ShelfGenie : David Curtis on a Combat Medic's Path to ShelfGenie

This testimonial features David Curtis, brand-new owner of ShelfGenie Chicago West. Curtis brings an unusual professional path into the franchise — a former combat medic who served in a combat infantry unit, then spent 30 years in the ambulance industry, much of it in management — and uses the video to describe how he ended up evaluating franchising at all. The decision was driven by industry change rather than a planned career move. When the ambulance management business affected his role, Curtis found himself out of work, older but not yet retirement-age, and considering business ownership for the first time. He had no franchising background, and assumed franchising required substantially more capital than turned out to be the case. ShelfGenie's transparency during due diligence was the deciding factor. Curtis called other franchise owners as part of his evaluation and reports he received not a single negative comment — and recognizing the Neighborly parent ecosystem behind the brand (Mr. Handyman, Molly Maid, and other home services brands he was already familiar with as a customer) gave him a strong comfort level joining the network. The video closes on what Curtis values about the day-to-day. ShelfGenie's product is high-quality and visibly improves customers' kitchens — he describes the moment a client sees the product and recognizes immediately that it is what they need. The lifestyle fits his stage of life: he chooses when to work, can visit his kids when he wants, and frames the business as something he can own, manage, and run forever rather than retire from.