White Fence Living
"White Fence Living: Real stories from New Albany, Ohio, hosted by a local dad, youth sports coach and community member. From community leaders to everyday voices, we share what makes 43054 tick—with a history sprinkle, no politics. Uncurated chats over the white fences."
White Fence Living
Building Community Brick by Brick: The Brickhouse Blue Story
Dave Mirgon's entrepreneurial journey reveals how a lifelong desire to help others evolved into creating spaces where businesses and people flourish. As the co-founder of Brickhouse Blue, Dave brings the same philosophy to coworking that made his youth basketball program a national success: building excellence brick by brick.
"I was always thinking what else do I want to do while helping these people," Dave explains, reflecting on his 20-year corporate recruiting career. This question led him and business partner Cid Romberg to launch Brickhouse Blue in 2016, creating environments where entrepreneurs could escape everyday constraints and think differently. The name itself carries rich symbolism—"brick" representing methodical building and solid foundations, while "blue" signifies innovation, expansive thinking, and limitless possibilities.
What sets Brickhouse Blue apart from typical coworking spaces is their deliberate approach to creating community. "A lot of spaces just plug and play. It's a current space, paint the walls, slap some furniture in there, put somebody at the front desk and let's hope it works. That's just not who we are," Dave emphasizes. This attention to both physical environment and human experience has fueled their expansion to four locations, with more on the horizon in Hilliard, Lancaster, and potentially downtown Columbus.
The recent partnership with Innovate New Albany represents a perfect synergy, combining Brickhouse Blue's expertise in creating productive environments with Innovate New Albany's established programming for technology startups. Meanwhile, Dave's parallel success with Midwest Basketball Club—growing from one team to nearly 200 across multiple states—demonstrates how his brick-by-brick philosophy creates sustainable growth whether in business or youth development.
Ready to experience how the right environment can transform your business? Visit any Brickhouse Blue location to discover spaces designed for innovation, community, and success—built one brick at a time.
Awesome. Well, let's get started, Dave, welcome to the show White Fence Living Podcast and welcome to your podcast studio. Thanks, Welcome in. And welcome in. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's been awesome, it's been. So. I think this is episode three or four for us.
Speaker 2:Congrats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the studio's been great. The response has been awesome and you know, everybody at Brickhouse Blue has been super, super supportive. It's good to hear Everybody at Brickhouse Blue has been super, super supportive. It's good to hear let's jump into Brickhouse Blue. How'd you start it? Why'd you start it? Where'd the idea come from? Just tell us about Brickhouse Blue and its start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'll even maybe take a page before that just to kind of give it some context, because what this is and what it's intended to be, I think, allows for everyone's story that you'll probably hear as you talk to other entrepreneurs or small businesses that it came from something not in the moment, but something from in the past that's always kind of been there. So for me going to college, I was there for all the other reasons besides why you're probably supposed to be there. I wasn't a school guy, I was more of a. You know, what does the world teach you? What do cultures teach you? What does just everyday success look like? Where are there problems? Where can you find solutions? And so I spent a lot of my time in that space, and so I probably wasn't the right person to go to college. I was probably somebody that should have just started into the real world right out of high school.
Speaker 2:But I went there for sports, and so it led to finishing my education, etc. But my point is, I ended up being in the career of recruiting, which, again, there isn't a degree for that. So I came out and was in staffing as an agency world and rolled myself into the corporate side for about 20 years, but the whole time and being involved in that, I was really there to help people. You know, recruiting is identifying talent, understanding people's core behaviors who are you, how are you wired and how do I get you to the right position versus the position that you applied to. And so in all that, I was always in the back of my mind, thinking what else do I want to do while I'm helping these people? And so I always was doing and we can talk about it later on, you know AAU basketball along the way for the past 17 years after work, again helping young kids.
Speaker 2:But when I left in 2015 from Discover Card, it was finally that blank slate of now what? And to continue on that algorithm of helping people. The next step was like how do you help businesses, right? And so the idea was well, what if we created our own space that would allow businesses to think the way I've always thought like hey, where if you could have an actual space to let your brain get away from the everyday norms of society and think just a little bit different. So started the concept of Brickhouse Blue with my partner, sid Romberg. She was also a former executive on the marketing side at Cardinal Health and her son had played in AAU with my son, and so we had a conversation about having our own space and what that could look like. And so we sat down, put a business plan together, and that was in 2016. And so we sat down, put a business plan together, and that was in 2016. And here we are.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, so where'd the name come from? I got Brickhouse Blue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it all kind of ties together. So, as an AAU program, every year when we would launch our new season, I would come up with a theme to put on the back of the practice jerseys. That was kind of a reminder and I kind of stole it from Urban Meyer. When Urban Meyer was at Ohio State with football, he always had a different mantra, and so the one year we put on the back brick by brick and the moral of the story there is to help parents understand that you know, little Johnny and little Sally aren't going to the NBA or WNBA tomorrow. So let the process take place. Let us help build your son or your daughter brick by brick and let them become who they're supposed to be. Which again back to recruiting.
