Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Harris, Cody Morris, and Mike Dunn.
Drew, Cody, and Mike, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Back in 2016, we worked as software engineers at rewardStyle, which is a company that provides tools to influencers to monetize their content. The platform is used almost entirely by fashion bloggers, but at the time we were encouraged as devs to actually use the tools we made to better understand the needs of the bloggers.
We created Dallas Devs as a full-hearted attempt to gain an audience using our tools and see what insights we could get from it. As it turns out, we found out that “gaining an audience” was a much harder first step than we realized. We found out very quickly that becoming an influencer is in no way easy. How do we get people to follow us? What do we bring to the table that others don’t? It seems so easy looking at the popular accounts. “Why not us?” we thought. What no one told us is that EVERYONE was trying to becoming internet famous.
We decided that fashion blogging and selling clothes just wasn’t for us. We figured the best way to gain a following was to simply be ourselves. Our new plan was: do our own thing and see how people reacted. If we gained any traction, THEN we could transition to using our tools. Our niche developed quickly: three engineers who like to eat awesome food, drink a lot, and have fun.
Before we knew it we had established our own brand and gained an awesome following. For now, we have stopped trying to force monetization through tools that don’t apply to our genre. The whole notion we started with of using the tools we make was misguided from the beginning because it’s not something everyone can do. We’re really happy with where Dallas Devs has taken us, but it’s very far from the fashion world.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We haven’t had many setbacks or struggles, really. It can be difficult to coordinate the schedule of three people, but if we divide and conquer we can accomplish a lot. We’ve kept a very consistent posting schedule, refined our style, and built relationships with businesses and our followers. This does take a lot of work, but so far things have been going smoothly since we make time for it. Consistency is very important.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Dallas Devs – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Dallas Devs is known for discovering and sharing great restaurants and bars in the Dallas area. We always loved finding these places for ourselves but now we really enjoy sharing it with people. We didn’t really expect that people would seriously start looking to us for advice on where to eat and where to drink. We’re proud of the influence we’ve gained and we love hearing when people tell us that they liked our recommendation.
I think what sets us apart from other food blogs is we don’t just share the food. We share the experience. We post pictures and videos of US enjoying the food so you can get a better idea of what the atmosphere is like, and also get to know us better.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to keep growing in the food and drink space, and maybe branch out more into travel. We don’t want to change our image too much, but we do like exploring other cities as well. It would be nice to get people from all around to follow Dallas Devs.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3083 Herschel Ave Apt 316
Dallas, TX 75219-2065 - Website: http://thedallasdevs.com
- Phone: 7155794441
- Email: thedallasdevs@gmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/dallasdevs
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
