THE CAPE FEAR REGION’S DRAW FOR BUSINESS OWNERS IS OBVIOUS — sandy beaches, a lively riverfront, a temperate climate and affordable housing.

What isn’t immediately apparent is the region’s business advantages, including an educated workforce, an engaged university and community college, and a welcoming community of experienced business people from a range of places, backgrounds and industries.

Below are the stories of three business owners who moved existing companies into the Cape Fear region.

Mojotone

Michael McWhorter (right), CEO of Mojotone, likes to say his company is “North Carolina born and bred.”

Yet Mojo, which builds and sells amplifiers, guitar pickups and vintage music supply parts, didn’t stay in one part of the state. The company was born in Winston-Salem in 2000, but McWhorter and his business partner decided to move it closer to the coast in 2005.

In choosing a new location, they wanted to find a place that allowed them to achieve their goals and vision for the future, both professionally and personally.

“We were drawn to coastal North Carolina for the lifestyle,” said McWhorter, who relocated the business to Burgaw in rural Pender County.

He added that the community’s passion for the arts and proximity to a major university were also deciding factors. “We knew the talent pool coming out of UNCW would be critical to the continued growth of our business. Burgaw simply met all the criteria we knew would be essential for a successful relocation.”

Mojo’s production facility includes a unique amp room, the scene of numerous brainstorming sessions and guitar battles. It’s a place where rows of amplifiers — some built by Mojo, some not — line the walls, waiting to be tested.

In addition to the numbers and the black-and-white realities that guide many business decisions, McWhorter has found some of Burgaw’s more intangible qualities to have a stronger resonance.

“The overwhelming support of the town has become the proverbial ‘cherry on top’ to what was initially just a good business decision,” he said. “Burgaw has become our home and the people have become our family. This is the prevailing reason why we chose to continue growing our business here, as we expand to a new location to accommodate for growth.”

During the past 12 years, Mojo has grown significantly. Mojo had a staff of less than 10 when it relocated and projects having a staff of more than 55 employees by the end of the year.

Mojo is currently remodeling a 40,000 square foot facility, which it hopes to move into in the summer of 2017.
“We look forward to another ten years of mutual growth and contribution to the town that has been such a vital part of our success,” McWhorter said.

Queensboro.com

Fred Meyers (above) started The Queensboro Shirt Company (now Queensboro.com) as a college student in New York City the late 1970s, and dedicated himself to it full time after earning his MBA in 1983.

Queensboro made history back then as the first company ever to offer custom logo shirts, hats, bags and other apparel to anyone with their own logo. Coming of age in the era of the Lacoste “alligator” shirt, Meyers thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if a person was able to get that same great quality shirt with whatever logo or design he or she wanted on it?”

In 1995, as the textile industry in the South was breathing its last breath, Meyers decided to move to the region to “escape from New York” and get closer to his suppliers.

Savannah and Charleston were on the short list, but Wilmington had it all.

“Savannah has a great riverfront and Charleston has some decent beaches, but the first time I drove into Wilmington it just felt right. Wilmington is just so much more manageable as a place to live, work and raise a family, all at the same time,” said Meyers, who raised five children in the area.

Meyers has seen a significant increase in the level of talent and sophistication of the workforce in the region.

“When we first came here in 1995, it was pretty tough to find any local technology or marketing expertise,” said Meyers, who built his first website soon after moving to Wilmington and has been exclusively marketing his products online for the past 20 years. “In that regard, things in Wilmington have really changed. The growing sophistication and quality of the workforce in Wilmington over the past 20 years is a big part of why our business has grown by almost 400 percent since moving to Wilmington in 1995.”

The company has grown from 25 to more than 125 employees.

“Part of my personal challenge has been evolving from the mindset of a reactive innovator and entrepreneur to that of a proactive manager and leader,” added Meyers. “This is how Wilmington has impacted me as a business owner. Between the University, the beach culture, the historic downtown arts community and the film industry, we have lots of ideas bumping into each other here. The “secret sauce” of Wilmington, though, is the overall environment really gives us the time and space to think and reflect on all of it. This is why Wilmington is such a great place to run a business, and why it has such great potential as a creative business center.”

