May 19, 2023 • 27 mins
Linebacker Darryl Sharpton was drafted by the Texans in 2010 and played in Houston for the next four seasons. But since he finished his football career, Sharpton's flourished as a businessman in H-Town. Listen in to the story of his fascinating journey.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Look at that. He's taken a photo of us right
for posterity. I love it. It's linebacker Darryl Sharpton cheese.
So what are you coming back to your phone there, Darryl?
What is that?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh? This is a little link sticky. My daughter put
it on there.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Oh that's sweet.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I thought it would fall off, but it's some pretty
strong adhesive there. So it's just a constant constantly reminds
me of my little girl.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I like it. Some of that love is helped keep
the bond strong.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
But that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You You've had a fantastic post NFL career. You had
a good NFL career, You had an interesting time before that.
But where are you right now and what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah? I did have a fantastic time with the Houston Texans,
being the linebacker trying to knock people's heads off, et cetera.
And but now I am just coming off of the
sale of my furniture business, ed Lo Finch and Albany Park,
and we got acquired the beginning of March in twenty
(01:09):
twenty two. And now I'm transitioning into a new venture
which I'm super excited about, which is very Houston centric.
And it's kind of not kind of but actually allowed
me to have a renewed love affair with this city
and just developing properties and creating multifamily here and discovering
(01:30):
new neighborhoods and restaurants and the walkability of it. So
I could go on and on, but I'm happy to
say I'm still here in H Town, and I'm very
happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And that's saying something. Because you grew up in Miami,
you played for the Canes, Miami is a fun place
to live. There's a lot of good things going on
in Miami. You could have easily gone back there and
that would have been fine, nobody would have had it
any but you stayed here. What kept you here? What
was one of the reasons that you stayed in H Town.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's a really good question. And you know, the funny
thing is, and I'll admit this, when I first came
to Houston, I was thinking, like, Okay, I'm definitely I'm
definitely going to go back to Miami. This is a
temporary stop. You know, I'll be back to Miami soon enough.
But it's funny, with every passing day or week, I
just fell deeper and deeper in love with with Houston.
(02:22):
I told this story before somewhere, but I remember after
I left the Texans, I went to play in Washington
for a little bit, and I came back to Houston
for a visit, and I promised. I was driving down
Kirby Drive and like tears well deap in my eyes.
It was like, I don't know, it was like this
this random emotion that I wasn't expecting. I was like, man,
I'm in love with I'm in love with Houston. I'm
(02:42):
happy to be back here. And that's when I knew
I was gonna come back to Houston. It just it's
almost inexplicable. I just I love I love everything. I
love so much about Houston. The diversity, the city scape,
the Loop, the expressways, the people. I don't know, there's
just so much about it. The food. Yeah, how could
I How could I missed that? The food? I love?
I love h Town.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You know, your time here is a very interesting time
in the franchise's history because you're drafted in ten. You're
in that draft class with Kareem Jackson and Earl Mitchell
and some other guys who were really really important to
what the Texans did around here that rookie season, you guys,
you'll struggle after a strong start out of the gate,
and then you're here for eleven and you're here for
(03:23):
twelve to the best seasons in franchise history, and then
you see the transition in the year or two after that.
So you saw quite a bit. Let's rewind. What was
draft day like for you back in twenty ten in
late April.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That was a really interesting day because I remember, you know,
the analyst or whatever they say, Okay, you're gonna we're
expecting you get drafted anywhere from second to fourth round.
So obviously being an optimist on like, okay, I'm gonna
get draft in the second round. I'm just like second
or nothing. And then when I didn't get drafted the
second round, the third round, and it was to the
(03:57):
teams that said they were going to draft me, you know,
I remember the coult said they were going to draft me,
and I was like, oh okay with them they drafted
another linebacker. I was like, it was like, I was heartbreaking,
oh man. But then I remember I was actually driving
to my parents' house because it was so early on
I got drafted so early that day, I was just
got into the parking lot. My family just came outside there.
(04:19):
You got drafted to the Houston Texans, And I was like, what, Yeah,
I think I didn't even go inside the house. I
immediately went to Daylam mall and bought a Houston Houston
Texans hat.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well do they not call you? Like, did you get
a call on your cell or what? How'd that work?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Man? Maybe maybe I'm maybe, you know, I think I
omitted that very valuable detail. But yeah, let me see
what happened, you know, the phone. The phone call was
all a big It's all a big blur to me.
I just remember almost my family knew about it before
I did. But I do remember talking to coach Kubiak
(04:55):
and him, you know, welcoming me to the team. I
know we talked about Cush and to meet go a
little bit, but it was just a rush of emotions.
I remember. I was just yeah, it's hard to explain,
but yeah, I don't I don't remember all the particulars.
I just remember being super happy.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Now, listen, you were a ferocious player on the field.
You're you're a linebacker. I mean, you gotta have that
ferocity to thrive at the college level, to get drafted
to play in the NFL like you did. What was
it like though, getting in the locker room and meeting
and being next to Demiko, being next to Brian Cushing,
who had been drafted the first round the year before.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I mean you, that.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Says a lot about you that with those two guys,
the Texans wanted to add to that mix in taking you.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That was pretty cool, I admit, like the first it
took me probably a week and a half to get
over the initial star struck atmosphere of being like, oh man,
these are those.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You don't strike me as a guy that would be starstruck,
like you're.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Keep it, I keep it composed, but I get starstruck.
I still sometimes. I just recently stopped getting stars struck
around Andre Johnson, like.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It's they're yeah being I think being teammates with Andre
was probably for me something that I was just like
I couldn't believe it, just because I had always been
definitely like the biggest Andre Johnson fan, like ever in
my whole life, Like I.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Had his jersey. I was just always a huge Andre
Johnson fan. So just being in the same locker room
with him, I think I was I was definitely star
struck around Andre my entire time there. I was like, man,
I still can't believe I'm playing with Andre. Yeah, so
that was that was a real honor. And then like, yeah,
playing with Cushion Demiko was super was super amazing too.
