Brian Rist founded Storm Smart almost 30 years ago with three employees, limited experience as a leader and little idea how large and how fast his company would grow.

Still involved as a shareholder after selling the company in 2021 following 25 years at the helm, Rist’s lessons in leadership have resonated with current Storm Smart CEO Scot Burris. Rist developed his leadership style as his company grew from three to 250 employees over 25 years during his ownership.

Burris then took the mantle in 2021, shortly after Rist sold Storm Smart to Rotunda Capital Partners, a Bethesda, Maryland-based private equity company. Burris has presided over a four-year period of rapid company growth, during which Storm Smart grew from about 250 to 500 employees during a time of unprecedented hurricane damage.

“We saved lives,” Burris says, referring especially to Hurricane Ian, which hit the region Sept. 28, 2022. “We saved lives. To me, it brought home the importance of the industry and of our company. We make a significant difference. We take that very seriously.”

Burris said he likes reading leadership-oriented books, like Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, to continue evolving as a leader.

“I’m a big fan of the book,” Burris says. “I’m well versed on it. ‘Seek first to understand, then to be understood.’ I think the respect and recognition for what Brian had built, and then taking that foundation and keep growing it — without losing the secret sauce — was the secret to our success.”

Burris and Rist have combined to create a brand that resonates with resiliency — a brand that really took off following the 2004 devastation of Hurricane Charley.

“It went from 23 people when Hurricane Charley happened,” Rist says, “and three months later, we had 100 people. The demand was so much. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. We couldn’t even keep up with the demand.”

Charley’s aftermath positioned Storm Smart for further growth in time for Hurricane Irma in 2017, Hurricane Ian in 2022 and then hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

Storm Catcher, the trademarked product that put Storm Smart on the map for homeowners, uses fabric as a hurricane protection product.

“What it is, is polypropylene,” Rist says. “It’s very similar to what they make trampolines out of. But we beefed it up with a fabric. It’s what they make bulletproof vests out of. It was a cross between a trampoline and a bulletproof vest.

“We make all kinds of shutters. But what we really did and what made us successful was the Storm Catcher screen.”

Creating more products means managing more employees. Learning to lead those employees grows in importance as the workforce grows.

“I despised being micromanaged earlier in my career,” says Burris, who previously spent three years as vice president of USIC, an infrastructure company specializing in underground utility damage prevention.

“My preference is to be a coach and a leader versus a dictator,” Burris says. “When you see light bulbs go off in your employees, and then they take ownership in the business, that’s when things take off. Brian had a great company in Southwest Florida. Our goal was to grow it geographically. We were able to increase production by about 50%. It was more demand that drove it; working on more efficient operations.”

Storm Smart took on Lean Six Sigma manufacturing, a data-driven production philosophy that reduces waste and inefficiency while minimizing defects and variations.

“The biggest lever we pulled was continuing to build the culture in the business,” Burris says. “After Ian hit, my story changed because of the experience of going through it.”

When Rist started Storm Smart, he didn’t have the advantages of Burris in walking into a company with its culture already in place. Rist had to figure it out on the fly.

“When we started, I didn’t have enough money to pay attention,” Rist says. “We started with only three of us in the very beginning. And we started to grow, slowly, all the way up until Hurricane Charley came around. We were just developing the Storm Catcher when Hurricane Charley came around. Then we were off to the races.”

But the first eight years were the struggle, Rist said.

“We had a hard time keeping it going and knowing what to do,” he says. “You just learn that when you do good things, good things happen. We really got involved in trying to help the community and lead by example and try to make this a better place. That got a lot of people willing to follow me more. It really was a fun thing to do, because we were helping the community at the same time.”

During those early years, Storm Smart didn’t have much of a marketing budget. Rist used to attend storm seminars with TV meteorologists and other storm-related businesses — that’s how he built a following in the early years.

“You have to trust the people that you hire,” Rist says. “When you go from three to 20 you can kind of control it. But you have to empower others to trust in them that they will make the right decision. Now, they’re not always going to make the right decision. When they do make mistakes, you have to inspire them to make better decisions. You surround yourself with the most intelligent people you can, and empower them. You believe that you have the wisdom to make the right decisions. You kind of have a sixth sense.”

That sixth sense for Rist kicked in shortly after one of those storm preparation seminars.

Gregory Frith of Fireservice Emergency Disaster Response urged Rist not just to hire more help, but to empower that help.

“I was going through two cell phone batteries a day and eating Rolaids like they were protein,” Rist recalls. “He said, ‘You can’t do this. You’re not going to make it. You’re killing yourself. You’ve got to hire somebody who can help you out.’”

Rist recalled thinking his budget didn’t afford him to hire a second pair of eyes. But he did it anyway at Frith’s urging. Rist hired Barry Feldman as Storm Smart’s vice president.

“You just have to do it,” Rist says. “So, I hired this guy — my head sales guy — and made him my vice president. Then I could do what I needed to do. And he did what he’s good at. Our business never slowed down.”

Feldman brought his own strengths as a leader to the equation. They were a different set from Rist, which made Storm Smart better, he said.

“He was much better in the financial part of our business,” Rist says. “I’m a step-on-the-gas kind of guy. He was counting every nickel. That allowed me to keep doing what I do. We would have fights; we would have vicious fights. We were best friends, but we were totally different. You tend to hire somebody like you. That’s a mistake. You need to find somebody who is almost opposite from you.”

Burris now has the keys to further build Storm Smart. In November, the company opened its newest showroom, at 1810 51st Ave. E., Suite 100, in Palmetto, north of Sarasota — an area that increases the company’s reach to Bradenton.

Storm Smart now has three manufacturing facilities in Lee County, and it has installed its products into at least 100,000 homes in Southwest Florida.

“How do we invest in the business to help it accelerate even faster?” Burris says. “The people in the company have the potential to do even more in their careers.”