A Chat with John Economaki, Founder and President, Bridge City Tool Works

Finally they told me they were going to sweep my checking account. I said, "Why not just lock the doors?", because I don't have a lot of patience with people who don't understand business. They don't understand that everything's at risk. I'm the biggest loser of all if I don't fix it. What's the point of adding even more pressure? You're doing everything you can. Finally, one of my board members went to the bank and said he didn't feel I was being dealt with properly because we were a 20-year old business with a great track record. But their hands were tied. It's a federally regulated business. So we went into that cesspool of trying to work things out. Then in June of 2002, I met with a shareholder committee and said we were disbanding the corporate charter and handing the keys to the bank.