Today we’d like to introduce you to Stuart Humphreys.
Stuart, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Absolutely. So I’m 35. I’m originally from Johnson City, Tennessee. Most of my family is from Tennessee and Virginia. And back in 2015 while in college I got really interested in real estate investing and started renovating some properties in the downtown area where I lived and immediately fell in love with that whole process. So I built my first business around fixing up and renting out these different properties in the Johnson City area. And then I decided I wanted to move to a bigger city, somewhere culturally not too different from Tennessee. I visited Dallas once and I knew it was where I wanted to be.
So my brother Spencer and I (who’s four years younger than me) moved to Dallas on the same day in August of 2018.
I continued with the real estate business for a few more years and that went well, and then COVID happened and real estate prices just went through the roof – so I began looking into other opportunities.
I always wanted to do a hospitality concept. Birdies is my first go at it. It’s niche. We may end up making some tweaks down the road to appeal to a broader audience. So stay tuned for that.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been too bad honestly. It took about two years from starting to work on the concept until we actually opened our doors, which is fairly normal for a new concept. I have a really great manager Adam Thompson who’s been with me from the start and he’s really helped navigate a lot of issues.
One thing I will say is that Dallas really is a great place to start a business — the whole climate is super friendly to entrepreneurship. You can submit something to the city and actually get approval in a reasonable time frame. I don’t think this would have worked in an LA or New York.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I really enjoy starting business — and growing it, and everything that comes along with that. My background was in commercial real estate investing and then Ive recently moved over to the Hospitality space. I’m still running the real estate business on the side but it’s slowed down from where it was say five years ago.
I think Im a very visual person. I love improving a space, taking something old or underutilized and fixing it up. I think I’m most proud when I’m able to solve a problem I’ve been stuck on for a while. I guess everyone is, really. But that feeling of satisfaction is hard to beat.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I was a pretty mischievous kid. I’ve calmed down a lot since then. But my favorite memory was probably playing with my brother and cousins on our family farm growing up, fishing, riding four-wheelers and shooting coke cans off of hey bales.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://birdiesdallas.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/birdiesdallas
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/birdiesdallas
