Today marks our 200th episode of The Harvest Growth Podcast, and what a journey it’s been! From the first episode, we’ve celebrated everyday people solving big problems through entrepreneurship and shared stories of resilience, innovation, and grit. Today is no different. Our guest, Mark McNally, is a Co-founder of Filters Direct USA, a company revolutionizing the air filter industry with eco-friendly, customizable solutions.
From starting with a simple pizza box prototype to transforming his idea into a thriving air filter company manufacturing all its products in the U.S., Mark’s story exemplifies the power of local manufacturing, innovation, sustainable practices, and family values. In this episode, he shares the ups and downs of launching Filters Direct USA, how his family became a source of strength and innovation through it all, and the creative ways he introduced his family to entrepreneurship.
If you’re looking for a story of grit, sustainability, and practical business advice on bootstrapping and manufacturing, this episode is for you. Tune in now!
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
How to overcome manufacturing challenges and transition to local production
Creative ways to involve family in entrepreneurship
Bootstrapping your business and growing it without debt
And so much more!
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Protect your family’s health with premium, eco-friendly filters delivered right to your door. Visit www.filtersdirectusa.com today and use coupon code HARVESTGROWTH50 for 50% off your first order.
To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands that now total over $2 billion in revenues? Set up a free consultation with us today!
Prefer reading instead of listening? Read the full transcript here!
Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
Today's guest bought his first company for over a million dollars while he was living paycheck to paycheck. And then he started and built his second company from scratch to several million dollars in revenue. This journey began when he moved to the US From Ireland with two suitcase and his wife and young child. It's a really inspirational story that's sure to help inspire you with new ways to grow your own business.
Jon LaClare [00:00:48]:
Welcome back to the show. I am so excited to be speaking with Mark McNally.
He's the co-founder of Filters Direct USA. You can find their website at Filters with an S On the end directusa.com - A great line of products, but a really interesting backstory too. So we're going to have some fun on today's conversation. Mark, welcome to the show.
Mark McNally [00:01:05]:
Thanks, Jon. Thanks for having me.
Jon LaClare [00:01:07]:
Let's start off by talking about your background. I think it's so fascinating. So your story, how did you, at a high level end up where you are today? Started your journey, started in Ireland and has taken a lot of meandering turns and now you've ended up where you are. There's my summary. You'll do a much better job. So tell us your story, how you got here.
Mark McNally [00:01:24]:
Yeah. So originally from Belfast in the north of Ireland. Me and my wife are both from there. Grew up there, you know, lived there for about 26 years. And we got married, we had our first chair, we bought a house. We had some decent jobs. But my wife had dual nationality. She had American passport.
Mark McNally [00:01:41]:
She always had that option to come to America. You know, one year we're just sitting at the kitchen table and we're like, you know, let's just try it, you know, let's just go and see if we can figure it out. We had no jobs. Her family lived in Florida, her grandparents. So we knew we had somewhere to stay for a couple of weeks. So we took a little bit of savings out of the house. We, we rented it and we, we hopped on a plane and we literally took, you know, a suitcase each. It was me, my wife Charlene and our youngest, Kristen at the time just packed one suitcase each, going to America.
Mark McNally [00:02:10]:
We landed in Florida. Again, no jobs. We just figured I'd do whatever it takes. I'll work at McDonald's, you know, not that that's a bad job, but I'll just do whatever it takes to get us to where we can stay there. And day two, I got an interview with an air filter company in south Florida. Knew nothing about air conditioning, because in Ireland, we don't even really have it. You know, if you're hot, you open the window. But I started with that company.
Mark McNally [00:02:35]:
Fast forward six months later, my wife wanted to move up to North Carolina. So she came up, checked it out, and I'll never forget the guy I used to work for, Joe Bricchetto, great guy in Florida. He called the owner of an air conditioning company in Raleigh, North Carolina, and said, hey, I've got this Irish kid, great worker, but he's leaving me. He's heading your direction. Do you have any work for him? He said, well, no, not really, but I'll interview him and see what he's like. So again, we packed the suitcases and headed north to North Carolina. And I'll never Forget, we had $500 in our bank. $500 story that I've told before where that's literally what we had.
Mark McNally [00:03:14]:
And I'm going to this interview, and I really needed to get the job again. I had no real experience in air conditioning, but I really wanted this job, and I really needed the job. So we interviewed in a jersey Mike's, of all places, and I got the job. I mean, I don't know why it was just the Irish accent that got me it or what it was, but he saw something in me that he figured he could use at his company. So I started that in 2007, just, you know, basic work. Changing air filters, going out, and doing maintenance on air conditioning units. And the further I got into it, you know, I started figuring out, okay, I got more to offer here. And he saw that, too, so he brought me into the business, and I started doing more of the office duties and managing the business.
