Today we’d like to introduce you to Sheila and Tom Boyce.
Sheila and Tom, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
DeepStream Designs was born in 2006, when my partner (and husband) Tom Boyce and I were finishing the Grove Club condo project in Coconut Grove, and we were looking for high-quality freestanding planters for the courtyard and roof terraces. We had seen the structural damage done to buildings with built-in planters and wanted to avoid the high cost associated with the damage, repair and replanting we had seen on older projects. We searched the planter universe at that time and could not find anything with the combination of great design, longevity, and sustainability that we required.
Tom is the designer, and sitting at a sidewalk cafe in Milan, Italy, he was inspired by rotting wooden planters that created a barrier between the tables and the street. He grabbed a napkin and quickly sketched a design for wooden planters, using our experience in yacht construction techniques that would not decay in a few years as happens with traditional wood planter boxes.
On our return to Miami, he built the first prototypes in our parking space, using aluminum angle and leftover wood flooring from our condo, and installing a waterproof liner to maximize the longevity of the plants’ growing environment.
Once Tom engineered a basic design, we sought out partners to provide the components we required – relationships that continue today. We got positive feedback on our design, and we started with a website, advertising in landscape magazines, and exhibiting at trade shows. At one trade show, we met someone who suggested that we create recycling receptacles based on the design of the planters to sell to the hospitality industry, which led to our two main product categories: Planters and Receptacles.
As we’ve grown over the past 12 years, we’ve continued to expand our product line in response to customer needs.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We started our business as the housing market was crashing and then into the Great Recession, so we grew slowly. We grew organically, self-financing so that we didn’t have debt to worry about or partners to satisfy. Starting a business during a down-turn forces you to spend carefully, which is a good thing. It took a few years before we knew that we had a “business,” and from time to time, I wasn’t sure we would be able to pay our bills.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about DeepStream Designs – what should we know?
DeepStream Designs manufactures sustainable planter boxes, receptacles, fixtures and privacy screens for residential, commercial, hospitality, health care, and government projects. We use our proprietary anodized aluminum extrusions that Tom engineered and, using the principles of Sustainable Design, we create custom labor-saving solutions to our customers’ problems with the goal of being the simplest and lowest-cost solution over time, while complimenting the projects’ aesthetics. To ensure the longest possible lifecycle for our products, they are engineered so that all parts are easily replaceable and any metal is either stainless steel or marine-anodized aluminum, there is no paint or powder-coating to fail.
As a small company, we can work closely with our customers to design products to meet their requirements without adding a lot of “custom” cost. Because we purchase and manufacture everything in the US (except the tropical hardwoods), we offer short lead times, and are proud to employ American craftsmen here in Miami who earn a living wage.
As a business driven by Sustainability, one of our goals has been not only to use 100% recyclable components, but also to use recycled products wherever possible. While many projects demand tropical hardwoods, which devastate rain forests, at least with DeepStream products, that wood will last for several decades, not the 3 to 5 years that is typical for carpenter-built planters.
Additionally, using our structural aluminum components, we have created a method to use non-structural recycled plastic lumber in many of our products. In 2017, recycled plastic lumber ordered by customers overtook tropical hardwood, so that the recycled plastic lumber now represents 62% of DeepStream’s sales. To offset the wood we do use, for every product produced by DeepStream, we plant 10 to 100 trees through the non-profit Trees for the Future in the customer’s name (www.trees.org).
We are proud that our customer list includes Disney, the Pentagon, Orlando International Airport, Fenway Park, Churchill Downs, Yankees Stadium, the NFL Headquarters, Ritz Carlton, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, and more. Locally, our customers include Vizcaya, Baptist’s Miami Cancer Institute, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Aventura Hospital, and The Continuum-South Beach among others.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Customer-focus: Our ability to be quickly responsive to our customers’ needs and work with them to provide high-quality, sustainable solutions with the lowest cost of ownership over time – and without a long lead time.
How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc?
For us, success is:
– Helping to make the world a more beautiful and livable place through our sustainable products;
– Creating partnerships with our customers to help solve problems;
– Creating a respected brand with products that will still be in use for decades to come;
– Respecting our employees and paying them a living wage plus profit-sharing;
– Doing work that requires a wide range of skills, with no two days being alike.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.deepstreamdesign.com
- Phone: 305-857-0466
- Email: dsdmiami@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeepStreamDesigns/
Image Credit:
Tom Boyce
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