I admit, not quite as cool as being with Andre
(06:43):
just for me personally, but it was. It was still
a really amazing experience. And now I can't I can't
believe that Demiko is the head coach. It almost is like, man,
this is incredible and like I'm getting really old one
of the two. Probably a little bit of both, but
but it's still cool.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, Okay, I got to ask you about Andre in
a second. But since you brought Dimko up like that,
you follow the team. You're here in Houston, You're obviously busy,
you got kids, you got a business and all that stuff.
But you've seen what's happened around here the last years.
When did you think that Dimico being the head coach
of the Texans was like a possibility, even because I
didn't think it was a possibility until I heard he
signed and he was down the hall about twenty yards
(07:24):
away here.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you hear rumors and whatnot
about the next coach, who the next coach is going
to be, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, I guess
Demico coming here just felt like one of those things
where it was almost one of those too good to
be true type of things, like it's probably it's probably
not going to happen, he'll probably end up somewhere else.
(07:47):
And then when it when it actually when it actually happened. Yeah,
I think I just got all these text messages, like
a random incoming text messages were coming and I was like,
I started checking him. I was like, whoa, this is real,
Like Dimiko is actually coming back here to be the
head coach. I was like, my buddy Demiko, who we
were a locker makes the guy who sat right next
to me. So that was that was pretty cool. But
(08:08):
I mean, obviously Dimiko, you know. The crazy thing is
now that I think about it, going back a little bit,
I remember asking Dimiko. Me and Dimiko had a conversation
once and he would he would ask I remember he asked, me, hey, man,
what do you want to do when you're done with football?
And what are you gonna do when you're doing with football?
And I was like, you know, I'll probably get into
some business or something or try my hand at entrepreneurship.
(08:30):
And I reciprocated the question. I was like, what about you,
what are you going to do? And he was like,
you know, I'll probably get into coaching. And I was like, okay. Cool.
Like when he said that, it stuck with me, like, Okay,
Dimiko's going to get into coaching, man, now, yeah, And
I was like, never thought like if he would have
told me like, oh, yeah, and about uh, I don't know,
seven eight years I'm going to become the head coach
(08:52):
here of like you know, probably maybe it was. Yeah,
if he would have told me that, I've been like
pretty lofty goals there. But then just seeing him immediately
get in there and just like make such an impact
on all the teams he was with, and I was like, man,
that's de Miko. Oh look at the I'm like, wow,
now he's the head coach with the Texans. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
It makes all the sense in the world. Not around
him as much as you were, but goodness gracious, just
observing him and hearing him speak and seeing how he
played on the field, It's not been a surprise at
all just him seeing it, going through those successes and
then being chosen and like I said, I had my
fingers crossed, but I didn't know. I mean I thought
it was too good to be true. Like you said,
need to say, it was a special day when they
(09:33):
hired him back to Andre Johnson. I know you believe this.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I believe this.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Pretty much everybody listening watching to this believes this. But
for those who don't or on the fence or might
not believe it, explain to them why Andre Johnson belongs
to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Man, it's almost like seems pretty obvious. But for me,
it's the size, speed, dedication, the performance, the game winning moments,
just you know, the huge impact he had on a
fledgling franchise. Yeah, I mean for me, it's yes, it's
the it's a size speed. I mean, there's not many
(10:11):
wide receivers in the NFL who, as a linebacker who
likes to pride myself and being ferocious, would still have
to size Andre up and say, you know what I
gotta I gotta bring my big boy pads to bring
this guy down, you know what I mean. And most
wide receivers, you know, you look at him, and you're
just like, I'm gonna crush this guy. This guy better
run away from me. But Andre was a He's a
(10:33):
force and he has the speed, the hands. Yeah, like
I said, it's kind of self explanatory to me. He's
just he was a rare specimen.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So what was your first welcome to the NFL moment
like when you got here. I'm guessing it was early
May for rookie Minute camp. But what was it like
your first impressions come into the NFL.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I guess, like I'm trying to I'm trying to think
through the actual moment. I guess like it was funny
because you know, you come in. I came into Houston
and like, man, I'm going to the professional I'm playing
professional football. I'm going to the NFL. And then the
first thing you do is you get checked into a
hotel with the roommate and you're just like, wait a minute,
(11:11):
who is your roommate? It was it was Isaiah Greenhouse
that was my roommate over at the spring Hill Suites yep.
And I remember thinking like, okay, I didn't this wasn't
a part of my vision. I thought they were going
to drive me up to my mansion or something.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
In my limousine with a spa inside the limousine, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
With like with the cheerleaders cheering me. Honestly, but I
was like, okay, this that was like a very I
guess humbling sort of.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
But to the end, that's the best welcome to the
NFL moment I've heard. By the way, Darryl, It's like,
that's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I mean, if I'm being honest, that's the first thing
that sticks out of my head. I was like, I
was for some reason. I never this wasn't a part
of my fantasy to get checked into the suites with
the roommate. But but there I was. And I mean
obviously things progressively got better, but I mean on the
football field, I don't know. Just the Houston heat is
the thing that stands out to me that first training camp.
(12:14):
It was unreal, even coming from Miami. Yeah, I was thinking, like,
this is not real. This is desert heat with tropical
forest humidity all mixed together.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
About fifteen feet in front of me to my right,
I'm looking at Mark Vandermuer, former voice of the Miami Hurricanes,
voice of the Houston Texans. He always echoes that too.
He's like, Miami's really hot, but they at least have
that sea breeze that kind of keeps things cool. He's like, yeah,
Houston heat is no joke. And see why you just described.
So that was an interesting first season. You mentioned some
(12:45):
Andre Johnson winning moments. He had a few of them
that you're the red the game against Washington, that was
a big one. What was your rookie season?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Like, what stands out to me was, I know, at
one point it really hit me that, like, you know,
in the NFL, there's a fifty three man roster, so
there was a lot of was different than college where
there's just like, you know, they could just throw guys
in here for that, throw guys in there for that,
And I just know that playing football. I mean I
(13:11):
remember my rookie year. I broke my hand and I
sprayed my ankle, and I just remember like the coach
would be like, hey, look man, you gotta you gotta
push through that. Let's go let's go ahead, and let's
go ahead and push through that. And I was like,
and they're just like, we don't have any we don't
have anyone else on the roster. Come up. We need
you to push through that, and I just remember, like, man,
it really required it required a lot of like perseverance.
