There’s nothing easy about launching a business. As entrepreneurs navigate challenges around funding, proof of concept, market reluctance, hiring, and more, they must learn to become comfortable with uncertainty. “My advice to entrepreneurs is not to grip the bat too hard. In other words, don’t take everything so seriously,” says George Baker Sr., founder and chairman of Dallas-based ParkHub. “Batters who hold the bat too tightly because they’re stressed out about making a mistake end up making mistakes simply because they’re too rigid and uptight. You need to loosen up and go with the flow and be nimble.” Baker and 45 other leaders featured here have made it through the uncertainty, successfully bringing new innovative products and services to market—all with the mission of bettering society. For a 16th year, D CEO is proud to profile all Southwest regional finalists in EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year program. All regional finalists were honored at a June 24 event, where winners were revealed. Those honorees will then compete for national recognition in November.
Eddy Badrina
CEO, Eden Green Technology
In the last year, vertical greenhouse company Eden Green Technology has more than tripled its headcount under CEO Eddy Badrina—from 22 to 75 employees. The company aims to provide locally grown greens to help eliminate food deserts, using vertical farming and greenhouse techniques to reduce the space and lighting needed for maximum output. Eden Green opened its first facility in Cleburne in 2022. “Our ability to increase plant yield per harvest has grown by more than 500 percent since I took over as CEO, all thanks to patent-pending innovations involving how we control water, air, and light to the plants,” Badrina says. “We’re also starting construction on our third and fourth facilites here in DFW.” In five years, he hopes the company will become “the Amazon of lettuce,” bringing fresh greens from farm to fridge in 72 hours. And the company will use energy four times more efficiently than indoor farms.
Highlevel
Robin Alex, Co-founder | Shaun Clark, Co-founder | Varun Vairavan, Co-founder
Led by Robin Alex, Shaun Clark, and Varun Vairavan—two engineers and a marketing specialist—marketing app HighLevel enables marketing agencies to build custom, no-code platforms to increase retention, new client leads, and more. The North Texas-based company is on pace to close 2023 with $125 million in revenue. “We really want to flip how people view software from seeing it as an expense to a way to make money, grow their business, and provide value to their community,” Clark says. “We are going to be a $10 billion company. Our customers are generating $9 billion in revenue for themselves.”
“I am bringing innovation and change into a market that has been stale for more than 20 years with new product lines that inspire customers to be creative.”
Lauren Brooks, Bakery Bling
Teltech Group
Lisa Hanlon, CEO
Technology
Teltech recently implemented a Private 4G/5G LTE network in its 200,000-square-foot facility in Flower Mound that will be a proof-of-concept center for trials of new IoT tech.
Priority
Over the next five years, the company’s highest priority is to close the digital
divide in Tribal Country, rural America, and Alaska by partnering with businesses and public organizations.
Milestone
Teltech currently has 86 employees across the U.S., with the majority located in Texas and Colorado. The company will celebrate 25 years in business in 2024.
Amplifai
Sean Minter, CEO and Founder
AmplifAI uses data and artificial intelligence to help consumer-facing staffers improve performance. It aims to equip leaders with the necessary resources, systems, and capabilities to develop their employees, with particular focus on contact centers. Since 2020, AmplifAI has increased its revenue by 263 percent, and in 2021, it secured $18.5 million through its Series A funding round. “In five years, I see AmplifAI continuing to expand its offerings beyond contact centers and customer service organizations, potentially branching out into sales, marketing, and HR,” says the company’s founder Sean Minter. As tech continues to evolve, I expect AmplifAI to stay at the forefront of innovation, incorporating new AI and machine learning into solutions and leveraging natural language processing, computer vision, and predictive analytics.”
Sol-Ark
Innovation veteran Thomas Joseph Brennan founded Plano-based solar and energy storage technology firm Sol-Ark in 2013 as an alternative to hazardous fuel-based generators, with an aim to reduce society’s reliance on the energy grid.
Denbury
A publicly-traded hydrocarbon exploration company operating in the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountains, Denbury uses carbon dioxide to extract petroleum from previously tapped fields. In 2022, revenue totaled $1.7 billion.
Andrews Logisitics
Founded by Darron Eschle in 1997, Andrews Logisitics has grown into one of the U.S.’s largest liquid transporting operations with more than 500 employees and $122 million in sales in 2022. In 2023, Eschle hopes to top $200 million.
