We recently connected with Dave & Jenn Pfahlert and have shared our conversation below.

Dave & Jenn , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

In a nutshell – we went from running a business for our own gain to getting to a point in our lives where we recognized the need and desire to pivot to taking more of a service role to empower others. David grew up with a lot of creative and entrepreneurial influences at home and in the community, so it wasn’t a surprise that got his start spending all-nighters at his dad’s graphic design company printing designs, starting and playing in bands, faking his age so that he could work as a stage-hand for national concert tours and eventually going on to opening his own music studio. His early background in music and live event production naturally led him to transitioning into video production as well as becoming a pioneer in early streaming technology platforms and. At first he was mostly interested in expanding into a new creative skill and his interest in artistic cinematography got his feet wet. But just like with music, the deeper David got into video production he developed a deep need to learn everything from the ground-level of technical theory and skill-set all the way to how to turn it into a business. So, from Hollywood sets to building production studios and starting his own production company he turned a creative vehicle into a full-fledged career. From running a start-up production house he expanded into the world of streaming technology & marketing and it wasn’t long before he was getting hired to consult for a number of companies around Vegas and California and talking to rooms full of people at conventions all over the country.
It seemed like David was living a life without limits and considering all the recognition and accolades he had accumulated, anyone would think that he was living an enviable life. But this is when David started to pivot. As a new dad he wanted to settle down for a bit and slow down the pace, so he took a break from the production world and started a non-profit pitbull rescue in California. He was happily and successfully running the rescue, pouring his heart into saving dogs from perilous situations, running successful fundraisers and educational events, and establishing a network with other rescues in the area. He was doing something that was more heart-driven than profit-driven, and it was growing a side of him that he hadn’t been tapping into before.
Sadly, a dramatic turn of events forced him to have to shut his rescue down and move back home to Seattle to his family support system. One moment he was scooping kibble, the next moment he was waking up in a hospital with a pacemaker pumping his heart. He had been told by a doctor a few years back that he had heart issues that he should keep an eye on, but all those years of living fast and hard finally caught up to him, and he had collapsed to the floor without warning. Luckily his roommate had come home for lunch and found him lying on the ground and was able to call an ambulance and get him to a hospital where he was immediately taken in to surgery, but there was no way around it, David needed time to recover and regain his health, so he shut down the rescue and moved to Seattle to be close to his mom.
While he was getting back on his feet in Seattle, he continued to take on sales and marketing consultant roles with a focus on creating video content. It was during this time that he met Jenn, and after a whirlwind romance, they eloped and got married! It was at this time that David restarted his video production agency, Silent Stream Media, but with more of a focus on servicing local small businesses. Jenn came from a strong background in community service and project development and leveraging social media for outreach and awareness. Combined, they started to build a client base in Seattle, but then 2020 happened and the whole world went on pause. As with many service-based businesses they pivoted and tried to adapt, but the many prohibitions in place limited the scope of their work. By the end of 2020 Dave & Jenn knew they needed to make a drastic change and with 1 trip to Fort Worth they knew this had to be their fresh start! Within 4 weeks they sold nearly everything they had and packed up their lives in a moving pod and their 2 cars and drove through blizzard storm, canyons and open plains to get to freedom & opportunity in Texas.
When they first arrived they re-opened Silent Stream Media and as their first big gig helped produce the “Ms. Opal Lee Juneteenth Walk” broadcast through the Ms. Opal Lee organization and Fox Soul. While they were establishing their video production agency business in Fort Worth, Dave & Jenn knew that Fort Worth was a huge market for opportunity and they kept their radar on. One thing they knew they wanted, for sure, was to open their own studio/production house. Before the pandemic Dave & Jenn had been helping build a studio for a partner but as the world stopped in 2020, they recognized that with the accessibility of high-tech becoming more accessible and mobile, and the huge push in local entrepreneurship, there was going to be a growing need for coaching & learning these entry-level creators and business people.
Towards the end of 2021 Dave saw an interesting historic building become available not far from downtown Fort Worth and immediately contacted the developer to request a viewing. As soon as Dave and Jenn drove up to the building at 2726 Lipscomb St they knew they had stumbled on something magical! There was “Stroop Drug Store” & “Pangburn’s Chocolate” painted signage peeking through the faded brick. As a Fort Worth entrepreneur in the early 1900’s, this was Hugh T. Pangburn’s last chocolate factory and pharmacy location. Pangburn established several enterprises around Fort Worth including many community initiatives and as we walked the building Dave and Jenn could suddenly see their own initial ideas of a content studio turning into something much bigger and more valuable than that. Instead of another conventional studio house they could see the possibilities for this to be a resource center for creators and entrepreneurs as well as a community hub for local residents, and that’s how LaunchBox Collective was born!
LaunchBox Collective aims to be a 1 stop-shop for any start-up creative and small business owner where we provide the environment, production studios, equipment and resources as well as physical rent-by-the-day suites to help launch your ideas, products and brand! Our mission is to be a hub that stimulates and empowers everything and everyone local. Whether you are a local business owner or a resident you can feel free to walk right up and discover a local resource that benefits and enriches you. We always tell everyone “You should be able to visit LaunchBox Collective on any given day and find something or someone that ignites creativity in you, empowers you to make a change no matter how small, and find the right people to help push your business and community forward”. With a mission and vision like this, how can we not succeed!

