Minority Rapport

What happened when Fort Worth Inc. invited several successful minority CEOs to a roundtable lunch at The Capital Grille to chew over their experiences in Fort Worth business? Here’s what went down.

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Jonathan Morris, who’s opened Fort Worth Barber Shop and The Lathery to success in Fort Worth and now is moving into the hotel business with a partner, posed a good question when Fort Worth Inc. invited him to participate in a roundtable discussion about the experiences of being a minority CEO in the city. “What’s the jumping-off point?”

Panelists at the lunch, co-hosted by The Capital Grille and held in a private room at the restaurant downtown in late August, also included John Avila, who bought and revitalized the old Thos. S. Byrne construction company with major contracts including DFW Airport; Kia Lane, a longtime health care worker who went out on her own and started a string of residential assisted living centers in Arlington; Dr. Marie Holliday, who’s called Fort Worth’s Sundance Square home to her dentistry, perfume shop and floral business for years; and Eder Teixeira, founder and owner of Sons of Liberty Coffee downtown, which recently changed its name to Sons. Here’s what happened after we jumped off during the luncheon. The transcript is lightly edited for brevity.

Let’s get to know each other. What was the “why” for you? How and why did you all get into entrepreneurship?

Eder Teixeira (ET): I was raised in Brazil. We grew up in a poor area of town. When we came to the U.S., to me, I always felt like I was doing injustice to my family and friends back home. It was the contrast of living in two places and seeing what was available in one versus the other. From an early age, I wanted to take advantage of what was available in this country and then to one day maybe go back and help. That’s pretty much why I do what I do.

Kia Lane (KL): Health care was all that I knew. It started with helping my mother, helping my grandmother, being a nurse’s assistant starting out and pretty much working my way up. I wanted to dispel the myth that everybody had to go to a nursing home when they can’t stay at home any longer. That was my goal, to make people thrive again while still living in a residential setting.

John Avila, Jr. (JA): I served in the military, served in Korea and Vietnam from a very young age. I came back and attended the University of Texas and studied architectural engineering. I went to work for a construction company in Houston, and because of that military background — I was an officer — got promotions within the industry. I became the vice president of operations with a company when I was 32 years old. I had a lot of experience in the construction industry and said, “I think I can do this on my own.” I had seen things being done the right way and things being done the wrong way and wanted to have a company that was a family-oriented company, medium-sized, where we all knew each other.

Dr. Marie Holliday (MH): I wanted to be my own boss from an early age as a child. My father was a Baptist minister; my mother was an educator. I didn’t want to be in a situation where women, once their husbands left them, passed away, they were lost. This was in the late ’50s, early ’60s. I knew African-American professionals who were doctors, lawyers, school teachers and ministers. So, the sciences were an area I was interested in, and I thought about going to medical school and decided to go to dental school because I could be my own boss.

Jonathan Morris (JM): For me, entrepreneurship started in the fourth grade when I started making bookmarks for my classmates. I would put NBA teams on them, or NFL team names on these bookmarks, and very quickly found there was a market with my fourth grade. I would sell them for a dime. Back then, the Bulls were really hot, so those were a quarter. That kind of kicked off the spark of entrepreneurship, that I could create something for the market around me and a product of service that filled a need. Fast forward to 2012, and I moved to Fort Worth, a city that I’ve always been connected to because my parents grew up here, and I was looking for a barbershop. I didn’t see anything that really appealed to me, and so I started looking around the country, East Coast and West Coast, even the U.K., at what was going on in the barbershop culture. So, in 2014, I’m looking around this city; this is a growing city; there’s a lot of people here; there is nothing with a vibe that I want to experience. Why not just create it in Fort Worth? This city has been an amazing backdrop for my thesis, and the community of people have been incredibly supportive.

I want to throw some numbers on the table for discussion: The Census estimates 23.4 percent of DFW companies are owned by minorities, greater than the 17.5 percent nationally. What do we glean from this?

MH: I think it is a little bit of a surprise, but it also relates to the drive and what we see around the places we live and work. It’s the passion, and people have been led to follow that passion. They think out of the box and are not afraid to make a move.

JA: I think the other thing is education. As Dr. Holliday has said, our generation, there were few college graduates then, so they wanted to see their children become more successful. They encouraged us to go on to college. So, among minorities here, there’s a lot of first-time college graduates. Then corporate America started hiring minorities. And they were put into leadership positions and management positions. And if they had the entrepreneurial spirit, they had the education, they had the experience, they said, “I can try this,” and they started doing it. And I think our children are benefiting from that.

