BussinessDallas Everybody’s BUSINESS

CAN BRICE STRIKE THRICE?

The Brice family has been responsible for two significant lifestyle changes for Dallas and beyond and is now aiming for a third. In the early 1960s, Dallas attorney Bill Brice took on a David vs. Goliath lawsuit. Brice’s client, Tom Carter, was frustrated at his inability to communicate with his employees over his company’s two-way radio from anywhere but the office. Carter was often at home or on the road when he needed to give orders. So he rigged a device that would allow him to patch into the company’s two-way radio via the telephone.

Carter thought that there were probably lots of business owners who could take advantage of his invention, so he tried to patent it. He ran smack into Ma Bell, then the nation’s only telephone company. Ma Bell argued that since they owned the telephone lines, only their equipment could be attached, These were the days before you could run down to Radio Shack and buy your own telephone.

It took a decade and a trip to the Supreme Court, but as a result of Carter and Bill Brice, we can connect telephones, fax machines, computers, and caller ID to as many jacks as we care.

In 1978, Brice’s children, Julie and Bill Jr., set out to prove to America that yogurt wasn’t just a slimy gray concoction for babies but was actually a tasty, refreshing treat for a sweltering Dallas summer day. Starting with a single location on Lovers Lane, the college-age entrepreneurs launched I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt. In 1996-and 1,500 franchise locations later-the operation was sold and the rest is a rich, calorie-controlled history.

Now, Bill Jr. is at it again with Alpha Trust.com. The premise is high tech. Brice expects his company to be a leader in the sizzling digital signatures market, the technology that will allow contracts, mortgages, and other legal documents to he executed over the Internet. If Mr. Brice can remove the stigma from yogurt, surely he can remove the anxiety from a computerized John Hancock.



A HIGH-TECH EXPLOSION MORE SUITED TO NEIL SPERRY THAN BILL GATES

There is more to Austin Ventures coming to town than reported elsewhere in D. Seems Austin’s dirty secret-exploding trees-is the mystery behind the move north. Cedar elms, those smudge pots of pollen, have sent a couple of AV’s employees to the hospital lately. “They sort of explode when they are ready to give off pollen,” general partner Blaine Wesner complains.

Welcome to Dallas. The concrete jungle.



STRIKE UP THE BROADBAND AND FALL OUT OF LOVE WITH JOHNNY MATHIS

Much of the cocktail-party talk this summer centered around high-speed connections to the Internet à la “We got DSL the other day, and the kids just love it.” Whether it’s a cable modem from AT&T or DSL service from SBC, broadband Internet connections are becoming more fashionable than a 75205 ZIP code. The allure is not just the speed with which you can call up your horoscope or order your produce from grocery works, com; it’s the ability to download. Music, live TV from Channel 8, and, soon, movies from Blockbuster, all delivered to your PC in the blink of an eye.

But at what cost? The demand has overwhelmed most of the providers. Long hold times, missed installation appointments, and “glitches” in the service are testing the patience of early adopters. I am told my family’s experience was not unusual. An early May installation date slid to late May, then to late June, then to mid-July, Once it was finally installed, a programming problem at the CO (why can’t they just say “central office?”) delayed the process further. Phone calls to the help desk led to long periods on hold during which every Johnny Mathis tune ever recorded was played repeatedly. When we finally reached an actual human being, the technician listened patiently and said he’d start a “trouble ticket” and call back to update us on the progress. They never called back.

We would talk to Rita in Amarillo, then call back the same 800 number, only to be informed that there was no Rita in Amarillo. Finally, the line was connected. Was it worth it? Yes. Humbling, but worth it.

Oh, and a message to all these pleasant, concerned-sounding people on the other end of 800 numbers: The lowest level of hell is reserved for people who don’t return phone calls.

STATS



25

Percentage of jobs in the Dallas economy created by wholesale and retail trade.



$36.9 billion

Amount of retail sales in Dallas-Fort Worth in 1999.



$44.2 billion

Projected amount of retail sales in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2002.



6.9

Projected percentage of annual growth of retail sales in Dallas-Fort Worth by 2020.



6.9 million

Number of square feet in the Dallas Market Center.



400,000

Number of buyers conducting business at the Dallas Market Center annually.



$7.5 billion

Annual amount of wholesale sales at the Dallas Market Center for 1999.

SOURCE: The Greater Dallas Chamber



Business analyst David Johnson has covered the Dallas business scene for more than 20 years for WFAA – TV Channel 8, KRLD radio 1080-AM, and for Publie Radio International’s Marketplace.