Meet Andre Kazimierski of Improovy Painters St Louis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andre Kazimierski. 

Hi Andre, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Before founding Improovy, I’d been in the residential painting industry for 15 years. 

I started my first painting company in college to help pay for school, not knowing that I’d have the opportunity to change how the industry works over a decade later. 

As a 19-year-old college student, I spent my summers knocking on doors, selling paint jobs, hiring painters, and managing home painting projects. 

In 2017, I partnered with a friend and fellow painting industry expert to launch 3rd Gen Painting and Remodeling. During this, I stumbled upon a better and smarter way to manage a painting business. From the beginning, we focused on things like SEO and building a great reputation online with fantastic customer reviews. Likewise, we went above and beyond for our customers and taught our crews to do the same. We developed in-house systems and a CRM to manage our house painting jobs and price quotes. We started growing extremely fast and I am proud to say that business has reached seven figures year after year and is now exclusively managed by my very talented business partner, who has taken 3rd Gen to another level. 

On September 19th, 2019, I founded Improovy because I felt it was now my calling to share this new way of doing business with all contractors. In founding Improovy, we not only want to change the way we do business in the painting industry but in similar industries like flooring, siding, gutters, and roofing. All of these industries suffer the same inefficiencies that the painting industry does, resulting in a crummy experience for both customers and contractors. 

I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a better way and Improovy is how we plan to bring it to the masses. We have roots here in Saint Louis so we are proud to say that our Saint Louis division, Improovy Painters St Louis, has been able to make the lives of both painting contractors and homeowners in and around St. Louis County better as a result. Especially during the pandemic. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Over the years of running painting companies, I couldn’t help but feel like there had to be a better way to run and manage a painting business. As a painting contractor over the years, I was stuck relying on websites like HomeAdvisor, Angieslist, and Yelp, which, from my perspective, stayed in business by preying on unsuspecting business owners that didn’t have a digital presence. As you can imagine, relying on others to generate new business really cut into the margins on each house we painted. 

Not to mention, it was a struggle to find great painters and keep them busy each season. Being in the Midwest, one thing that is fairly unique in the painting industry is that half your business dries up when it gets too cold outside to paint during the winter months. So as a painting contractor, you would have to scale up your team and hire a bunch of painters in the Spring to prepare for the summer rush of demand. As Fall and winter came around, I would have to scale back my paint crews by over 50% in some cases. It was like a never-ending cycle of hiring and firing that, frankly, was exhausting to deal with as a business owner. Accordingly, I believe this seasonality is one of the major reasons the painting industry is so fragmented today. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Improovy Painters St Louis?
First and foremost, we believe that it is our duty to elevate the painting trade. We are a team of painting industry experts with over 50 years of painting industry experience in every facet of the trade. Our incredible production manager, Nick, was in a management position with Sherwin-Williams for over 20 years before joining Improovy Painters St Louis. 

Our incredibly talented sales and recruiting team; Cole, Alexis, and Dominique, are as good as it gets when it comes to painting expertise and providing a seamless customer experience. Our engineer, Dane, is as brilliant as they come. Not to mention, he’s a painting industry expert himself who can run a million dollar sales team when called on. Speaking of brilliant, our COO, Carr, is the real deal. He makes everyone around him 10x better and is genuinely one of my favorite people I have ever worked with. No question, he’ll be writing the handbook on how to launch and scale billion dollar startups in a few years. From easy and convenient price quotes in minutes to finding the perfect paint crew for your interior or exterior painting project, you really can’t imagine how easy it is to upgrade your space with a team that cares as much as they do. 

It’s our duty to make the lives of the painting contractors on our platform better so that they can do incredible work for our customers. From a quality standpoint, there is nothing that compares to working with Improovy. 

Next, we believe that it’s our job to make it as easy as possible to paint your home, apartment, or commercial space in Saint Louis, MO. When you call Improovy Painters, someone either picks up the phone immediately or calls you back the same day. Believe it or not, this is a revelation in the home improvement contracting industry. When you fill out a form to paint your house on our website, you better believe we’ll be ready to give you a fast, accurate, and fair painting price soon after. 

When we say your job will start a certain week or day, it begins. We use the highest quality materials and focus on prep work to make sure that your paint job lasts for years. Need help with paint colors? we have you covered as well. A complimentary paint color consultation from a Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams design expert is included with every paint job in St Louis. 

But what we are most proud of is our ability to understand the PAIN of contractors and customers looking for painters and solve for it almost instantaneously. We are the future of how people will upgrade their homes, and we take great pride in being the only painting service in the country that is able to streamline the experience from start to finish. 

Last but not least, I believe that we’re just getting started. 

In a few years, you’ll be using Improovy the same way you order delivery from your favorite restaurant off Grubhub or order a pair of socks off of Amazon, but for home improvement services. 

Imagine being able to paint your walls on a whim or change the exterior stucco color of your home every season at the click of a button. With Improovy, all the doubt and frustration of working with contractors is gone. 

All that’s left is a delightful experience and the ultimate way to upgrade your space without the hassle or worry. With Improovy, you now have a guy/gal to fix it all that is always available, affordable, and reliable, on-demand. 

What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I loved computers and helped leverage technology to streamline the way my mom ran her local cleaning company, Sophia’s Cleaning Service. In turn, I saw the impact that technology can have on the life of small business owners and their families. 

Sophia, my mother, has since passed but I wake up every day with the goal of making her proud. My wife, Carolina, now runs the business better than I ever did and is simply incredible. Our new business manager, Laura, exemplifies the same ideals of integrity, grit, and passion to execute on the promise of a great customer experience. 

Personally, I am blessed to be surrounded by such great people in all of the businesses I am involved in. I literally have to pinch myself every morning to realize how fortunate it is that I am living the life that my late mother wanted for me. 

Pricing:

• Saint Louis Interior Painting Services: $1500 (small apartment painting) to $30,000 (larger commercial jobs)
• Exterior Painting In St Louis, Missouri: Average Home Painting Price of $3,862 (2200 sqft house)
• Drywall Repairs: $120-$840 for major wall repairs in St. Louis, MO
• 2021 Average House Painting Price In St Louis County: $4,243
• Apartment Painting In the city of Saint Louis: $1,500-$2,400

Contact Info:

• Email: stlouis@improovy.com
• Website: https://www.improovy.com/painters-st-louis/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/improovypaintersstlouis/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ImproovyPaintersStLouis/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/stlouispainters
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ6uuPAEliXtbJSpWuRr1gg
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/improovy-painters-st-louis-clayton
• SoundCloud: https://local.google.com/place?id=16879298075733679356&use=srp
• Other: https://maps.google.com/maps?cid=16879298075733679356

Image Credits
Andre Kazimierski
Improovy Painters St Louis