Growing up, Preston Borchelt was always intrigued by technology. His father was the director of information systems at Texas A&M University Kingsville, meaning they had computers in the house, and he was into video games and tinkering with technology in his spare time. When his father quit his job to start his own company in 1993, Preston was still in high school. During his senior year, Preston began working with his father at what was then a consulting company.
Preston’s passion for technology began to expand rapidly. He recalls working alongside his father one day when he suddenly knew in his heart that this was the industry he wanted to work in for the rest of his life. So, he decided to go off to university and get a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems. What he didn’t know at this point, though, was that he was stepping onto a path filled with loss and grief that would eventually lead him to his destiny of carrying on his father’s legacy.
When you hear about a family-owned and -operated business, an IT firm is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. However, this multigenerational setup worked well for the Borchelt family. Upon finishing his degree, Preston returned to his father’s new business venture, docTRONX, getting critical hands-on work experience. Meanwhile, his father got a reliable, hard-working employee, proving that sometimes it’s beneficial to mix business with family. Although there were some really challenging years, particularly after the dot-com bubble burst, the family motto was perseverance, commitment and resilience.
Unfortunately, the resilience of the business and family was tested further in 2009 when his father’s focus was shifted away from the business in order to care for Preston’s mother, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Preston’s mother had been his strongest support system from day one, making this a very distressing time for him and his family. But, instead of crumbling under the pressure, he was able to rise to the occasion. He knew that he needed to step up and keep things moving, ensure their customers were happy, and continue moving the business forward, which is precisely what he did.
As every business owner knows, however, when life comes at you, it can come at you fast. Tragically, about two-and-a-half years after Preston’s mother died, his father also passed. This left Preston not only grieving the loss of both his parents but also with a business to run. His father had had a loyal employee who was promised part of the company, and when Preston stepped into his new role as president and CEO of docTRONX, he honored this agreement and went ahead with this new partner.
By now, it’s 2012, and Preston, fueled by his father’s legacy, sat down with his business partner to take a long, hard look at their product suite before deciding to cut things that weren’t making them money. They shifted their focus from break-fix solutions to providing IT services for small to medium-size businesses, mainly construction companies, in Corpus Christi and Houston. Over the next 10 years they expanded to Dallas, South Florida, Virginia, Colorado and California. The pair chipped away at the company’s significant debt, eventually clearing it all in 2019, which was a massive feat. They began seeing steady growth in both clients and revenue and were even able to move some of Preston’s father’s original clients over from simple document management plans to a more managed service where they could protect and monitor their assets.
You see, when the company launched in 2000, cybersecurity was nowhere near the hot topic it is today. Nowadays, every business owner is aware of the fact that they could be at risk without the proper cybersecurity protocols and recognize that without a proper incident response plan in place their business might not survive after a breach. So, when Preston and his business partner were looking at restructuring their business and what that meant exactly, they were able to take advantage of this gap in many people’s businesses and fill this need for their clients. They started to become successful, but that only made Preston ponder: What exactly does success look like? And how do I know I’ve achieved it?
Beyond tracking KPIs or hitting sales goals, identifying what success looks like can be difficult. Of course, Preston and his business partner had successfully shifted the business’s focus, paid off their debts and expanded their company, but did that mean they were successful? Preston credits his amazing wife with helping to open his eyes to the business side of things, making him think about other determinants of success—such as happiness, legacy and longevity—rather than just money in the bank.
Although Preston’s parents aren’t here to see him flourish in his leadership role at docTRONX, he knows they’re looking down on him proudly. And his transformation from a teenager interested in technology to a president and CEO running a successful IT firm mirrors the journey of the company itself. What had once started as a document management service company has now completely transformed and leveled up to be a full-service IT firm offering cloud computing, data backup and recovery, network security, and more, with Preston and the business growing up simultaneously.
SMBs that work with the team at docTRONX are not just choosing an IT service provider, they’re choosing a second-generation, family-owned IT firm with a long legacy of providing innovative technology solutions to its clients.
For more information on docTRONX visit www.docTRONX.com
