How ReImagine Builders Started: The Founder's Story

ReImagine Builders was founded by Bo Fric, who flipped his first Calgary house in 2006, started a renovation company in 2010, and built it into the basement specialist it is today — more than 1,000 basements later. This is the story of how it started, the brutal first job that nearly ended it, and the conviction that's run the company ever since.

A businessman before a builder

ReImagine started with Bo Fric — Calgary born and raised. He studied business and entrepreneurship at the University of Calgary, until an idea pulled him out before he finished. In 2003 he became founding president and majority owner of Rentfaster.ca, which is still the province's leading apartment rental website today. It was a hard, fast education in cash flow and partnerships — lessons that cost him his stake earlier than he'd have liked, and that he carried into everything he built afterward.

What came next looked nothing like a straight line. Bo earned his real estate licence in 2006 and has held it ever since. The same year, almost on a whim, he flipped his first house. That's how he fell into construction.

The renovation that started it all

Around the same time, Bo watched his parents renovate the family home — and was blown away, in the worst way. By how long it took. By how much it cost. By how illogical the whole process seemed. And most of all by the stress it put on two people who just wanted their house finished. He couldn't shake the feeling that it should be possible to do this well — calmly, clearly, on a plan.

A brutal first job: close, or carry on

In 2010, after flipping a handful of houses, Bo partnered with one of his trades to start a general renovation company. The split was simple on paper: Bo would run the business, his partner would run the builds, and they'd take on everything — kitchens, bathrooms, basements. The first big project went terribly. They badly underbid it and lost a lot of money. The partner walked before the job was even finished, leaving Bo with a single question: close the doors, or carry on.

Learning the trade the hard way

He carried on. Work was starting to trickle in, and with very little construction experience, Bo had to learn the build side fast. The early years were spent cleaning job sites, picking up materials, and — for a while — working as the company's full-time painter. He learned the trade with his hands before he ever ran it from a desk.

Turning a business mind on a broken industry

As his experience grew, his business background turned into the company's real advantage. Instead of doing things a certain way just because that's how the industry had always done them, Bo could step back and ask how the process should work — and then rebuild it that way. Photorealistic design before you sign. A full schedule before groundbreaking. A guaranteed completion date. None of it was normal in this trade. All of it came from refusing to accept that renovations had to be stressful.

1,000+ basements later

Over 1,000 basements later — plus dozens of flips, including landmark projects like The Gargoyle House and the ReImagine Ranch — that conviction is still the standard the whole company runs on. It's also the foundation for Reimagining ReImagine Builders, the deliberate, top-to-bottom rebuild the company began in 2026, and for the planned, designed-before-you-sign process every basement runs through today.

The road here, year by year

• 2006 — The first flip. Bo flips his first house in Calgary and falls into construction almost by accident — the start of everything.
• 2010 — A renovation company is born. After a handful of flips, Bo partners with one of his trades to take on kitchens, bathrooms, basements and more.
• 2011 — ReImagine carries on. A brutal first job and a departed partner forced a choice: close, or carry on. Bo carried on — and ReImagine Builders as it's known today began.
• 2015–2018 — The core team forms. Peggy, Josh, Kloe and the people clients still name in their reviews join and grow with the company.
• 2026 — Reimagining ReImagine Builders. A deliberate, top-to-bottom rebuild of how the company designs, plans, communicates and delivers — for the next decade.