Realizing your business aspirations is hard enough to do during the best of times.

For Matthew Schwab and Tony Gregory, not even a global pandemic was enough to stop them from chasing their dreams.

To learn the story of Matthew Schwab, new owner of Cornerstone Automotive at Dairy Ashford and Briar Forest, we must first introduce ourselves to Tony Gregory, the automotive shop’s founder, who by now has opened six Texas locations with a seventh on the way. A former home builder with a passion for cars, Tony opened the first Cornerstone Automotive in West Houston on Wilcrest and Briar Forest in 1992 after noticing there was a need for quality, honest car repair in west Houston. He envisioned a business that put its customers first, providing essential services as true, valued members of the community. And that’s exactly what he opened.

Tony’s first Cornerstone Automotive was a true “mom and pop” shop. Tony led the business while his wife, Karen, who had a major hand in designing each location’s building, did payroll. Just a few short years later, Tony opened his second location on Dairy Ashford and Briar Forest, partnering with his fellow church member Mark Baker.

Tony’s mission was to grow his business into several locations that operated independently – and then sell each to the location’s managing partner to leave a lasting legacy for the community. And he realized that vision with his first location, but when it came time to sell his Dairy Ashford location, Mark decided it was time to try his hand at something different. What would happen to the Dairy Ashford Cornerstone Automotive?

That’s where Matt Schwab comes in.

After growing up in west Houston and graduating from Stratford High School in 2002, Matt attended the University of Texas in Austin. There, he got plugged into the youth group Young Life, which transformed his life and inspired him to work for the ministry full time at Stratford High School when he returned to Houston after graduating college. Five years and one wedding later, Matt found himself facing a move to Atlanta in support of his wife, who had been accepted into a physical therapy school there.

With no Young Life opportunity in Atlanta, Matt looked for other career ideas. When getting his car serviced, he inquired about the nature of work from the automotive shop’s owner and decided to become an automotive shop franchise owner. To his pleasant surprise, the work provided Matt with lots of opportunities to minister to people, just like he did with Young Life.

“I enjoyed building relationships, helping people who were going through hard times, and feeling like an important part of the community,” he says. Though he was no longer in ministry, he felt he served the same role in many ways, sharing his compassion and love for the people in his community.

But when his wife graduated physical therapy school, the couple was again faced with a life decision – and they decided to move back to Houston to be closer to family. Here, he took a corporate job with the franchise company – but it just didn’t feel the same. He missed being out in the community and connecting with people.

Lucky for Matt, Matt’s father ran into Tony Gregory at a Christmas party in 2019 – and when Tony said he was looking for a new owner for his Dairy Ashford location, it should be no surprise that Matt’s name came up.

As the pandemic loomed across the globe, Matt and Tony began to meet.

Neither Matt nor Tony let the coronavirus pandemic get in the way of their dreams. The two met frequently over the winter and early spring, Tony intent on finding a new, trustworthy owner for Cornerstone Automotive, and Matt realizing he had found his opportunity to again minister to the community he grew up in.

After several meetings, Tony and Matt sealed the deal in April, right in the middle of the pandemic – just as shop traffic plummeted 50% and staffing had to be reduced by half. It wasn’t the ideal time to take ownership of a business, but Matt is excited nonetheless.

“We’re doing everything we can to provide this essential service to the community,” he says.

And for him, there’s more that’s new than ownership of Cornerstone Automotive. There are entirely new ways of doing business, essential for surviving in a pandemic.

“One of the most significant things we’ve implemented is door-to-door service,” Matt says. “If you need your car repaired or worked on, we will go to your house, pick up your car, bring it to our shop, fix it, and drive it back to you. You never have to leave your house.”

Matt has big plans for his new business, and door-to-door service is just the beginning. He is looking forward to finding more ways to provide the highest possible level of service to the community in a way that helps them continue their lives without an interruption to their day.

“I’m honored to be able to come in during this time of crisis so that I can really get my hands dirty and start to help and give back to the community I grew up in,” Matt says.

What you can do now:

Matt encourages people in his community to keep up with car repairs, even now. Because Cornerstone Automotive offers pickup and drop off service, his shop is a natural choice.

“Yes, life is on hold right now,” he says. “But we still need to do things to move forward. Summer is on the way, and it’s a critical time for car repair. I encourage everyone to use this time to get ahead on car care and help small businesses in the process.”

Safely moving forward with the normal routines of life whenever possible is an important way Houston can rally around the small businesses that keep us moving day in and day out.