(13:33):
I don't know, I guess it was a very eye
opening experience for me, coming especially coming from from college
and just being like, you know, the start starting linebacker,
leading leading tackler, then transitioning to a special teams role.
It was, you know, it was. It was different, but
there was there was still a lot of a lot
of carryover from college. I still was, you know, to
(13:55):
pump myself up a little bit. I was still like
pride to myself and being a heavy hitter, a heart
as you described it, ferocious. I like that. That transitioned
pretty well for me. So I like that. But but yeah,
I guess, I guess, yeah, my rookie year was it
was fun also being a professional. I mean, looking back
at it, I'm like, man, like those guys are so
(14:15):
young to have that sort of like being like I
don't know, like famous almost you know, like in the
city just being like twenty two to twenty three years
old and everyone's like, oh, it's the Texans are here,
and I don't know, it was that that part was
pretty That part was pretty cool, just to see all
the love from Houstonians in a different way than even
people are in Miami. In Miami, I don't think people
(14:36):
really didn't care that much about sports the way they
do in Houston. In my opinion, Yeah, I mean, like
playing for the Texans, really it really meant something here
and I really liked it. I was like, Man, I'm
sure glad I'm playing football here in Houston, not in
South Florida.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I mean, do you recognize that at the time? You
recognize that at the time that Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I definitely recognized that. Yeah, it was very apparent that
there was a love for sports and football specifically here
in Houston. I noticed that, and I quite liked it.
I liked it a lot. It's a good life, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So what's your favorite memory as a Texan Because you
spent some time here, would you like the most? What
stands out to you the most over everything else?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Okay, So for me, it was definitely the victories. It
was me coming back from my year long hiatus after
my knee injury that I suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars
in eleven. Yeah, in twenty eleven, and it was I
think I'm using this word right, I hate it when
people misused the word ironically, but I think I'm using
(15:41):
this correctly. But ironically I made my comeback against My
comeback game was against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and I had
a great game. It was like there was probably one
of four games in my NFL career. I just felt
like a spirit was inside of me, like I could
make no wrong moves, I was always in the right place.
I was just like on fire, and I felt like
one of those games. And it was it was good
(16:03):
to make a comeback and not just you know, be
like hey, my neee felt good, I'll work myself back
into it, but like to come back and like make
an impact, make some big hits and make some key
plays and have a victory. It was like coming back
almost like at the top of your game, you know.
So that was such a good moment and it was
also for me a lesson. It was it was a
(16:24):
valuable life experience for me because it really taught me
even in the future things that I do, like man
like working, like even those things can seem really bleak
or negative or not so, or you can be going
through a you know, a troubling time, like there's light
at the end of the tunnel and not just light.
I mean they could be like, you can really shine
(16:45):
at the end of the tunnel, right light, yeah, right light,
Yeah exactly. So that was special to me and I
often reflect on it.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Who do you keep in touch with these days from
those Texans teams that you were part of?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Keeping great contact with Connor Barwin. He always he always
reaches out. Yeah, yeah, I love Connor. I think he
must have some sort of like plan because he calls
me like once a month at the most random times,
and we just talked for about thirty minutes and then
he rushes me off the phone. But I'm I'm in
a group chat with Oh, I'm really good friends with
(17:18):
Earl Mitchell. Me and Earl we talk on average once
every three days. I know that's very specific average, but though, yeah,
but I talked to Earl all the time. I love Earle.
I keep in touch with Cush, Sean Cody, Kareem Jackson.
Let me see who else? Oh, Tim Bullman, Antonio Smith.
(17:40):
Actually a lot of the guys are customers of mine
for the Albany Park sofas.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And we got to get back into that because that's
a cool venture that you were involved with still I
guess have a degree of involvement with I mean, how
did that all come about? Because yeah, you made furniture,
but you didn't just make furniture. This is this is
something truly unique.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It's funny because in college I was a serial entrepreneur.
Even while playing with the KNES, I ran a couple
of e commerce sites and I ran across the opportunity
to sell some sofas from a wholesaler, local wholesaler in Miami,
and I did that part time. You know, I always
had a little entrepreneurial bugging me. So then, obviously going
(18:21):
to play professional football, I say, you know what, let
me put those thoughde hobbies to the side. Even though
I'll admit after my rookie year I tried to start
a sofa business after my rookie year, but my agent
strongly advised against it. He said, I think you should
focus on football. That made the most sense. So I
went ahead and did that. But right after I finished,
I got right back into the furniture business, started importing
(18:44):
my own designs from manufacturers and started off wholesaling, and
then about two and a half years into it, I
learned a lot just from wholesaling furniture, and I really
started to look at a lot of the pain points
that were going on in the marketplace from the customer standpoint,
It's particularly with sofas. You know, it would take two
or three weeks to get sofas, Customers had to take
(19:06):
off from work in order to receive the sofas. It
was difficult to move sofas upstairs if you're in an
apartment and stuff. There's just a lot of pain points
with receiving the sofa, particularly online, and I sought out
to solve these problems through the Albany Park brand and
our Albany Park sofas can get delivered to your house
and as little as three to five business days because
(19:27):
they come in ups boxes, but there's no sacrifice in
quality or comfort or design aesthetics. And we made it
really simple for people to buy sofas as well, so
instead of so I knew that most people who sold
sofas there was like, you know, there's thousands or let's
say hundreds of sofa models to choose through when you're
looking for a sofa, but most of them are kind
of there's so many similarities and price differences, Like you
(19:51):
can literally get decision fatigue from looking at a sofa.
So I said, okay, instead of having hundreds of options
or even twenty options, what if there was just three
simple options, like at a wedding, there's chicken, fish or beef.
Let's make it like that. So we made three models, Albany,
Park and the Cova so to eliminate decision fatigue, make
it super simple for people to choose it. Then you
once you pick the model that you want, you pick
(20:13):
the fabric and then boom, you click a button and
you give us your credit card information along the way, Well,
we'll get it to your house and ups boxes and
as little as five business days with ups or FedEx.
So reasoning behind the album Park brand, and it was
really cool because it was one of those things that
you kind of you sit there and you're ride on
a napkin, like, oh, I bet this will be really cool.
