One of the things to love about North Texas is the extraordinarily imaginative spirit that exists in our businesses here.

This is a place where ideas take flight — fertile ground where the likes of business magnate Ross Perot, Nina Vaca of Pinnacle Group, businessman Mark Cuban and Amber Venz Box of RewardStyle are encouraged to spread their wings and fly, often in the face of doubters and detractors.

I’ve always been intrigued by colorful characters. In the case of Dallas-based Foot Cardigan, color is something the company takes literally. Perhaps you saw the pitch on TV’s Shark Tank: subscriptions for a wildly patterned pair of socks delivered to your door each month. Nowadays, they do that to a worldwide customer base. Along the same lines is DeadSoxy, another Dallas business, which set up shop in 2015 because the founder couldn’t find a stylish, quality sock that would stay in place. Now, DeadSoxy sells socks of all kinds — for women, men and kids everywhere.

Ilumi, another North Texas company attracting attention, offers what it calls “the world’s smartest light bulb.” Their bulbs use LED and Bluetooth technologies, can be remotely controlled via an app and are capable of myriad lighting effects. Its creators presented their original concept at an annual business-ideas competition at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Another interesting company is MenuRunners, founded in Dallas in 2016. In an age of meeting customers where they are, this one-stop ordering platform does just that, by having food delivered from various restaurants to diners in urban and midsize markets across the country. The company uses automated logistics software to send your order to a restaurant then dispatch a driver to bring it to you.

It has been said that Walt Disney, the man, believed that creativity flowed between cartoonists on his staff, thus he insisted on open spaces without walls. (Way before the open-concept offices of today, by the way.) In the case of North Texas businesses, creativity flows like that every day, in every business — openly, freely.

There is a real estate brokerage I know where that happens, too, with the nearly 500 agents who work there and with everyone who supports them.

May the ideas continue to flow — the more, the merrier!

_____________ ROBBIE BRIGGS, President and CEO As seen in the Wall Street Journal’s Mansion section.