Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrey Kamogari.
Andrey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born and raised in Brazil. I then moved to San Diego when I was 17 years old and went straight to college. I struggled my first couple of years of college trying to learn English but eventually graduated from SDSU with an International Business degree.
During college, I got a job in a language school that was in need of a person with an international background. I started working as a housing coordinator for the school and that’s how I got in the housing business.
A few years went by and I then saw a need in the market for a company like mine which is a housing agency specialized in the international student market. The struggles I had by moving here not only helped me shape me who I am today but also allowed me to see things with a different perspective and; therefore, find opportunities that other people couldn’t see.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road since the company’s inception in 2007. I had multiple struggles from financial to operational, but the last 3 years have been smoother in a sense. Here are some examples of the struggles I had:
-Wearing Multiple Hats: In the first 4 years of the company, I did not make enough money to have too many employees, so I had to wear multiple hats at the same time: I would do everything in the business from talking to clients to carrying furniture and cleaning apartments.
– Keeping Students “Under Control”: try to figure out a way to keep our students from having parties and noise complaints every day. I had countless meetings with apartment complexes managers and I finally figured a system that worked. We send multiple email reminders of all the rules of apartments as well as have an R.A. who walks around the property in a regular basis and also issuing tickets for large parties.
– Cash flow Problems: We have to pay our rents on the 1st of the month to the apartment complexes, but we don’t get paid from my clients until after about 45 – 60 days of when the rent was due. We had to wait until the company’s credit improved so that we could get a line of credit from the bank. Before that, I had to ask to borrow for friends and family members to help me with the cash flow problem.
KAMO HOUSING – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Kamo Housing is a company specialized in providing temporary housing mainly for international students in the San Diego and Los Angeles area. We are unique because we understand the international student market and needs better than any other company. Our competitors are generally either large corporations that are not personal enough or very small one-person-operation companies that lack the structure necessary to accommodate a market of this size.
I am proud that we have the best of both worlds: Small company’s personal touch and Large company’s capacity and structure. We have currently staying in our apartments about 500 students and 100 students in our homestays. We work with 6 different apartment complexes between San Diego and LA and we have about 200 host families in our database. We offer mainly two types of services: Shared Apartments or Homestays
For the shared apartments we want the residents to not only have a place ready for them to live (with generous amenities offered), but also to learn from the experience of sharing an apartment with people from other countries and with diverse backgrounds. It is an independent living arrangement with a rich cultural experience. We want them to have carefree accommodation, and that is why we take care of everything for them; from all the cooking utensils to all the bills, everything is included. Additionally, all the complexes we work with are located in the prime San Diego and LA areas and have resort-like amenities, such as swimming pools, Jacuzzis, tennis courts, gyms, etc.
For the Kamo Housing homestay program, we want our clients to have the comfort of a home as if they were in their own house and at the same time benefiting from the experience of American culture. The homestay program is exclusively for international students who are placed in American host families. Our families provide both breakfast and dinner for the students 7 days a week.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The key to my business is getting accounts/contracts with schools that will send us students year around, so it is mainly a B2B business and not B2C. Back in 2010, I was doing a lot of sales calls to try to get these schools to sign contracts with me. One school in particular (Kaplan International) would always say that they did not need my help with accommodations. I insisted and knocked on their door for 2 years and it finally paid off. They are today one of my largest clients and we have a great relationship with them. This was one of proudest moment of my career.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1940 Garnet Ave Ste 370
San Diego, CA 92109 - Website: www.kamohousing.com
- Phone: 858-750-3425
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KamoHousing/
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