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Darren Nakonechny has found a permanent home for Flock Audio in Fort Worth.
When Albertabilly Darren Nakonechny went looking for fertile ground to scale his burgeoning new business, he found his Elysian field in the 28th state.
And not just anywhere in Texas.
Fort Worth, Texas.
“Because we do most of our revenue here in the states, I knew it was inevitable we were going to make the transition and relocate — or expand at least — to the states,” Nakonechny says. “We wanted something in between [a big city and a small city]. It was just instant. It was like Fort Worth is the place. And again, it still has that sort of city vibe, a community vibe about it. Put it this way, the easiest way to explain it: Fort Worth just felt like home.”
Home originally was a small town east of Edmonton, Alberta, where Nakonechny and his wife Jess founded Flock Audio from their garage. Flock Audio is the inventor of the Patch, a digitally controlled, analog audio routing system that has transformed the sound industry.
The Patch has essentially replaced a system that has evolved slowly over the course of 100 years.
A traditional “audio patch bay” is a physical hardware unit with rows of connectors on the front and back. It serves as a central connection point in studios, allowing engineers to route audio signals between different equipment.
The way I picture it in my head — I am not a musician — the audio patch bay was the evolution of technology more resembling an old telephone operator connecting calls. The audio patch bay allowed engineers to do the unplugging and replugging quicker.
But not quickly enough for Nakonechny, an Alberta farm boy, born to a farming family, who also grew up a musician.
“I didn't want one of those,” Nakonechny says. “They're just so archaic, you’re moving cables around and cables bust and whatnot.”
Nakonechny, 38, had done the “touring and band thing” for what he thought was as long as he could. During that time, he says, he had fallen in love with the recording studio side. “I just love the technology and the process of recording, but I was doing it in the background as a hobby.” He had a day job as a divisional manager of a construction company.
“I had a good career,” he says of construction, “but after a period of time, I was, like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be part of the construction industry and managing all these guys in the field and in the office.’
“I decided to take the plunge.”
He and Jess would go full time with the recording studio. In fact, Nakonechny says, they took out a loan to build out a recording studio in their basement at home. As the business grew, however, Nakonechny realized there was one piece of equipment he couldn’t find.
“It didn’t exist,” he says. “I could not find it. I couldn’t understand — it seemed like such a simple product that could be made.”
A digital audio patch controlled by an app.
He was connected with a patent attorney, who advised wisely that, “Well, it looks like a great idea, but you should make sure it can actually be made before we even try and patent anything.”
Nakonechny isn’t an engineer. “I don’t have an engineering background, anything like that.” But you can find those.
“Before I knew it, a year later, we were starting to ship this product,” he says. “It was met with very, very positive feedback.”
In reality, sales started coming in before he had even screwed in the final nut of his first product. A website, a rendering of the product, and a sales/pre-order page were all that were in place.
“Within the first week, we had over $100,000 in pre-orders,” Nakonechny says. “People were giving us money for this product. It wasn't quite done yet at the time. And we were just this small little company manufacturer from up north and nobody ever heard of, but they trusted us. They loved the idea of the product. And, so, after that first initial week, I was like, ‘Holy hell, I guess we're going to have to build this thing.’”
Family and friends gathered in the garage to help put these things together.
And off Flock Audio went.
Seven years later, the company offers 10 products, all manufactured and shipped now from west Fort Worth. The company is working on a transition of suppliers to be in Fort Worth. Flock Audio has moved its metalwork contractor from Canada to Fort Worth. Packaging is now done locally as well. Other movement is a work in progress.
“We feel a much more connected partnership here, and we're obviously looking to kind of grow those partnerships in other projects."
The move to Fort Worth is actually the company’s second relocation. Seeking warmer weather, Nakonechny first moved west to British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley—wine country. While the climate was better and the scenery beautiful, he says the cost of living and doing business was prohibitive. On top of that, he wanted to be in the U.S., where most of his revenue came from.
It was inevitable. It was fate.
“Alberta is referred to, jokingly, as ‘the Texas of Canada.’ It's very similar. There’s oil, there's prairie, you have the farming and cattle, industry, everything like that. So, very similar but very cold.”
No one has time for the cold. Not even native Canadians.