(20:34):
I bet, I bet you this will work. I bet
you that that will work, and you're just drawing up
all this stuff and then when you see it in
action and it just kind of takes off and it's like, yeah,
it feels really good to see your napkin ideas manifest
into a very successful business.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's amazing. How did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Though?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
In college, I know you said you're a serial entrepreneur. Like, why,
there's the zillion things you could be an entrepreneur for.
How did furniture and sofas?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Why? I'm always down for trying anything, So go ahead,
let me, let me, let me put an asterisk on that.
But when it comes when it comes to like at
least back then when I was, when I was younger,
I was any anything that involved, like selling something would
always pique my So I was with a girlfriend at
(21:21):
the time. We were looking for and she she found
this sofa on Craigslist and she's like, hey, Daryl, will
you come with me to buy this sofa? So because
it seems a little sketchy, And I said, sure, I'll.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Pause, movies have been written with us. I found this
blank on Craigslist and then but go on exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So I was like, okay, cool, I'll of course I'll
go with you. Let's go, let's go take a look
at it. So as soon as we walk into the
craigslist sellers home, you know, I said, okay, here goes nothing.
We walk in and the entire house is actually a
furniture store. Essentially there's lamps and sofas and coffee tables
(22:06):
and sectional all with price tags on it. So a
pairing this lady had been. She turned her first floor
into a furniture store, and she lived on the second floor,
and we were not the only customers in there. There
were people shopping inside of her house. And then quickly
I noticed, like I was like boom, I was like, man,
maybe I could do something like this, Like subconsciously I
thought that, and I saw her distributor catalog sitting in
(22:30):
the corner and they had black marker marking out who
her distributor was. So that just peaud my interest even
more so. Of course, I took the catalog, put some
light on it, and I was able to figure out
who the distributor was. And then I would say probably
within forty eight hours, I set up an account with
that same distributor and replicated the business model. And from
(22:50):
there that's when the adventure began. That's when I set
up my college apartment like a furniture store, started bringing
customers over in the same in the same way. And
the thing that stuck to me about furniture was just
the cost. The price of it. So I mean, if
a sofa, you know, if we're buying it, we're buying
it wholesale for let's say, three hundred dollars from the distributor.
(23:13):
I was a college kid. I could mark it up
fifty bucks, one hundred bucks, and I could sell it.
And they were just selling like crazy. And it's like
I'm making one hundred bucks of time getting these people
coming in to buy this furniture. That ended up being
my most profitable venture that I had done in college.
So I immediately kind of put all my other ventures
to the side and focused on generating business from the sofa.
(23:36):
The sofa, yeah, hustle.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Life and your agent probably wisely had. Like you mentioned
as you pause it in the NFL, how soon after
you quit playing the game, did you jump back in
or did did it happen later in your NFL career?
How'd that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
It happened right after my final I remember I did that.
I did training camp with the Arizona Cardinals, not surprising,
but I got thined another injury, and at that point
I was I decided, you know what, you know, I
decided I didn't want to play the game anymore. I
went ahead. I really sat there. I didn't believe it
or not. It wasn't like my first instinct wasn't okay,
(24:12):
time to get back into furniture. I just started reading books,
entrepreneurial books, business biographies, books about the future. I was
just sitting there reading books, reading books. And I'm sure
this happens to a lot of people. But when I
read books like I start getting inspired and ideas start
coming to me. Even it could be something totally unrelated.
It could be a book about a murder mystery from
the mid century, and I could be thinking of some
(24:33):
other idea. I don't know, But I just started reading
books and it just hit me, like it just hit
me all of a sudden. I was like, man, because
I was reading books to look for inspiration for what
I should do after my career. I was just reading
books and it hit me, like, Daryl, you should get
back into selling furniture. That's like what you should do,
Like that's what you're good at, that's what your passion is.
And that's when the journey began. And I started to
(24:56):
attend furniture furniture fairs, furniture music and I just I
tend to become like super duper obsessive about things. Like
when I become obsessed with something, it's game over. So
I became obsessed with furniture and design and the fabrics,
and that's when I that's when I started. That's when
I knew it was time to start my business, and
(25:17):
selling wholesales seemed like the safest way to get into
a business because at that time I had one child
or another on the way. But at that time, it
wasn't like one of those things where it's like, oh,
just doing this startup thing, see how it works, like
burned through some cash like it wasn't It wasn't one
of those deals like I started this business because I
(25:39):
needed to make money like right now, you know. So
because I structured I structured the business as a wholesale
company that seemed really safe, especially with and it was
a really good time around that time because online furniture
was really taking off and I had read that too.
I read that, you know, there was a report came
out that online furniture was poised to be the biggest
year over year growth in any e commerce sector, and
(26:02):
I was just like, oh, you know, it's one of
those things like man God wants me to succeed, because like,
why would I At the same time I'm getting out
of NFL at the same time furniture online is booming.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I don't know, but it strikes me as what's correct
me if I'm wrong here, But it strikes me as
it was a passion. You went into it with a
phenomenal plan and strategy and then, like you mentioned, your
timing was perfect for it too.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Is that? Am I on?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
There? Is it?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
No? You're You're definitely You're spot on. You're spot on.
I mean, I'm a very positive person, so I tend
to spend things in a positive way, Like even the
venture I'm doing now, I'm like, oh, this is perfect timing.
There's no better time doing this. But I really, I
really do believe, and in retrospect, it really was perfect
timing to get into that space. It was a very
(26:48):
like essentially, it was a very new industry and people
buying front of I mean, it was very new, and
I got into it and I saw I was able
to see some of that growth that I was reading
about once I got into it.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Well, my pal Nick Skurfield is kind of talked about
and he's your friend too, but he's I remember hearing
about this. He's like, Dad, Daryl's getting into furniture. I
was like, WHOA, that's different. And it's been fun to
follow the benchmarks because I mean, you're being modest about it,
but you did very, very well. And just look up
Darryl Sharpton on Google and furniture and you can see
(27:22):
all the successes he's had. But I have no doubt
that this new venture is going to be a raging,
runaway success just like the last one was. So man,
I really appreciate your time. It's great catching up with you.
It's great to hear about all the fun things going
on in your life. And this has been a where
are they now, Darryl Sharpton, Where.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Are they now? I'm right here in h Town.
