: God and family,” he says. “I moved to Texas and started working for a friend’s company.”
Four years later, he started his own company, JWC General Contractors. Alongside the construction company, Webber opened other businesses, including a commercial construction division and a disaster restoration company, ADH Disaster Restoration.
In 2021, Webber’s company witnessed a 250% growth in business over the first four years and increased his team to more than 30 people.
“We are well above the industry standards as far as growth and profitability,” he says. “We are so thankful to our growing customer base as well, who have given us an ‘A’ rating on BBB.”
TriQuest Technologies
The tornado on March 28, 2000, that rolled in from the West Side and into downtown destroyed the offices of TriQuest Technologies in mere seconds. It took well over a year to finalize the insurance claims and rebuild.
“It destroyed everything we had,” Gary Tonniges says. “But in retrospect, it was one of the greatest things that happened to us. It was the catalyst for us to figure out who we are and how we want to do business.”
Gary and Cyndy Tonniges’ TriQuest Technologies, Inc., for 25 years has offered specialized IT support for business customers. The company helps customers utilize technology and be more effective in their work — while keeping their critical systems and data safe and secure — by consistently delivering reliable IT solutions.
Starting a family business was never the plan for Gary and Cyndy, who stumbled into working together. They first discovered they could work together while remodeling a house built in 1947.
“At the time, we had more money and determination than time or skill,” says Cyndy. “We learned project management, scarcity of resources, [that] it is worth subcontracting out jobs that require expertise, and sometimes you are caught unprepared.”
Like when an F3 rolls into town.
EJ Carrion’s Student Success Agency, a leading provider of digital student support services to school districts nationwide, grew by 73% in 2021 and is projected to double its 2020 revenue in 2022. The company has been profitable for the last two years and has expanded its employee count by 69%.
With a 97% renewal rate, Student Success Agency, founded in 2012, is positioned to accelerate as a world-class solution for schools managing the new normal and needs of students, post-pandemic.
“I started Student Success Agency after becoming the first of my family to graduate from college,” Carrion says. “I am the classic underrepresented minority founder who did not graduate with a business degree and had very little access to capital or mentors. SSA’s first capital investment was from customers who took a chance on us after a PowerPoint deck pitch. Today, we are a growing and profitable software company. If I get awarded, I hope my story inspires other minority entrepreneurs to dream big and for Fort Worth to do the same.”
Student Success Agency works with more than 500 schools across 20 states. Agents support students from many types of backgrounds and offer students specialized access to mental health, tutoring, and postsecondary advising.
John Clay Wolfe has created a platform to sell your car so easy you can do it in your underwear. Well, so says a very catchy jingle I hear on the radio. Wolfe has built a little auto whole-
sale empire through GiveMeTheVin.com and a nationally syndicated radio show, on which he makes on-the-spot offers.
Wolfe began life as a serial entrepreneur — he admits working for someone else isn’t a good idea for anybody — owning bars catering to the TCU college market. He was an SMU student at the time. That evolved into car dealerships.
A motocross accident left him paralyzed and at a crossroads.
He needed a new plan to market his dealerships: a radio show, which he could do sitting in a wheelchair.
“No one on air knew I was in a wheelchair,” he says. “Today, I walk, unassisted, with a limp, but so fortunate to recover from that accident. I had had much success in the auto wholesale business during those 10 [previous] years, then had to start over financially and mentally. The good news is I had that radio show to springboard back from. Without that, I doubt we’d be having this conversation right now.”
Christie Moore says she knew as a 9-year-old that she would be a mortician when she grew up. She honored her parents’ wishes by first attending a university. Bachelor’s and master’s degrees followed.
Having then obtained her licensing as an embalmer and funeral director, she went to work for several funeral homes around the country. Along the way, she discovered something else about herself: “I constantly saw gaps and missed opportunities to effect change in the communities and decided to begin the journey towards entrepreneurship.”
To that end, she purchased the Mansfield Funeral Home and became its CEO.
“Several underwriters privately told me my gender, ethnicity, and age would prevent me from successfully building or acquiring a business until a woman decided to believe in my passion for people. I purchased a funeral home that was generating minimal income, no profits and was thought to have been a lost cause.
