3. Who Are We?

Hi there, it’s about time we introduced ourselves.  My name is Dan, this is my partner Bianca and that’s Frisco aka TheWindowDog, our incredibly handsome redbone coonhound.

Here we are in Alaska at the beautiful Alyeska Resort. Frisco is always so formal!
Here we are in Alaska at the beautiful Alyeska Resort. Frisco is always so formal!  Can you believe we drove from Virginia to Anchorage and back in 17 days, in December?  Ha, I can.

Bianca and I started Window Universe quite a while back.  I was working for a major nationwide window manufacturer and Bianca was working on Wall St in New York City.  I was tired of seeing the same local window companies overcharging and mistreating their customers while Bianca was sick of working 70 hour weeks hunched over spreadsheets all day and night.

We decided it was time for a change.  After weighing the options we made the fateful decision to quit our jobs while we were camping at a beautiful campground in Frisco, NC.  Years later we named our dog after that little town.

I can tell you it’s not an easy thing to walk away from a successful career with nothing but a few bucks in the bank and an idea.  We finally decided there would always be a reason to wait, that bonus next quarter, the promotion next year, you get the idea.   We knew we’d regret it if we never gave it a shot and here we are all these years later.

Luckily things have worked out pretty well so far.  It turns out if you treat customers well and make sure you’re always offering a great value folks will recognize it and decide to do business with you.  If you’re the curious type, here’s a little more info about our backgrounds.

Daniel M Schweihs

Dan grew up outside Chicago and graduated from Purdue University with a degree in business management and specializations in finance and information systems.  He completed the 2-year Management Training Program at Associated Materials, one of the largest replacement window manufacturers in the country.  That program took him all over the country working in distribution, manufacturing, operations and sales in 5 states.

Next Dan was promoted to outside sales working out of a company owned wholesale distribution center in Lorton, VA.   After a few years he was promoted to manage the entire distribution center that did $11 million in annual wholesale sales to contractors.  Dan presided over the consolidation of local centers during the beginning of the financial crisis to ensure the business would be strong and able to continue to serve its customers through challenging times.  The business emerged more successful than ever and is still a leader in the local area.

It was there that he saw the opportunity to do better than many local companies which led to the founding of Window Universe in 2008.  Window Universe now operates 8 successful stores, does millions of dollars in annual business and has won numerous awards for providing fantastic service.

From there Dan and Bianca launched Window Universe Express in 2015 and business is booming.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn here

Bianca R Medrano

Bianca was born and raised in the great state of Texas and graduated from Southern Methodist University with a dual degree. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and in Real Estate Finance. She went to work at Bank of America in their Home Builder Division providing privately held large homebuilders the financing they needed to run their businesses.

She knew she wanted to take her career to the next level so she left Bank of America to pursue an MBA from Cornell University in gorgeous Ithaca, NY.

After completing her MBA Bianca accepted a position in the Global Real Estate Investment Group at AIG on Wall St.  There she worked with a team investing in and managing multi-family residential properties all across the country.  After a successful time there she moved to a boutique private equity firm in Midtown Manhattan to work on similar real estate related projects.

Bianca met Dan one fateful night in the big city in 2007.  Window Universe was born in 2008 and has grown to 8 locations across the country.

They launched Window Universe Express in 2015 and they now offer windows in 72 cities across 35 states.

Connect with Bianca on LinkedIn here

Frisco

Frisco is a redbone coonhound from the hills of West Virginia.  He didn’t have the easiest start in life.  His mom was found pregnant, abandoned and severely underweight on the side of the road.  Luckily, she was taken to a local shelter and then brought to the Lost Dog and Cat Foundation in Arlington, VA.  There she was nursed back to health and gave birth to a litter of some of the most handsome redbones you’ve ever seen.

Mom and all the puppies were successfully adopted.  Frisco now enjoys spending his days sleeping on the couch and sometimes moving to the sunny spot on the floor.  His hobbies include barking at pedestrians, sleeping on road trips, playing with his friend Taffy who lives next door and eating dinner.

Here is a video of Frisco and Taffy going at it.  This one has nothing to do with windows; it’s just a video of dogs.  You can try to watch it without smiling, but you’ll never succeed.

Connect with Frisco on his Facebook page because hound dogs don’t do LinkedIn, that would be silly.

We’re all glad you found our site.  The next step in this process is to learn about the windows we offer.