Look at that. He's taken a photo of us right
for posterity. I love it. It's linebacker Darryl Sharpton cheese.
So what are you coming back to your phone there, Darryl?
What is that?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh? This is a little link sticky. My daughter put
it on there.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Oh that's sweet.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I thought it would fall off, but it's some pretty
strong adhesive there. So it's just a constant constantly reminds
me of my little girl.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I like it. Some of that love is helped keep
the bond strong.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
But that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You You've had a fantastic post NFL career. You had
a good NFL career, You had an interesting time before that.
But where are you right now and what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah? I did have a fantastic time with the Houston Texans,
being the linebacker trying to knock people's heads off, et cetera.
And but now I am just coming off of the
sale of my furniture business, ed Lo Finch and Albany Park,
and we got acquired the beginning of March in twenty
(01:09):
twenty two. And now I'm transitioning into a new venture
which I'm super excited about, which is very Houston centric.
And it's kind of not kind of but actually allowed
me to have a renewed love affair with this city
and just developing properties and creating multifamily here and discovering
(01:30):
new neighborhoods and restaurants and the walkability of it. So
I could go on and on, but I'm happy to
say I'm still here in H Town, and I'm very
happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And that's saying something. Because you grew up in Miami,
you played for the Canes, Miami is a fun place
to live. There's a lot of good things going on
in Miami. You could have easily gone back there and
that would have been fine, nobody would have had it
any but you stayed here. What kept you here? What
was one of the reasons that you stayed in H Town.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's a really good question. And you know, the funny
thing is, and I'll admit this, when I first came
to Houston, I was thinking, like, Okay, I'm definitely I'm
definitely going to go back to Miami. This is a
temporary stop. You know, I'll be back to Miami soon enough.
But it's funny, with every passing day or week, I
just fell deeper and deeper in love with with Houston.
(02:22):
I told this story before somewhere, but I remember after
I left the Texans, I went to play in Washington
for a little bit, and I came back to Houston
for a visit, and I promised. I was driving down
Kirby Drive and like tears well deap in my eyes.
It was like, I don't know, it was like this
this random emotion that I wasn't expecting. I was like, man,
I'm in love with I'm in love with Houston. I'm
(02:42):
happy to be back here. And that's when I knew
I was gonna come back to Houston. It just it's
almost inexplicable. I just I love I love everything. I
love so much about Houston. The diversity, the city scape,
the Loop, the expressways, the people. I don't know, there's
just so much about it. The food. Yeah, how could
I How could I missed that? The food? I love?
I love h Town.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You know, your time here is a very interesting time
in the franchise's history because you're drafted in ten. You're
in that draft class with Kareem Jackson and Earl Mitchell
and some other guys who were really really important to
what the Texans did around here that rookie season, you guys,
you'll struggle after a strong start out of the gate,
and then you're here for eleven and you're here for
(03:23):
twelve to the best seasons in franchise history, and then
you see the transition in the year or two after that.
So you saw quite a bit. Let's rewind. What was
draft day like for you back in twenty ten in
late April.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That was a really interesting day because I remember, you know,
the analyst or whatever they say, Okay, you're gonna we're
expecting you get drafted anywhere from second to fourth round.
So obviously being an optimist on like, okay, I'm gonna
get draft in the second round. I'm just like second
or nothing. And then when I didn't get drafted the
second round, the third round, and it was to the
(03:57):
teams that said they were going to draft me, you know,
I remember the coult said they were going to draft me,
and I was like, oh okay with them they drafted
another linebacker. I was like, it was like, I was heartbreaking,
oh man. But then I remember I was actually driving
to my parents' house because it was so early on
I got drafted so early that day, I was just
got into the parking lot. My family just came outside there.
(04:19):
You got drafted to the Houston Texans, And I was like, what, Yeah,
I think I didn't even go inside the house. I
immediately went to Daylam mall and bought a Houston Houston
Texans hat.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well do they not call you? Like, did you get
a call on your cell or what? How'd that work?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Man? Maybe maybe I'm maybe, you know, I think I
omitted that very valuable detail. But yeah, let me see
what happened, you know, the phone. The phone call was
all a big It's all a big blur to me.
I just remember almost my family knew about it before
I did. But I do remember talking to coach Kubiak
(04:55):
and him, you know, welcoming me to the team. I
know we talked about Cush and to meet go a
little bit, but it was just a rush of emotions.
I remember. I was just yeah, it's hard to explain,
but yeah, I don't I don't remember all the particulars.
I just remember being super happy.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Now, listen, you were a ferocious player on the field.
You're you're a linebacker. I mean, you gotta have that
ferocity to thrive at the college level, to get drafted
to play in the NFL like you did. What was
it like though, getting in the locker room and meeting
and being next to Demiko, being next to Brian Cushing,
who had been drafted the first round the year before.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I mean you, that.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Says a lot about you that with those two guys,
the Texans wanted to add to that mix in taking you.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
That was pretty cool, I admit, like the first it
took me probably a week and a half to get
over the initial star struck atmosphere of being like, oh man,
these are those.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You don't strike me as a guy that would be starstruck,
like you're.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Keep it, I keep it composed, but I get starstruck.
I still sometimes. I just recently stopped getting stars struck
around Andre Johnson, like.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It's they're yeah being I think being teammates with Andre
was probably for me something that I was just like
I couldn't believe it, just because I had always been
definitely like the biggest Andre Johnson fan, like ever in
my whole life, Like I.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Had his jersey. I was just always a huge Andre
Johnson fan. So just being in the same locker room
with him, I think I was I was definitely star
struck around Andre my entire time there. I was like, man,
I still can't believe I'm playing with Andre. Yeah, so
that was that was a real honor. And then like, yeah,
playing with Cushion Demiko was super was super amazing too.
I admit, not quite as cool as being with Andre
(06:43):
just for me personally, but it was. It was still
a really amazing experience. And now I can't I can't
believe that Demiko is the head coach. It almost is like, man,
this is incredible and like I'm getting really old one
of the two. Probably a little bit of both, but
but it's still cool.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, Okay, I got to ask you about Andre in
a second. But since you brought Dimko up like that,
you follow the team. You're here in Houston, You're obviously busy,
you got kids, you got a business and all that stuff.