Speaker 2:When you're interviewing people, you know the people are who they are. They're wired a certain way. They were born with certain core behaviors. Don't make them something they're not. And so I always believed in that concept of you know, brick by brick, step by step. And so when we started to build out this company, you know the name brick by brick really wasn't the sexiest name to put out there, but I knew that what Sid and I were about were building you know, people, talent, companies, brick by brick, and so we moved to brick house.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe it's a community that houses this process of you know, brick by brick, but brick housecom was taken.
Speaker 2:So we had to find a different, a different alley, and so we were actually with our architect, wsa, shout out to them. And we were. There was another company that they were working with and their logo was on the wall and I think it was Bonfire Red and I think they're a marketing company. And it hit me like, well, what if we, what if we used a color? And so Sid and I looked up blue. And you know it stands for innovation, you know we're trying to help people think big, blue ocean, blue sky. And so we slapped the word blue on the back. We knew it was not going to resonate well in the state of Ohio with the Buckeyes but um, just don't put maize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just don't put maize in blue, but so yeah, so, so there you go. So that's how the that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Uh, and Dave, we've only met a few times. Man, I can just tell how genuine you are about really building up people right, like I could tell that that's at your core is. You know, just in the brief times that we've talked is like you know, you've even offered me help already. You know how can I help you, like how? So I can tell, uh, the name is fitting, it's good to know. Now, uh, brick house, building those bricks. It makes complete sense. Um, so I I've never heard that story. I don't know if anybody has. I'm sure they have. But Well, even the symbols.
Speaker 2:So there's the square, the triangle and the circle. So the actual square is that brick right. It's the ability to have that core foundation. The triangle is kind of like the shape of a peak of a home. So there's your house.
Speaker 2:So, there's the brick house, so we're helping build culture and community, brick by brick, in this foundation, under this roof, and then the circle is continuous learning, continuous growth. So again, blue sky, blue ocean, it's. Everything is endless. And that's how we want our small businesses and entrepreneurs to think when they come in here, that, like, everything's possible. Yeah, and if we can help with that, if our staff can help support you, whether it's good day, bad day, and they're there to pick you up, whether we can connect you with other resources within this community to say, hey, you don't know what you don't know, I've learned that along the way that I'm good at some things, but there's a lot that I'm not.
Speaker 2:And so to identify the right people to support you, because you're not a 500-person or a you know a big six firm, um or fortune 500, you're a one, two, three person shop, and so everybody's wearing a lot of hats. But you're, you know, you're not, you're not the best person for some of these things. That requires to be successful.
Speaker 1:For sure. I mean, we were just talking about it with podcasting I like, like the editing stuff, I mean I'm learning but, I'm learning all of it, but yeah, I think it's, it's, it's awesome and that that ties into a question I had later. But so Innovate New Albany I think a lot of New Albany residents have heard of Innovate New Albany. We've heard of the Tiger Talks, so like, how does Brickhouse Blue tie into that? And so what is that like journey with this location here in New Albany been like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know and this is a credit to Neil and and Jennifer you know Neil and I met probably in 2019, when he was doing some of the Tiger Talks over here in their prior space and he came over to Brickhouse Blue, sat down with us and we tried to figure out how to expand, how do we bring the Tiger Talks into what we're doing now with our space. And you know, as we were formulating that, he'd just done such a great job in the New Albany community that I think it was hard to uproot people, to move and drive over to Dublin too. So we're trying the alternate schedule. And then, you know, covid came along and so it just never really took off. But there was always conversations with Neil about how do we bring this style of information to people that could use it. And then Jennifer and I actually met Right after we opened in Dublin 2018, I came over and met with her and her staff in the offices over here and we were trying to figure out where could this go, where can this concept branch out into this community, because you're talking about innovation already, but, again, maybe the building or the stimulation of stuff around it wasn't there, so we kind of hashed it out and just nothing was right.
