You could say that owning a home theatre/smart home company was in the cards for Chip Crabtree. The Kentucky native grew up in the electrical business, following in the footsteps of his dear ole dad. “My father was an electrician, so I did that as a child and as a teenager,” Chip tells Franklin
Lifestyle. “Then I went to film school [Watkins Film School] and everybody was either moving to New York or LA to get work, but I was getting ready to get married, so I went back to doing electrical. I was wiring homes and worked for a company that had a little division doing more of
the audio/video stuff. So I started doing that and then I started my own company.”
It was in 2008 that Chip opened The Home Theatre Experts, a company he co-owns with his wife Annemarie, who handles the bookkeeping and logistics of the business. “I've always been kind of entrepreneurial,” Chip says. “I ran my own business as a kid. When I was 15, I owned a
comic book store.” The company that began as a home theater business, shifted with the times to focus more on equipping smart homes.
“When I first started my company, it was just me for a little while,” shares Chip. “Then I was able to grow it and build employees and customers. I started this company with the idea of doing a ton of theater rooms—we are called the Home Theater Experts—but the market has really
changed and we focus more on smart homes now.”
When asked if Chip would love for his two children to follow in his footsteps, as he did his dad's, he’s not too sure he has a say in that decision.
“I don't know that I get a pick for them,” Chip laughs. “They’re pretty strong willed already. I would love someday for them to want to take over, but I don't know that that'll be the case.”
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