“Within five and a half years, I have attained national recognition for the lives touched through our service. This phenomenal change was because of my ability to see past what’s immediately in front of me and always serve in the spirit of excellence.”
CauseLabs, led by social entrepreneurs
Sheryle Gillihan and Michael Gillihan, is a company whose mission is to use technology as a means to an end, advancing the wellbeing of humanity.
“Our company’s mission is growing positive impact,” says Sheryle. “Our vision is to do this by using technology and business as a force for good. Our core values relate to this mission and vision, and we use this to make all of our decisions. By doing this, we not only work on projects that grow positive impact and use technology to make a difference in the world, but we also make operational decisions that make a difference.”
The company’s core market is in the social/ nonprofit sector, but it serves all companies that aim to create positive impact in their communities.
Sheryle Gillihan, an Arabic translator during a career in the U.S. Army, joined the company, then HiDef Web Solutions founded by Azin Mehrnoosh, as a project manager in 2010. She and her husband purchased the company in 2018 under the rebranded CauseLabs.
“I will always admire Azin for what he built, and now I am forging my own path, turning CauseLabs into a family-owned, family-led company that is becoming my legacy.”
Dacia Coffey went back into the corporate world working in marketing after she and her husband moved on from a successful entrepreneurial run in the trucking business.
“The type of clients I attracted were all B2B — very unusual in the agency world — and I realized this was an underserved market where I had both the sales experience and entrepreneurial point of view to serve them well,” Coffey says.
In 2013, she introduced The Marketing Blender, a firm that crafts and executes marketing plans to build brands in highly competitive markets.
“Business grew slowly but steadily over the first six years, but I seemed to be unable to break that $1 million mark,” she says.
She thought she might lose the business turning a figurative ankle in a figurative pothole, plus the pandemic. “I had to not only get as lean as possible financially and operationally to save the rest of the team and our future, but I had to do loads of soul searching about the blind spots I was functioning in that caused the damage.”
She adapted, creating a fractional chief marketing officer format and outsource marketing team services. That model resonated with the market, she says. The firm eclipsed the $1 million mark in 2021 with a 24% profit margin, and it will creep ever closer to $2 million in 2022.
Unique off-site meeting spaces can do an office good. We found a few.
The off-site meeting is used by management to get the team together to discuss big-picture goals or larger projects, or to kick off projects, mold quarterly plans, or simply to build morale among the staff.
There are literally thousands of places in Fort Worth to hold a board meeting or offsite gathering.
There are important things to ask when booking a room.
Does the fee include only the space? Do catering, setup, teardown, and cleanup require additional fees? Is audio/visual equipment available, and is it added cost? (Generally, no, there is no added cost as it concerns the latter.) Can I bring my own caterer? Sometimes. Do you offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Is a tip included in the rental fee, or do I tip staff separately? Is alcohol available? Usually.
Perhaps the most important question: How private is the room?
The answer to that question might require a visit to scout the place.
A unique setting is also something to consider to break up the monotony or reward staff members. Only in Texas can you fire a gun — even a machine gun — at an offsite meeting. Well, not actually during the meeting.
An off-site meeting in the locker room of America’s Team? We found a place. They’re not necessarily the Seven Wonders of the World, but here are seven of the more uncommon places to hold a meeting in the Fort Worth area, in no particular order.
Oh, and, yes, the mac ’n cheese, please.
The Fort Worth Club has witnessed just about every era in Fort Worth’s history.
Cattlemen, wildcatters, newspaper publishers, the Hollywood set, war heroes, and
U.S. presidents, including FDR and LBJ, all spent time here in meetings or in repose or recreation. It’s been called the Fort Worth Club since 1906, and its base of operations since 1926 has been in that grand, 12-story high-rise at Throckmorton and Seventh streets. Ninety-six years after setting up shop there, the office business environment is marked by good health and a high occupancy rate.
A great place to host a board meeting? Yes.
“We have a variety of room options,” says Sarah Wilbanks, director of catering. “The majority are rented on a half-day or full-day basis. However, we do have some that can be available by the hour.”