Queensboro now offers a full array of apparel and promotional products, from t-shirts, polos and backpacks, to coffee mugs, sunglasses and golf accessories.

The company’s more than 100,000 square foot, six-building complex, which is located in a former necktie factory off Marstellar Street in the quickly evolving warehouse district, is a vast open office environment with numerous ways for employees to connect, including a ping-pong table, corn hole boards and an indoor basketball hoop.

There’s also an employee trivia game designed to help the staff get to know each other.

Meyers’ future plans include adding a full-size coffee shop at the facility that will be open to the public.
“We aren’t trying to replace Port City Java or anything like that,” he noted. “The goal is just to give our employees a place to socialize and relax, where they can collaborate and share ideas about new ways to solve problems, innovate and move the company forward while mixing with the community a little more.”

CastleBranch

Brett Martin (right) launched his background screening company in Chapel Hill in 1997, but five years later he decided to move it to Wilmington. Thirty-two of his company’s 35 employees moved with him.

Today, the company, CastleBranch, has nearly 400 employees in two modern office buildings near Mayfaire, along with a 20,000 square-foot business incubator and accelerator called tek- Mountain on the top floor of their most recent building.

“Technology enables us to conduct business from anywhere, and Wilmington was an easy choice for us,” Martin said. “It’s proven to still be a perfect fit 20 years later. Our families have grown up here, our business continues to thrive, and we’re proud to call Southeastern North Carolina our home.”

A key to CastleBranch’s success was the talent coming out of UNC-Wilmington and other schools in the region and state.

“With 57 percent of the CastleBranch workforce coming from the UNC system, the results are undeniable,” Martin said.

The Cape Fear region, he added, has created an economic engine with the partnerships between businesses and higher education.

“Great universities, community colleges and innovative business partners create their own shared destinies,” Martin noted. “Developing the talent pipeline is a responsibility. It requires meaningful university, community college and business partnerships to shape the workforce of tomorrow and create pathways to professional success and stability.”

Recognizing the importance of innovation, and realizing his business would continue to have a need to find and retain top tech talent, Martin launched tekMountain in 2014.

“Everything here was designed to foster collaboration and the sharing of ideas,” said Sean Ahlum, tekMountain’s director of business development.

The facility provides small businesses and budding entrepreneurs with a turnkey office environment and a variety of support services.

“We traveled around the country and toured the most innovative business incubators that we could find to get ideas,” Ahlum said, pointing out the large conference room on the first floor and the office game room, which is filled with ping pong tables, Skee ball arcade games, corn hole, surfboards and bean bag chairs for napping.
“Every now and then we take a field trip to the beach to give people a chance to learn to surf. A lot of us are avid surfers,” he says, opening the door to the on-site brewery, the site of a weekly happy hour.

“Lots of business incubators have kegerators. We brew our own,” Ahlum joked. “Brett really challenged us to think outside the box with this.”

Moving upstairs, Ahlum noted the co-working space and the different types of offices that are available, along with the conference rooms, “phone booths” and large open spaces, which offer comfortable chairs, movable walls and flexible seating arrangements. The facility is filled with natural light as a result of the high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

Most of the walls are glass and many of the executive offices have roll-up garage doors with glass insets. “This is our take on the open-door policy,” Ahlum explains. He points out that it’s a key advantage for entrepreneurs and business owners who work at tekMountain – having access to mentorship and advisory services from the leadership team at CastleBranch.

“The opportunity to bounce ideas off fellow business owners, gain feedback from mentors and then modify a product or service is positively impactful in numerous ways,” notes Ahlum. “Entrepreneurship and new businesses are the lubricant that drives the economy forward, which is why we’ve worked so hard to make this a place where anyone would love to be. It’s not just about sharing ideas or recruiting top talent, it’s also about making sure the top people want to stay once they’re here.”

- Fritts Causby