46 DFW Entrepreneurs Share Strategies and Lessons Learned

Entrepreneurs find purpose in solving problems and identifying cracks in the market where processes can be improved and innovations brought to life. “That gap became our opportunity,” says Noblesoft Technologies founder and CEO Venkat Yerubandi, of the spark that led to the creation of his company. For the 46 entrepreneurs featured here, the vision crystallized, and their commitment paid off. They’ve struggled to find funding and scale their enterprises, taken risks, and even gone on to acquire the competition—all with the mission of helping make the world a better place. For a 15th straight year, D CEO is proud to profile all Central Plains Region finalists in EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year program. Judges this year included former EY winners and area entrepreneurs. All regional finalists were honored Saturday, June 25, at the Omni Dallas, where 11 winners were revealed. Those winners will then compete for national recognition in November. 

Maria Carell

CEO and President, Revision Skincare and Goodier Cosmetics

WINNER: Revision Skincare and Goodier Cosmetics leader Maria Carell says the two companies have tripled total revenue since 2017, when she became CEO, and have expanded their workforce by 38 percent since 2019. “We have moved beyond the startup phase in all aspects, and I am very excited about the next stage we are entering,” she says. Founded in 1986, Irving-based Revision was the first brand to widely incorporate peptides into skincare products and pioneered at-home neck therapy. It continues to invent from its 110,000-square-foot research facility in Dallas—and aims to expand its global footprint soon. “Our goal for the next five years is to continue to drive market penetration while focusing on true skincare innovations,” Carell says.

The Beneficient Company Group
Brad Heppner, Chairman and CEO

After Brad Heppner sold his asset management group to Lehman Brothers, he realized the industry was struggling to manage smaller customers’ liquidity requests. “There were firms popping up every day focused on getting smaller institutions and individuals into alternative assets to ‘democratize’ the industry, but very few—or perhaps none—focused on getting them out in a simple, rapid, and cost-effective way while delivering transparent data on the investments,” Heppner says. He launched The Beneficient Company Group to meet this hole in the market, providing custodial and liquidity services with fiduciary powers to small companies. Now, it has grown to $3 billion in total assets. 

My Labs Direct
Led by Justin Simons

Justin Simons created Plano-based My Labs Direct to avoid the surprise billing involved in insurance reimbursement, offering D2C testing at wholesale. The company shifted its focus from blood and molecular testing to COVID-19 testing during the pandemic, spurring 260 percent growth. It will now further expand its offerings via a joint venture with Baylor University. “We’ll study concussion biomarkers, a menstrual blood test that identifies cancer biomarkers, and gut microbiota to determine the best foods for cancer patients throughout treatment,” Simons says.

Throughout COVID, we were the best at filling shifts when healthcare facilities were in dire need. We ended 2020 filling 100,000 hours per week.”

Tom Ellis, ShiftKey [winner]

Mr. Cooper Group
Jay Bray, Chairman and CEO

The largest non-bank mortgage servicer nationwide, Mr. Cooper Group serves nearly 4 million customers and a portfolio of more than $800 billion in unpaid principal balance. “We grew our servicing portfolio 644 percent over the last decade,” says chairman and CEO Jay Bray. He took the lead in 2012—the year Mr. Cooper went public—and led it through a two-year shift from its former name, Nationstar. Now, he’s guiding the company as it continues to innovate. “We’re partnering with Google Cloud to create a customer-centric digital mortgage servicing platform, powered by advanced automation tech such as AI, machine learning, data analytics, and cloud scalability to make the mortgage process easier,” Bray says. 

What are the strengths and challenges of DFW’s entrepreneurial landscape?

Daniel McCarthy

Co-founder and CEO, Musicbed

WINNER: Before his company launched, Musicbed Co-Founder and CEO Daniel McCarthy welcomed a child, renovated and sold his home, and sold his ad agency. “I knew Musicbed was the path forward,” he says. The Fort Worth-based company helps filmmakers find or create music that matches their work and navigate the necessary royalty fees. McCarthy and his co-founder Nic Carfa have since grown their vision to include a second brand under parent organization FM Brands. Called Filmsupply, it licenses cinematic footage. Both companies gained market share during the pandemic when producers had to reevalute their creative processes. Now, McCarthy and Carfa are expanding again. “Specifically, we are taking on the stock photography industry in a fresh way,” McCarthy says.

Halo with Cesar Millan
Cesar Millan, Co-founder | Heather Gode, Founding Team Member | Ken Ehrman,Co-founder and managing partner | Michael Ehrman, Co-founder

Co-founders and brothers Ken and Michael Ehrman began brainstorming Paws, a smart collar company, after their niece’s dog escaped from her yard and was hit by a car. They added canine behavior specialist Cesar Millan and founding team member Heather Gode to formally launch in 2017, combining Millan’s knowledge of dog psychology with the Ehrmans’ Internet of Things expertise. The company earned $3 million in revenue in 2020; it jumped to $30 million in 2021 and is now on track to break $100 million in revenue this year. Company leaders say they’re also currently keeping more than 80,000 dogs safe with Halo, with that number increasing rapidly every day.

Catalyze Dallas Holdings
Joe D’Cruz and Tricia D’Cruz, founders and managing directors

Joe and Tricia D’Cruz left corporate jobs to found Catalyze Dallas, which commercializes intellectual property to help R&D companies scale. Early on, they met with Lockheed Martin. “They wanted help commercializing IP that was ‘sitting on the shelf.’ That led to our first spinout, and today, we work with many top defense and aerospace companies, as well as global tech companies,” Tricia says. The company’s ability to take a product and turn it into an entrepreneurial venture has attracted notice. “The last year has seen our pipeline of investments grow, and with new capital raised, we have big plans to add to our portfolio of operating companies,” Joe says.

