Meet Ken & Teresa Carfagno

At the start of 2005, Ken Carfagno was a mechanical engineer at General Electric in upstate New York — a recent graduate of GE's Leadership Development Program, close to finishing his Master's in Engineering, and quietly unfulfilled. He wanted to run his own company. The Carfagnos were too deep in debt to change anything.

That July, Teresa was offered the chance to clean their apartment complex. She bought liability insurance, opened Carfagno Cleaning on July 25, 2005, and cleaned with their son strapped to her back. Three months later, Ken was let go from GE. They spent through their savings and their 401(k) while Ken marketed the cleaning company to anyone who would listen.

Then Coldwell Banker called, asking whether he wanted a place on their preferred vendor list. Ken started working alongside stagers and realtors, and they taught him something that still defines the company: the art of the first impression. Not just cleaning a space — presenting it.

He ran it solo for fourteen years. The family grew to seven. Teresa became a full-time mom and homeschool teacher while Ken built his schedule around being home. Each of the kids started helping around age nine and was cleaning by eleven — their daughter Christianna is the company's bookkeeper today.

In July 2018 they moved home to Montgomery County. Ken started the new company later that year, launched a cleaning podcast, and joined the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce in 2019 — then poured himself into that chamber through the pandemic. The business was rebranded Carfagno Commercial Cleaning in late 2021, named the Indian Valley Chamber's Small Business of the Year in 2022, and marked twenty years in business in 2025.

Ken is no longer unfulfilled. He looks forward to serving the customers and team members God places in this business for years to come.