The Fort Worth Club can serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a full-service staff available all day. Need a hot toddy after a long day of meetings — or during them? The Fort Worth Club can do.
Several of the rooms are equipped with a built-in projector and screens, as well as Polycom conference phones. Other rooms have the option for a portable projector and screens as well as microphones.
College football fans on an off-site event can also stroll up to the 11th floor to the Davey O’Brien Hall of Fame. There, memorabilia are housed from each of the past Davey O’Brien Award winners, dating to Earl Campbell in 1977. Then, it was awarded to the most outstanding player in the Southwest. Today, it’s the preeminent reward for the country’s best college quarterback.
However, another unique feature is its boutique inn. Twenty-one rooms are available for anyone traveling from out of town.
The Fort Worth Zoo has gained a reputation for, well, some wild evening events for anything from corporate events to rehearsal
dinners to the actual wedding. We’ve all seen the pictures of guests being greeted by something that looks as if it came straight from an African safari tour.
Really neat stuff, if you’re into that kind of thing. Who doesn’t have that kind of curiosity?
The zoo can also do the same for your off-site daytime meeting.
As they like to say, “The zoo is where work comes to play!”
There is a guest minimum of 75 for after-hours events. “However, during zoo business hours, we can accommodate smaller groups, but we do require you to have breakfast and/or lunch,” says Avery Elander, the zoo’s director of marketing.
The zoo can handle all the catering. (There is alcohol only after-hours. Not during regular zoo business hours.)
Nonwork activities include live animal presentations and meet-and-greets, scavenger hunts, wild photos, and caricature artists. The zoo also offers turnkey services, taking care of details such as catering, staging, and linen rentals.
The zoo accommodates board meetings with a built-in projector, podium, and mic in the gallery space.
“We offer a fun, unique environment where your team — large or small — can unwind, explore, and enjoy exciting activities,” Elander says.
Defender Outdoors has meeting space, two primary rooms, and a lounge. You can also fire some pistols — in a designated range, of course.
“We have package deals ranging from $500 to $5,000,” says general manager Matt Irwin, “that is primarily based on number of shooters and if you want to run machine guns or not.”
Defender Outdoors can accommodate up
to 30 per room and up to 100, “if we combine a room and the lounge,” says Irwin, who adds that the facility generally hosts two to three meetings a month.
Projectors, as well as smart TVs on mobile stands are available for use, too.
They don’t generally offer breakfast, but they can, Irwin says. “Barbecue, sandwiches, and a fajita bar are the most common requests.” Alcohol is available, but once you drink a sip, the wristband each attendee has been given is removed.
If the wristband is removed, that means you can’t go onto the range to fire guns. Safety first, of course.
That is the uniqueness of the facility, after all, the capacity to jump out of the meeting and fire a few rounds.
Each group is assigned a dedicated event host and a range safety officer.
Says Irwin: “When businesses give their employees the option to shoot a machine gun, they normally choose to.”
Acre Distilling opened in 2015, inspired by the former neighborhood where it sits on the southeast side of downtown.
Hell’s Half Acre was home to bars, saloons, and bawdy houses, all for the enjoyment of the drovers — and, with time, many others — who came passing by. Among those who came through were Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch.
Acre Distilling has followed proudly in those legendary footsteps with awardwinning creations of single-malt whiskey, bourbon, gin, vodka, rum, liqueurs, and cordials.
There’s also a pretty nifty spot for an off-site meeting.
It’s a long table that seats up to 23 in the tiled production area. They also can do bigger parties.
“It’s where we make all the stuff,” says Tony Formby, an entrepreneur and CEO of Acre Distilling. “We do that all the time.”
It’s a flat fee for the room, depending on how long it will be in use, Formby says, with add-ons available if the group wants to do a tasting afterward. Tours are available, too.
Audiovisual capability is on-site.
Food is available through Acre’s vendors, or the client is welcome to bring in
their own caterer. Options on-site, through Acre’s kitchen, are flatbread pizzas or cheese boards, things more appropriate for tastings.
It’s not a stretch to say that the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL team that plays in Arlington, offers the most unique experience. Period. Unique play on the field, unique drama that unfolds seemingly on the hour, and, we’ve discovered, a very unique option for an offsite gathering.
