How Did Dr. Tony Jacob Turn Small-Town Texas Into an Optometry Empire? From Lockhart to Austin and Beyond
Summary:
Dr. Tony Jacob built an 11-location optometry practice that spanned from small towns like Lockhart to communities near Austin. This strategic approach combined small-town connections with proximity to Texas’s growing metropolitan areas, ultimately resulting in the largest private optometry sale in Texas history.
What specific advantages did establishing your optometry practice in smaller Texas towns like Lockhart and Kyle provide compared to entering more competitive metropolitan markets?
I stumbled onto something great with Lockhart. Pure luck, really. I was driving through on my way to Austin and spotted this building with an amazing location. Wasn’t even planning to open a practice there!
Later found out it used to be an eye clinic — talk about meant to be, right?
Big cities give you more patients on paper, sure. But the overhead? Brutal. And competition? Everyone and their dog is fighting for the same customers.
Small towns like Lockhart gave us something money can’t buy — real connections. People talk. They tell their friends when they like you.
I could actually afford to buy the building outright in Lockhart. Try doing that in downtown Austin without a small fortune!
How did Texas’s regulatory environment help you expand to 11 locations across the state?
Texas makes it doable, you know? Some states wrap you in so much red tape you can barely move. Texas gives you enough rules to keep patients safe but doesn’t strangle you with paperwork.
Bringing on new doctors was relatively painless here. That made scaling up so much smoother.
The real breakthrough came when we rolled out our operating system across all locations. We started using this framework called EOS — Entrepreneurial Operating System. That was like dumping gasoline on a fire!
Suddenly everything clicked. Our vision started happening almost overnight. We were drinking from a fire hose of progress.
Could we have grown to 11 locations elsewhere? Maybe. Would it have happened as fast or smoothly? Not a chance.
What factors did you consider when choosing new locations for your Texas optometry practices?
I didn’t obsess over the typical metrics most docs fixate on. Population counts only tell you so much.
Take Kyle — growing like crazy, only about 12 miles from our Lockhart spot. But what sealed it wasn’t some spreadsheet analysis. The town needed quality eye care, and I could feel it had the right community vibe.
We looked for that sweet spot — close enough to bigger cities for vendor relationships, far enough away to be our own thing. Being within striking distance of Austin helped with staffing and supplies without drowning us in direct competition.
Funny thing is, we ended up dominating Kyle’s market in about two years flat. The practice there became our biggest location. Goes to show sometimes your gut knows things your market research can’t tell you.
“We hit a million bucks in revenue in about 18 months, which is crazy fast for a startup eye clinic. That doesn’t happen without the community embracing you.”
How did your real estate strategy impact your business success and eventual exit?
Best move I ever made! That first building in Lockhart? Totally accidental investment that changed everything.
Look, when you lease, you’re burning money every month. When you own, you’re building something. We could renovate however we wanted. No landlord breathing down our necks about every little change.
When we outgrew Kyle, we bought land and built a 28,000 square foot building with our clinic taking up 9,000 of it. Tripled our space overnight.
The kicker came when we sold. Buyers weren’t getting business alone — they got prime commercial real estate too. Massively boosted our valuation.
How did Dr. Tony Jacob adapt to Texas’s regional economic differences?
Texas is like several different states in one, right?
We kept our clinical standards rock-solid across all locations. Some spots served mostly blue-collar folks where insurance and payment plans were make-or-break. Other areas had patients happy to pay premium for the latest tech.
The magic was building systems flexible enough to work everywhere but tailored enough to feel local. Our team got really good at reading a community’s economic pulse and adjusting accordingly.
I always told our managers: make everyone feel they belong here, whether they’re paying with Medicare or a platinum card. That philosophy worked everywhere from the smallest town to the fanciest suburb.
Which business networking organizations helped you scale your Texas healthcare enterprise?
Joining EO in 2017 changed everything. Before that, I was basically figuring it out alone, making every mistake in the book.