KL: We are reaping the benefits from baby boomers and baby boomers’ children. And there is immigration rising, and as long as population is rising, minority entrepreneurship is going to rise. It has no choice.

JM: I think representation is important. I think people — black and brown like us — seeing people doing things that they either want to do or haven’t thought they could do, or thought they needed permission from someone else to do, seeing those faces is going to be really important. It’s important for people coming up behind us, and it’s especially important in Fort Worth for people in the majority that haven’t seen black and brown folks and young folks that are stepping out into entrepreneurship, to see that we’re at the table.

MH: Absolutely. I’d like to add, with the media and access to information, there are so many people that are encouraging others to be in their own business, to be entrepreneurs, to research an idea, to make it happen. You find out ways to be able to do it.

ET: I represent a different people group, because I’m essentially a second-generation immigrant, because my mom came and was cleaning houses for years. At an early age, my brother and I had to work. I dropped out of business school. I felt like I was wasting a little bit of time. But I knew it was a challenge to have these loans and to know you have to help out a whole family. I think it puts us behind a little bit. You’re not established. We don’t have a house. We’re renting. We don’t have anything to borrow against. We don’t have established credit or someone that could cosign. So [for a new immigrant], it may take two generations.

JA: I like to tell [my kids] they’re starting on third base.

ET: That’s what makes us different. White Americans have been here. They have generations of stability. It just takes time. Government can help [with incubators and other programs]. The people that are here can help the generations that are coming. We’ve got to do a good job to make sure that the numbers just keep climbing.

JA: Which is pressure, which is manifested a lot of times with a chip on your shoulder. We have no choice but to do great, because [of] the opportunity for someone to say, you had a shot. So, when we get into the door, it’s all right, we’re in, and we have to create something that matters, that’s lasting and that’s bigger than me.

All five of you have enjoyed a lot of success, some over careers, others a shorter period. And all of you are self-made. Has the fact that you’re a minority figured into the growth of your businesses?

JA: I was born and raised in San Antonio in the barrio, but I went to a Catholic school, which was 99 percent Anglo and a half percent African-American and a half percent Hispanic. And so, I grew up in that circle and then went off to the Army when I was 18 years old. Now there is no color in the Army. Because of [my military] background and getting positions of responsibility in the construction business after graduating from college, the color sort of went away. And then fast forward, I had the opportunity to purchase a firm here in Fort Worth that was on the decline. It was Thomas S. Byrne that was on the decline. High-profile company. We were a 95-year-old company, but it was going in the ground. And we went from $20 million in revenue to $450 million in revenue over a relatively short period of time. And one of the arrows in my quiver was we were a minority-owned company. I had called on Texas Instruments and American Airlines and Frito-Lay when I was running an Anglicized company. And they said OK now; we have plenty of contractors. We’ll let you know if we need some more. Then [at Byrne], all of a sudden, I get a phone call from Texas Instruments saying, get over here, John, we want to talk to you about giving you a contract. I said, I’ve been beating on your doors for 20 years. So, what I want to emphasize is lots of minority companies think the work is just going to pour in. That is not the case. A lot of companies are very strong on diversity. They will give you the opportunity. But you have to perform, because that’s what your customers look for. 

KL: In the health care industry, I have to show people that I can care for your mom just as good as anyone else. However, people are so used to us being the help, the operators and not the owners, it kind of helps when they see someone with a brown face owning their own business. There’s not much distrust because they’re used to us anyway. I don’t see any benefits to being an African-American, although, pridefully, it means everything to me.

JM: Barbershops are historically monolithic and segregated ethnically. For me, when I decided I want to open up a barbershop in Fort Worth, I [decided] I want to serve black folks and white folks and Hispanic folks. I just think that in 2019, when you put out a shingle, you should be able to service people that walk into that space. To me, that was really, really important. I think that we as people flock to familiarity, and I think that if we want to break those habits, it’s important we are able to communicate with everybody.

ET: What I’ve seen is that if I take what I see as a weakness and choose to place it as an advantage, it can propel us. For me, in my business, I speak Portuguese and Spanish and English and [can] travel and source for coffee myself. And [immigrants] grow up in these environments where a lot of people are together, and we develop a lot of good social skills. So, I say for the person who is reading, who is listening, who is a minority, as long as you see the reasons why this holds us back, it’s going to hold you back. But when you start to see how these things help us, it does propel us forward.

