Varghese Summersett
Benson Varghese
Benson Varghese’s climb among business leaders in Fort Worth is as dreamy as James Trulow Adams ever dreamed of his so-called American Dream.
An immigrant from India, Varghese, 41, leads the law firm Varghese Summersett with his wife and partner of the firm Anna Summersett. It’s a firm he started in 2014 in a one-room office with $9,000 he borrowed from an uncle.
Varghese Summersett
Anna Summersett
Varghese built the brand with a robust multimedia presence and, with his wife coming onboard, hired elite trial attorneys across the North Texas region.
Within three years, the firm was recognized as the 782nd fastest-growing business in the country by Inc. 5000 and soon after was named the sixth-fastest growing company in Fort Worth by Fort Worth Inc.
It grew from criminal defense to include family law and personal injury litigation. The firm, now with 45 employees, including 18 attorneys, will soon move into a 15,000-square-foot office space to align with the growth.
The firm has come a long, long way since those initial years when, as he says, he was merely “hanging a shingle.”
Varghese Summersett is a finalist for the 2023 Fort Worth Inc. Entrepreneurs of Excellence program. Winners will be announced at a gala at the Fort Worth Club on Nov. 16.
More recently, however, the firm was one of five companies recognized as Fort Worth Chamber Small Business of Year Award winners. The firm won in the category of 21-50 employees. The unveiling of winners was made at the chamber’s State of the City luncheon recently. Mayor Mattie Parker presented the keynote address.
This annual award recognizes and honors small businesses that have demonstrated exemplary best practices of entrepreneurship, such as sound business planning, fiscal responsibility and work process innovation in operating their business.
“Fort Worth has always been a city that champions its small businesses,” says Steve Montgomery, CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber. “These businesses epitomize the entrepreneurial spirit that fuels Fort Worth's prosperity.”
For a guy born into a society of “abject poverty” on the southern tip of India, what has been accomplished here could even leave a lawyer speechless.
“To say it was quite an honor is such an understatement,” Varghese says. “My journey from there to establishing a business in a wonderful growing city, and to be recognized by the folks in the city and our leaders in business themselves is really unthinkable on some level. It's a huge honor.
“It’s a culmination of a lot of efforts. But I think about where I came from, I think about the efforts and sacrifices my parents made to help me get an education, and honoring those efforts, and how thrilled I am to be in Fort Worth. When the mayor says this is the fastest-growing city in the United States, I have a lot of pride in that and just couldn't ask for more.”
After earning an undergraduate degree from SMU, Varghese went west to study law at Texas Tech University. He interned for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District, in the white-collar division. Having “fallen in love with criminal prosecution,” he began his career at the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office. He says that he tried about 100 cases to Tarrant County juries.
He has been recognized as a Top 100 Trial Attorney by the National Trial Lawyers Association and has been named a “Top Attorney” by Fort Worth Magazine every year since 2012. He is also a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, a distinction held by fewer than 10% of all licensed attorneys in Texas.
He struck out on his own in 2013, deciding “to hang a shingle for as little as possible and figure out how to get the phone to ring.” He says he spent a lot of time thinking about how to innovate in the marketplace.
“It’s hard to believe, but in 2014 lawyers in Fort Worth were still advertising in the Yellow Pages. And if you had a landing page on, yeah, if you had a landing page of a website that was considered cutting edge. That's what the best had.”
It wasn’t only a landing page. He produced content for it, hundreds of pages of articles, he says. The objective was to answer legal questions. For example, if someone's son or daughter is arrested, what are the questions mom and dad need answered immediately.
“I started giving out, essentially for free, what for a long time attorneys thought was their only commodity, which was our expertise, our knowledge.
“What ended up happening is it gained attention. People started visiting the website. If you really put in the work to generate real content before [clients] are calling you, they already trust you. They know you're an expert in the field. And that began the firm.”
Varghese had a head for business by the time he came back to the U.S. and business school at SMU in 2000. He had come to the U.S. as an infant with his parents. His mother, a nurse, came to Texas to fill a pressing need for nurses. He spent all of his formative years, up to the fifth grade, here.
His parents, he says, sent him back to India because they weren’t overly pleased, even at such a young age, with the direction his life was taking. He was getting into trouble at school and he wasn’t overly concerned about his book learning.
They wanted him to see what life could be like.