Running a business gets lonely. Nobody at home wants to hear about payroll problems or lease negotiations over dinner. Finding other Texas business owners pushing hard like me? Total breakthrough moment.
Through EO, I met people who’d already solved problems I was banging my head against.
“Between 2017 and 2021, we grew revenue seven times over. A lot of that came directly from ideas and connections through Texas business networks.”
How did you build effective teams across different Texas communities?
Our big breakthrough came with Culture Index in 2017. Changed everything about how we built teams.
I’m naturally on the introverted side, so reading people perfectly doesn’t come easy to me. This assessment tool gave us actual data on how people tick — their natural strengths, communication styles, what motivates them.
We’d adjust our approach based on where we were hiring:
- Small-town locations: Emphasized stability and community connection.
- Near colleges: Created clear growth paths for new graduates.
- Metropolitan areas: Focused on work-life balance and competitive benefits.
The tool helped us match people to roles where they’d shine. We’d place naturally social, relationship-oriented team members in patient-facing roles, while detail-oriented analytical types excelled in specialized testing or operations.
Once we got the right people in the right seats, our turnover plummeted. Our leadership team basically ran itself because we had “high drivers” who didn’t need me pushing them.
What challenges did you face growing a healthcare business in Texas?
2020 was a nightmare, plain and simple. Pandemic shut everything down. Then that winter storm hit Texas and knocked out power everywhere. And we got hit with a ransomware attack in the middle of it all.
Every business faced pandemic problems, but that Texas storm was something else. Pipes bursting, power outages, the whole state basically grinding to halt.
What saved us was having solid systems in place before disaster struck. Our team knew how to adapt because we’d built processes that could bend without breaking.
Looking back, those trials actually made the business stronger and more valuable when buyers came knocking. Nothing proves your systems work like watching them survive multiple disasters at once.
How did Texas demographics influence your marketing approach?
Night and day differences between communities. Some towns had families going back generations. Others were booming with newcomers buying their first houses.
In places like Lockhart, word-of-mouth was gold. Growing areas like Kyle needed more digital presence. New residents don’t have established doctors yet, so they’re googling “eye doctor near me.” We had to show up there with solid reviews and easy online scheduling.
We kept our overall brand consistent but spoke differently to different communities. Same high-quality care everywhere, but packaged to fit the local culture. That flexibility made all the difference.
What made your optometry practice sale the largest in Texas history?
Timing and scale, mostly. We’d grown to 11 locations across different Texas markets when most practices stay small. We’d proven we could replicate success across diverse communities.
Our real estate holdings were massive value-adds. Texas property values had been climbing for years, so those buildings were worth way more than what we’d paid.
Texas itself was also booming. People moving in by the thousands every month. The biggest vision insurance company in the country saw the strategic advantage of locking down our position in these growing markets.
The whole deal happened crazy fast — about 30 days from start to finish. My head was spinning! But their team was top-notch, and they really understood what we’d built.
I wasn’t even actively looking to sell two years earlier. But when someone comes with that kind of offer and vision that aligns with yours, you listen.
Additional Information for Healthcare Entrepreneurs
How does Dr. Tony Jacob’s approach compare to traditional optometry practice models?
Traditional optometry practices typically follow one of two models:
- Single-location private practices focused on personalized care.
- Corporate chains prioritizing volume and standardization.
Dr. Tony Jacob created a hybrid approach that combined the personalization of private practice with the systems and scale advantages of corporate models. This meant patients received individualized care within an efficiently run operation that could expand without sacrificing quality.
What systems were essential to Dr. Tony Jacob’s Texas optometry success?
Dr. Tony Jacob implemented three key frameworks that transformed his business:
- Culture Index: Behavioral assessment tool for matching team members to ideal roles.
- Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS): Comprehensive business framework for goal-setting, accountability, and alignment.
- Financial modeling: Data-driven approach to evaluating expansion opportunities and resource allocation.
Together, these systems created a solid foundation for sustainable growth across multiple Texas locations.