Mark McNally [00:03:55]:
I went to night school for air conditioning so I could learn a little bit more about the trade. And in 2019, me and my partner, my business partner, Tim Hobbs, we collectively got together and we purchased that company for over a million dollars, which was crazy to us because, you know, even then, I think I was living paycheck to paycheck. I had $1,000 in my bank account, but yet we're sending contracts for purchasing a company of over a million dollars. But, you know, further on into the COVID years hit us pretty hard. Everyone, I'm sure Struggled too. But what that did was it gave me a chance to slow down and think about our industry and what we're in and what we can do differently and better. And at the time, a lot of people were spending more time at home with COVID People were working from home. They were a lot more in tune with their indoor air quality at the time.
Mark McNally [00:04:48]:
And we had a product that we tried to roll out a year prior. It was an antimicrobial air filter, like a healthier filter for the commercial industry, medical facilities, public schooling systems. Never really thought about it for residential, but I'll never forget it was, you know, middle of COVID We started getting calls from our commercial customers, hey, we need better air filtration. We need to do something better for our staff. And that's kind of when the light bulb went off. And like we need to figure out how to do this for homes because that's the new office. Right. That's where people are spending more of their time, even during the work hours.
Mark McNally [00:05:21]:
So that led us off into a path and had me turn all my inventor mind and figured out a way that we could invent a new product for the homeowner, which is High filters. Direct USA was then born.
Jon LaClare [00:05:35]:
Yeah, Great timing. And a typical overnight success. Right. That took many years to get there, but you've got a lot of it. I'll interject a couple things that you talked about. It's hard work along the way, of course. It's also learning, like going to night school and learning the trade, becoming a true expert in it before you bought the business, then created this new one alongside it. So it's, you know, it's, it's never really that overnight, but it's whatever our listeners field might be in.
Jon LaClare [00:06:03]:
Right. Many of them are probably not H Vac. It could be something totally different, but I think there's good learnings in there to think about how to either start, buy or grow your business. You mentioned how you bought the current business with very little money in the bank and it was a million dollars for the purchase price. How did you accomplish that without getting into. Maybe too many details, but from a high level, how'd you do that?
Mark McNally [00:06:22]:
Yeah, so we, when we were taking over the company, we were already running at the time, so we knew what we were doing. And it was an older ownership, you know, where they can are aging out and wanted to get out of the business. And we said, okay, let's, let's give us a couple of years till we figure out some debts that are involved with the business and then after that we want to purchase it, we want to, we want to buy it from you. Now again, we, you know, you don't buy the company with a thousand dollars in your bank account. So the structure of the deal was that Owner Finance, which, you know, I would encourage a lot of people to not be disheartened by not thinking that business ownership is attainable because there's a lot of older generation out there that are looking to sell and maybe want to do that same structure of an owner finance deal. So that's how we purchased it. We did an owner finance for us.
Jon LaClare [00:07:07]:
I think a lot of people maybe listening don't really. We've probably all heard that, but just at a high level. What does that mean? So with owner Finance, what do you mean when you say that?
Mark McNally [00:07:14]:
Sure. So it's, you know, pretty much it means that the previous owner acts like the bank. So instead of, you know, getting a massive loan for a million dollars from the bank, and you have to pay the bank back over time, the owner of the company, basic finances, saying, hey, you owe me nothing up front, but this is the value of the company and you got to pay me X amount of money per month for the next whatever it is, five, 10 years. So it's kind of like paying off a car loan. You get the car, you don't have to pay the lump sum money up front, but you kind of drip it off, you know, gradually. But yeah, I mean, it, you know, it doesn't come with a lot without a lot of hard work and hustle. I mean, yes, it's easy to look at it now with the companies we've successfully grown. But back in the first five, 10 years, I mean, I was doing night classes, I was DJing on the side to earn some extra money.
Mark McNally [00:08:01]:
It was a real, it was a real hustle. Um, but I've always had that in me. I guess that's why I'm in a position. I am. I'm not afraid of hard work. And it didn't matter if it was one, two or three jobs. I did whatever it took to grow. So.
Jon LaClare [00:08:13]:
And I think that's a good learning for owning a business. And it's, you've got an interesting journey where you bought an existing business but then created your own product after that. Right. But both of those come back to that really, that hard work mentality. Because to be a business owner, it's not easy. Right. As anyone listening certainly knows, it takes a lot of hard work and effort, etc. And you know, it may be working two or three jobs.