TJP Enterprises
A full-service tire collection, disposal, and recycling manufacturing facility, TJP Enterprises—which prevents 50 million pounds of waste a year—has almost doubled its sales yearly since 2015, when it was founded by Tom Parker.
Flexcare Infusion Centers
In 2019, Aaron Smith co-founded Flexcare Infusion Centers
to mitigate unnecessary delays in infusion treatment. “Access to biologic medications is a supply chain challenge,” Smith says. “We invest in tech, talent, and training to quickly and reliably get patients started on life-changing medications.”
Lone Star Analysis
Founded by Matthew Bowers in 2004, Lone Star Analysis helps clients make decisions using predictive and prescriptive analytics and artificial intelligence. “Our analytical approach first seeks to understand what influences the road ahead and the uncertainty involved,” Bowers says.
Cooks Venture
Matthew Wadiak left his post as the co-founder and COO of Blue Apron to launch Cooks Venture, a regenerative agriculture system that improves land and rural economics. The company has 500 employees, works with 30 regional poultry farms, and operates an 800-acre farm.
PureWine
Led by David and Derek Meadows
Oenophiles take note: the mission of Southlake-based PureWine, which was founded in 2014, is to eradicate wine sensitivities, allowing more people to enjoy the popular libation. Father-and-son duo David and Derek Meadows—who both suffer from wine headaches and adverse reactions to wine—spent two years in a lab creating patented technology to remove sulfites and histamines from wine. “We could see that our filtration was working, but when we tried that big, bold Cab, and it was every bit as delicious as it was in the tasting room in Napa, we knew we had it,” David says. The company’s first product, The Wand, debuted in 2016 to filter a single glass of wine. In 2018, it released The Wave to filtrate an entire bottle. Most recently, the company debuted The Phoenix as a reusable wine aerator and purifier. “We toasted each other ‘To Our Health,’ and that remains our company motto to this day,” Derek says. To date, PureWine has sold more than 15 million units and its products were top-selling wine accessories on Amazon in 2021 and 2022.
Acretrader
Carter Malloy, CEO and Founder
Carter Malloy was investing in land when he realized he could bring large asset classes to other land investors while helping farmers grow their business. He launched AcreTrader in 2018. The platform puts farmland into an LLC, where the company can perform due dilligence and fundraise. After that, parcels are divided into fractional shares that investors can purchase. The platform manages administration and farmers pay a land rent fee to the LLC established. Any excess income is distributed to investors. Typically investors hold the land for five to ten years before selling. “Historically, transacting land has been slow, inefficient, and opaque. By connecting farmers to growth capital, we are able to drive transparency in land markets and modernize the transaction process,” Malloy says. Last year, the company also launched a land research offering called Acre. “Acre’s ten-plus layers of insight help users save time and find relevant land data in one place, including soil data, crop history, elevation, historic imagery, and more,” Malloy says. To date, AcreTrader’s investors have funded 130 farms, working with 120 farmers to manage 40,000 acres across the United States and Australia. Its team has grown to roughly 100 employees. “Driving the growth is investors looking for a new way to diversify their portfolios with real assets like farm and timberland in today’s economic environment. With the global population increasing rapidly, and our growing need for food, fuel, and fiber, it is paramount to consider the supply and demand of this unique asset class,” Malloy says.
What has been the toughest business challenge you’ve encountered?
- Rod Millar
- Chris Crosby
- Kirt Linington
- Sheldon Arora
- Richard Stockton
- Chris White
“We had to completely transform the company after I joined as CEO. We worked tirelessly, empowered the right leaders, replaced those that were necessary, and completed a big turnaround in a few years.”
– Rod Millar, Likewize
“Our biggest challenge was convincing a market that has been doing things the same way for the past 15 years to try something new. This took longer than we would have liked but proved successful.”
– Chris Crosby, Compass Datacenters
“One of the hardest lessons to learn is realizing that investing in your business is not just about the money. It’s about protecting your assets and your future. The key is keeping risk management top of mind.”
- Kirt Linington, Linear Roofing & General Contractors
“We faced our toughest challenge when our largest customer, which provided more than 50 percent of our business, stopped paying its bills. We never gave up, which led us to where we are today.”
