“In 2002, the sponsors of a new Fourth of July celebration in Dallas called Trinity Fest—including the No. 1 sponsor, a company called Daisytek—asked us to help draw attention to the festival, which was to present the largest fireworks show in Texas history. We took it on and attracted 300,000 people to the event. We agreed to help the following year, too, but soon discovered it was going to be way more expensive in 2003, because DaisyTek went into bankruptcy and security costs probably tripled. We had to decide whether to plunge my company into debt—$250,000 worth—to pay the suppliers … or to walk away. I took out every credit card I could find and we did pay the suppliers, because our reputation is everything to us. But, because of the large debt, I then had to lay off everyone at our company—I found them all new jobs first, though—and start over. We went through a period of reassessing and cleaning house, and we stopped doing things we didn’t want to do. In about a year or so, we had rebuilt the company and were out of debt.”
Related Articles
Travel
Is Fort Worth Really ‘The New Austin’?
The Times of London tells us it's now the coolest city in Texas.
By Tim Rogers
Dallas 500
Meet the Dallas 500: Chakri Gottemukkala, o9 Solutions
The o9 solutions leader talks about garnering a $3.7 billion valuation, growing 10x over the next few years, and how the company is innovating.
By D CEO Staff
Local News
An Early Look at 2026 FIFA World Cup Logistics
The World Cup matches will be held in Arlington, but Dallas will be home to a great deal of team and fan experiences. We're getting an early look at what that will look like.