Meet Hunter Burkey and Andies Shepherd of Next Level Valet

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hunter Burkey and Andies Shepherd.

Hunter and Andies, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Hunter: I moved to Austin in 2008. I was recently laid off from a job in DFW and went to Austin for a weekend to let off some steam and ended up never leaving. I started working valet at a local restaurant named Parkside and ended up becoming the lead valet there. (5-6 nights a week, I was the guy out front)

In 2011, after a failed business attempt, my best friend Andies moved from DFW to live with me (on my couch) and pursue our dreams of being in the real estate business. I introduced him to the valet world and got him a job working with me. We finally moved out of my tiny one bedroom apartment into a tiny two-bedroom house on the east side of Austin. Not long after Andies moved to town, the owner of Parkside (Shawn Cirkiel) opened his third restaurant (Olive & June) and Andies was primed to be the lead valet for that account. For the next few months, Andies and I were the leads at both locations. We were taking real estate classes on line and were months away from receiving our licensing, when we approached Mr. Cirkiel about the possibility of starting our own valet company and running his restaurants. After crunching a lot of numbers and both ready to take a chance, we were ready to start the process. 9 months of hard work and some lucky breaks later, we were able to form our LLC in December 2012 and opened for business on April 9th 2013 in Austin Texas at Parkside, Backspace and Olive and June.

Just months after our opening, we sparked the attention of the then Director of Operations of Uchi and now the President of Hai Hospitality, John Baydale. For the next 6 months or so, we had countless meetings with Mr. Baydale and the decision was finally made that on January 2nd 2014 we would take over the valet operations of both Uchi and Uchiko in Austin, as well as Uchi in Houston. With the addition of the Uchi in Houston we would also be valeting for the other tenants on the property of 904-910 Westheimer. (Rosemont, Southside Espresso, and Hue Salon.)

Since then, we are now the valet provider for 8 different locations in Austin, as well as Pax Americana, Zimm’s, and Jetall Properites in Houston. In 2015, we expanded with Uchi to Dallas and will be traveling with them to Denver, expected 2018.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth roads are only smooth because they are well traveled upon. Rough roads are how they are because your creating your own path. Going down a rough road builds strength and gives you a humbling that I feel you need.

In the beginning, we definitely had some struggles. For the first 6 months of being open, Andies and I worked every single night at one of the accounts and there were a lot of months that we went without pay, just so we could cover the payroll for our 5 employees at the time. We had to learn the struggles of finding parking contracts, event clients, how to manage employees, how to deal with a claim, how to handle a disgruntled guest, how to keep track of our numbers, what to do with the money, and everyone’s favorite, how to prepare for taxes.

Now we have 60+ employees, and we operate valet almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week in the three largest cities in Texas. You still have your bumpy roads here and there, but that’s business. Every day is a learning process.

Next Level Valet – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Next Level Valet is a hospitality parking provider that specializes in valet parking for fine dining restaurants and events. We are known for our customer service as well as being a trustworthy company. We specialize in treating people right, starting with our associates. Things like helping employees setup savings accounts for the first time to giving zero interest loans, paying our staff an industry high, allowing very flexible schedules or having full health benefits are just a few of the things we take pride in. It continues with our clients and guest. We operate with a transparency and integrity that assures we don’t leave any mistake uncorrected or wrong not made right. Its special when you consider how the majority of other hospitably companies operate and function.

Hunter: I’m most proud of the fact that our employees like to work for us. We have a very employee friendly environment and culture, and with that we’ve been able to keep a lot of employees for years, which is hard to say in our industry. I’m also very proud of the name we’ve made for ourselves. Our clients know that with us, you are dealing with an honest company whose owners are good people and who’s service is unmatched.

Andies: It goes back to our staff. We have some of the most dedicated, reliable, and honest employees we could have ever hoped for. Our associates are the ones facilitating the business day in and day out. All of the praise and accolades belong to the effort these guys and girls put in. The best feeling in the world is someone telling us they visited one of our locations and they loved the service. As any company grows you are concerned with quality and reputation and our associates have made that a joy for us.

Hunter: What sets us apart is our service. The way we filter our applicants, the way we train our employees and the way we are constantly thriving to get better as a whole, each and every day. We have weekly conference calls with all management as well as monthly staff meetings in all three cities. We are owners who are very involved but do not micro manage.

Andies: Our “High Quality” from the way we hire and train our staff, our relationships with our clients, and guest, down to our uniforms we strive to keep a level of quality that is unmatched.

We have two other sister companies we have recently started with Next Level Security and Next Level Properties. NLS specializes in security for commercial, residential, events and personal protection. NLP is a real estate investment company. Both business operate in all three cities as well.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Hunter: Some people believe a lot of money deems you successful, while others feel like a strong relationship with the ones you love grants success. I believe you have to find balance. If you’re working your life away and neglect the ones your working so hard for, I can’t classify that as a total success. Success to me is being financially stable, happy, healthy, a strong relationship with the ones you love and trying to be a better person than you were yesterday.

Andies: I think success is defined by the amount of positive impact you are able to have on others. The more people you can positively affect the greater your success.

Contact Info:

• Address: 700 Lavaca St, Suite #1400
• Website: nextlevelvalet.com nxtlvlsecurity.com nxtlvlproperties.com
• Phone: 512-294-4574 and 512-851-7032
• Email: hunter@nextlevelvalet.com and andies@nextlevelvalet.com
• Instagram: nextlevelvalet
• Facebook: nextlevelvalet, nextlevelsecurity, nextlevelproperties
• Twitter: nextlevelvalet
• Yelp: Next Level Valet Houston

Image Credit:
All pictures were taken by Next Level staff.

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