Jon LaClare [00:08:36]:
That's kind of like owning a business in some ways. Right. The time and stress and effort that it takes. Yeah. So it's good. Warm up. Good. Learning to see if you've got what it takes to own it.
Jon LaClare [00:08:45]:
And then eventually, I think you and I talked about how now part of your mantra is to take a lot of vacations. Right. Or take longer vacations to when you're not working, spend time with your family, make up, you know, make up for the time that we're at work. And I think that's a great philosophy to have. How has that helped you, your idea of taking vacations. Good, real vacations with your family?
Mark McNally [00:09:04]:
Yeah, it's great. And I credit my wife, Shawdine for that. I mean, she's. You know, we made a pact back in the early days that we would, we would structure our home where she would stay at home and we'd have more kids and she would be the stay at home mom and I would be the person inside there, you know, breadwinner and hustling. And it's worked great. I mean, we have three kids now. My daughter Kristen's just about to turn 21. My son Connor, 15, and my youngest, Alex is 10.
Mark McNally [00:09:26]:
But what my wife always did a great job of was pulling me back into the family and having us glued together again. And that's where vacations really help with that because it's. As a business owner, you know, you know, it's. It's hard to switch off, you know, especially with technology these days. She's got all this access to constantly be on the clock. So that's what she's did a great job of, is pulling me back to normality and gravity and keeping the family healthy and happy.
Jon LaClare [00:09:52]:
I think it's so important. You know, we talk about our partners often. That's a spouse, right? That is our real partner. You've got a business partner as well. But man, we need support in the home if we're going to. We're going to do this right? But I'm glad she did that. My wife did the same thing. You know, we.
Jon LaClare [00:10:07]:
I started this business now almost 18 years ago, and at the time I kind of know my personality and, and we made the decision to buy a timeshare, not knowing it's not a good financial investment, but for. It was a good family investment because it made us take that solid week somewhere every year and we try to vacation elsewhere too. But it's like whatever the answer is for everybody. I'm not here selling time.
Mark McNally [00:10:29]:
I mean, I strive for that. I mean, people think I'm crazy for how many vacations I do, but, you know, they also don't see the other side of it, the stress that's involved with running a business and growing a business. And, you know, especially the filters. Direct usa. I mean, I knew how to run a service business. We were pretty successful here in the local North Carolina area. But I knew nothing about a direct to consumer product. I knew how to design stuff.
Mark McNally [00:10:51]:
You know, my background back in Ireland was 3D design. I always thought I was going to get into something like that, but never used it until this moment arrived. I'm like, okay, now it's time to switch on that 3D artist design mode. And how can I make this product that I can dig and get ready for the direct to consumer for the homeowner? And it took away. We were probably in production, manufacturing and product development for about a year and a half because we knew what we wanted to do. And we actually consulted with another group here in North Carolina called Sherpa Collaborative, who were really helpful in figuring out the logistics of getting this product to launch. But, you know, obviously the first step is how does it look, how does it function? And I'll never forget we. We did do tests and, you know, across the water overseas.
Mark McNally [00:11:37]:
But the reality was we were in the middle of COVID Containers were getting stuck on the ocean. There had to be high purchase orders for multiple different air filter sizes that we offer. And we just weren't ready for that. So we had to just take a step back and say, okay, we've got to slow this down and make it locally, make it ourselves, and grow it a little slower than what we first thought. And to do that, we went to some meetings around North Carolina. I'll never forget this story where we go to these plastic manufacturers in North Carolina trying to see if they can make this product for us. And either it was too expensive because you had to make multiple molds, probably 30 different air filters, and it could be 30, $40,000 per mold. And we just kept going to multiple meetings.
Mark McNally [00:12:18]:
Nobody could grasp the simpler concept and how to make it on a cheaper scale. So we're leaving the last meeting, and we had one more to go to. Second last meeting, one more to go to. And I'll never forget I told my business partner, Tim. I was like, pull over. And we pulled over at a pizza shop and I borrowed a dollar because I never carry cash. And I walked into the pizza shop and I paid the Lady, a dollar for a pizza box. Because some of my original prototypes were actually done on a pizza box.
Mark McNally [00:12:46]:
I know we're on a podcast, not everyone can see it, but maybe for the YouTube customers or viewers, this was the original concept on a pizza box. So without a man, you know, we stop at the pizza shop, I go in, I get the pizza box, you know, just something simple like a regular pizza box. And we go into the engineers in this plastics manufacturing company and I laid the pizza box flat on the table and I said, guys, I just want you to make me that and plastic. And we'll do the rest. We'll figure that apart out. We need this in plastic. And they went away and a couple months later, back and forth, and before we know it, that's what they did. That plastic flattened pizza box came out looking like that.
