Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Waldman.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My Co-Founder, Eric Horndahl, and I were lucky enough to work together in the early 2000s. When the opportunity to start a business together came up, almost 10 years later, we jumped at the chance.
It was really important for us to choose an industry where we could add value and help solve a big problem for people. Eric had just gone through an experience where he needed new windows at his house and had a big National company had come to give him a quote. They gave him this 3-hour long dog and pony show with a huge price tag and heavy-handed sales pitch. They literally refused to leave his house when he said no.
Looking back on that experience, it struck us that there was no easy way to go online and get a price for home renovation projects. Even worse, as we were talking to our family and friends, we just kept hearing about these horrible experiences everyone had with contractors. We knew there had to be a way to transform the experience for homeowners and provide the transparency and great service we would want as homeowners, all the way through from the initial education to the installation of the products.
Twelve months later we had the business up and running with our first batch of customers and a website (www.Renoviso.com) where customers could go to get pricing, including installation, for replacement windows. In the time since, we’ve expanded to include roofing, doors, siding and hardwood floors and can help customers from Northern New England to Maryland. In just the last 12 months, we’ve served almost 400 homeowners and the feedback has been amazing.
Has it been a smooth road?
Some parts have been as we expected and some have been harder, of course. Our original premise, and core business model, has proven to be dead on. Customers love what we are doing and we have delivered on our goals and promises to ourselves, investors, customers and our employees.
What has been harder is modernizing the construction industry itself. There is a reason people have bad experiences with contractors. The industry is hard. Manufacturers have surprising defect rates and antiquated ordering processes. There aren’t great project management or pricing systems. Contractors themselves have a strong aversion to adopting technology and often aren’t the strongest communicators even the homeowners have been trained by experience to be leery and suspicious which makes them stressed even just going into a project.
When you put all of that together, it is both a blessing and a challenge. It is a blessing because it allows us to innovate and deliver sustainable and clear benefits to our customers and partners. It is a challenge because it makes doing so harder than it needs to be.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Renoviso story. Tell us more about the business.
At our core, Renoviso is half home improvement contractor and half Internet start-up. We provide homeowners with the ability to research, price and purchase a variety of home improvement products via our one-of-a-kind website. But we aren’t just a technology company and we aren’t just providing up-front pricing transparency.
Unlike virtually every other player on the “web” side of the construction industry, we also are a fully licensed contractor and manage all of the work. This is what really sets us apart and allows us to deliver on the great experience we promise. Our NPS is amazingly high for any industry, and off the charts for construction.
What the entire team here is most proud of is how we’ve been able to take the stress out of renovation for so many families.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We firmly believe that we are leading the charge to modernize the construction industry. As homeowners utilize the Internet more and more to research everything, from restaurants to vacation spots, they will expect virtually every purchase they make to start there.
We feel we are uniquely positioned, as outsiders to the renovation space, to see what other companies are doing in other industries and to use those best practices and learnings to develop an amazing end-to-end service for our customers.
Home renovation has been seeing strong growth for several years as homes age and younger homeowners move in looking to spruce them up. These trends are expected to continue for years to come.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2 South Market Street
Boston, MA 02109 - Website: www.renoviso.com
- Phone: 617-848-9610
- Email: support@renoviso.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renovisohome/
- Twitter: @renoviso
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/renoviso-boston-3
- Other: https://www.angieslist.com/companylist/us/ma/boston/renoviso-reviews-8539035.htm
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