What do you see on the future, both in terms of the, the business itself and, and for you personally? What I have found historically when it comes to our core business, which is printing paper, right?  Is that when one door shuts, another one seems to open.

Hey everyone, my name is Sean Sitters. I'm the CEO and founder of Mallard Agency and welcome to the first episode of Founders in Flight. I'm so excited for you to meet Don k Clampett today. Not only is he a. Staple in the Dallas business community, but honestly, he's just a really great guy I think you're going to learn a few things from our conversation today.

The first thing is how to delight your customers Also, how do you actually create a business that carries on a meaningful legacy? And then three how do you actually face those challenges and actually sustain through them as an entrepreneur? Stay tuned and enjoy the episode. Well, Don, thank you so much for taking the time to be on our podcast.

It means a lot to me and, um, obviously respect you so, so much. We'd love for you to just introduce yourself. Uh, tell us a little bit about clamp at paper. Um, and you've been around for. Is it 84, 85 years? Almost 84 years. Wow. So impressive. Um, tell us the story of, uh, I guess your story and also your family's story.

Cause I'm guessing you haven't been in business yourself for 84 years. I moisture, right?  I love it.  Uh,  no. So. I guess the story kind of begins with my mother and father. Uh, my dad worked for a couple of different paper companies around Dallas  and finally a couple of his customers said, Max, we think you could do this better on your own.

And so they said, if you start your own company, you know, we'll find a way to buy paper from you. So. He borrowed 50, 000 from a local investor here because there weren't private equity back in 1941. And 50, 000 from Republic National Bank.  And, um, I still actually have the check, you know, as they paid back the loan, my mother would write into this ledger.

So cool. That's so on brand for you.  Totally. So, um,  you know, as They went along the silent partner the who he got the some of the fit the first 50, 000 from There was a 10 year buy sell agreement. So the company had been in 10 years. There was a they had opened up in Houston, and they'd opened up I believe in Fort Worth and  The my mother  got a call from a friend who had been  Reading the wall street journal  and she, my mom's name was Mary Nell and the lady said, Mary Nell, I'm reading the, this paper.

And there's an ad in here for a business for sale that sounds like a whole lot like clamped paper.  And so she, you know, they didn't have cell phones, right? So they had to, the lady drives over, gives mom the newspaper. My mom calls my father at the offices, Max, you need to. Come see this. So he drives home,  gets the newspaper, and sure enough,  his sound partner, he tried just trying to sell his share of the company out from underneath my father.

Oh my goodness. And so  Not knowing all the details behind it.  Now I'm going to fast forward. I had to give a speech to the Dallas Historical Society about the Clampett Paper Company history.  Well, I realized the last 40 something years, 46, 47, I'm pretty good with the first 40, a little, a little shy. So I got my dad's secretary and,  and then I went to my dad's right hand guy named George Nellian.

George is very hard of hearing, but still very together, you know, very aware. And I said, George, you remember when this happened, what was it like for the employees in Clampett who'd been there 10 years and work with my dad? And how many employees was it at that time? I think they had maybe in Dallas, probably  15 to 15.

And he says, your dad called us in the lunchroom  and he said, look, I'm in a lawsuit with the partner.  And he goes, Yeah. I'm prepared to take the company into bankruptcy and start over in Fort Worth under another name. Wow.  And I kind of like sharing that story because I think it really,  it kind of  speaks to the resilience  that the company has had over the years through difference.