Marc Devisse, 34

Marc Devisse founded Tri-Town Construction in 2006, a year after he graduated college.

He wanted to start his own business since he was young, he says. Growing up, his mom was in real estate and his dad owned a small business.

Devisse says he tried to start a pet sitting business when he was 12 or 13. “I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I’ve had a job ever since I was 14, washing dishes in Punta Gorda at a fish market.”

After college, he tried real estate. “It just wasn’t for me,” he says. The man he worked for had real estate and contractor’s licenses, so Devisse did construction jobs for him, too. “It was a good way for me to try both. The bottom went out of the market, and I just took it as an opportunity to start my own business.”

He teamed up with a subcontractor and started with smaller jobs, working on soffits and gutters and painting a bedroom. One night, he started talking to someone sitting next to him at a bar, and the conversation resulted in a $10,000 job renovating a lanai.

Tri-Town has been busy since Hurricane Irma, with people calling the general and roofing contractor about fixing storm damage. “Before the storm, we were experiencing big growth, and with the storm, it’s made it even more quick,” he says.

The growth before Irma was in high-end interior remodeling. Devisse expects that growth to continue.

He’d like Tri-Town to become more of a presence in Southwest Florida and for the 25-employee company to work on larger projects. Expanding geographically could be in the firm’s future as well.

Devisse says, “I like working hard and seeing the potential I have and what I can bring out in other people.”

— Grier Fergsuon

Survey says

Name: Marc Devisse

Age: 34

City of residence: Bonita Spring

Employer: Tri-Town Construction LLC

Title: President/owner

Birthplace: Chicago

Years on the Gulf Coast: 25

Marital status/children: Single with one nine-year-old boy

Alma mater/degree: FGCU Marketing degree

Best place to network: Bonita Springs Chamber events

Messy desk or clean workspace: Messy

Eat lunch out or at your desk: At my desk

Best business lesson ever learned: Take the meeting, work smart

Weirdest job you’ve ever had: Took a road trip when I was 18 and worked at a carnival for two weeks

A website that makes your job easier: GOOGLE!!

App you use the most: All social media apps

One thing you do everyday: Think positive, try to at least

Community group you’re most involved with: Bonita Kiwanis YP

Favorite off-hours activity: Boating, basketball, CrossFit, coaching sports

Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, Both visionaries who are willing to put up everything they own to bet on themselves. Both changing the world.

What you would be doing if you could pick another career: Something in marketing

Top item on your bucket list: Live in the Caribbean with no cell phone for months/years

Your happy place is: On my boat with friends and family

Your biggest fear: Loss

Skill you’d like to learn: Playing the piano

Who would play you in a movie about your life: George Clooney, quiet and reserved

Describe yourself in three words: Intelligent, driven and resourceful