But you've seen what's happened around here the last years.
When did you think that Dimico being the head coach
of the Texans was like a possibility, even because I
didn't think it was a possibility until I heard he
signed and he was down the hall about twenty yards
(07:24):
away here.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, I mean, you know, you hear rumors and whatnot
about the next coach, who the next coach is going
to be, et cetera, et cetera. But yeah, I guess
Demico coming here just felt like one of those things
where it was almost one of those too good to
be true type of things, like it's probably it's probably
not going to happen, he'll probably end up somewhere else.
(07:47):
And then when it when it actually when it actually happened. Yeah,
I think I just got all these text messages, like
a random incoming text messages were coming and I was like,
I started checking him. I was like, whoa, this is real,
Like Dimiko is actually coming back here to be the
head coach. I was like, my buddy Demiko, who we
were a locker makes the guy who sat right next
to me. So that was that was pretty cool. But
(08:08):
I mean, obviously Dimiko, you know. The crazy thing is
now that I think about it, going back a little bit,
I remember asking Dimiko. Me and Dimiko had a conversation
once and he would he would ask I remember he asked, me, hey, man,
what do you want to do when you're done with football?
And what are you gonna do when you're doing with football?
And I was like, you know, I'll probably get into
some business or something or try my hand at entrepreneurship.
(08:30):
And I reciprocated the question. I was like, what about you,
what are you going to do? And he was like,
you know, I'll probably get into coaching. And I was like, okay. Cool.
Like when he said that, it stuck with me, like, Okay,
Dimiko's going to get into coaching, man, now, yeah, And
I was like, never thought like if he would have
told me like, oh, yeah, and about uh, I don't know,
seven eight years I'm going to become the head coach
(08:52):
here of like you know, probably maybe it was. Yeah,
if he would have told me that, I've been like
pretty lofty goals there. But then just seeing him immediately
get in there and just like make such an impact
on all the teams he was with, and I was like, man,
that's de Miko. Oh look at the I'm like, wow,
now he's the head coach with the Texans. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
It makes all the sense in the world. Not around
him as much as you were, but goodness gracious, just
observing him and hearing him speak and seeing how he
played on the field, It's not been a surprise at
all just him seeing it, going through those successes and
then being chosen and like I said, I had my
fingers crossed, but I didn't know. I mean I thought
it was too good to be true. Like you said,
need to say, it was a special day when they
(09:33):
hired him back to Andre Johnson. I know you believe this.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I believe this.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Pretty much everybody listening watching to this believes this. But
for those who don't or on the fence or might
not believe it, explain to them why Andre Johnson belongs
to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Man, it's almost like seems pretty obvious. But for me,
it's the size, speed, dedication, the performance, the game winning moments,
just you know, the huge impact he had on a
fledgling franchise. Yeah, I mean for me, it's yes, it's
the it's a size speed. I mean, there's not many
(10:11):
wide receivers in the NFL who, as a linebacker who
likes to pride myself and being ferocious, would still have
to size Andre up and say, you know what I
gotta I gotta bring my big boy pads to bring
this guy down, you know what I mean. And most
wide receivers, you know, you look at him, and you're
just like, I'm gonna crush this guy. This guy better
run away from me. But Andre was a He's a
(10:33):
force and he has the speed, the hands. Yeah, like
I said, it's kind of self explanatory to me. He's
just he was a rare specimen.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So what was your first welcome to the NFL moment
like when you got here. I'm guessing it was early
May for rookie Minute camp. But what was it like
your first impressions come into the NFL.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
I guess, like I'm trying to I'm trying to think
through the actual moment. I guess like it was funny
because you know, you come in. I came into Houston
and like, man, I'm going to the professional I'm playing
professional football. I'm going to the NFL. And then the
first thing you do is you get checked into a
hotel with the roommate and you're just like, wait a minute,
(11:11):
who is your roommate? It was it was Isaiah Greenhouse
that was my roommate over at the spring Hill Suites yep.
And I remember thinking like, okay, I didn't this wasn't
a part of my vision. I thought they were going
to drive me up to my mansion or something.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
In my limousine with a spa inside the limousine, right exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
With like with the cheerleaders cheering me. Honestly, but I
was like, okay, this that was like a very I
guess humbling sort of.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
But to the end, that's the best welcome to the
NFL moment I've heard. By the way, Darryl, It's like,
that's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I mean, if I'm being honest, that's the first thing
that sticks out of my head. I was like, I
was for some reason. I never this wasn't a part
of my fantasy to get checked into the suites with
the roommate. But but there I was. And I mean
obviously things progressively got better, but I mean on the
football field, I don't know. Just the Houston heat is
the thing that stands out to me that first training camp.
(12:14):
It was unreal, even coming from Miami. Yeah, I was thinking, like,
this is not real. This is desert heat with tropical
forest humidity all mixed together.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
About fifteen feet in front of me to my right,
I'm looking at Mark Vandermuer, former voice of the Miami Hurricanes,
voice of the Houston Texans. He always echoes that too.
He's like, Miami's really hot, but they at least have
that sea breeze that kind of keeps things cool. He's like, yeah,
Houston heat is no joke. And see why you just described.
So that was an interesting first season. You mentioned some
(12:45):
Andre Johnson winning moments. He had a few of them
that you're the red the game against Washington, that was
a big one. What was your rookie season?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Like, what stands out to me was, I know, at
one point it really hit me that, like, you know,
in the NFL, there's a fifty three man roster, so
there was a lot of was different than college where
there's just like, you know, they could just throw guys
in here for that, throw guys in there for that,
And I just know that playing football. I mean I
(13:11):
remember my rookie year. I broke my hand and I
sprayed my ankle, and I just remember like the coach
would be like, hey, look man, you gotta you gotta
push through that. Let's go let's go ahead, and let's
go ahead and push through that. And I was like,
and they're just like, we don't have any we don't
have anyone else on the roster. Come up. We need
you to push through that, and I just remember, like, man,
it really required it required a lot of like perseverance.
(13:33):
I don't know, I guess it was a very eye
opening experience for me, coming especially coming from from college
and just being like, you know, the start starting linebacker,
leading leading tackler, then transitioning to a special teams role.
