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Meet Holly and Beau Dempsey of Longhorn Organics in Forney

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly and Beau Dempsey.

Please kick things off for us, we’d love to hear the story.
We met and married during college at Stephen F Austin State University. Nearing graduation, both of us had to have internships completed and one of the few places where Beau’s Environmental Science, and Holly’s Hospitality degrees coincided was Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX. Beau worked with the Aquarium prior to its opening and Holly worked in the special events department. We quickly fell in love with the themed entertainment industry, especially the construction/pre-opening projects, and continued working for various aquatic projects over the next 10 years. Frequent moves to perform each new construction project became more difficult and so we decided to stop moving and open our own business where we can provide similar services to similar clients but as a contractor instead of an employee. That was the humble beginning of Longhorn Organics which opened in 2009, specializing in water filtration systems.

We began Longhorn Organics by working out of our garage and traveling most of the time. By slowly building a reputation of quality work our early customers referred us to ever larger and more complex projects. These projects focus on the Themed Entertainment Industry and include Zoos, Aquariums, Aquaculture, and Theme/Water Parks. Longhorn Organics now has a team of full time employees and has expanded into a sister company called OGW which applies many of the same water filtration principles from the zoo and aquarium field into water recycling services for industrial clients in fields such as the O&G Industry and Food Processing Industry.

The drive to create quality, professional grade solutions for clients in all of these unique industries continues to grow the knowledge base, commitment, and expertise of Beau and Holly and all of the team members of Longhorn Organics and OGW.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
You never know how much you don’t know about running a business until you own one. I remember early on Beau mentioned in an off-hand way that if we weren’t successful in 3 months then we were doing it wrong. Well, we managed to do almost everything wrong in the beginning! One of our biggest hurdles was not understanding our sales cycle. On average projects of any real size in our fields take around 2 years from our first interactions to first revenue. That’s a huge amount of time for a small business.

It took trial and error but we came to realize the same thing that many small businesses realize, you have to have someone selling and someone doing. With only two people in the beginning we had the heads and hands to either work on getting the next big project or the heads and hands to perform the project we had. This meant we were on a constant roller coaster of peak and valley cash flow which is very difficult to sustain a business over time. We were able to add in some stabilizing factors such as maintenance agreements with existing clients, specialty product lines to support our existing clients, and consulting/planning services. All of these helped create a more stable baseline of revenue on which to layer the larger projects we were being awarded.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Longhorn Organics – what should we know?
Longhorn Organics and OGW both specialize in water filtration systems. They market services to different specialty industries which allows each to be pretty specialized. Longhorn Organics provides water filtration systems, also known as Life Support Systems (LSS), to aquatic habitats. For Zoo and Aquarium clients LSS systems are all of the behind the scenes equipment that keep an aquatic habitat functional. For Museums, Water Parks and Theme Parks the water filtration systems that keep water fountains, water features, and interactive water attractions safe and attractive for human interaction all rely on these types of complex water filtration systems. OGW provides water filtration systems that are customized for industrial settings. OGW analyzes to see what is in the water and builds a system to remove the things the client needs out of the water. In many cases these industrial settings can re-use water on location for additional processes but there are contaminants in the water from a previous process that is interfering with its reuse. We help them solve this which allows them to spend less money on new fresh water.

Anywhere you look these days water is being discussed as either an environmental concern, a geo-political concern, a health concern, or a limiting factor concern for industry. In any of these cases water is affecting the human bottom line. Beau and Holly found something they do well and focused on it with an intensity that produces results.

We are most proud of the fact that we are offering real solutions that help solve a problem that everyone on our planet is facing, right now. If we can help an animal in a zoo feel more at home, in a healthier habitat, then we have helped other ecology scientists who study them learn and discover ways to help those animals in their natural environment. Similarly, if an industrial process is using millions of gallons of fresh water and we can help them reduce and reuse that resource, then we have increased the available water for use by all people.

The world over, no matter the place, the industry, or the environment, we all depend on water. We often say – we take care of the water and the water takes care of everything else.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
We appreciate the encouragement, support, and help of everyone along the way! We have had two mentors and supporters who are also entrepreneurs who we have to thank first. One is Beau’s Mom and Stepdad who have been an example for us from the very beginning and encouraged us to jump in with both feet to this crazy thing called entrepreneurship – thank you for always understanding! The other is Brian Gardner who told us in the beginning “whatever you guys dream up – I’m in”. He has stood by those words when we became an overnight success…which just happened to be 7 years later than we all expected! The third round of thank you’s has to go out to all of our amazing clients. We have had many cheerleaders, all of which have referred us on to our next project, but none bigger than Karen Rifenbury who has championed our work to anyone and everyone in the industry.

Longhorn Organics and OGW now have a list of investors, employees, and supporters helping to grow our businesses into the leaders of industry that we know is on the horizon. Thank you to each of you for your faith in us and the future of water.

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