Small Business Success Story – Chad Mureta (App Empire)

Chad Mureta ran a real estate business when the impossible happened: A devastating car accident has caused to be delivered to the hospital, nearly taking out his arm. His business could not continue without him being physically present, but Mureta’s mounting medical bills meant he had to find an alternative source of income.

After reading a magazine article about mobile apps during his hospitalization, Mureta decided to try his hand at producing mobile applications. At the time, the industry was relatively new, but he felt the growth potential was worth the risk he would say.

“Lying in my hospital bed, I decided to take a Hail Mary shot and get into this industry.” Mureta said. “I needed a new business and decided to jump in with both feet.” Immediately, he started sketching out ideas for his own apps on pieces of paper. Soon after, he found a development company and outsourced all his work to create his first app.

Mureta took out a loan for $1800 to produce his first app. Fingerprint security – Pro. It soon became one of the 50 most popular apps in the App Store, earning him $140,000 in the process. From there, Mureta founded and sold three app companies – Empire Apps, Best Apps, and T3 Apps and now is currently running a blog called App Empire. He has produced 46 apps to date, and authored “App Empire: Make Money, have a Life and Let Technology Work for You”

Mureta advised other entrepreneurs to not be intimidated by their lack of experience in an industry if they see an opportunity. With a thirst for knowledge and the willingness to find and connect with the right people, anyone can begin to carve out an entrepreneurial path for him or herself, he said.

“I’m still not a tech guy,” Mureta said, “I couldn’t tell you how to program an app, but I can tell you how to make it a success. I researched the market and the consumers, and saw opportunities for people like myself. I kept researching and kept expanding my knowledge to grow my business and income.”

***ARTICLE BASED ON BUSINESSNEWDAILY.COM, WRITTEN BY NICOLE FALLON TAYLOR***

From World Ranked Swimmer to Successful Entrepreneur

We would like to share this story with you because this man shares similar values as we do as our company, and we want to show you how integrity takes each of us a long way in the business world. 

Joseph M. Grant, a world class swimmer in his youth during the early 1960’s had an intensive work ethic. For those of you who do not know who he is, he was someone who became one of the most successful business men during his time of the century for someone who did not have a background business during his youth.

The main point of this blog is to inspire entrepreneurs that anyone from any background can become a successful business person. Although some of the articles written previously became successful in the creative aspect of the business, this man became a successful in the technical side of business. Technical business side is a very challenging feat, as it requires a lot of studying and education in order to become knowledgeable where you can turn that knowledge into business. This man was able to achieve that with hard work and dedication.

In the early 1970’s Grant credits the discipline that he used in his intense training as the foundation for his later successes. He also firmly believes that his unwavering ethical compass has allowed him to start a commercial banking empire with the most well-funded startup of any such bank in history. This same moral compass brought him to the brink of financial disaster in his personal life.

During the early 1980’s, Grant achieved his life’s goal when he appointed CEO and chairman of Texas American Bancshares, a prominent Texas banking company. He has spent his entire career preparing himself for this opportunity and had plans to take the bank to even higher levels of prosperity. When the outgoing chairman announced his successor, he also announced the first quarterly loss in the company’s 113-year history. Unfortunately for Grant, things did not get better. The bank’s assets were firmly concentrated in the oil industry in the southwestern U.S and world oil market fluctuations were wreaking havoc.

He faced anger form customers and investors. He also had to deal with the suicide of one of his senior officers. The stress and negative outlook were overwhelming in intensity. Grant had been a good corporate citizen and had invested heavily of his personal wealth in the bank. As the bank’s fortunes dwindled, so did his own. There were many opportunities to simple pack up his office, sell off his holdings, take his dished wealth and move on. He was encouraged to do so by members of his family and his friends. His essential decency would not allow him to do this. However, he saw himself as the captain of the ship and felt he was obligated to go down with it. He saw the bank seized by federal banking officials. Ultimately, the holding company entered bankruptcy and was sold. Only then, did he allow himself to move on. He lost everything.

Grant moved on. He became the CFO (chief financial officer) of Electronic Data Systems Corp. in 1990 and saw that company through a difficult spin off from General Motors Corp. later that same decade. He retired from Electronic Data Systems Corp and surprisingly, despite the trauma he had suffered with Texas American Bancshares, he moved back into the banking industry. He founded Texas Capital Bancshares and ended up with $80 million from his startup.

The purpose of this story is to understand that Grant firmly believes that his reputation for strict integrity and his willingness to lay everything on the line by refusing to bend the rules was the reason he was able to successfully raise the money for the new bank. To put it simply, people trusted him and trusted that he would always do the right thing.