It was, you know, it was. It was different, but
there was there was still a lot of a lot
of carryover from college. I still was, you know, to
(13:55):
pump myself up a little bit. I was still like
pride to myself and being a heavy hitter, a heart
as you described it, ferocious. I like that. That transitioned
pretty well for me. So I like that. But but yeah,
I guess, I guess, yeah, my rookie year was it
was fun also being a professional. I mean, looking back
at it, I'm like, man, like those guys are so
(14:15):
young to have that sort of like being like I
don't know, like famous almost you know, like in the
city just being like twenty two to twenty three years
old and everyone's like, oh, it's the Texans are here,
and I don't know, it was that that part was
pretty That part was pretty cool, just to see all
the love from Houstonians in a different way than even
people are in Miami. In Miami, I don't think people
(14:36):
really didn't care that much about sports the way they
do in Houston. In my opinion, Yeah, I mean, like
playing for the Texans, really it really meant something here
and I really liked it. I was like, Man, I'm
sure glad I'm playing football here in Houston, not in
South Florida.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I mean, do you recognize that at the time? You
recognize that at the time that Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
I definitely recognized that. Yeah, it was very apparent that
there was a love for sports and football specifically here
in Houston. I noticed that, and I quite liked it.
I liked it a lot. It's a good life, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So what's your favorite memory as a Texan Because you
spent some time here, would you like the most? What
stands out to you the most over everything else?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Okay, So for me, it was definitely the victories. It
was me coming back from my year long hiatus after
my knee injury that I suffered against the Jacksonville Jaguars
in eleven. Yeah, in twenty eleven, and it was I
think I'm using this word right, I hate it when
people misused the word ironically, but I think I'm using
(15:41):
this correctly. But ironically I made my comeback against My
comeback game was against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and I had
a great game. It was like there was probably one
of four games in my NFL career. I just felt
like a spirit was inside of me, like I could
make no wrong moves, I was always in the right place.
I was just like on fire, and I felt like
one of those games. And it was it was good
(16:03):
to make a comeback and not just you know, be
like hey, my neee felt good, I'll work myself back
into it, but like to come back and like make
an impact, make some big hits and make some key
plays and have a victory. It was like coming back
almost like at the top of your game, you know.
So that was such a good moment and it was
also for me a lesson. It was it was a
(16:24):
valuable life experience for me because it really taught me
even in the future things that I do, like man
like working, like even those things can seem really bleak
or negative or not so, or you can be going
through a you know, a troubling time, like there's light
at the end of the tunnel and not just light.
I mean they could be like, you can really shine
(16:45):
at the end of the tunnel, right light, yeah, right light,
Yeah exactly. So that was special to me and I
often reflect on it.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Who do you keep in touch with these days from
those Texans teams that you were part of?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Keeping great contact with Connor Barwin. He always he always
reaches out. Yeah, yeah, I love Connor. I think he
must have some sort of like plan because he calls
me like once a month at the most random times,
and we just talked for about thirty minutes and then
he rushes me off the phone. But I'm I'm in
a group chat with Oh, I'm really good friends with
(17:18):
Earl Mitchell. Me and Earl we talk on average once
every three days. I know that's very specific average, but though, yeah,
but I talked to Earl all the time. I love Earle.
I keep in touch with Cush, Sean Cody, Kareem Jackson.
Let me see who else? Oh, Tim Bullman, Antonio Smith.
(17:40):
Actually a lot of the guys are customers of mine
for the Albany Park sofas.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And we got to get back into that because that's
a cool venture that you were involved with still I
guess have a degree of involvement with I mean, how
did that all come about? Because yeah, you made furniture,
but you didn't just make furniture. This is this is
something truly unique.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It's funny because in college I was a serial entrepreneur.
Even while playing with the KNES, I ran a couple
of e commerce sites and I ran across the opportunity
to sell some sofas from a wholesaler, local wholesaler in Miami,
and I did that part time. You know, I always
had a little entrepreneurial bugging me. So then, obviously going
(18:21):
to play professional football, I say, you know what, let
me put those thoughde hobbies to the side. Even though
I'll admit after my rookie year I tried to start
a sofa business after my rookie year, but my agent
strongly advised against it. He said, I think you should
focus on football. That made the most sense. So I
went ahead and did that. But right after I finished,
I got right back into the furniture business, started importing
(18:44):
my own designs from manufacturers and started off wholesaling, and
then about two and a half years into it, I
learned a lot just from wholesaling furniture, and I really
started to look at a lot of the pain points
that were going on in the marketplace from the customer standpoint,
It's particularly with sofas. You know, it would take two
or three weeks to get sofas, Customers had to take
(19:06):
off from work in order to receive the sofas. It
was difficult to move sofas upstairs if you're in an
apartment and stuff. There's just a lot of pain points
with receiving the sofa, particularly online, and I sought out
to solve these problems through the Albany Park brand and
our Albany Park sofas can get delivered to your house
and as little as three to five business days because
(19:27):
they come in ups boxes, but there's no sacrifice in
quality or comfort or design aesthetics. And we made it
really simple for people to buy sofas as well, so
instead of so I knew that most people who sold
sofas there was like, you know, there's thousands or let's
say hundreds of sofa models to choose through when you're
looking for a sofa, but most of them are kind
of there's so many similarities and price differences, Like you
(19:51):
can literally get decision fatigue from looking at a sofa.
So I said, okay, instead of having hundreds of options
or even twenty options, what if there was just three
simple options, like at a wedding, there's chicken, fish or beef.
Let's make it like that. So we made three models, Albany,
Park and the Cova so to eliminate decision fatigue, make
it super simple for people to choose it. Then you
once you pick the model that you want, you pick
(20:13):
the fabric and then boom, you click a button and
you give us your credit card information along the way, Well,
we'll get it to your house and ups boxes and
as little as five business days with ups or FedEx.
So reasoning behind the album Park brand, and it was
really cool because it was one of those things that
you kind of you sit there and you're ride on
a napkin, like, oh, I bet this will be really cool.
