East Austin Succulents

Eric Pedley, Founder

I was working as a bartender at the Hilton, and a buddy of mine gave me all his succulents when he moved to Costa Rica. I was telling some of the guys at the bar that I loved succulents, and they said, ‘Well, then you should make arrangements and sell them!’ And that’s exactly what I did. That weekend I transformed my backroom into a grow room, and began selling at farmers markets. I kinda fell into it, and just went head first. I love it. There’s so much diversity to this job, and you’re always learning. I never stop experimenting. In business, if you’re sure that you can make something work, don’t be afraid to go heavily into debt. And that might be terrible advice, but it really helped me. I racked up $80,000 on my credit card because I just knew this would work. And it has. If you’re confident, go for it.

Eric’s Austin Must: There are so many cool swimming holes and limestone and granite cliffs outside Austin. Pedernales has really cool rock, but Enchanted Rock is the best. It’s the largest monolith in the continent. Pace Bend Park is fantastic for cliff jumping too. Climb all that limestone and jump in.

Eric’s Favorite Succulent: I’m addicted. When I started, it was Agaves. Then Sansevierias and now I’m totally into Haworthias.