12 minute read
FROM STARTUP TO SENSATION
SENSATION
FIND OUT HOW FIVE LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS TURNED GOOD IDEAS INTO THRIVING BUSINESSES
David Ahmad quit his engineering job to launch The Coldest Water out of his one-car garage in 2015. By 2021, sales had gone global, operations moved to a new warehouse, a retail store at Coastland Center opened, and the company was named among Inc.'s 500 fastest-growing companies in the nation.
Taking a Leap
As a kid, David Ahmad always loved inventing new things, better things. In his early adulthood, Ahmad capitalized on the same trait he says his parents must have possessed to make the leap to immigrate to the United States.
“I think it’s a big risk to be the first generation to travel to the U.S. and leave your parents,” says Ahmad, founder of Naples-based water bottle and related accessories business The Coldest Water.
One of three engineering sons of two engineering parents, Ahmad has turned that boldness into a growing international operation with products in national chains and satisfying consumer approval.
Launched with every penny he had—$14,000 from a previous venture—and financed strictly from operational revenues, The Coldest Water already is outgrowing its new, 15,000-square-foot warehouse and opened a retail store in Coastland Center mall in April 2021.
This all came about after Ahmad had surveyed the highly competitive water bottle market a half-dozen years ago and was stunned that no one had seized on what he saw as lacking. “What do people want the most when they drink water? For Americans, it’s cold water,” says Ahmad, who uses the persona David Stark for most online publicity. “All these brands don’t tell you anything about their goal for the customer,” he explains.
A boot-strapped, madcap, and often comical series of growing pains later, The Coldest Water now ships thousands of bottles and other products worldwide each month—with the tag "Designed in Naples, Florida" on their undersides.
“Hopefully, we do have a lasting impact on Naples as a positive brand,” Ahmad says. As many successful local startups have shown, The Coldest Water has plenty of company in that market.
—David Ahmad, founder, The Coldest Water
A display of private-label Seed to Table Marinara Sauce made by Carina's
Tyler Hardt with his family
—Tyler Hardt, owner, Pelican Bay Capital Management
A Wealth Capital
When it came time to open his own investment firm several years ago, Tyler Hardt and his family naturally were drawn to his hometown’s superb quality of life. But Hardt, who has rapidly grown Pelican Bay Capital Management since its launch in Naples in early 2019, also knew the economic opportunities that abound here, too.
“There’s a significant amount of money here,” says Hardt, who spent nine years as an equity analyst in Atlanta after earning his master’s degree in finance with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. “If you are going to raise new capital for a financial firm, this is a great place to do it.”
With two-school aged children, Hardt and his wife considered Austin, Texas, staying in Atlanta, or establishing roots elsewhere. The winning choice quickly paid dividends beyond providing “a place where it felt safe and happy and healthy for everybody.”
In a 12-month period ending in August 2021, Hardt says his firm grew its assets under management from $7 million to $106 million. A wealth of former executives and savvy investors also make great partners with whom he shares a strong drive for angel investing. “This is a great place to do it because we can raise money very quickly,” he says. “There’s just a huge, untapped knowledge base of retirees here who were executives in their former lives.”
There’s no shortage of aspiring, young business owners to invest in, as well. “There’s a lot of talented entrepreneurs here,” Hardt says. “A lot of them are just lacking experience or guidance in raising capital or business strategy.”
Secret Sauce
Deomattie “Reshma” Tannassee beams with joy when thinking of the check she got for selling the first case of her homegrown, homemade hot sauce for $39 to Wynn's Market in Naples.
A few years later, she’s even more excited about moving her operations into a new facility that Collier Enterprises has committed to building in Ave Maria to house several hundred employees for her burgeoning business, Carina’s Manufacturing.
Named for Tannassee’s 7-year-old daughter, Carina’s has been operating out of the Florida Culinary Accelerator@Immokalee. It is where the native of Guyana has been turning the gift for flavors, spices, and sauces she learned from her grandmother into a popular growing product line— all by hand. She has expanded into making private-label food products locally for Wynn’s, Seed to Table, and JW Marriott, and is working with the nonprofit entrepreneurial program for students, Taste of Immokalee, with packaging and product development.