Speaker 2:And I don't mean by relationship, I mean just identifying a space that we felt like was worth investing in. So fast forward to last December and Jennifer called and said hey, I think we're going to need to find some space and we would like to partner with you. And I'm like finally, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:I've been wanting to be a part of it because you know they look at all the communities around Columbus. There's, there's co-working there, um, and new Albany really didn't have a presence in that and it was always a head scratcher Like why not Um? So to have the ability to bring what we do along with what Innovate New Albany Tiger Talks has, I think is right now probably the best formula in all the suburban communities within Columbus right now between co-working, innovation and just general knowledge giving and things like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean it makes sense, right, you've got, you've got all these great startups and small businesses in, in particularly technology. I mean, yeah, why not create a space where they can all physically be together? I mean it makes all the sense in the world, cool. So what's next for Brick House Blue? Well, so you, there's, there's going to be four locations, right? So we currently have four.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we have the two Dublin locations. We quickly grew out of our space in Bridge Park and pulled in another one in 2020, right when COVID hit, yeah. And then we opened up Plain City almost two years ago Okay, just two years ago. Here today we're close to it. And then the new Albany location Awesome.
Speaker 2:So next up, we have partnered with Equity and we will be building a new build in Hilliard at the new TruePoint project Awesome. So it's a little mini bridge park hotels, restaurants. It'll be right next door to ADS headquarters. They've been a great partner with us at our current Dublin location, hosted a lot of meetings there, and I think and this is a shout-out to our staff and team they've done such a great job of hosting them that ADS and part of this negotiation with equity business partners was like, hey, we want Brickhouse Blue to be here, so, however that could look, we want them next to us, and so that was great to hear and speaking with Steve Wathan and Austin Wathan about coming into their project, just to know that we wanted to be there, but we were also wanted at the same time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny as I bring people in to see it. It's like you walk in the space and you're instantly like man. I could see myself using this. This makes sense. So I'm not surprised that people that utilize the space see the environment, the culture around it, that they want to be a part of it. I mean, it's kind of infectious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we're not perfect. I mean I don't think anybody will claim that they are, and you know this is our eighth year and so over time we've learned a lot. Do I wish we could start over and do some things differently? Absolutely, but I think what's been great about our team is the flexibility that they have to know that we're always going to be changing. We're never going to stick with the standard of mediocrity or status quo, and so we've done, I think, a really good job of finding all the small things that make a difference in somebody's experience with us at BrickHouse Blue, whether it's a meeting or a coworker or office user.
Speaker 2:And so now we've kind of created these perfect formulas to take into new spaces, not just from once we open the doors, but prior to that, how the space is built out. What do people really want? What's the future look like for coworking, versus just? I think a lot of spaces just plug and play. It's a current space paint the walls, slap some furniture in there, put somebody at the front desk and let's hope it works. That's just not who we are.
Speaker 1:No, I mean it's definitely. I've been in other coworking spaces. It's it's not the same, it's just not. It's not not your typical coworking space. Not that I have a ton of experience in them, but you know there's a few I've. I've been in this one's. This one's definitely different. So, um, let's talk AAU basketball or youth sports in general. Um, so I've got, uh, I've got, four kids that all play youth sports. I coach all of them. So I'm like I'm coaching softball, lacrosse, I'm coaching wrestling football. So you know, I know how big that your AAU program has got. Just tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I started our current program, which is Midwest Basketball Club. It was Mid-Ohio Pumas for many years and started in 2009. Club it was mid-Ohio Pumas for many years and started in 2009. So I started with my youngest, my oldest son, when he was in second grade. He's now graduating from Miami this next weekend. Congrats, thank you. So you can kind of see where the journey started and where we're at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, really it was just one team of kids that were baseball players and you know we we were coming out of the baseball season, which was like t-ball or something like that, and a great group of families. We enjoyed being together, hanging out, taking the kids to restaurants and being adults. You know, later on the evening kind of yeah yeah, fun.
Speaker 2:So we thought, all right, how do we keep this together? And I was, know, one of the few basketball savants in the on the parent group, and so I said, well, I'll coach them, let's get into this, let's figure this out. I knew where I didn't want my kids to play and there weren't a lot of great options in the AAU scene in Columbus. So an AAU just for the listeners it's, it's basically travel basketball. So we so we created our first team and had a lot of success. We went and played in the lebron james you know, king james classic up in akron, which is, you know, 700 teams around the country, and finished second. And so all of a sudden we're like, wow, we have, we're gonna be on to something here again getting their third graders, and I've learned a lot from that too like
Speaker 2:we were like, yeah, we awesome. I mean, we were playing 13 tournaments in spring. Now we play like seven. So you know, we we learned, lived and learned there as well.