The Cowboys locker room.
It’s big — 2,400 square feet — and can hold up to 150 people.
The IT Amphitheater is another option with theater-style seating with desk space on each aisle. It holds a maximum of 48 people with state-of-the-art TelePresence capabilities.
The catering is done there on-site, including sweets made in a dedicated pastry kitchen.
As it concerns the food, don’t sleep on the truffle mac and cheese.
That’s an experience all its own. Truly divine.
TX Whiskey Ranch sits on sacred Fort Worth ground, a former golf course, Glen Garden Country Club, the first employer of golf legends Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, who caddied there as youngsters.
As just a boy, Hogan would sleep on the premises to make sure he got the earliest tee times and best tippers. It was there that he met Marvin Leonard, the Fort Worth business leader and his future benefactor.
The new facility, initially built by Leonard Firestone and Trey Robertson before the brand was sold to Pernod Ricard, has plenty of room for events, including space for board meetings.
The facility fee depends on the day and timeframe booked, anywhere from $500 to $5,000.
“For those looking to host a meeting for the daytime only, we can reserve the Oak Room for them on any weekday,” says Jeremy Byrd, a TX staff member.
The Oak Room can fit as many as 250 people.
All food, beverage and wait staff are the
responsibility of the client, Byrd says.
“All food and beverage are outsourced by the client,” Byrd says. “We do require the client to select a vendor from our approved vendor list. There are several options listed based on what the client needs from a casual drop-off to full service with staffing and rentals.”
That includes even alcohol, which must be TX Whiskey and purchased through a liquor store. Why is that? Because of the facility’s distiller license and mandates of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Byrd says.
Meeting rooms include an in-house screen, projector, audio mixer for sound, anchor speakers, and two hand-held wireless microphones.
Nine holes remain of the golf course. It might or might not be available, depending on the date of the off-site.
However, says Byrd: “We have many clients that arrange a closest to the pin contest or putting contest as there is a green that sits on the backside of the private event space. So, it’s in perfect position for friendly competition!”
This is where the rubber meets the road. Texas Motor Speedway has a full-time NASCAR Driving School locate on-site, as well
as a part-time driving school where you can drive supercars on the infield road course.
There is no trading paint, however. Stay in your lane.
But the Richard Petty Driving Experience is said to be a memorable drive. One can ride shotgun with a professional instructor at speeds up to 165 mph (the G’s on those turns you remember), or you can get behind the wheel and make anywhere from eight to 80 laps.
TMS has several rooms available for weekday office meetings.
The expense depends on what, if any, extras, such as the driving school, you want your employees to do.
Audiovisual and a full-service, staffed experience is available, including alcohol.
“Levy Restaurants, the food vendor at TMS, offers a full array of food and beverage for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” says David Hart, TMS director of public relations.
The largest space in The Speedway Club can provide space for as many as 200. The most intimate room provides a comfortable area for 10.
The boss could also rent out part of a garage or one of two rooms in the Media Center, located on the infield.
All of them contain the technology you need to host a meeting.
Sturgeon – CEO of Ron Sturgeon Real Estate LP
Ron and his team at Ron Sturgeon Real Estate LP are deserving of this recognition. Most notable is the team effort of the Salon and Spa Galleria chain created by Sturgeon. Sturgeon and his team have grown it to 21 locations in Tarrant, Johnson, and Parker Counties. The company offers salon suites to more than 500 beauty entrepreneurs who are enjoying the American Dream, owning and operating their own business. With a 79% increase in leases from 2020 to 2021, it is clear that Sturgeon’s vision for this small business opportunity was needed.
Owned by Ron Sturgeon, Ron Sturgeon Real Estate LP caters to small businesses primarily throughout Tarrant County. Sturgeon loves small businesses and often says, “Their struggle is real.” Broke and homeless after losing his father, Ron started his first business in Haltom City over 50 years ago. He later built a chain of auto salvage yards, which he sold to Ford Mtr. Co. in 1999. Leveraging the proceeds from that sale, he built his first business park in South Arlington.