“I never thought I would be able to do all this from the Culinary Accelerator,” says Tannassee, who now has seven full-time and 28 parttime employees. “I’m still surprised. I told someone, ‘Just pinch me.’”
Carina's Kitchen participating at the Naples Food, Wine & Beer Festival
Partners William Diaz-Garcia and Caleb MacPherson
A dedicated facility will allow Carina’s to significantly expand its offerings to current and potential future clients, including giants Sysco Foods and Cheney Brothers, while diversifying a local economy mostly missing the important stage between the region’s extensive agricultural and foodservice markets.
“I think this will be a great job creator, and a great signal to other companies to come to the area,” says Ahmed El, program manager of the Florida Culinary Accelerator@Immokalee. “If Reshma—who started with just herself and a pot—can be successful with the limited resources she had, just imagine someone who is already established. There’s much more that can be done.”
Filling a Need
Caleb MacPherson, a Canadian who sports a beard and tattoos, already had premium coffee-making talent. When Naples attorney William Diaz-Garcia II partnered with him several years ago, they had the right ingredients to fill what both saw as a big hole in the Naples marketplace. The plan: To open a neighborhood shop that serves specialty coffees and does its own roasting, too.
Grand opening of second Narrative Coffee Roasters location on Central Avenue
—William Diaz-Garcia,
co-owner, Narrative Coffee Roasters
They set about opening Narrative Coffee Roasters at Mercato in June 2020 and added a second location on Central Avenue in July 2021. The business has done so well that they already have plans to expand the roasting operation and add shops along Florida’s West Coast.
“To open a coffee shop in the middle of COVID is a feat in itself,” Diaz-Garcia says. “The fact that we’ve had so many people continue to support us really meant we were doing the right thing. The second one is doing great, and we haven’t even hit season yet.”
Originally launched by MacPherson as a wholesale operation, Narrative Coffee Roasters has built back that part of the business after COVID-19 derailed most of his sales. Buyers of his seasonal, single-origin roasts include other area coffee shops. Narrative also recently expanded its cold brew options to include cans in the name of recognizing and filling a market need.
“Caleb looks and is the part. He breathes coffee. It is his absolute passion,” says Diaz-Garcia, whose family operated a coffee roaster in Miami in the 1960s and ‘70s before selling it to Smucker’s. “My passion was to really get a company like that up and off the ground because I wanted to be in the coffee industry. The one thing my family never did was to have a coffee shop.”
roasting facility
Medical Self-Pay
Dr. Michael Havig came up with the idea for HealthMe, an online pricing marketplace that connects doctors and patients in the evergrowing self-pay medical world. The Naples orthopedic surgeon has logged countless hours since its launch in late 2018 explaining its relative simplicity to those who are frustrated by the lack of pricing transparency—and ultimately, access to care—in the insurancedominated health care industry.
But Havig is the first to admit the award-winning service might not be where it is—in the process of converting more than 1,600 practices in its pipeline to several hundred active users by the end of 2021—without considerable support from local advisers and business incubators. These include the former Naples Accelerator, where HealthMe was headquartered until recently; the FGCU Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship; and Fusion Pointe, a nonprofit organization offering vital resources to startups.
“There’s all these people trying to promote the startup ecosystem here, and doing a pretty good job at it,” Havig says. “They want to see things grow.”
Given many health-care trends, including growing legal and consumer demands for greater pricing transparency to match the widening number of people and small businesses not financially able or willing to go through insurers, that’s good news when it comes to providing needed care.
HealthMe, actively expanding its marketplace from orthopedic practices to other specialties, increases revenue by bringing in self-pay patients often previously excluded from the process. And it makes office flows more efficient by streamlining direct-pay pricing and billing in advance.
