80,000-Lb Trees, Million-Dollar Backyards & a 150-Person Business

Matthew Hogue doesn't just landscape yards. He's building outdoor experiences, a powerhouse team, and one of Houston's largest design-build landscape firms. In this episode of Houston Hustle, Paige and Charlie sit down with Matthew Hogue, founder and CEO of Hogue Landscape Services, to hear how he went from learning the business from the ground up to launching his own company and growing it from just three people to more than 150 employees in seven years. Matthew gets candid about the parts of entrepreneurship that don't make the highlight reel: hiring the wrong people, learning how to lead instead of simply manage, building a culture of accountability, navigating explosive growth during COVID, and figuring out how to take care of the people who helped build the company. We also get into how he's using AI to run and analyze his business, why social media helped make a tiny startup look like a major player, and his vision of eventually giving employees an ownership stake in the company. And then there are the projects. An 80,000-pound tree transported through Houston with a police escort. A hot tub with actual fire dancing over the water. Million-dollar outdoor spaces. Matthew shares what happens when clients bring big ideas, big properties, and sometimes very big budgets. But underneath all of it is a simple philosophy: build it right, take care of your people, never stop adapting, and don't race to the bottom. This is Houston entrepreneurship at its best: big ideas, calculated risks, a little bit of crazy, and a whole lot of hustle. Find Matthew at: https://www.hoguels.com/ https://www.instagram.com/hoguelandscape/ Host contact: https://www.championforestchiro.com/