Dave & Jenn , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In a nutshell – we went from running a business for our own gain to getting to a point in our lives where we recognized the need and desire to pivot to taking more of a service role to empower others. David grew up with a lot of creative and entrepreneurial influences at home and in the community, so it wasn’t a surprise that got his start spending all-nighters at his dad’s graphic design company printing designs, starting and playing in bands, faking his age so that he could work as a stage-hand for national concert tours and eventually going on to opening his own music studio. His early background in music and live event production naturally led him to transitioning into video production as well as becoming a pioneer in early streaming technology platforms and. At first he was mostly interested in expanding into a new creative skill and his interest in artistic cinematography got his feet wet. But just like with music, the deeper David got into video production he developed a deep need to learn everything from the ground-level of technical theory and skill-set all the way to how to turn it into a business. So, from Hollywood sets to building production studios and starting his own production company he turned a creative vehicle into a full-fledged career. From running a start-up production house he expanded into the world of streaming technology & marketing and it wasn’t long before he was getting hired to consult for a number of companies around Vegas and California and talking to rooms full of people at conventions all over the country.
It seemed like David was living a life without limits and considering all the recognition and accolades he had accumulated, anyone would think that he was living an enviable life. But this is when David started to pivot. As a new dad he wanted to settle down for a bit and slow down the pace, so he took a break from the production world and started a non-profit pitbull rescue in California. He was happily and successfully running the rescue, pouring his heart into saving dogs from perilous situations, running successful fundraisers and educational events, and establishing a network with other rescues in the area. He was doing something that was more heart-driven than profit-driven, and it was growing a side of him that he hadn’t been tapping into before.
Sadly, a dramatic turn of events forced him to have to shut his rescue down and move back home to Seattle to his family support system. One moment he was scooping kibble, the next moment he was waking up in a hospital with a pacemaker pumping his heart. He had been told by a doctor a few years back that he had heart issues that he should keep an eye on, but all those years of living fast and hard finally caught up to him, and he had collapsed to the floor without warning. Luckily his roommate had come home for lunch and found him lying on the ground and was able to call an ambulance and get him to a hospital where he was immediately taken in to surgery, but there was no way around it, David needed time to recover and regain his health, so he shut down the rescue and moved to Seattle to be close to his mom.
While he was getting back on his feet in Seattle, he continued to take on sales and marketing consultant roles with a focus on creating video content. It was during this time that he met Jenn, and after a whirlwind romance, they eloped and got married! It was at this time that David restarted his video production agency, Silent Stream Media, but with more of a focus on servicing local small businesses. Jenn came from a strong background in community service and project development and leveraging social media for outreach and awareness. Combined, they started to build a client base in Seattle, but then 2020 happened and the whole world went on pause. As with many service-based businesses they pivoted and tried to adapt, but the many prohibitions in place limited the scope of their work. By the end of 2020 Dave & Jenn knew they needed to make a drastic change and with 1 trip to Fort Worth they knew this had to be their fresh start! Within 4 weeks they sold nearly everything they had and packed up their lives in a moving pod and their 2 cars and drove through blizzard storm, canyons and open plains to get to freedom & opportunity in Texas.
When they first arrived they re-opened Silent Stream Media and as their first big gig helped produce the “Ms. Opal Lee Juneteenth Walk” broadcast through the Ms. Opal Lee organization and Fox Soul. While they were establishing their video production agency business in Fort Worth, Dave & Jenn knew that Fort Worth was a huge market for opportunity and they kept their radar on. One thing they knew they wanted, for sure, was to open their own studio/production house. Before the pandemic Dave & Jenn had been helping build a studio for a partner but as the world stopped in 2020, they recognized that with the accessibility of high-tech becoming more accessible and mobile, and the huge push in local entrepreneurship, there was going to be a growing need for coaching & learning these entry-level creators and business people.
Towards the end of 2021 Dave saw an interesting historic building become available not far from downtown Fort Worth and immediately contacted the developer to request a viewing. As soon as Dave and Jenn drove up to the building at 2726 Lipscomb St they knew they had stumbled on something magical! There was “Stroop Drug Store” & “Pangburn’s Chocolate” painted signage peeking through the faded brick. As a Fort Worth entrepreneur in the early 1900’s, this was Hugh T. Pangburn’s last chocolate factory and pharmacy location. Pangburn established several enterprises around Fort Worth including many community initiatives and as we walked the building Dave and Jenn could suddenly see their own initial ideas of a content studio turning into something much bigger and more valuable than that. Instead of another conventional studio house they could see the possibilities for this to be a resource center for creators and entrepreneurs as well as a community hub for local residents, and that’s how LaunchBox Collective was born!
LaunchBox Collective aims to be a 1 stop-shop for any start-up creative and small business owner where we provide the environment, production studios, equipment and resources as well as physical rent-by-the-day suites to help launch your ideas, products and brand! Our mission is to be a hub that stimulates and empowers everything and everyone local. Whether you are a local business owner or a resident you can feel free to walk right up and discover a local resource that benefits and enriches you. We always tell everyone “You should be able to visit LaunchBox Collective on any given day and find something or someone that ignites creativity in you, empowers you to make a change no matter how small, and find the right people to help push your business and community forward”. With a mission and vision like this, how can we not succeed!