“What we hear from a lot of practices is, ‘We’ve been wanting to do this and trying to figure it out. We just didn’t know how,’” Havig says. “Now we have that process.” American Farms: A premier grower of annual and perennial plants, the supplier for landscapers, resorts, theme parks, country clubs, nurseries, and garden centers throughout Florida. (american-farms.com)
Arthrex: A global medical device developer and pioneer in arthroscopy with more than 3,000 local employees at various locations. With more than $435 million in annual revenue, it's listed as one of Fortune's “100 Best Companies to Work For.” (arthrex.com) Atomic Machine and EDM, Inc.: Offering precision machining to the defense, gun, medical, and aerospace industries for more than 30 years. (atomicmachine.com) Campagna Hospitality Group: A small group of like-minded business associates and foodies led by chef Vincenzo Betulia to ensure excellence at his thriving local restaurants: Osteria Tulia, The French Brasserie Rustique, and Bar Tulia, which recently opened a second Naples location. (campagnahospitalitygroup.com) Catalyst OrthoScience: Develops innovative medical solutions that make orthopedic surgery less invasive and more efficient for both sugeons and patients; creators of the Catalyst CSR Total Shoulder System. (catalystortho.com) Lenkbar: Invents, designs, and manufactures revolutionary surgical devices and implants which simplify surgery for physicians and improve patient outcomes. (lenkbar.com) Linga: An innovative global technology company providing the hospitality industry with an industryleading, cloud-based restaurant operating system. (lingaros.com) Moorings Park: A premier provider of retirement living in Southwest Florida, featuring luxurious residences with access to upscale and casual dining, comprehensive physician services, state-of-the art fitnes centers, and social activities on three campuses. (mooringspark.org) Naples Soap Company: This natural and organic skincare products company got its start with one shop at Tin City in 2009 and now has 10 Florida retail locations. Naples Soap Company products are sold in Dillard's and its e-commerce and wholesale operations continue to expand rapidly. (naplessoap.com) Pyure Brands: Developer and distributor of stevia, a zero-calorie sugar substitute sold in more than 20,000 stores nationwide, launched locally in 2008. (pyureorganic.com)
QUALITY OF LIFE
WHAT MAKES NAPLES A DESIRABLE PLACE TO LIVE AND WORK?
“Naples strikes a rare balance of breathtaking beauty, a sense of purpose and ambition, a deep appreciation of what we have, and a drive to help others. I’ve lived in other Florida cities, but Naples possesses a beautiful community culture that’s impossible to beat. Whether you’re looking to be social or recharge, we truly have something for everyone.” —Jen Clark, vice president, SWFL Music Education Center
““Naples has it all. From stunning beaches to an impressive dining scene, there is truly something for everyone. There is no shortage of activities, regardless of your interests: golfing, fishing, shopping, art galleries, and even a surprisingly great nightlife. In addition to all of this, we are so lucky to have a crime rate almost 90 percent lower than the Florida average, beautiful sunshine year-round, access to quality health care, and a very strong philanthropic network.” —Alyssa Haney, marketing specialist, First Florida Integrity Bank “ When we first moved to Florida at the end of 2014, life in Collier could not have been more different than living in Maryland. As a family with young children, one of the concerns and priorities that we had was to find and connect with other families, as well as ensuring our children had activities for their age. Once we moved here and visited other areas of the central and south Florida region (from Orlando down to Miami), we found that Naples’ smalltown feel with access to impressive large-scale happenings was a reason to live here.” —Kevin Yue, P.E., senior project manager, Environmental Risk Management
“Naples is a very special place to call home. Its unique diversity of culture, landscape, opportunities, and resources all contribute to quality of life. With an excellent education system and strong philanthropic community that believes in supporting and standing up gaps in services, Naples is only getting better with time!” —Anne Frazier, senior director of development, Lee Health Foundation
“What really makes Naples unique are the people. They are friendly, willing to assist and care about the community they live in. We still have that small-town feeling and that is priceless.”—Patrick D. O’Connor, sales associate and certified relocation specialist, Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, and director at the Greater Naples Chamber.
