The Wall Printer® took home the overall 2023 Coastal Entrepreneur of the Year award at a breakfast ceremony at UNCW’s Burney Center on May 31, 2023. The Greater Wilmington Business Journal and UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) host the Coastal Entrepreneur Awards, which named 11 category winners this year out of nearly 200 nominations, a record for the program. The overall winner keeps a life-size surfboard trophy for a year.
The company first won its category award, which put it in the running for the top prize. Founder Paul Baron joked about his age when he accepted it:
“It only took me 71 years to become recognized as an overnight success.”
Paul Baron, founder and CEO, The Wall Printer®
Heather McWhorter, director of UNCW’s CIE, introduced the company by noting that every printer The Wall Printer sells in North and South America starts a new business. She also pointed out that Paul mentors founders at the CIE.
“Since I met Paul, he has always supported entrepreneurs.”
Heather McWhorter, Director, UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
How it started
Paul came across vertical printing while he was working on other ventures. In 2019 he set out to bring it to the Americas, and The Wall Printer had its first customers in 2020. The goal was at least 120 customers by year four. The company passed 100 in its third year.
The longer goal, five to ten years out, is 1,000 new wall and floor printing businesses for entrepreneurs and existing companies across North, Central and South America.
Their business, their brand
Paul has described the model to the Greater Wilmington Business Journal this way:
“The Wall Printer is not a franchise system. Our customers create their own businesses and their own brands. They get their equipment from us, and we give them a lot of support. We don’t take royalties. This is all about entrepreneurship: creating opportunities for others. It’s their own hopes and dreams, delivering wall art. It’s about building a community through cooperation, not competition.”
Paul Baron
At the ceremony he shared the credit. The journey of an entrepreneur usually starts solo, he said, with an idea and something you’re passionate about.
“So while it may start that way, no successful business … can be achieved without a team, and I’ve been blessed with great employees, customers, partners, and vendor, to accomplish our respective goals with The Wall Printer.”
Paul Baron
Adapted from the Greater Wilmington Business Journal’s coverage, May 31, 2023.
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