Technology
TECH EXCLUSIVE:
DMV’S
W
’S
MAKING A BIG NAME
hat started as a business catering to mil-
itary professionals entering civilian life,
ended up becoming Servpal, new to DC
and featured on our list of must-have
tech memberships. Servpal “allows clients to easily
book and pay for appointments with their favorite per-
sonal image and beauty professionals.” Just like every
other appointment-based application? That’s definitely
a no! They’re not just making it easier for stylists to run
their businesses, but how to grow their brand. We have
the exclusive interview with founder and CEO, Andy
Nevers, about the brand and just how much they’re
changing DMV’s stylists overall business.
Like many startups, finding funding is im-
portant. How did you fund the initial
Servpal creation?
When we first started, we did a GoFundMe campaign
explaining the vision and what I wanted to create for
service members. I wanted to raise $10,000 in 45 days.
People saw my vision and I raised about $6,000 within
those days. We didn’t hit our goal, but the campaign
was successful.
Next was assembling your team to create
this brand. Tell me how you did this?
Getting those initial team members was probably the
toughest thing I experienced while creating Servpal.
Everyone wants to be the next Steve Jobs, but getting a
team to believe in what you want to do is hard. I start-
ed a path of self-funding for team members, which I
couldn’t continue down. I then came up with a solu-
tion that pleased both myself and my team. With the
model that I implemented, my team started growing
and I found myself with people that were dedicated to
Servpal just as much as me. It’s important, with any
tech or web-based start-up, that you have a design and
engineering team that are dedicated and who align with
your vision.
How many members and professionals do
you have currently as a start-up?
How did you get the idea to create Servpal?
Essentially what I wanted to create was a platform
where service members could connect and use the tran-
sition from military to civilian life from a personal im-
age perspective. So at the start of it, I did my research
and learned a lot about the industry, but that part of it
didn’t take off. When I added the other professional
outlets like the makeup artist, hair stylist and person-
al training, everyday services members could relate to,
that started showing traction. More of those profession-
als started joining and now they’re actually using it for
appointment booking.
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C O S M O B I Z M A G A Z I N E
We have over 450 subscribers in the District, Maryland
and Virginia area and we’re adding new subscribers ev-
eryday. In total, we have about 800 because every time
you add a service subscriber, their customers will come
along because of how you book and pay through the
platform.
There are other companies that have the
same concept as Servpal. What separates
your business from theirs?
There are a lot of apps that do appointment booking.
Where Servpal is different is that we’re positioned as