With product-market fit in place, business model set, and market focus locked-in, Worlds is scaling. We are engaged with some of the largest global brands.”

Dave Copps, Worlds [winner]

EOSERA
Elyse Stoltz Dickerson, Co-founder and CEO

Ear care company Eosera was founded in 2015 after its leaders left corporate careers in Big Pharma and discovered the market niche was ripe for innovation. “Many of our products are the first of their kind,” says Co-founder and CEO Elyse Stoltz Dickerson. In the past three years, Eosera has increased revenue 657 percent. It plans to move its 38 employees into a larger headquarters later this year. “Not only will we have more space, but we designed it to suit our specific needs,” Dickerson says. Eosera products, which include remedies for ear wax removal, pain, and itch, are sold in more than 26,000 retail outlets across the United States. “We’re in most major drug and food stores in the U.S., but we have plenty left to conquer,” Dickerson says.

Arm Candy
Led by John Lods

Dallas-based Arm Candy, an agency-to-agency media firm, focuses on outcomes when building out its clients’ media plans. It help other agencies manage media campaigns without them having to hire and train employees in media content—frequently not an area of their expertise. “This approach led to the development of our technology, Cyris, which allows us to better understand the expected outcomes that our strategies deliver and helps us make media recommendations that are most likely to achieve business objectives,” says founder and CEO John Lods. The company has grown revenue 350 percent in the last two years. Lods says nearly all new business continues to come from referrals. 

Edwin D. Tatum

CEO, Tatumtek

The idea for modular construction firm TatumTek came to Edwin D. Tatum after he played professional basketball in Latin America. “I began investing in residential construction projects,” he says. “I became frustrated with the change orders, inspection process, and delayed times. I distinctly remember telling myself, ‘There has to be another way.’” Now, the company he founded builds homes in eight to 16 weeks, making the construction process more sustainable in the process. “There’s no point in making customers wait a year on the largest purchase of their lives,” Tatum says. The company bought land for its first manufacturing and distribution center in 2019, and this year it forecasts more than $50 million in revenue. “Our business is truly in the starting blocks of a long race,” Tatum says.

What is your best business advice for other entrepreneurs?

Cherry Coatings
Zack Cherry,CEO | Rocky Cherry, Chief Growth Officer

Cherry Brothers Painting was founded 54 years ago in 1968 by brothers Pat and Jan Cherry. It became Cherry Coatings in 2017, after the founders’ sons and nephews took over as leaders. Now, Zack and Rocky Cherry, the company’s CEO and chief growth officer, respectively, are guiding the enterprise through rapid growth, reaching more than $100 million in revenue in 2021, breaking into two new markets a year, and exploring robotic automation. The dynamic family duo, who lead 1,400 employees from their Carrollton headquarters, aims to reach $750 million in revenue by 2030. This year the key focus is on reporting systems, CRM, streamlining IT, and cloud-based infrastructure. 

Terry Weber

CEO, Biote

Irving-based Biote places implants under the skin, which release hormones with the same molecular structure as those that naturally occur in the body to help patients balance their levels. “There are over 200 million people in the United States who are affected by symptoms of hormone imbalance, which means there is a massive opportunity for Biote,” says CEO Terry Weber, who began leading the company three years ago. In 2021, she guided Biote through 19 percent growth, producing $139.6 million in revenue and took the company public in May 2022. Biote also houses a training facility, where it teaches its methods to more than 4,700 healthcare professionals and 2,800 clinics. “I couldn’t be more proud of what we have accomplished so far and what we are setting out to do,” Weber says. 

As the most consumed meat in the country, I knew that chicken was where I could make the most impact through building a regenerative system for poultry.”

Matthew Wadiak, Cooks Venture

Eddy Badrina
Eden Green Technology

Vertical farming company Eden Green Technology was born in 2017 when its two South African founders witnessed a 5-year-old child hoarding food for his younger sister. The boy said it wasn’t his day to eat. Eden Green aims to make locally grown greens more accessible. The company broke ground on its first vertical farming greenhouse in Cleburne last year and launched its second facility in June. “We can now turn out up to 17 harvests per year in a greenhouse,” says CEO Eddy Badrina, who oversees the company’s 24 employees.

Mohammad Elashi
Founder and CEO, Synaptic Management

Synaptic Management leader Mohammad Elashi launched three companies and acquired one in six years across healthcare, renewable energy, pediatric speech and occupational therapy, and construction. He bootstrapped each venture, starting with Synaptic Pediatric Therapies, which he launched with $5,000 as a college student. Each of his enterprises has grown 3,000 percent to 6,000 percent. Combined, the four companies produce more than $65 million in annual revenue. Next up? Adding as many as 50 Synaptic Pediatric Therapies outpatient facilities. “We are one-fourth of the way there, building eight clinics in the last 24 months, and we are projected to build five to eight more in 2023,” Elashi says. 

What has been the toughest challenge you’ve encountered and are trying to overcome?

Author

Kelsey Vanderschoot

View Profile

Kelsey J. Vanderschoot came to Dallas by way of Napa, Los Angeles, and Madrid, Spain. A former teacher, she joined…