– Sheldon Arora, LiquidAgents Healthcare
“The lodging REIT sector has typically traded below net asset value, making it potentially dilutive to raise equity capital. Over the past six years, our various means have allowed us to complete over $1 billion in acquisitions.”
– Richard Stockton, Braemar Hotels & Resorts
“The technology adoption curve among public safety organizations is relatively flat. This is a result of the limited funding available to upgrade systems and processes to the latest and most excellent versions”
– Chris White, Athos Group
Newline Interactive
Chris Bradford, Co-Founder and President
In 2012, Chris Bradford and Kevin Wang mortgaged their homes and called on family and friends to capitalize Newline Interactive—a manufacturer of interactive displays and large format touchscreens. Nine years later, the company exploded from a $73 million company to a $165 million enterprise. Now, the co-founders are expecting to grow revenue north of $200 million. Clients for the businesses range from K-12 educational institutions, colleges, and universities to startups and Fortune 500 corporations. “We live and die based on our ability to bring innovative—and sometimes disruptive—solutions to our customers,” Bradford says. “We are currently integrating AI into multiple parts of our product portfolio, and we will be the first company in our industry to bring this capability to our customers,” adds Wang.
MyLabsDırect
Justin Simons, Founder and CEO
While working as an owner and operator of a diagnostic lab, Justin Simons realized there had to be a better way to handle billing. “We quickly identified that most people hated receiving surprise medical bills almost as much as we hated having to send them,” Simons says. He launched MyLabsDirect in 2018, providing affordable at-home diagnostic testing services. The company rode the wave of increased demand during COVID, with sales jumping 250 percent from 2020 to 2022. This year, it launched LiVWell, a digital health testing platform that helps enterprise employees maintain health and wellness. “If we can make it five years without being acquired, we will become a household brand in at-home diagnostic lab testing,” Simons says.
J. Brooks
Founder and CEO, GlassView
J. Brooks launched neuromarketing company GlassView in 2014 from his kitchen table, after spending more than 15 years building ad technology for Condé Nast and digital campaigns for The New Yorker, Vogue, Reddit, and more. To date, GlassView has completed more than $100 million in marketing efforts and aims to grow by a factor of 10 during the next five years. It’s all about leveraging data and consumers’ unconscious minds to help the right products find the right customers at the right time. Working with companies like Goldman Sachs, Meta, Intel, and Apple, GlassView’s media software has become one of the fastest growing video advertising platforms worldwide. Two months into 2023, the company had already received more orders than it did all 2022. “Through deeper understanding of consumers’ psychology and minds…we are closing the gap of what marketers know works and doesn’t,” Brooks says.
BILT
Nate Henderson, Chairman and CEO | Ahmed Qureshi, President and COO
Born from a children’s sandbox construction gone wrong, BILT provides 3D instructions for product assembly with voice and text directions. The company partners with retailers, brands, technicians, and more to create customized, interactive tutorials for consumer goods and products for electricians, plumbers, and locksmiths. It also works with the U.S. military. “Demand from the professional trades and the Defense Department increased to address widening skilled-labor gaps,” president and COO Ahmed Qureshi says. Since its launch in 2016, BILT has created tutorials for thousands of products in 10 languages and 170 countries worldwide. “Focus on enriching lives,” says Nate Henderson, BILT’s chairman and CEO. “Everything else will fall into place.”
MicroTransponder
Jordan Curnes, President and Co-founder
MicroTransponder’s medical devices seek to restore dignity to patients experiencing sensory and motor function loss. “Having family members suffering from debilitating strokes, we focused on neuroplasticity, the process of creating or strengthening neural connections, to make damaged areas of the brain more viable,” says Jordan Curnes. The company’s FDA-approved device provides 2-3 times improvement in the movement of upper limb function for stroke survivors. Born out of neuroscience research from The University of Texas at Dallas, the device uses electric stimulation to release chemicals in the brain. Microtransponder is in 10 metro markets and doubled in size in 2021 and 2022.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help—because you can’t do it alone. Hiring well makes all the difference; delegating is crucial to your success as a leader.”
Elyse Stoltz Dickerson, Eosera
Ecobat
Marcus Randolph, Chairman and CEO
Process
Ecobat is the world’s largest battery recycling company, processing lithium and lead acid batteries. Its mechanisms help improve the environment by reducing mining and the number of batteries in landfills.
