Our Story
4-Generation Family Tradition
Early 1900’s Noah (our founder) immigrated from the old world. Bringing with him the centuries’ old tradition of wallcovering in Europe. He founded the company mainly on word of mouth and a strong dedication to quality. The company grew steadily doing both residential and commercial projects. While we hold on to our traditional methods, we are constantly adapting to new materials, glues and design trends. We do Art Galleries, homes, businesses and public buildings such as museums. We are certified to install DeGournay Wallcovering. Special certification is required for expensive Wallcoverings that require precise pattern matching and special material treatment. We completed many prestigious projects in museums, art galleries, historic homes and restaurants. Until recently we started to expand online. Having an online presence has opened up new opportunities and new customer base. We still hold on to our traditions.
Meet Ben The CEO
Hello, I am Ben.
My role in our family business is CEO.
With my project management team I will be overseeing your projects from the initial stage of buying wallpaper, to scheduling your installation, quality control and after-sale services.
I am glad you are contacting us to install your wallcovering and we will do the necessary to obtain picture perfect results just like you imagined them -:). Money is important to run a business- We have in excess of 20 families that rely on this business to make a good comfortable living. But beyond that; the smile of clients when they see their wallcovering installed for the first time- That smile is priceless. Money settles the score, the smile touches the heart and gives life meaning.
The way I see it, wallcovering is one of those nice-to-have things. Not a must. You have a home. And now you are making it your own in your own style. So be grateful and proud of your hard work and sense of style because you deserve it.
Like I always say: “Every room has a story. We help you tell yours”
About Ben's Background
Hi there! I’m Ben. I would like to give you a little background about myself to understand Shotcount as a 4 generation family company what the company is all about and where we are heading in the future.
I have a Mechanical Engineering degree from The University of Maryland.
After graduation, I hopped around rather like a hippie, enjoying the process of finding my true calling. A few years of that, and I got more serious about my professional life and got a job as a Mechanical Engineer with one of the world’s biggest defense contractors in the world, building weapon systems for the US Marines. I spent 8 years working there as Mechanical Engineer. During those 8 years, I was able to get my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the George Washington University. Focusing on Entrepreneurship.
I found my ‘TRUE CALLING’ when I decided to join the family business! I discovered that you can create immense value for customers by constantly improving and innovating, and infusing your company with strong core ethics, guiding principles and quality workmanship- or just like I call it a good decent human being. That is magic, but also simple because inside of us we have most of what a business small or very big needs!
I started two restaurants in Washington DC that are still thriving. They are now under management right now with very little input from myself.
I also manage a technology company that owns and operates several (B2C) smart applications. It is exciting because the next chapter of the internet is about to be written with Web 3 and its immersive implications for consumers and businesses. I have missed the first internet craze of the early 2000’s with a few ventures that failed miserably. I missed out on the smart phone initial stages. And now, I am stubbornly pursuing Web 3 opportunities. And I want to win in a big way.
And as you already know, I am the CEO of my wallpaper family business (Shotcount). What I am realizing is that the wallpaper install process from buying the wallpaper to installing it is full of friction or pain points for the customers from start to finish. The customers don’t know where to buy quality wallpapers, they don’t how much wallpaper to buy, what kind of wallpaper will meet their needs. All that, is even before hiring a quality wallpaper installation company. And then they have to call to get quotes, the quotes are all over the place. Leaving the customer at a loss as to for example: does a more expensive installation quote result in a better quality wallpaper installation? Or what are the tell signs of a quality wallpaper hanging company? How do you insure or get warranty on your investments? And many other frictions of the process.
At Shotcount, we have solved many of the frictions and customer pain points, such as offering 3-year warranty and wallpaper insurance and many other perks that you can ask me about. But I am still not satisfied. There is more to be done to offer and end-to-end solution that eliminates all the hinderances and creates exponential value to the customers. Among other things we have started is that is selling high quality branded wallpaper. We are also testing a virtual design center concept to work remotely across the internet with customers to help them select the wallpaper that works best for them- budget-wise and design-wise. So you have all these solutions that are happening and that is what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about and when I am in that state of mind, I am the happiest because I get to solve customers’ problems and money and gains come naturally after that!
Oh Nooo, Not another crypto currency. But yes, we are developing that as well. The COIN is called ‘SHOT’. Customers would begin earning ‘SHOTS’ by purchasing our services. Those ‘SHOTS’ would be used as fidelity points or you could gift them to your friends and family. STAY TUUNED…
You might ask yourself why I am involved in so many things and businesses. The simple answer is that “I can NOT help it”. I must be creative to be happy and I have this fear of missing out (FOMO) on interesting subjects and businesses and opportunities. This constant striving elevates my soul and my potential as a human being. And why not increase the financials as well. Nothing wrong about enjoying the finer things in life. I am able to manage my time quite conveniently because I adopted a concept that I call “Buying your freedom”. Buying in a nutshell is surrounding yourself with smart ethical employees and pay them very very well. Those valuable employees are very expensive but they ‘sell’ me the time and freedom (by solving problems that I don’t want to deal with) to explore and get involved in areas that passionate me. That is “buying your freedom”.
All that being said. I am a very approachable person. In the sense that I am highly curious about the human condition and human nature, Hence, I, and ‘most of the time’ always welcome human interaction. I am an avid student of what makes us human, how do we improve our humanity, and may be find answers- Why we are all here???. But one thing that I realized for sure is that “You can only be human thru other people”.
As a closing note, I would like to mention a couple of influences of greatest importance to me. The first is from F- Scott Fitzgerald: “You can’t repeat the past…Why of course you can!”. It would take an infinite amount of quantic energy to ‘repeat the past’. Which renders it mathematically impossible. But thousands of years before that, Siddhartha Gautama sat under a tree for decades. Only to realize that unfortunately (or fortunately) we can’t recreate the past, but we have the present to enjoy and learn from our past, and shape a better future. And that’s when he self-realized himself as the Buddha. I am not a Buddhist by the way, But this is powerful food for thought from self-realized persons who did the heavy thinking for us.
So yeah, you are welcome to drop me a line ([email protected]) or call me (202) 552-9388.