Mark McNally [00:13:30]:
And then the final product is Filters Direct usa, which is a plastic reusable filter frame, more eco friendly. And when it arrives to the home, they trace the old filter and we send them the replacements. But yeah, the reason why we wanted to do it ourselves was because now we have control over it. We do all our manufacturing again. We had to take more baby steps to get to that point, but we ended up buying all our own machinery and we do everything from our manufacturing facility here in Garner, North Carolina.
Jon LaClare [00:14:04]:
So you started manufacturing here in the US and then you made the decision, as you mentioned, to bring it back in house and manufacture yourselves. I think I'm sure part of that was driven by margin. Is there any other benefit you see by now taking that manufacturing fully in house?
Mark McNally [00:14:20]:
Yeah, I mean, for us, John, you know, it done a number of things. First of all, you know, we were able to grow it a little slower in the beginning because we had so many different sizes. And when you go overseas for manufacturing, they want large purchase orders. And for us, you know, knowing that we were bootstrapping this ourselves, like we weren't getting any funding, we weren't getting any loans, we wanted to do it debt free. We didn't want to have that upfront cost of overseas of, hey, we need to purchase 2,000 units per size, which you're talking 30 sizes. That's a lot of revenue upfront. So that was one reason. I mean, the second reason was obviously the timeframe that we were launching.
Mark McNally [00:14:57]:
We had to be crazy for launching a new company in the middle of COVID in the middle of a pandemic where everything logistically is difficult. Containers getting stuck on the ocean from overseas. And that was another reason. But I think you know, really what it boiled down to was Tim. Tim is from North Carolina. I'm obviously an immigrant from Ireland here in America. But we're, we're very rooted to our. Our home now, which is my new home in US Of A.
Mark McNally [00:15:22]:
And we wanted to make sure that we made this product homegrown. You know, it was just a path for us that, yes, we could get it cheaper, made overseas, cheap labor, stuff like that, and they make great products. But there was just something that just kept telling us it's not all about the money. And initially, let's figure out a way to make this in the US of A. Even though our costs, our margins are not going to be as good, but in reality, it ended up so much better because we could do it at a slower pace. We bought all our own manufacturing, so now we don't have to outsource anything. I mean, we literally make everything in our facility in Garner. So when a new order comes in, we have the machinery to make everything, and we package it up from there and we.
Mark McNally [00:16:05]:
And we fulfill it and we ship it direct to the customer. So when we say filters direct to usa, we. We're pretty firm on the direct part. I mean, it's direct from us.
Jon LaClare [00:16:14]:
You know, I love it, and I think it's a great thing for people to think about that there is the eventual opportunity to manufacture in house. Not everything can be done. Some of way too complex. It might be too, too expensive or whatever, but it's something that. I've had a few guests on the, on the show that have done something similar in some of our clients over the years. And when it's an opportunity, and it may not be immediate, right, because there's capital expenditures, et cetera, but it can bring down a lot of those costs. And especially the one that people don't factor in oftentimes is that flexibility where you're not having to build up massive amounts of inventory or time to wait. Right.
Jon LaClare [00:16:53]:
If you manufacture overseas, it maybe it's half the price or whatever, Right. If it's whatever cost savings you have, you've got to ship it over here. There's that added cost, but the time can be a real issue. It started in Covid or started to be noticed really well during COVID and exacerbated, I would say, but it's always an issue. And it's, you know, it's going to be. It's. It's fantastic that you've got these orders. You can literally turn them around.
Jon LaClare [00:17:13]:
I'm sure you're building up some stock beforehand as well. But that flexibility really can't be discounted. So. I love that story.
Mark McNally [00:17:19]:
Yeah. But I mean, it's, you know, we outsourcing it can be expensive too, especially when problems happen. You know, one of the stories we have was we put in an order initially from an outsourced company that we're cutting the plastics flat and then bring it to us for the manufacturing part. And I was on vacation at the time with my family, and this massive order shows up. And it's the raw material, but everything is already cut. They're already in the shapes. And, you know, the negotiations fell down with the company we ordered them for and we were basically stuck with it. And as we tried to band the frames into the final product, they all kept snapping because they're a different material now with that color added to it, it has a different property to it.