Growth
The lead battery recycling segment of the Dallas-based company, which has operations in four countries, has grown 2 to 3 percent annually and the lithium battery recycling segment has grown at a clip of 40 percent per year.
Outlook
In five years, chairman and CEO Marcus Randolph is projecting that the $2.2 billion company, which employs 2,600 people across the globe, will capture 20 percent of the non-Asian lithium battery recycling market.
AyuVis Research
Founded by Suchismita Acharya, Fort Worth’s AyuVis Research fights antibiotic-resistant diseases, while directing immune system suppression. Ayuvis was just granted $2.1 million from the National Institute of Health to fund a Phase 1 trial.
iDatafy
iDatafy’s collection of products aims to stop online marketing and federal student aid fraud, as well as connect companies with new job talent. “Our goal is to activate 46,500 job seekers by 2024,” says Dave Wengel, founder and CEO.
Tricolor Holdings
Founded by Daniel Chu, Tricolor Holdings is a community development financial institution on a mission to use AI to provide transportation and financial mobility to underserved Hispanic populations with limited or no credit history.
Frontier Waste Solutions
Frontier Waste Solutions has seen 50 percent annual growth since 2017. “Success in this industry requires execution with a focus on local nuances. Our competitors have lost their local focus,” says John Gustafson, founder, president, and CEO.
What are your thoughts on DFW’s entrepreneurial landscape?
- Mandy Price
- Tanya Biggers
- Matt Alexander
- Jack Gibbons
- Luke Hejl
- Bryan Redmond
“To make Dallas even better I would increase the support and resources for underrepresented and female founders. When we were trying to venture capital raise, we were mostly offered mentorship, but not capital.”
– Mandy Price, Kanarys
“DFW’s entrepreneurial landscape is very diverse, inclusive, and supportive of the small business community. I have had the opportunity to live in multiple states, and DFW is the new Silicon Valley.”
– Tanya Biggers, Big Star Transit
“DFW is a supportive environment, but at times, it can be somewhat difficult for newcomers to enter. I’d love to see renewed efforts to ensure access to investors, advice, and support for as many people as possible.”
– Matt Alexander, Neighborhood Goods
“DFW has a thriving entrepreneurial landscape, and it continues to get better. One area we could improve in is having more mentors ready to invest in, and inspire, the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
– Jack Gibbons, FB Society
“Having small groups of innovators, grouped by current level of scale or company growth, who meet regularly to share ideas, best practices, and common challenges would be so powerful and have a huge impact.”
– Luke Hejl, TimelyCare
“DFW’s strengths include a diverse talent pool, access to funding and mentoring, a healthy local marketplace, and unmatched global accessibility. We can do better at promoting the area’s benefits to small businesses.”
– Bryan Redmond, Suntex Marinas
Principal LED
Blake Vincent, Co-Founder | Bryan Vincent, Co-Founder
San Angelo’s Principal LED is North America’s largest provider of electrical components to the sign industry, making LEDs and drivers for the pool and spa, aviation, and architecture industries. What started out as a two-person operation has grown to 150 employees in a 100,000-square-foot facility with operations across Europe. “We’ve grown by creating new market categories through innovation, value-added manufacturing, taking market share, as well as geographic expansion,” says Blake Vincent, co-founder and managing partner. But as his brother, co-founder, and managing partner Bryan Vincent explains, the company won’t be straying from staple products. “You must stay focused on one or two products that give you a real advantage,” he says. “Most startups die from indigestion, not starvation.”
Ebbah Realzola
President and CEO, Mexzim Corp.
In 2017, Ebbah Realzola founded Mexzim Corp., a general contractor specializing in interior finish-out services for office buildings, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, restaurants, hotels, retail, medical facilities, schools, and more. The company’s mission is to optimize the usability of commercial spaces for ROI. “We help our customers by leveraging a team of subject matter experts to reimagine the design and space usability, using innovative solutions incorporating technology, sourcing sustainable building materials, and recycling construction waste,” Realzola says. What has been her toughest business challenge? “Working in a male-dominated industry,” she says. “The experience gave me courage and resilience to overcome challenges along the way. I had to learn to stand up for myself and used the minority shortcomings as a woman to my own advantage by working twice as hard as my male counterparts.”
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