Speaker 2:But I think by just doing things the right way which is what I've always been about like just start from the beginning the right way, and you may not make the most money from it, you may not make the most friends from it, you may not have the most success, but you'll feel better at night putting your head on the pillow, that you did it the right way. And so I think through that, a lot of high school coaches who had sons that were playing the sport said hey, I like how you guys are teaching these kids and playing. Can I bring my son and our team over to be a part of what you're doing? And never was my intention. Yeah, I'm like sure.
Speaker 2:So the next thing, you know, I look up and in five years we are, you know, 28 teams. At year 10 we're probably at 100 teams. We moved into girls as well. And then here we are, year 17 and we're close to 200 teams. We're in Michigan, cincinnati, cleveland and probably Louisville next year, and I think we actually have a couple teams now down in Charleston, west Virginia, so we're trying to reach as many youth as possible. We typically have around 2,000 kids try out for our club, so I think the word's gotten out that you know, and we try to target and you know I hope this doesn't offend anybody we target the moms.
Speaker 2:Oh, for sure, because we know that a lot of times they're the ones that are involved in getting them to and from or planning at least for the family. And they want structure, they want communication, they want to know where they need to be and what time, and they want to make sure their kids are taken care of and they're safe. So, I think that's a big reason why we've grown to the level we've gone.
Speaker 1:Are there other programs like it, like was? Were there other big programs like that?
Speaker 2:I mean at the time there were other programs that were sponsored by, you know, Nike or um Adidas. We are now an Adidas sponsored program, Um, and we're one of the largest in the country. There weren't probably anybody to our scale. Yeah, indiana elite is a program over in indiana that's probably the equivalent to us from that size.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, yeah, um, again, a lot of people think that it's just you're grabbing kids and doing things. What they don't know is that, um, you know we have d leagues so through our tryouts we don't take every kid. Yeah, I tell. I specifically tell parents like this isn't for everyone and and you shouldn't pay money to be a part of something that your kids not going to have an opportunity to play as a ninth player just because he's six, two and he's a fifth grader. Yeah, so we created our D league years ago that allows kids and parents to say don't do the travel, don't spend money on hotels, don't pay the cost of these fees, take your son to our training and our development on sunday nights. Let them play baseball, let them play soccer, let them do other sports, but let them keep a ball in their hand and have an opportunity to continue to get better and make their middle school team, etc yeah, exactly, um, yeah, that that kind of I don't know, like youth sports travel, um, I'm passionate about it, of course.
Speaker 1:So I was a collegiate athlete, um, and and just, it seems like recently a lot, you see, a lot of kids kind of get pigeonholed into one sport. They spend all their time there, they focus on that and I just worry, like, how does that end up in the end, right, so what if that sport doesn't work out and they haven't been exposed to anything else? So, in your experience, just touch on that With kids that you could tell are going to be basketball players and that's what they want to focus on and there's nothing wrong with that. But talking about that D-League, have you had kids that have gone through that league and end up on a travel team? Have you seen that success?
Speaker 2:story. Yeah, that happens a lot and I think the parents I think it's, and the players, I think a little bit when they're told like you didn't make a travel team, but here's another opportunity. It may feel a little bit of shame at first, but I can tell you 95% of the time when this, when the six or eight sessions are over, that the parent is like thank you, yeah, this is exactly what he needed or she needed. He that the parent is like thank you, this is exactly what he needed or she needed. He's gotten better.
Speaker 2:I'm glad I didn't spend all this money and now we're ready for what's next, because you don't have to again back to brick by brick. It's a process, don't rush it. Let it happen organically and good things will happen. And to your multi-sport thing ironically, I just tweeted this.
Speaker 2:Know, jack Sawyer was one of our first players you know, started with us as a third grader with my son and play with us all the way up to his sophomore year, before he really focused on football, but Jack probably could have played in the major league baseball.
Speaker 2:He was a hell of a baseball player. Jack was a all state basketball player until he tore his ACL, and so he probably could have played basketball to high estate. Yeah, now he's a rare specimen and here he is being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers this past weekend as a defensive end, but you know, jack figured out a way to play all three and was very successful. So I worry, though, in today's world with the NIL, with athletes now being paid, that I think kids are just going to find a sport and find a brand, because that's part of it. Now, of course, social media, instagram reels, videos it's all part of it, yeah, and these kids are on display all the time, and so I could see more and more kids picking one sport, knowing that if I'm good at this, I can make hundreds of thousands of dollars If not millions yeah, if not millions as a college athlete.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which they're all the anomaly, right, I mean, 99.9 of these kids in youth sports, like that's it, right, it's. You know, not many people go on after high school. Um, so, yeah, I just man, I just I really want the kids that I coach or that I'm involved with like develop, learn to love the sport, learn to you know all the other things that go along with sport, and genetics will likely determine whether you're going to get to the next level or not. Not to say you shouldn't work on your craft, like that's not, but just enjoy the time you're in now.
