David began his entrepreneurial endeavors at age 16 by starting a landscape and maintenance company. He grew the business to over 300 residential homes and 17 commercial properties. At age 19, David sold his first company for over six figures.
After selling his business, David moved into the Bar & Restaurant industry creating several nightclubs throughout Texas.
At age 24, he divested his interests in the bars and nightclubs to pursue his passion for food by becoming an executive chef at Bellini & Thompson’s. At age 27, David created his own restaurant, Nolan’s Fine Dining. As the popularity of Nolan’s Fine Dining grew, executives of chain restaurants approached David to help innovate and create new recipes.
David quickly recognized in order to be innovative in the food service industry, manufacturers had to be more flexible in their processes in order to create and innovate new products. The lack of support and custom machinery from the food manufactures, which supplied the top 100 restaurant chains, lead David to open a custom food manufacturing plant.
At age 36, David moved the love of his life, his beautiful wife DeLinda, and his children to San Antonio, TX to open Hill Country Bakery.
Knowing his vision wouldn’t be supported by current production equipment on the market, David created an on-site fabrication facility that specializes in custom production equipment to equip all of his production lines. This facility has allowed Hill Country Bakery the ability to continue to personalize and innovate products for the top 100 restaurant chains, Fortune 500 companies, and the United States Military.
By the time David was 44, he expanded Hill Country Bakery from a 12,000 square foot manufacturing facility with only two rack ovens to a 350,000 square foot food manufacturing facility with 4 fully automated production lines. Today Hill Country Bakery has over 800 employees and generates over 100+ million in annual revenue and continues to grow.
In 2014, David recognized another emerging trend that gave him an opportunity to innovate. Convenience stores around the country began to remodel and add premium coffees to their everyday beverage offerings. With the increasing demand for superior coffee for c-store shoppers, David created the Coffee House Café brand as a premium line of baked goods to meet the demand of the c-store shoppers. McKee Foods will provide the distribution vehicle for Hill Country Bakery’s new line of Coffee House Café. McKee Foods has said about Coffee House Café “It will be an instantly recognizable national brand that will provide premium baked goods to pair with premium coffees.”
In 2012, David developed Nutridurance, a nutrition line for elite athletes. After a year of researching, David and his marketing team discovered obstacle course racing was the fastest growing sport in the US. David decided to develop the Alpha Warrior obstacle course challenge as a vehicle to promote the Nutridurance brand. David’s entrepreneurial spirit, track record of building strong teams, proven ability to see emerging trends, and innovate industries has led to decades of success. This success will continue to serve Alpha Warrior.