Finding Success and Community: Laurel Hess’ Return to DFW
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Laurel Hess has fond memories of growing up in Dallas. Little did she know life would bring her to Cajun country and then lead her back with a family of her own, and a successful startup.
Hess had left the Lonestar State for college in the early 2000s. She was temporarily driven out of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but managed to finish her degree there. It’s also where she married and began her family.
And after several years in the Crescent City, they moved to Lafayette, which is where inspiration struck and she got the idea for hampr – an app-based laundry service. (See more about hampr in Dallas Innovates.)
Life was good, but Dallas was calling her name. So, they packed up again.
“We moved here in the summer of 2024,” says Hess.
Her sister who lives in Celina actually helped her launch hampr in the Dallas market—their biggest. And she recalls it was their mother, who lives in Frisco, who told Hess about her grandfather, and how entrepreneurship runs in the family.
“It’s funny, I didn’t really think about it, but she had told me that he owned a boat yard. She said he was very entrepreneurial – worked all the time.”
Hess is trying to maintain more of a balance. As she’s expanding the business from just residential service into B to B, she’s also trying to expand her social circle.
“… my husband and I were just talking about this – how do you find friends as an adult?”
As it turns out, she did have one friend here, whose own move into North Texas preceded hers by a matter of months.
“Leigh Ann and I were neighbors in Lafayette. She moved down here before me and told me how much she loved it. And I was like, yea I know, Dallas is great,” says Hess, laughing.
(See Leigh Ann Ripka’s My Dallas Story here.)
With so many foodie options—like Baonecci in Frisco, or concerts at Legacy Hall—and things to do with the kids (they’re currently huge fans of Grandscape—especially Scheel’s and Andretti’s) she’s not overly concerned, but she agrees that it’s harder when you don’t have a cohort that you’re hitting milestones with.
“There is a growing community of entrepreneurs,” Hess concedes.
Needing to travel for business is another reason she values living in Dallas.
“Before we moved here, I would often connect in Dallas, but it would add a whole day of travel just to get here. So, the fact that I can fly three hours in either direction to get where I need to be is huge.”
The culture, the lifestyle … as others have expressed, Dallas isn’t one thing, it’s everything. It’s also everyone … from corporate executives to artists and founders, Dallas continues to be the place people want to be.
