Meet Lou Martinez of The Strike Crew in Central Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lou Martinez.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My wife is a very well know local florist with The Olive and Poppy Floral Design, and she started her business five years ago. So, when florist have weddings that they do, a the end of the night all the flowers, vases, arbors, tall stands, candles, greenery, votives, and anything that they used for the wedding has to pick up and the flowers have to be disposed or given away. In the wedding industry, this is called A Strike at the end of the night. They refer to it as doing the “Strike.”

So, when my wife first started her business, I would have to go with her late at night to help her with the Strike, and the first time I went I got some wedding cake that was left over, so I was in love with doing strikes because I got cake!! So the next couple of times I went with her I would look for cake and be always given some if there was some left over. So I like to joke around and say that I loved strikes and that the idea of The Strike Crew started because I GOT CAKE when I went with my wife to help.

After a while, my kids would go with us to help because they liked the late summer nights and being out at night, they loved the atmosphere of the events late at night. So after a few years, my son turned 18 and he started to do them for us. One night, a lady that was at a venue that we were working at said “I wish I could rent your son” and I thought to myself well that might be a good idea. So, that was the first time I had a thought of starting a crew that would help out florist after their weddings where over.

For a while, I started to talk about it to my wife and some other people, then a florist Casey from La Rue Floral was talking with my wife Shannon and asked her if we had a strike crew in Denver. My wife said to her how funny you ask because my husband was just talking about starting one. Casey had mentioned to her that they had one in Chicago where she just moved from and they were great, and she was thinking of starting one here but didn’t have the time to do it. So, my wife and I sat down with Casey and got some great details to form her and had a discussion of what it looked like and the success it may have. She shared some information with us and form that point on I knew that I was going to start a company that helped with strikes for weddings. I knew that this was one of the biggest gaps in the industry that needed to be filled, no one has a company that does it and it’s a job that not a lot of people want to do, especially florist that has been working all day on an event do not want to come back and “Strike” the wedding at night. So, this was something that was very needed in the industry, very!!

Now, I had to come up with a name, and it was instant what I wanted to call my new business, The Strike Crew was born. It was simple and everyone in the wedding industry would know what it stood for. I also knew that when I designed my logo that it had to be recognizable on site because of the job that we are doing, so my wife and I created a logo the had Strike ver small and CREW very large because in the event industry CREW is very significant to the work being done! I will say we hit the nail on the head because everyone loves the logo, loves that it speaks very loud and everyone wants a shirt!!!

Now, this is in March of 2018 when the idea started to come to life. In May of 2018, I made a decision to start the Strike Crew. July 14th of 2018 was my first event with Coleen @ Plank and Pearl. We set up a couple of vintage furniture settings and some glass wear. We later that night went back to Strike it!! It was the start of something great! Now, with having a wife in the industry and being a veteran at doing strikes already gave me an advantage with another florist so I resigned from my government job at the U.S. Mint of ten years in August because I believed in this so much, so I took the plunge at running my own business. By the end of 2018, I had completed over 48 jobs, built a name for my self in the industry and what was just an idea of doing late night strikes blew up into a full event set up, hanging greenery, smilax, simple design work, hanging installations, security work and then we do the strikes at the end of the night.

What we pride ourselves on is that we do business through principles, of integrity, honesty, commitment, pride, and service. We are an extension of the florist, event planner, or whoever we are hired by. We want to make sure that we are early, that we are professional, that we are courteous, and that we do the best job every time. My staff is very knowledgeable, professional and always has a smile and makes sure we take care of our customer.

One thing that I pride myself on and that few know is that I am 11.5 years clean and sober, a majority of my staff is in recovery. Also that a majority of my staff has a pretty rough background and some have a hard time finding a job. So, I take pride in my staff, a majority of my staff is given and a second chance at life and they are extremely grateful for the opportunities that they get to work for The Strike Crew. So, I feel that’s another reason why this is such a great story is because a of my staff is rewriting their story and I get a chance to help them do that. No one would know any different because all we get is compliments on how amazing my staff is, how friendly and how willing they are to help out! Always smiling and always so grateful to do a great job!

Moving into 2019, I have over 80 events to date with 1/4 of them completed already. Back in March of 2019, we were approached by the staff of the Seawell Ballroom at the Bonfils Theater Complex at the Denver Center of the Performing Arts Complex to do their set up and tear down of that ballroom. We started negotiation’s and a month later I was awarded the contract to help them with their event setup and tear downs for the Seawell Ballroom. What a huge accomplishment for the Strike Crew!! I am now able to give my staff some regular hours and then do events on weekends!! We spend a lot of time in Aspen, Vail, Beaver Creek all mountain towns and all over the Denver metro area, we are working for over 20 florists, and over 20 other vendors in the event industry. What started out as a simple strike company turned into a do it all event company. We have moved pool tables, vintage furniture, we do full setups with some design work, we hang all installations, we have been used a security, we have helped out doing warehouse work, and we even help with sponsorship at a few events by hanging artwork and moving furniture in and out to help with the event. We now do it all, our favorite hashtags are #wegotyou, #welovelatenights, #weworkwhileyourelax, #weworkforcake, #nojobistobigforus things like that.

To sum it up, this all started because I loved getting cake when I helped my wife, to seeing a need in the industry and going after it. I know have 17 people that work for me, a major contract at The Denver Center of the Performing Arts, over 80 events that are all over this state and working with close to 40 different florist vendors and companies. I am now in the process of picking up a couple more large venues.

My next goals are to branch out to California, Texas, look into franchising the Strike Crew and also starting a non profit company called Second Chance Flowers and taking the flowers that we pick up (with the florists permission) and taking them to senior citizen homes, hospitals and any other place that we can find that would love to have them!

I know this is a lot but it is a great story for me to tell, it’s tough to write it out!

Has it been a smooth road?
One of the major struggles is that it grew so fast and I did not expect this to happen as it has. It has definitely been far more than I expected it to be, and its only nine months old!

Along the lines of that is now staffing 17 employees to be equal is a challenge and I’m sure I’m going to need more, also to get the right type of employee that cares about it as much as I do.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Strike Crew story. Tell us more about it.
I believe I described that in the previous questions. But what sets us apart is we go above and beyond to make sure we are representing the company that hired us.

With the staff that I have and the backgrounds that some of them have (I do background checks and there are some requirements that they have to meet and certain things cannot be on their record, including theft and anything with children.) they are so grateful and appreciative that they do such an amazing job that no one would compare to them. There is a great sense of pride that they have working for me.

No one in the industry does this, we are the trendsetters here in CO, so that sets us apart.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I will be in multiple states, I will be franchised, and we will have a non-profit to give the flowers a second home. Also, we will always be willing to help out felons, or those that are looking for a second chance. I’m looking to be in multiple states with a fleet of vans and the ability to give back to a lot of people and create income for families.

Contact Info:

• Address: 7808 Cherry Creek South Dr. #202
  Denver, CO 80204
• Website: www.strikecrew.net
• Phone: 720-292-7397
• Email: info@thestrikecrew.com
• Instagram: thestrikecrew
• Facebook: Luis Martinez also thestrikecrew

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