(20:34):
I bet, I bet you this will work. I bet
you that that will work, and you're just drawing up
all this stuff and then when you see it in
action and it just kind of takes off and it's like, yeah,
it feels really good to see your napkin ideas manifest
into a very successful business.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's amazing. How did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Though?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
In college, I know you said you're a serial entrepreneur. Like, why,
there's the zillion things you could be an entrepreneur for.
How did furniture and sofas?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Why? I'm always down for trying anything, So go ahead,
let me, let me, let me put an asterisk on that.
But when it comes when it comes to like at
least back then when I was, when I was younger,
I was any anything that involved, like selling something would
always pique my So I was with a girlfriend at
(21:21):
the time. We were looking for and she she found
this sofa on Craigslist and she's like, hey, Daryl, will
you come with me to buy this sofa? So because
it seems a little sketchy, And I said, sure, I'll.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Pause, movies have been written with us. I found this
blank on Craigslist and then but go on exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So I was like, okay, cool, I'll of course I'll
go with you. Let's go, let's go take a look
at it. So as soon as we walk into the
craigslist sellers home, you know, I said, okay, here goes nothing.
We walk in and the entire house is actually a
furniture store. Essentially there's lamps and sofas and coffee tables
(22:06):
and sectional all with price tags on it. So a
pairing this lady had been. She turned her first floor
into a furniture store, and she lived on the second floor,
and we were not the only customers in there. There
were people shopping inside of her house. And then quickly
I noticed, like I was like boom, I was like, man,
maybe I could do something like this, Like subconsciously I
thought that, and I saw her distributor catalog sitting in
(22:30):
the corner and they had black marker marking out who
her distributor was. So that just peaud my interest even
more so. Of course, I took the catalog, put some
light on it, and I was able to figure out
who the distributor was. And then I would say probably
within forty eight hours, I set up an account with
that same distributor and replicated the business model. And from
(22:50):
there that's when the adventure began. That's when I set
up my college apartment like a furniture store, started bringing
customers over in the same in the same way. And
the thing that stuck to me about furniture was just
the cost. The price of it. So I mean, if
a sofa, you know, if we're buying it, we're buying
it wholesale for let's say, three hundred dollars from the distributor.
(23:13):
I was a college kid. I could mark it up
fifty bucks, one hundred bucks, and I could sell it.
And they were just selling like crazy. And it's like
I'm making one hundred bucks of time getting these people
coming in to buy this furniture. That ended up being
my most profitable venture that I had done in college.
So I immediately kind of put all my other ventures
to the side and focused on generating business from the sofa.
(23:36):
The sofa, yeah, hustle.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Life and your agent probably wisely had. Like you mentioned
as you pause it in the NFL, how soon after
you quit playing the game, did you jump back in
or did did it happen later in your NFL career?
How'd that happen?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
It happened right after my final I remember I did that.
I did training camp with the Arizona Cardinals, not surprising,
but I got thined another injury, and at that point
I was I decided, you know what, you know, I
decided I didn't want to play the game anymore. I
went ahead. I really sat there. I didn't believe it
or not. It wasn't like my first instinct wasn't okay,
(24:12):
time to get back into furniture. I just started reading books,
entrepreneurial books, business biographies, books about the future. I was
just sitting there reading books, reading books. And I'm sure
this happens to a lot of people. But when I
read books like I start getting inspired and ideas start
coming to me. Even it could be something totally unrelated.
It could be a book about a murder mystery from
the mid century, and I could be thinking of some
(24:33):
other idea. I don't know, But I just started reading
books and it just hit me, like it just hit
me all of a sudden. I was like, man, because
I was reading books to look for inspiration for what
I should do after my career. I was just reading
books and it hit me, like, Daryl, you should get
back into selling furniture. That's like what you should do,
Like that's what you're good at, that's what your passion is.
And that's when the journey began. And I started to
(24:56):
attend furniture furniture fairs, furniture music and I just I
tend to become like super duper obsessive about things. Like
when I become obsessed with something, it's game over. So
I became obsessed with furniture and design and the fabrics,
and that's when I that's when I started. That's when
I knew it was time to start my business, and
(25:17):
selling wholesales seemed like the safest way to get into
a business because at that time I had one child
or another on the way. But at that time, it
wasn't like one of those things where it's like, oh,
just doing this startup thing, see how it works, like
burned through some cash like it wasn't It wasn't one
of those deals like I started this business because I
(25:39):
needed to make money like right now, you know. So
because I structured I structured the business as a wholesale
company that seemed really safe, especially with and it was
a really good time around that time because online furniture
was really taking off and I had read that too.
I read that, you know, there was a report came
out that online furniture was poised to be the biggest
year over year growth in any e commerce sector, and
(26:02):
I was just like, oh, you know, it's one of
those things like man God wants me to succeed, because like,
why would I At the same time I'm getting out
of NFL at the same time furniture online is booming.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I don't know, but it strikes me as what's correct
me if I'm wrong here, But it strikes me as
it was a passion. You went into it with a
phenomenal plan and strategy and then, like you mentioned, your
timing was perfect for it too.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Is that? Am I on?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
There? Is it?
Speaker 2 (26:27):
No? You're You're definitely You're spot on. You're spot on.
I mean, I'm a very positive person, so I tend
to spend things in a positive way, Like even the
venture I'm doing now, I'm like, oh, this is perfect timing.
There's no better time doing this. But I really, I
really do believe, and in retrospect, it really was perfect
timing to get into that space. It was a very
(26:48):
like essentially, it was a very new industry and people
buying front of I mean, it was very new, and
I got into it and I saw I was able
to see some of that growth that I was reading
about once I got into it.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Well, my pal Nick Skurfield is kind of talked about
and he's your friend too, but he's I remember hearing
about this. He's like, Dad, Daryl's getting into furniture. I
was like, WHOA, that's different. And it's been fun to
follow the benchmarks because I mean, you're being modest about it,
but you did very, very well. And just look up
Darryl Sharpton on Google and furniture and you can see
(27:22):
all the successes he's had. But I have no doubt
that this new venture is going to be a raging,
runaway success just like the last one was. So man,
I really appreciate your time. It's great catching up with you.
It's great to hear about all the fun things going
on in your life. And this has been a where
are they now, Darryl Sharpton, Where.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Are they now? I'm right here in h Town.
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