My first job in America was with an air filter company.

I grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 2007, my family and I were living in Ireland, and I worked as a civil servant. That year, my wife and I packed up our lives, took our three-year-old daughter, and moved to America with just two suitcases and no jobs waiting for us. We had a place to stay in Florida for two weeks. I never would have guessed that I’d end up running two companies in North Carolina, or that having fast internet would become so important to keeping them going.

Not long after we arrived, I started working for a small company that made air filters. I had never worked out of a truck or visited customers face-to-face before. Getting out, meeting people, and doing hands-on work suited me much better than sitting at a desk all day.

Six months after arriving in the States, we came to North Carolina, where we’ve been ever since. I stayed in the HVAC field, working for AIRCON Service Group, primarily serving commercial clients. After nearly 20 years in the business, my partner Tim Hobbs and I bought the company in 2019.

COVID hit just a year later, and life got more complicated for everyone. But for us, it also opened up an unexpected opportunity. My commercial customers started asking about indoor air quality and better filters. I knew the options out there weren’t good enough. So, I spent the next year and a half developing a new product. I did the prototyping myself, and eventually, we created our own air filter. We launched FiltersDirectUSA in 2022, making the filters right here in Garner, North Carolina, and today we ship to customers in 34 states. The filters are made from recycled plastic, and with help from our partner, the nonprofit Tidey Ocean, we remove a pound of plastic from the ocean with every order.

Today, I run the companies with almost 20 employees, an office in Garner, and my home in Holly Springs. Staying connected is crucial. Switching to high-speed fiber made a big difference for both companies.

We got GFiber in our Garner office first. We usually have five or six people working on computers at the same time, using different programs for accounting, dispatch, Shopify orders, and email marketing. With our old provider, things would slow down and lag. Now, everything runs smoothly, all day, every day.

A key part of FiltersDirectUSA is the live chat on our Shopify store, which I manage myself. When customers visit and have questions, I need to answer while they’re still online. Whether I’m at my desk in Garner or at home in Holly Springs, I have to respond quickly. Reliable internet is a must.

When GFiber became available in Holly Springs, we switched right away. Before that, I bought a mesh system to improve coverage, but it sat unused for almost a year because it was too hard to set up, even for someone who’s pretty good with technology.

GFiber got our home network set up in our initial installation visit,and it was so easy. We have one extender downstairs and one upstairs, so now the whole house and even the backyard have coverage. 

Our install tech also helped also got us set up with the GFiber app. The parental controls are really helpful. We have three kids — 22, 17, and 11 — so each one has their own schedule. The app lets me set separate cutoffs for my 17-year-old son’s phone and gaming console. If I didn’t, he’d be gaming and on TikTok way past bedtime.

It’s funny that I limit my son’s TikTok time, but I use the app myself to market FiltersDirectUSA and even sell through a TikTok Shop. I film most of our business videos at home, and sometimes neighbors help out with product shoots. With a fast, reliable connection, I don’t have to worry about buffering or losing video quality.

I never imagined I’d own even one business, let alone two. Ours really is an “only in America” story. We’re making air filters in North Carolina, shipping them all over the country, and doing our best to stay connected so that both businesses run smoothly. It also means I get to enjoy fast internet at home, and make sure my son isn’t up gaming at midnight!

Posted by Mark McNally, Co-Founder & CEO FiltersDirectUSA, and Vice President, AIRCON Service Group