JM: I look at my blackness as my superpower. I see it as an opportunity. If I know how to communicate with someone who looks like me, if I know how to communicate with someone who doesn’t look like me, to me, that’s an advantage.

MH: I started my dental practice in the black community, which was something that I always wanted to do. I went to school in Boston and always had planned to move back to Fort Worth. And when I moved my practice downtown [from Berry Street and Interstate 35], I really thought I would have more people from that community come downtown. I’ve been downtown 26 years. Not only did they not want to come downtown at that particular time, other people didn’t really want to come downtown. My ability to socialize with other people of different backgrounds is easy. When I was living in Boston, it’s like the melting pot. I think minorities are really looking to expand our target market because we can service people of all nationalities and ethnic groups.

Is it easier today to start a business in Fort Worth as a minority compared to years ago? What’s changed? 

MH: I think it’s easier to start a business now because of sources [of help] for entrepreneurs. There’s a way you can get help.

JA: I would say for a minority to start a business today, it’s easier than it was 10 to 15 years ago, but not dramatically so. It takes time, and it’s moved up. Depending on where you’re at in your education, your experience, will also tell how easy it is to get started. 

JM: I want to see more [minority-owned companies]. In a city like Fort Worth that’s growing, compared to other cities across the country, there’s a lot of wide-open spaces. There’s a lot of industries, big and small, wide and narrow, that we need somebody to tackle. I think there are a lot of young black and brown folks who are capable of doing that.

MH: I wouldn’t want people to think this is easy, that just having the drive and desire is all that is necessary. I always say, when I’m serving on panels, that this is like having a baby that never goes to college and never gets off the payroll. And so, it takes a certain kind of person that can be an entrepreneur and be successful. And understanding of the capital needs, the emotional needs, the stamina…

JM: The emotional needs, the emotional needs, the emotional needs.

The city and Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce — in the economic development plans they rolled out recently — identified issues like capacity among minority small-business owners as a significant issue. Do you agree? What could we be doing as a community to address capacity?

JM: I’ll speak from a small-business experience perspective. My kids say, when you see something that’s black-owned, OK, awesome. I want to support that. Not because somebody put up a shingle in Fort Worth, and we’re going to support them. Somebody’s doing good work. Let’s support that. And that’s something that we all can do in terms of how we decide to spend our dollars. On the front end, I think there’s opportunities to invest in those businesses and those ideas that are particularly viable. And a lot of times, some of that investment can come from other black and brown people. 

ET: The city, intentionally bringing us together [through incubators and other programs], could increase capacity. I don’t think we’re connected enough. And maybe that’s something we have to fix outside of an institution, being available [as mentors] to those walking in our shoes.

JA: We do have a capacity issue. One of the key things is capital. If you’re going to go start a business, you’ve got to have the nut to sustain yourself, three, four, five, six months, to get yourself up and going. How you go about doing that is important. When I purchased Thos. S. Byrne, we sold everything we had, except for children. And then had a note that if I didn’t hit certain goals, it reverted back to them. Capital is not easy to get. In fact, banks will not loan you money unless you have money. I had a great business plan that I put together. And I went to banks when I was assembling the money I needed and was short $200,000. Getting that last $200,000, $300,000, that I needed was the toughest thing. I had to go empty my father’s mattress down in San Antonio to get some of it. I think the Fort Worth Chamber and the Hispanic Chamber and the African-American Chamber have a responsibility to provide incubators and help minority-owned companies in how to get a loan, how to do a business plan, how to determine what the overhead is, and to use us as mentors. In years past, they have done that, where we have been the mentor. We continue to do some of that today. I will tell you, I will challenge right now on film, these chambers are too interested in being social clubs; they are too interested in attracting white corporate America to do whatever it is to give them sustenance. That’s not it. Their job is to give fledging and growing small companies.

MH: And they need to identify needs. We recognize the importance of tourism to the city. At the same time, we have parts of the city that are decaying. We need the chambers to look at the growth and what businesses are necessary and how can we steer other minorities into businesses that become successful because they are going to get business.

KL: And in our inner cities, put some literacy there. Athleticism, we got that. My son is going to be great in basketball because it’s convenient. Let’s talk about business, how to get things started. Our agenda is pulling each other up. That’s how we do it: Education is everything. That didn’t make me six figures. My six figures came from learning from these multi-million-dollar facilities, everything about it, and mastering. That’s how I was able to open up my own assisted living.