Specializing in small multi-tenant office warehouses, Ron Sturgeon Real Estate LP owns and manages over 3 million sf and more than 1,500 tenants. Some of its most innovative business parks are Box Office Warehouse Suites, constructed in the Alliance Area with 150+ shipping containers, and Paddock Place, a horse barn converted to office suites.
Still based in Haltom City, where he employs 12, Sturgeon continues to advocate for small businesses. His 11th book, Keeping the Lights on Downtown in America’s Small Cities: The Critical Role Small Businesses Play in Bringing Back Jobs and Prosperity is available on Amazon, and he has offered free copies to Haltom City residents.
His newest project giving back to the community is his push to “Make Haltom City Thrive Again” by working to bring businesses back to Haltom City. With his fiancée Linda Allen, he lives in downtown Fort Worth in a new 3-story shipping container home they recently constructed by Montgomery Plaza.
Thanking our lenders for supporting our growth and success!
Whether you’re planning a networking event, a retirement party, a wedding, or some other kind of jamboree, you will need some space. When choosing a venue, we encourage you to look beyond the four walls and consider the unique flair each space offers.
How many people are you hosting?
It can be difficult, especially in business, to guess how many people are going to show up to your event. If it’s a ticketed or invitation-only event, subtract approximately 20% from the total number of invitations sent out to give yourself a reasonable estimate of the guest count.
What kind of food and alcohol, if any, will you offer?
Keep in mind that many venue spaces will provide their own catering services, but some may require that you contract with an outside catering company. If you need help choosing a caterer, the venue typically carries a preferred vendor list of caterers that are familiar with the venue’s kitchen. If you have a certain cuisine in mind, it’s always a good idea to check out the menu beforehand. How far in advance should I book my venue?
The rule of thumb for any weekend event is to book your venue at least one year in advance of the day of the event. If you’re planning an event during the week, it’s safe to start planning around three to four months in advance. You’re not completely out of luck if you don’t follow this timeline. Just know that there might be less availability the closer you get to your date.
Fort Worth Inc. has prepared the following promoted section to display some of Fort Worth’s finest event venues.
River Ranch Stockyards makes planning your business meetings easy with:
High-Speed Wifi, High-Resolution Projectors and Screens, Microphones, Podiums and built-in staging, and more! River Ranch Stockyards is the perfect venue for your corporate meetings and events. Book your tour today!
From day meetings and seminars to award dinners and galas, let us provide an unforgettable experience for you and your guests. Our in-house catering is delicious and convenient for your corporate lunches. Let our culinary staff create a menu loaded with Texas Favorites from BBQ, to Tex-Mex, to carving stations. We’ll work with you to make sure your guests feel full and satisfied with our snack and beverage packages.
Our venue transitions perfectly from day to night with exciting entertainment such as: professional rodeos, mechanical bulls, armadillo races, beer burritos, pig races, Live Longhorns, Cigar Rolling, Casinos, Photobooths, Live Bands, Fireworks displays, and More!
With three unique rooms, we can accommodate groups from 50-1,000+. All rooms are equipped with individual entrances, restrooms, and bars. Parking is not a concern with our large private lot
In September 2021, Texas Capital Bank set out with a new vision: to be the flagship financial services firm in Texas serving the best clients in its markets. To achieve this, the firm has been focused on creating products and industry segmentation that enable it to be a stronger partner to clients throughout their full lifecycles.
Texas Capital Bank is the only full-service financial services firm headquartered in Texas, and Fort Worth Business Banking Manager, Dave Monaghan, believes that the firm provides a unique, real-time view of economic and business realities in the state that can drive value for clients doing business here.
“We have been fortunate to bring on more than 50 new team members in Fort Worth alone, further signifying Texas Capital Bank’s commitment to the third-fastest growing city in the country,” Monaghan says. “It is an important part of our strategy to place key decisionmakers
close to our clients in each market, and Fort Worth is a prime example of this commitment.”
Monaghan joined Texas Capital Bank to lead Fort Worth’s Business Banking team in October 2021 after more than 25 years with a large national firm. He applies his experience to create an atmosphere of collaboration and inclusion to benefit both employees and clients. He believes that every aspect of operations must be lead with enthusiasm and passion that builds trust.
