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North Texas Entrepreneurship
No Less Than a Billion – Sydney Phillip’s Zukurri Brings AR and VR to Real Estate
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Sydney Phillips is an entrepreneur junkie combining augmented and virtual reality with real estate. Her goal? Impact a billion people. For Sydney, that’s not hyperbole: one billion is, rather, a specific metric.
“You know, when people would ask me, ‘What’s your motivation?’ or ‘What's the goal in all of this?’, and I’d be like, ‘To impact a billion people’, … I was like ‘Was that believable?’
Taking Tea in a Coffee World: Tina Howard’s Leaves Book and Tea Shop
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Book stores were closing.
Barnes and Noble’s two closures in Fort Worth—in downtown and on University Drive—were just many in a larger trend. Borders had completely closed down several years back.
Tina Howard discerned a gap opening. As a writer and a booklover, she valued the community space that these stores provided.
“I've always loved writing,” Tina said, “and I've always been invested in the
Running the Marathon: Marcie Finney Ditto’s Journey Towards Mustard Seed Jewelry
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Marcie Finney Ditto's journey is driven not just by entrepreneurialism, but by faith. A devout Christian, Marcie's religious beliefs guided her towards founding Mustard Seed Jewelry. Faith remains hard-wired in the enterprise. Through jewelry, Marcie shares her faith, love, and talents. Her personal prayer life is what inspires her.
Marcie's Call Towards Jewelry
Marcie Finney Ditto sets aside quiet prayer time every morning. Beyond religious and personal practice, it
Jess Batchko's A Simple Space Helps Complex Lives
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Jess Batchko loves helping people and loves teaching. With A Simple Space, she doesn’t just want to organize peoples’ spaces—she wants to transfer the skills such that they can remain organized. In one way she keeps customers’ clutter under control so that it doesn’t engulf them, and in another way she prepares them for life’s most stressful transitions.
“Maybe you're a single parent and you're
Storytelling Mini Feature: Before and After: Debbie Horton and Whitney Tevis Subdue Chaos With The Organized Nest
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Our furniture, appliances, priceless treasures, and other household objects can create a black hole of disorganization. Some people can keep their lives in order and avoid this black hole on their own. Others need professional help.
Debbie Horton started The Organized Nest to help her friends control their disorderly stuff. She also wanted to do something on her own and thrived off the creative process.
Now
Healthy Escapes: Veena Somareddy’s Neuro Rehab VR
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Virtual reality in healthcare is not new, but VR's comeback as a viable consumer technology is a recent phenomenon.
Veena Somareddy is on the wave of this cutting edge field. Her Neuro Rehab VR company provides virtual reality experiences to patients with neurological medical conditions. She’s partnered with the Neurological Recovery Center in Fort Worth, where she is working directly with patients to tailor VR
Hard Knox Graduate: Learning, and Living, By Doing – Ken Mattner’s Entrepreneurial Life
Published by: Trevor Whalen
Ken Mattner, president of Digital Corporate Companies, didn’t have a business education at a college campus. His education – a lifelong pursuit of a degree in “Hard Knox” – started at a retail store, right after high school. Years of promotions and experience transitioned him to a career connecting with businesses and managing relationships across industries. He took the knocks as they came and developed
Stir Crazy Baked Goods: Robbie Werner’s Bakery From the Heart
Published by: Trevor Whalen
You don’t need a bakery to be a baker. What you need is the desire to bake, and Robbie Werner, born into a baking culture, was a successful baker long before she opened a business.
She now runs Stir Crazy Baked Goods in Fort Worth. Her story is one of continual inspiration, from family and surroundings, and an inner drive to cook combined with a
Moving Out of Darkness: Goran Krndija Sees Light With Gozova
Published by: Trevor Whalen
It was a dark warehouse in Germany where Goran Krndija, his mother and siblings lived. They had lost everything.
War had driven them from their home, Bosnia. Separated from their father, without the present-day technology we enjoy, they were disconnected from one of their parents: no Skype, no Zoom, no smartphones.
They were a single mom and her kids, refugees living in depression and uncertainty
A VC Pitch Gone Horribly Wrong
Published by: Walker Lutringer
When founders think of pitches and pitching, they think of presenting in front of a potential investor. In the back of their mind they also might envision a situation similar to what Christopher Hussain experienced when he was pitching his business, RealKey! So what went wrong? Listen here or read some of our highlights below with a few tips on what to avoid.
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