Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Little and Bryce Richardson.
Josh and Bryce, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Bryce and I met in College Station while attending A&M. I was a manager at Circuit City and hired Bryce as a sales associate. We ended up roommates and used to talk about having our own high-end home automation company.
After Bryce graduated, we started dreaming about going into business for ourselves and ended up moving to Dallas in October of 2011. Bryce was originally from Dallas and his Dad had warehouse space that we could afford so it seemed like a logical choice.
During the startup, we lived together, and we would take odds and ends jobs just to make rent (hang art, move furniture, etc). We were very confident in our ability but had a hard time convincing builders and homeowners in the Park Cities to give a 21 and a 26-year-old money for their multi-million dollar homes! We would have to do jobs at cost to prove ourselves. We did cold calling, client meetings, we pulled our own wire, we did the installs, service, programming, all without any employees. We spent months of working 6 days a week and 15 hour days just growing the business. We hired our first employee the week I went on my honeymoon so that Bryce would have someone to help while I was gone. It was like leaving your newborn for the first time!
Around that time, I met Ben Coats at Watermark and somehow convinced him to give us a shot on one of his homes. This was our introduction into the Park Cities! Our business grew exponentially at that point, we started picking up more builders and more accounts. We grew to the point that we gained the attention of investors and had offers to purchase our company.
We ended up selling our original business to a commercial AV company that we partnered with for 12 months. We quickly found that what made us successful as a company was lost when following the direction of the person who purchased our company. We ended up leaving that company and starting up another company on our own, Evolve Technologies, and getting back to the basics that made us who we were.
We have not looked back since then, and have doubled our revenue each year since being back on our own. It was a valuable lesson to learn, and one that we will not forget. We learned to believe and bet on ourselves!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Evolve Technologies story. Tell us more about the business.
Our specialty is lighting and home automation. We learned that to remain ahead of the other AV integrators, we needed to find our niche and we found it in smart lighting.
We have consistently been one of the largest dealers of panelized lighting control in our region. We were awarded the Control4 circle of excellence in 2017. We feel that our service after the sell and our relationship with the homeowner is what sets us apart from our competition. We understand the value of the relationship and hold that above all else.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The home automation industry is only going to continue to grow and homes become smarter. We are learning to adapt our business around the changing world of tech, and how to remain relevant in the world of end-user products.
Our business has evolved with the trends and has led us to other business opportunities (golf sims and lighting).
Contact Info:
- Address: 514 S. Hall St. Dallas, TX 75226
- Website: www.evolvedallas.com
- Phone: 972.200.7087
- Email: social@evolvedallas.com
- Instagram: evolvetechdallas
- Facebook: evolvetechdallas
- Other: http://local.control4.com/evolvetechnologiesllc2-75226/dallas-tx/
Image Credit:
Christie Richardson
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