“Great leaders are transparent, trusting, humble, passionate, and accountable,” Monaghan says. “One of my favorite quotes is, ‘What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?’ Great leaders have the courage to take chances and learn from the results.”
When it comes to doing business in Fort Worth, Monaghan is focused on building deep relationships with clients in the community so
that Texas Capital Bank can facilitate and provide the success-driving services and solutions they need, at the scale and time they are needed.
“It’s our priority to provide high-touch, responsive service in order to keep our clients educated with valued advice,” Monaghan says. “Relationships are how we build trust that stays with Texas Capital Bank, and leads us to earning the first call when a business need arises.”
As he looks ahead, Monaghan acknowledges a challenging landscape of unforeseen obstacles like the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, drought-affecting crop harvests, and labor shortages — and their impact on his clients.
“Adapting to the inflationary climate and interest rate increases has companies looking at new and unique ways to grow revenues and shrink expenses,” he says. “Texas Capital Bank is positioned to help navigate these impactful situations, and we can bring a deep understanding of the market forces at play into the conversation. We’re proud to be committed to local leadership while still being able to offer a full breadth of services typically only found at large national firms.”
To learn more about Texas Capital Bank and the Fort Worth Business Banking group, visit texascapitalbank.com/business-banking.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Texas Capital Bank.
WORDS BY PRICHARD BEVIS
Property owners’ associations — whether a traditional homeowners’ association or condominium owners’ association — have become the norm for new developments in Texas. If you are considering purchasing a residence that’s subject to a property owners’ association, there is a certain minimal amount of due diligence, optimally during the option period, you should consider.
Ask your real estate agent about the association’s reputation. A dysfunctional association with hostility among the members often affects property values. While this may result in a lower purchase price for you, it can also lead to an unenjoyable ownership experience, difficulty in selling, and reduced resale price.
In most cases, you should receive a “resale certificate” that includes statutorily required information. There are two red flags: pending litigation and the association’s finances. If the association is party to litigation, you should determine the basis. Litigation is often a result of an overzealous board or unreasonable architectural review committee that may interfere with your plans for your home.
The resale certificate also will include information about the association’s budget, balance sheet, and reserves. Does the association have the funds to maintain its common areas and responsibilities? An association that owns the roads, or a community with substantial amenities such as swimming pools or lakes, should have sufficient reserves to cover the long-term capital expenditures. If not, you risk the possibility of special assessments, which can be substantial and unbudgeted if the
association does not have a reserve report. Review “Exhibit B” to your title commitment. A standard contract should provide documents listed on the title commitment that you can use as a basis for backing out of the contract within a certain time of the “exception documents” being received from the title company.
These will likely include a “Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions,” the association’s bylaws, and the other governing documents of the association. You should thoroughly review and understand these documents, including the assessments and other fees. If the option period has passed and you are not agreeable to the requirements, you should retain legal counsel to object to the governing document. This time period is often a matter of a few days.
After reviewing the governing documents, you should drive the neighborhood and note violations of the governing documents. If a restriction is ignored or not enforced, a court could find enforcement of the restriction has been waived, or is being enforced arbitrarily and capriciously, resulting in the restriction being unenforceable.
If the association is still in the “development period,” the developer will likely control most if not all aspects of the association, including the board and architectural review committee makeup. You should research and inquire with your real estate agent, and potentially legal counsel, as to the developer’s reputation to treat owners fairly and relinquish control when the time comes.
It is important to understand that the
association’s governing documents are contracts that “run with the land” when a lot/house or unit is purchased; thus, you are bound by them whether you read them or not. It is advisable to know what you are agreeable to beforehand, because in a property association, it is always better to ask for permission than forgiveness.
Prichard Bevis, of counsel to the Decker Jones, P.C., full-service law firm in Fort Worth, represents clients in real estate matters, including homeowner and condominium owner associations throughout North Texas.
WORDS BY TROY A. FORE JR.
