The Road to Success

Linda Kite persevered through immigration and teen motherhood to found and run her company, Kiteco
By Brooke Stone

photo by shane darby

On any given day in Texarkana, you might pass a business with crisp new lines in its parking lot or notice that a once-faded pavement suddenly looks fresh again. More often than not, that transformation is the work of Kiteco Property Solutions, a locally-owned company that marks pavement, stripes roads, and mills asphalt.

But the story behind this business didn’t begin with heavy equipment or a growing team. It began with the determination of a first-generation immigrant and single mother who saw a gap in the market and decided to fill it.

Linda Kite grew up in Busan, South Korea, though, like many children of government workers, she rarely stayed in one place for long. Her stepfather worked for the United States federal government, and his career meant that the family relocated every couple of years. Moving frequently exposed Linda to new cities and challenges early in life, teaching her how to adapt quickly and embrace change.

At 17, Linda moved to the United States permanently. Leaving behind the dense, bustling streets of Busan for Texarkana, Texas, came with plenty of surprises.

“Texarkana was a big shock because Busan is very much city life, and I’d never seen so much land in my life until I came here,” she recalled.

After a childhood spent moving from place to place, Linda assumed Texarkana would simply be another temporary stop along the way. But shortly after graduating high school, her plans took an unexpected turn when she discovered she was pregnant.

Carson (3) loves visiting Chris on job sites. submitted photo

“In those toddler years, I was a single mom, and those were probably the hardest years of my life,” she said. “I just had to learn to adapt and figure it out myself.”

At 19 years old, Linda found herself navigating the challenges of raising her daughter while learning how to build a life on her own. She worked as a waitress while also pursuing a college degree, eventually graduating from Texas A&M University–Texarkana with a bachelor’s degree in business and accounting.

Balancing college, a job, and single motherhood required resilience and determination. During that chapter of her life, Linda also met the man who would become her husband and business partner, Chris Kite.

Early in their relationship, Chris was working overseas when he stumbled across a pavement-marking video on YouTube. What started as simple curiosity quickly turned into a “that equipment looks pretty cool—add to cart” moment. The striping machine Chris purchased would eventually become the foundation for what is now Kiteco Property Solutions.

While working as a waitress, Linda regularly served local bankers and business owners. In casual conversation, she began mentioning the striping equipment that Chris had purchased. Those conversations soon turned into opportunity.

“Banks were my first customers, and they told me to go ahead and re-stripe the parking lots,” Linda said. “So, I would have Chris go stripe the banks while I was at Hooters, and by the time they finished their drinks, the work would be done.”

While Linda leads business operations, Chris takes charge of on-site duties like operating equipment, managing crews in the field, and ensuring the work gets done right.

Purchasing a pavement-marking machine on something of a whim turned out to be a life-changing decision for Chris and Linda. submitted photo

Those early projects revealed something important—Texarkana had a clear gap in the industry. There were very few companies offering pavement striping locally, and the ones that did were often booked months out.

Rather than treating the early jobs as quick paydays, Linda reinvested everything back into the business. One piece of equipment became two, then three, as the company slowly expanded.

“I knew building relationships was important, and that’s one thing my competitors didn’t do,” she said. “I made sure to go visit everybody and make sure they were happy with the work so if they had any issues or projects, they would always remember to call me first.”

As word of mouth spread, Linda quickly realized that Texarkana was far more welcoming than she had expected. Local businesses were willing to give a new company a chance, and that early support gave her the confidence to continue expanding the company’s services.

Transitioning from parking lots into roadway striping marked the next major step. The move meant bigger equipment, larger projects, and higher risks, but it also brought greater rewards. Unlike the parking-lot industry, roadway striping placed Kiteco in direct competition with much larger contractors from outside the area. But Linda recognized one major advantage: they were local. As the only road-striping company based in the Texarkana metro area at the time, Kiteco could avoid the costly mobilization fees that often come with bringing crews and equipment in from hours away.

Even so, the transition required relentless effort.

“I never worked so hard in my life on hustling with TxDOT, with all the contractors, and all the cities to try my best to get any job I could,” Linda said.

Her persistence paid off. In 2018, Kiteco was awarded its first opportunity to work with the Texas Department of Transportation as a road-striping subcontractor, marking another major milestone for the growing company.

Linda said that Kiteco’s success has always come down to one thing: spotting a need in the local market and being willing to act on it.

“I love trades, and I feel like anybody can be successful if they find a niche within a trade where there’s not much competition,” she said. “Luckily, we found that in parking lots and roads. Then we got into asphalt milling and traffic control. Finding that niche and taking the risk is how we got here today.”

One of the most rewarding moments for Linda was realizing the company had earned the trust of the Cities of Texarkana, Texas, and Arkansas, and their surrounding areas.

“I think when the city officials started calling us and referring us to businesses that were asking for references, that was pretty rewarding for me,” she said. As far as singlemost rewarding job, she said that “working for any TxDOT project is probably my biggest accomplishment because I felt like that was something that wasn’t reachable. But apparently it is.”

Looking back over the past 12 years, Linda remembered the long days and the sacrifices that came with building a business while raising a young child. Jasmine (16), and her brothers, Thatcher (12) and Carson (3), benefit from something Linda once had very little of: time.

“My daughter always says she watched me never stop working,” Linda said. “But my youngest gets this totally different version of ‘Mom.’ I had them 13 years apart, so it’s completely different. I just try to volunteer as much as I can now and not miss anything with my kids.”

Chris and Linda Kite have three children: Thatcher (12), Carson (3), and Jasmine (16). photo by kali rushing photography

Looking ahead, Linda plans to continue growing Kiteco while also learning to take a moment and be present in the success she worked so hard to build.

When asked what advice she would give someone standing where she once stood—as a young mother or an immigrant unsure of the future—Linda’s answer was simple.

“Learn from every no,” she said. “Take them and adapt, then turn them into yeses.”