Speaker 1:Like the memories of playing youth baseball, I mean I still think about and I wasn't a big youth baseball, but I still remember youth baseball, you know. Or high school football I didn't go on, you know, I ran track in college. I didn't play football, but those memories, you know, I didn't even think about playing in college one. I wasn't big enough or good enough, but but, uh, but I'm glad that I just absorbed, like that experience with my friends and just in general. So, um, yeah, I just I want to see, I hope that more parents are, you know, I love to see parents that have that perspective, not the I'm going to go pay a zillion dollars to make my kid the best soccer player in the world and ruin that experience for that kid?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, you know, I I don't know where how to provide the right advice to someone like you kind of know, like you don't know early on. But you know, like I've seen enough, it's been 17 years, I've got 800 alumni. I, I know, at seventh grade, yeah, unless a kid changes his body and changes, you kind of know like that's a division one athlete, yep, and the others. I'm saying they're, they're not, but they got a lot of work to do. And to tell them that would be crushing a dream. And I don't, I'm not about that, I just it's. I wish if parents or players would say just give me an honest evaluation and you can give it and let them do with it what they want. But no one wants to hear that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you, just if your kids going to be 510 in basketball, just look at the metrics, look at the data. I mean, and that's what's great about college sports now is that you can look that up. You can see the number of guards that were below six foot, that played division one basketball not a lot. And so you've got to have something else. And it's not to say you shouldn't play basketball in high school. I'm all about winning state championships, like I think the focus should be that and if you're good enough because of your success in high school and you can play in college, awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But to go after it just to be a college athlete, I think is the wrong approach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more. Um I it. Uh. You know my son, vinny. So my wife and I are very big. My wife's a little Italian girl. I'm five, eight", 5'9".
Speaker 1:On a good day, and like I tell my son and I don't know if this is the right thing or not, but I tell him like you go to New Albany, it's a division one school, look at your parents, look at your grandparents. Like you're not going to be a big kid. You know, I was 160, soaking wet in high school and I, but I do. I tell him that so that he understands how hard he's going to have to work to do it.
Speaker 1:I'm not telling him he can't do it, I'm just saying you're not going to have it as easy as some other kids because you're not going to be as big, so you're going to have to work twice as hard. You're going to have to learn the game. You're going to have to. And so right now he does workouts every night, every single night. He's doing sit-ups, push-ups, crunches. Um, we're doing like speed training, like he's working his tail off now and I just keep beating it, like I just keep telling him you're just gonna have to work that much harder and and maybe get a shot Right Um well, if anything, the worst thing that happens is he.
Speaker 2:He put in discipline and work ethic right. And that's going to make him a great you know, leader, a great husband, a great you know employee, and those are attributes you can't. You know it's hard to make somebody have later in life.
Speaker 1:For sure, for sure. Well, I could go on sports forever, dave, I appreciate your time. You know when I first when I would, when the idea of the podcast first came up and it was like, all right, we're going to get podcast equipment. I'm like maybe that's not the best way to do it. So then I learned that this was here, checked it out, nia gave us a tour. I was like this makes complete sense. And I told Nia I was like well, who founded this? How did this start? And she's like, oh, dave, you've got to interview Dave.
Speaker 2:I'm like that'd be great. So you're the first person we thought of for the show. So I appreciate your time, you know, I appreciate you having me and again I want to make sure I'm here representing Brickhouse Blue, my partner, sid. She's doing some traveling. She is an equal entity in the success of this and probably even now, even in the past couple of years, my wife Susan has taken the reins of the operational side and nice of this to allow, you know, sid, to do other things with her um side career, um for me to work on expansion and other locations with, like Lancaster coming um, finley coming um, hoping to get a deal done for the Estrella building downtown, um, so I think, um, it's important to know that Brickhouse Blue just isn't.
Speaker 1:I'm the speaking puppet right now.
Speaker 2:It's not just me and you know, and to our staff like our, you've experienced it at least even the new Albany staff, but the Dublin and Plain City team as well. It's just we couldn't be more pleased and fortunate to have the type of people that we have representing our brand as Brickhouse Blue.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:Dave, thanks again, man, appreciate it, appreciate it. Thank you, yep.