As we move beyond the frenzied real estate market brought on by the pandemic, we assess the new normal for residential real estate in the Fort Worth market. We all knew that year-over-year double-digit home value appreciation would not be sustainable, but what does appreciation look like in the years ahead? More importantly, does homeownership remain a key component
in attaining the American dream?
I was lucky to begin my mortgage career in the Fort Worth market nearly four decades ago. I have seen our market go through perilous and challenging times, but I could not feel more positive about the prospects for Fort Worth’s real estate market. You should be excited, too.
A low-rate environment and limited housing inventory fueled rapid appreciation over the past two years. Long-term rates have quickly increased in 2022, and we now see the rate of appreciation has slowed. These are necessary corrections in a very heated housing market. I expect to see appreciation rates fall to their historic norms and return to single-digit levels in the years ahead. Home appreciation levels in the 4%-5% range are normal in a healthy market.
Rapid appreciation and a higher-rate environment have caused affordability challenges for our first-time buyers. Millen nials make up more than half of all home
purchasers today, and they will continue to be a very important demographic in household formations. We will continue to see strong demand from this segment. Many available loan programs assist these buyers with minimum-down payment loans. Don’t believe the myth that a 20% down payment is required to secure your dream home.
Underserved markets are one of the bigger challenges we face as an industry. Serving diverse communities is essential for communities to thrive and is positive for society. The mortgage industry is making progress in serving underserved communities. Education and financial literacy are a great first step. The homebuying journey can seem complicated and a far-fetched dream. The opportunity of homeownership is possible with a good plan in place. I highly recommend taking that first step by meeting with a
I learned long ago that homeownership gives someone a stake in society. A home provides shelter for families, is a place for lasting memories, and has proven over time to be a significant wealth builder. Recent Federal Reserve data indicates the average homeowner’s net worth is 40 times greater than that of a renter.
Homeownership continues to be an important component of the American dream. Working with a local real estate professional and mortgage lender is a critical first step in your homebuying journey. Having a trusted professional holding your hand through the process is a must. There are many resources available online to help get you started. Once you are ready to move forward, my best advice is to find local professionals to help make your homebuying dreams come true.
Troy Fore Jr. is president of First Financial Mortgage and is based in Fort Worth.
Did you know that cloud services like Microsoft 365 don’t ensure security for your data? Many people assume when they switch to cloud services, that the data is automatically backed up and protected. That isn’t the case and cloud services state as much in their service agreements. MS 365 does their best to provide as much cyber security as possible, but that alone is not sufficient. The Microsoft 365 Security Checklist goes over the 21 critical settings that you need to enable to make your cloud as secure as possible.
Sid O’Bryant grew up wanting to be a craw fisherman. Today, he’s leading a breakthrough study on Alzheimer’s disease.
WORDS
BY JOHN HENRY
Sid O’Bryant, a Cajun by birth who grew up playing in the swamps, says as a youngster he wanted to be to be a craw fisherman in Pierre Part, Louisiana.
“I’m a long way away from that,” he jokes today in a phone call last month.
O’Bryant, a first-generation college graduate and a member of Fort Worth Inc.’s The 400 in 2022, is the executive director of the Institute for Translational Research at The University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
He watched as he could do little to help his grandmother navigate the perils of the insidious Alzheimer’s disease.
“Hopefully, I can help other people’s grandmothers,” he says.
In October, he was a newsmaker.
The university announced the institute had been awarded a five-year grant of up to $148 million from the National Institutes of Health. The funding will go to one of the largest studies ever of Alzheimer’s disease within a health disparities framework seeking to understand the differences in the disease among multiethnic populations.
The examination is being led by O’Bryant, who has an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State and graduate degrees, including a Ph.D. in neuropsy-
chology from the University of Albany in New York.
With this grant, $210 million has now been invested in the study, O’Bryant says.
“It’s a big thing for the study,” O’Bryant says of the $148 million commitment.
“What it does is it continues the work, but also expands the work. One of the things it allows us is to study the life course from
a better perspective. We’re now seeing people all the way down to 30 and above. It was 50 and above.
“One of the goals of this study is to follow this cohort for 20, 30, 40 years, so we can study the earliest signs of brain changes that are causing memory loss and better treat and even prevent those things.”
