We build the signs that have to pass inspection.

Ali Asgher Sunelwala

Founder and CEO

MBA, Rice University ‘03

It started in a one-bedroom apartment in the Medical Center.

In 2004, Ali Asgher Sunelwala put a few hundred dollars into a vinyl printer and started selling banners out of his apartment near the Texas Medical Center. He had no experience in signage, no tutorials to learn from, and nobody in the trade to call. He launched with a basic website and a Google AdWords account, wrote the ads himself, and learned design and production on real orders with real deadlines.

The early years were not glamorous. He installed most of the work himself, on ladders and rooftops, with his wife standing below. One afternoon a vinyl installation would not lay down right no matter what he did, and he was ready to walk away from the business entirely. She would not let him. He finished the job and kept going.

In 2006, Saifee Signs won an order for 300 safety signs for US Concrete. It was by far the largest job the company had taken, and it paid for the first warehouse. That order led to others, and the business started to build.

“To provide hasslefree, cost-effective, consistent, quality signs and graphics solutions that help our customers create a brand experience they trust us to deliver.”

That was written in 2004, and nothing about it has needed updating. Most of what makes a signage project hard never shows up on the sign. It happens at the permit counter, in the submittal log, and in the weeks between shop drawing approval and delivery. Our job is to absorb that so the client never has to learn it.

The rest is repetition. A district opening a new campus every other year should get the same finishes and the same mounting details as the last one. We keep drawings, color formulas, and fabrication records on file for every project we build, so a damaged panel in year seven gets replaced to match, not approximated.