Evolution of an Enterprise, Chapter 19: Network of Friends

Seven years ago, Drury University architecture students Josh Harrold, Michael Mardis and Jason Mitchell found friendship in Greece during a study-abroad trip.

After graduating, the friends moved on to pursue their own careers, taking Mitchell and Mardis out of state. When Harrold heard last year that Mitchell and Mardis had returned to Springfield to open a design studio, he invited them to meet his bosses, Brandon Dake and Andrew Wells of downtown firm Dake-Wells Architecture Inc.

“Springfield needs young talent like them,” Harrold said of Mitchell and Mardis. Harrold and his wife, Emily, both work as architectural interns at Dake-Wells.

Now, Mitchell and Mardis, owners of theworkshop 308 LLC, have a professional friendship with Dake and Wells, built on what Wells said is mutual admiration.

“We talk the same language,” Wells said. “A lot of our aesthetic positions are very similar – we’re both very much into contemporary architecture and design, we both read a lot and travel a lot, (and) we’re all influenced by things that are going on on the coasts.”

The four businessmen meet on a casual basis every few weeks, sometimes at Dake-Wells’ 401 W. Walnut St. office and sometimes at theworkshop’s 308 W. Commercial St. office.

Mitchell and Mardis often pick the brains of Dake and Wells, both of whom are licensed architects and are at least five years older.

“It’s a mentorship,” Mardis said. “They have a lot of experience, and they’re people who we look up to.”

Mentorships are vitally important for young business people, said Bill Owen, 25-year Springfield banking veteran and president of Greater Ozarks International Trade Association. He’s been on both sides of the relationship.

“Why go and make some mistakes – some that can be costly mistakes, and, if it’s a new business just starting out, deadly mistakes – when you can have someone who can kind of lead you, direct you (and) visit with you about the ropes?” Owen said. “It can save a lot of time. It can save a lot of energy. It can save a lot of money.”

Mitchell and Mardis don’t have other mentors, but they have received valuable advice from several people, including their banker, Michael Garner of UMB Bank; their accountant, Matt Battaglia; their attorney, Don Duncan of Turner, Reid, Duncan, Loomer & Patton PC; Web site designer Ben Moran; and woodworker Al Tipton, Mardis said.

Dake and Wells, who started their firm in 2004 after breaking away from Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc., also bounce ideas off Mitchell and Mardis, who will likely build an 8-foot conference table for Dake-Wells’ renovated office before an August grand reopening.

The four men talk about collaborating on an architectural project one day. It could have happened sooner than later, but a design for an automatic car wash in Springfield for a Kansas City couple was shelved by its owners.

“We’ve chased a project or two, but nothing has really come to fruition yet,” Wells said. “But I think that will come.”[[In-content Ad]]