David Heacock, An Entrepreneur Who Gave Up Wall Street to Start a Manufacturing Company From Scratch

Profiles in Leadership

David Heacock’s transformation from a successful Wall Street career to a game-changing entrepreneur is a story of bold decisions, resilience, and relentless determination. Walking away from a seven-figure finance job, David took a leap of faith to rebuild his family’s struggling business—Filterbuy.

With zero experience in manufacturing, he faced incredible challenges, yet turned what began as a small factory in Alabama into a $250M industry leader.

Today, Filterbuy disrupts the indoor air quality sector, producing millions of high-quality air filters and expanding into HVAC services, air purification, and automotive filtration, while creating nearly 1,000 U.S. jobs and serving over 7 million customers.

David’s journey has been anything but easy—he's overcome burned-down factories, near-fatal accidents, and countless setbacks along the way. Yet, through his grit and determination, he’s scaled his business without investors or shortcuts. His success story is a testament to what can be achieved when an entrepreneur is willing to face adversity head-on.

Now, David is sharing the raw, unfiltered lessons he’s learned from building a business from the ground up, inspiring others to take that same leap into entrepreneurship, no matter how daunting it seems.