LaunchBox Collective is meant to be a convertible & fluid ecosystem, meaning that all of our spaces can be used and converted for multiple uses and can adapt as the local market and community needs change and grow. Our Flagship Fort Worth location will initially house:
*7 micro-to-medium studio spaces for photography, video creation and podcasting
*All basic video and photography equipment available for members to use. All they need to bring is themselves!
*3 street-front pop-up suites that can be rented daily, monthly or leased on 3-6-12 month terms
*The largest Hollywood-spec immersive soundstage for corporate and industry-standard commercial and film production (floor-to-ceiling U-shaped cyclorama-wall)
*An open-box collaborative space for content creation, daily networking, and/or events
*All basic event needs: tables, chairs, glassware, linen and AVL
*An outdoor boho-inspired atrium/garden
*Built-in livetreaming capability for events, seminars, shows, etc
*Kitchen/cafe for lifestyle content creation or food and beverage prep for events
*Dedicated 50-car parking lot
*In-house support staff to help teach and coach on all things related to production, content creation and business
*Monthly workshops to teach and learn new skills and discuss local industry, market and community topics
*Showcase local brands and products throughout the building to give local makers brand exposure and give local residents and facility members a chance to interact with products
*And more!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Using Jenn’s background in social media & user-generated content (UGC) strategy & community engagement and David’s expertise in marketing, they leveraged their Instagram account @launchbox_fw to start crafting their story and creating an archive of their journey rehab-ing this old historical building into a vehicle for community enrichment. If you can believe it, over the past 2 years they have been able to grow a pretty substantial and loyal follower base who stay plugged into their building progress and engage with daily support and conversations!

But, being from out-of-town and moving right at the end of 2020 with no real network or connection here in Fort Worth, David and Jenn knew that the best way for them to re-build was face-to-face interactions. As they began to design and build LaunchBox at the end of 2021 they moved to Downtown Fort Worth and started going to as many networking and local events as they could where they thought they could meet local influencers, movers and shakers. The key to being successful at these kinds of events is to not be afraid to connect with people who may be different from you or outside your scope. As creators, if you only meet with and talk to other creators you can only get so far. But, if you approach some different people who are in different sectors such as business development, community outreach, finance, government, real estate, etc, you can really broaden your net in terms of who you know and who knows you. AND, Dave & Jenn knew the importance of telling each person about themselves and what they were building with LaunchBox Collective and then asking to be introduced to someone who might be interested in what they are building.

From there they started organizing site-tours with anyone who showed interest as community partners, potential members and vendors. These tours have grown to be a MAJOR backbone for LBC to gain momentum as a brand. As soon as people come and tour the space and hear Dave & Jenn’s explanation of how everything works and their vision for how LBC will support and encourage the Fort Worth community all the dots connect and a light-bulb turns on in every visitor’s brain.

So, with these 3 strategies, Dave & Jenn have been able to build their reputation and gain visibility and it’s rare now for them to go to an event and not be approached by someone who has seen them on social media and greets them as a friend!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When Dave & Jenn first started on this journey of building LaunchBox Collective “from scratch” they initially had a partner who was running an established video production agency and studio space. Working with an industry partner is generally a really great asset since there is a common understanding of market and industry direction and just a technical understanding of what it takes to build a facility like this. Unfortunately, right after Dave & Jenn signed the papers securing the property the partner had to pull out of the partnership due to family health issues. Nevertheless, Dave and Jenn remained optimistic that they could find investors or partners who would see their vision and would jump at the opportunity to be a part of what they were building, and true to their belief they were introduced to an investor who was extremely interested in the concept and claimed to be able to raise the capital to cover the cost of building out the project to the tune of $1.2 million. BUT, on the stipulation that they get 49% of the LBC. It was a difficult offer to turn down, but Dave & Jenn just could not give away such a large share of their vision to someone who was only interested in 1 specific aspect of the concept while wanting the profit of the entire machine. For over 6 months Dave & Jenn presented pitch after pitch to other potential investors, but all these people with suits couldn’t quite wrap their mind around what LBC is: Is it coworking? Is it a studio? They just didn’t fit into a normal box. Heck, even their insurance agent complained “Why do you guys have to make my job so hard? I can’t just neatly put you into one box!!”
It’s now been almost 1.5 years since Dave & Jenn started this project and still no investors. As Dave often says “I guess God just wants us to do it ourselves on nothing but sheer perseverance and faith alone”. While there have been several hiccups and delays along the way Dave & Jenn have somehow been able to make ends meet and keep the project going. Now with only 4-6 weeks left before opening and still $95,000 to raise, they are still running on hope, prayer and community that it will all work out!

Contact Info:

• Website: launchboxcollective.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/launchbox_fw
• Facebook: @launchbox
• Yelp: yelp.com/biz/launchbox-collective-fort-worth