Today we’d like to introduce you to Judith DeMasters.
Hi Judith, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Dustin and I met back in architecture school. After graduating he worked in construction management and I focused on design and worked as an estimator. We were very fortunate to be given the opportunity to design a couple of projects together. More and more projects came, and eventually, we were being asked to handle the construction and furnishings as well. It was a slow and steady transition, but we reached a point where we had a project backlog with bigger projects and larger scopes of work, that we took the leap and decided to focus all our efforts on growing our design+build business.
Today we have won 3 design awards and are tackling a big personal goal of designing and building 5 spec homes per year; we offer full design services and construction… and we top it all with 2 kids and a pup!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
NO! Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart haha. There has been a lot of learning, a lot of work put into building relationships with our clients and trades… a lot of late nights, let’s just say! Dustin and I are very confident as creatives and builders, but we had never owned and managed a business before. The early years presented a lot of challenges in that aspect.
Construction is a difficult trade in general; the furniture and material industries are currently going through unprecedented times with the supply issues, and personal relationships are complicated by nature. Every project is different in scope and in which challenges come with it. If you think about it, we are practically married to our clients and teams for the duration of a project, and there are a lot of moving parts and personalities involved.
We have built a strong process to navigate and control our operations, but we have a mentality of growth: every experience gives us room to learn and we welcome the growth. We are often adapting and tweaking our processes in an effort to make the experience as enjoyable and pleasing as we can for our clients.
In a more personal level, one of the biggest challenges we’ve experienced has been juggling parenthood and entrepreneurship. It’s hard to be so in love with your children, and at the same time so passionate about your work. We are definitively not the poster child for work-life balance, but something we for sure face on an everyday basis.
As you know, we’re big fans of UP&Co.. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
When we started our firm we chose the name Up & Coming, in refference to an “up and coming” team, a building that during construction is “up and coming”, San Antonio that was (and continues) to grow as an “up and coming” hot spot… A couple of years ago we considered changing the name -since we were not “up and coming” anymore (I wish you could see my “ugh” face as a type this) and in good time we came back to our senses and didn’t do it! We don’t ever want to lose vision that we can always do better, we can always strive for more.
We currently offer architectural and interior design services for all types and scales of projects. We mostly do construction for projects we have designed, but we are open to explore other options too! In conjunction to the work we do with our clients, we started designing, building and selling spec homes, our goal is to continue with 5 homes every year.
We believe that having one single point of contact from design, to construction, to styling, eases the experience for our clients. Together with that, we strongly care about building and nurturing relationships to last, and about creating and building spaces our clients are proud of, comfortable and happy to inhabit in the long run.
What matters most to you?
The personal relationships and the experience. It is very important for us to never lose our humanity for business. We are very aware that clients entrust us with their most valuable asset: their home or their business. Either home or business, it is the space where they live, where they create, where they build memories, and the materialization of their hard work, effort and dreams. The design and construction process is also time consuming, so it also weighs on us that they chose to share this dream with us as well as their time.
It matters to us to build relationships of trust and respect. It matters to us to design and create spaces that matter and that make a difference.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.dmupandcoming.com
- Instagram: @up_and_co
- Facebook: @UpandCo1
Image Credits
Paola Longoria Photography
Rick Garza
Bright and Early Productions
Arturo Vilchis
