Today we’d like to introduce you to Lionel Felix
Hi Lionel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a kid growing up in New York City in the 1980s, I got to see the very beginning of what high-tech looked like when sold at retail. TRS-80, Commodore 64, Atari, and the original Apple retail computers. We would go to one each other’s apartments and stare into the CRT screen, poking at keys, seeing what worked. Computers came alive when a friend’s parent got them a 300 baud modem from Crazy Eddie, a retail electronics store known for their wild commercials. We joined the digital world through the touch tones and screaming of Hayes Modems and their tiny paper-coned speakers. The world became more accessible through the message boards of the BBSs where people could meet and talk and exchange ideas. It was far from utopian, and we grew up very quickly.
Fast forward to the early 90s, when I was hired by a startup to work on computers in exchange for a paycheck. It seemed too good to be true, but that junior helpdesk job at Communicate Powerstores in Austin, TX, launched me into a love for IT. Helpdesk to System Admin to IT Manager, Director, and VP took me to Sony Pictures in Los Angeles, Frog Design, Motorola, Dell, and finally, WPP, where, looking at 40, I felt that it was time for a change. That feeling coincided with being part of a significant IT downsizing at WPP, which, while sad, was also the kick in the rear I needed.
For a few years, I worked side gigs setting up audiovisual systems for people and businesses. I loved designing and setting up systems, and it leveraged so much of the problem-solving and self-learning I learned in IT. When I was released to the industry, my network immediately pulled me into the AV projects they wanted done, and so began the journey of Felix Media Solutions.
I would never name a company after myself. A “working title” of Felix Media Solutions was available and would suffice as I figured out what I would be doing with this thing. The thing… took on a life of its own and became a company fast. The demand was there, and it was unrelenting. We went from 3 to 6 people in a year and hit 1M in revenue by the second year. Momentum was not the problem, but the lack of understanding of running an actual business was full of challenges. Challenges that are not for the faint of heart. Our office manager and bookkeeper abruptly quit and announced that we had six thousand dollars in the bank and payroll was coming up. Payroll was already eighteen thousand dollars every two weeks. Lucky me, I have a few friends who could swing that loan for a few weeks while I collected delinquent accounts receivable. A level boss was defeated, but new, bigger bosses always appeared.
As we grew, our successes were built on something simple: be responsive, take care of the customer, and complete the work quickly. It seems simple, but our competitors still can’t manage that, and it’s a huge advantage for us. That formula is the same at 250K a year in revenue and 10M in revenue. The number one thing I see that destroys companies is that they forget they must please the people who pay them.
In 2021, we acquired a competitor seeking to retire and wind down the business, and with their assets came a state contract that allowed us to access the spending of every taxpayer-funded entity in Texas. We grew into security and acquired a license to perform security, CCTV, and access control work, which made us capable of working on far more breadth of projects. In 2022, we began pioneering smart building technologies, IoT (Internet of Things), which will be transformative for those who manage and own commercial property. From leaks, air quality, energy usage, and parking management to office utilization, vehicle monitoring, and total facilities observability, we developed a way to provide a single pane of glass to see and manage it all.
From humble beginnings on the earliest acoustic coupler modems to the Internet of Things, I’ve always focused on technology’s future and how people use technology to improve their lives.
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?
While entrepreneurs with ideas are bountiful, the mechanics of running a real company that is bootstrapped and not VC-backed is real work. Cashflow is king and no one tells you this. Nowhere in my educational background is there even a paragraph on SBA funding, what a line of credit is, and who Dunn and Bradstreet are. The obstacles I immediately found were that absolutely nothing in how we teach children prepares them to do anything other than be a worker bee. I had to learn everything through the violence of the world that doesn’t care about my hopes or dreams.
Nothing prepared me for the learning curve of managing people within a small business. The weight of responsibility of the wave after 2-week wave of payroll is immense. Nothing prepared me for being audited by the State of Texas for Sales Tax. The entity that will chew up your time with no consideration for you at all offers zero training to understand or be compliant with their punitive rules.
To be honest, competition has never been a challenge or obstacle in our work. Our competitors are the weakest issue in the litany of things we contend with. If our competitors were having difficult managing open enrollment, we would have a problem on our hands.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Our business focuses on audiovisual systems for commercial customers in the public and private sectors. In layman’s terms, we set up professional Zoom and Teams rooms for public agencies and private companies. Video walls, music systems, and all that neat stuff we do, too, but mostly, it’s conference rooms. It’s a niche, and we’re very good at it. What we do better than anyone else is we own the customer’s whole experience. No one comes close. Our customers feel the love, and when we engage, they eat it up. EXCEPT the customers that just want it fast and cheap. We try to lose those fast. We spot the people who don’t value that work and drop them so we can move on to those who are going to align with our values. Our brand is known for being smart, custom, responsive, and sharp. Were never going to be the low bid. We dont respond to cattle calls. We are a top-tier, privately owned AV, Security, and Smart Building company for those who want quality and experience.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Tenacity and resilience have been key in my trajectory. If there is something to get done, I go after it like its my job. If I fall down, I get back up. That has been so important for not just starting a company, but growing it and keeping it alive and thriving.
Pricing:
- Our average projects are between 50K and 250k
Contact Info:
- Website: https://felixmediasolutions.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lionelfelix/