Mark McNally [00:18:00]:
But what it did was it turned on our minds again. Okay, well, how do we do this? How do we make this work? And we ended up buying more machinery that heated it and bent it. In actual fact, we should have been doing that from the beginning. It was kind of a path that we didn't think we were going to take, but we were forced to. And it ended up being a great move. And that was my business partner, Tim Hobbs idea was to do that. And it turned out to be amazing.
Jon LaClare [00:18:24]:
And when you as the owner, the inventor, et cetera, that really have all, you know, the ownership of this, you, you can be more creative sometimes too. Where you might notice opportunities in the manufacturing system or process that your manufacturers may not. Right. They get stuck in their ways and we've always done it this way, et cetera. And you can invent or create not just new products, but new processes that can be. Or cheaper or a combination of the above, for sure. So it's good.
Mark McNally [00:18:51]:
Yeah. And it gives us a lot of customizability too. So we have one of the beauties about filters Direct USA is we can custom make any filter size, any freem say. So you've got a customer right there that might reach out and say, hey Mark, I've got this really odd air filter in my home. It's a 14 by 30 or it's a, you know, 12 by 12 or we've had some really strange ones. And I'm able to literally leave my desk, head into the back warehouse, open the computer, CAD draw, laser cut it, and we have the frame in less than an hour. I mean, that's huge for us.
Jon LaClare [00:19:27]:
I love it. And entrepreneurship is something that we can talk about a lot, but you can't really learn it until you do it right. It's a learned skill for sure. And you can certainly and should have mentors, maybe partners or others to learn from, but you gotta do it at the end of the day. And you've done done that with your kids. You've involved your kids in this entrepreneurial journey with a whole other business. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Mark McNally [00:19:53]:
Yeah. So, I mean, they obviously watch me and they've kind of seen my growth in the company and what I'm doing. But, you know, I try to bring them in as much as possible on what life is like as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, and that. That could be something simple like, you know, sending my son out to wash car washes. We made him a, you know, a mobile car washing unit, and he's out there making $10 a car. I mean, it's just turning on that mindset of, hey, I can make my own money. You know, I can do things that I can sell or I can make my own money. But, you know, one story from that was a spinoff for making our air filter frames.
Mark McNally [00:20:28]:
So we. We have a laser cutter that cuts the frames. And there was a lot of wasted material at plastic. And our plastic is actually comes from recycled materials, recycled plastic bottles. But we were then becoming part of the waste as well. So all the extra pieces of plastic were unused, and they're having to be sent off for recycling. And I kept thinking, what can I do with these pieces that are being cut out that are just waste? So my original concept was I was cutting a little key ring. I have a golden retriever dog.
Mark McNally [00:20:59]:
So we cut a little golden retriever dog head out of the plastic. Then when I looked at it, I was like, you know what? That could be useful for something. And it turned out that you can put a dog poop bag in through the nose, and it holds it perfectly. So brought my kids into it and showed them the product, and we spun off into different colors and different ideas for it. And now we've launched that little business as a family, just selling on TikTok Shop right now at Poo Caddy. But it's basically taken off where people can customize these little. They're not keyrings, but they're a dog poop holder. And Amanda really excited as soon as it's funny, when we're driving in the car, we're out somewhere and I have the app when a new order comes in and it's the Shopify app goes cha ching.
Mark McNally [00:21:44]:
You know, my 10, my 10 year old daughter's in the back seat and she goes, daddy money. So funny to hear, but it's just, it teaches them about seals and you know, and entrepreneurship, which is great.
Jon LaClare [00:21:59]:
I love it. And you can get the young ones excited by having poop in the name of the brand. My kids would have loved that. So that's another way to do it, to get them excited. They've certainly got that sense of humor on my side. Well, Mark, this has been a fun interview. Is there anything I didn't ask you that you think could be helpful for our audience?
Mark McNally [00:22:15]:
You know, thanks for having me, John. I appreciate you reaching out and enjoyed the show. Enjoy listening to you. For anyone out there that does struggle with their R filter sizes or want to do it in a more eco friendly or healthier way, they can go to filtersdirectusa.com we have a special coupon code for your listeners, John. They can type in harvest growth 50 for 50% off their first order. And we'd love to, we'd love to send them some fresh air filters.
Jon LaClare [00:22:44]:
And I do encourage our audience. Please check out their mark's website@filters directusa.com as always, it's in the show notes, so if you're driving, don't feel like you have to write it down. You can always go check our website@harvestgrowthpodcast.com or wherever you're watching or listening to this YouTube or any of the podcast platforms as well. And also for our audience, did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minute strategy consultation? We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007 and learned some of our strategies while growing Oxiclean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.
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