JM: More so now than ever. Information is democratizing. You can get it. You can take Harvard and MIT classes online. Information is there.

ET: How crazy is it that John [Avila], his company builds the airports. For a young kid to know a Hispanic guy did this, to me, that’s 90 percent of it. I think parents aren’t telling their kids because no one taught them. If someone moves here from Brazil, my mom tells them go clean houses because it’s what she knows.

JM: A lot of times, the majority culture, seeing success, seeing someone who looks like them, it’s second nature; you don’t necessarily think about it. When we see somebody who looks like us, whose hair looks like us, who talks like us, maybe from where we’re from, it opens you up to what you’re actually capable of.

One final question: What’s next for all of you?

JA: For me, in the transitional stage. I have two boys and a daughter. Matthew, my oldest, is now CEO. His brother Paul is COO. But they both have earned that. Our president, Martin Lehman, has been with the company longer than anyone else. But most important is to give back. [My sons have] seen their dad become a community leader; they’ve seen their dad giving. And I don’t want them to forget where they’ve come from.

MH: I have children, but I don’t have any that it appears they’re going to take over for me when I transition from being an entrepreneur. I recently became part of a new medical practice here in downtown that opened up. I opened up an exam room. I am looking at my existing office as more of a treatment center and then able to do diagnosing and exams with the medical group. And I expect to continue to operate my flower shop. I have a great manager there. And I have a great manager at Marie Antoinette Parfumerie, too. My focus is on my practice. It’s important for me for people to know the importance of oral health care and how it relates to other medical issues can develop.

JM: Next for me, back in the last year, myself and my business partner saw this old warehouse come up for sale and decided we wanted to transition that into a boutique hotel — small, 22 rooms. It’s what I feel like is again a gaping hole in Fort Worth, a space we feel can invite visitors to, a creative class of visitors, millennial, Gen Z travelers that are coming to Fort Worth for leisure. We want to create a space that can speak to a traveler I feel hasn’t been spoken to in the way that I would want to be spoken to as a traveler coming to Fort Worth. And at the same time, create a space — a lobby bar, a communal space — that not only attracts our visitors but also our community. Being right across from the Dickies Arena is something that I feel really, really good about. [On neighborhood controversy stirred up over his plan:] I think it’s very healthy to not have everybody patting you on the back. It’s very healthy to understand not everybody sees you the way your mama does. That was an experience that was healthy for me.

ET: For us, we’re shortening the name Sons of Liberty to Sons. We’ve introduced two taglines, Panther City’s Finest and Carry the Name, Push It Forward. We want to expand beyond Fort Worth [with Fort Worth-roasted coffee]. We’ve recently opened a roastery in The River District. Once we have a few stores in Fort Worth, go to Carrollton and Plano and different states even. And carry that name, Panther City’s Finest.

KL: And for me, more assisted living. There’s room for a lot of us in this industry. I’m speaking with investors who want to help me open up a huge facility. I like the small, but I know the need is there, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m also consulting.   

John Avila, Jr., Chairman of Byrne, a construction company he purchased in Fort Worth in 1995, revitalized, and grew to about $450 million in contracts today from $20 million. Major clients include DFW Airport.

Kia Lane, Sundance Village Senior Living. A longtime employee in major assisted living centers, Lane went out on her own a few years ago and today owns three residential assisted living centers in Arlington and is speaking to investors about building a large, multifamily assisted living center there.

Dr. Marie Holliday, Sundance Square dentist, Parfumerie Marie Antoinette, Flowers To Go. She’s one of the longest-tenured businesses in Sundance Square, opening her perfume shop more than two decades ago and soon after moving her dentistry from Arlington and starting the floral business.

Jonathan Morris, owner of Fort Worth Barber Shop and The Lathery. Morris and a partner are entering the hotel business with plans for a 22-room boutique in an old warehouse on Montgomery Street across from Dickies Arena.

Eder Teixeira, Sons Coffee (née Sons of Liberty). Teixeira is founder of a consulting and branding company, Creative Mind Lab, advising companies over 10 years, ranging from law firms to coffee shops. In 2017, Teixeira and his wife started their own coffee shop and roaster downtown. They recently opened a roastery in Fort Worth’s River District and want to open more coffee shops around North Texas and out of state, selling the Fort Worth brand.

Videos courtesy of Todd Wall