“I was growing up [in the U.S.] like anyone else,” he says. “I didn’t know that I came from a very impoverished part of a different country.”
He went to live with his grandparents. Having been in the U.S. as an infant, he might has well have been born in America. The only language he knew was English. The only culture he knew was American. He wasn’t familiar with the food. Electricity was a luxury, if it wasn’t raining. The water a household had was whatever one pumped into his own tank. No TV or computers. Wifi … dream on, dreamer.
By the time he was in the ninth grade, he was essentially on his own, he says, running a family rubber farm, which, he “essentially ran into the ground.” He was young, and his customers took advantage of his inexperience.
He’d call his father to ask for a “lifeline,” that is, financial support, which his father would give him. After a while of the same phone call, father told the son, “You’re just going to have to figure this out.”
And, so, he did. He figured out how to make that business work and returned it to a successful business. By the time he found his way to Dallas and SMU, he had had some exposure to business.
The experiences were, he says, “extremely valuable life lessons that my parents, allowed me to go through and learn from.”
“I always want to go out and build something,” Varghese says of his mindset today. “Whether it's getting the next case resolution that my client's gonna be extremely proud of, or getting the next client, or growing our firm, or hiring the next person, I'm always seeking to achieve something that, seemed impossible at the beginning.”
Big Wins for Small Businesses
The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce announced the recipients of the 2023 Small Business of the Year awards, sponsored by Bank of Texas, at its annual State of the City event. This annual award recognizes and honors small businesses that have demonstrated exemplary “Best Practices” of entrepreneurship, such as sound business planning, fiscal responsibility and work process innovation in operating their business.
In the Category of Emerging Businesses: Divine Intervention
Divine Intervention Recovery, LLC is a woman and minority-owned limited liability company located in Hurst, Texas. Established in 2022, Divine Intervention Recovery, LLC was founded by Angela Sachse and Karen Yowman Kaniki, with the purpose of providing quality care for substance use recovery and mental health wellness. Both Angela and Karen have a combined wealth of knowledge from working in a variety of treatment programs from inpatient to outpatient and case management. Together, they aim to reduce the stigma of substance use and mental health counseling, while helping clients achieve success in their personal goals for overall health and well-being.
In the Category of 1-20 Employees: 6th Avenue Storytelling
At 6th Ave Storytelling, their mission is to empower entrepreneurship and simplify the process of starting and growing small businesses. They provide entrepreneurs with the tools, resources, strategy, and support they need to craft and share their stories effectively. The focus at 6th Ave Storytelling is on stories, as they believe that sharing a compelling story is the most effective way to market and grow a brand. When a business builds its brand on the foundation of a story, people listen, become invested, and make purchases.
In the Category of 21 - 50 Employees: Varghese Summersett
Varghese Summersett was established in 2014 to provide unmatched service and obtain unparalleled outcomes while focusing on growth and nurturing a culture that supports each member of the firm and their families. They have three elite teams of attorneys and staff that make up their award-winning criminal defense, family and personal injury law divisions. Filled with board-certified specialists, nationally recognized seasoned trial experts, and talented newcomers, the firm has separated itself from the pack.
In the Category of 51 - 100 Employees: Ampersand Coffee and Auticon USA
In an unprecedented moment for the Fort Worth Chamber, two winners are announced in the 51 - 100 employees category.
Ampersand, a community-driven coffee shop in Fort Worth, puts a modern twist on coffee, creating an exciting atmosphere for locals and visitors. They offer a wonderful selection of coffee drinks paired with favorite spirits, and their lounge transforms into a vibrant bar on weekends. Managed by AMPM Hospitality with 30+ years of experience, Ampersand earned recognition for Best New Bar and Coffee from Fort Worth Magazine in 2018, 2019, and 2022. With two streetside locations, their triumphs led to Ampersand's placement in Terminal C at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, providing travelers with coffee on the fly.
Auticon USA is an award-winning social enterprise with a mission to improve the employment prospects of autistic and neurodivergent people. To accomplish this, it builds high-quality technology careers for autistic adults and acts as a catalyst for change by bringing neurodiversity education to client workforces. Auticon attributes its success to the performance advantage of its autistic technology consultants and the benefits of neurodiversity that its clients experience. Auticon's awards include Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2020, 2022 DEI initiative of the Year (Women in IT Summit and Awards), and 2023 Leader in Diversity (Dallas Business Journal).