Too Funny

The American Roofing Industry has practically set the standard for Modern American Capitalism: Environmental waste Illegal labor Illegal Immigration Cheat baby Cheat! Externalize costs.....now some techie thinks he's going to modernize us? Too Funny

Viirt raises $900,000 to disrupt the roofing industry March 19, 2015 by Ryan Pendell

viirtViirt, a tech startup in the roofing industry, has announced they have now raised $900,000 in venture capital from Dundee Venture Capital and a small group of angel investors. The story first broke on Digital Journal.

"I"ve been in the roofing industry all my life and have done every job possible. Now, I"m excited to modernize the industry by adding a little bit of today's technology to it," said Josh Davis, CEO of Viirt.

Davis told SPN that the investment will go towards growing the team and marketing.

Viirt can generate a formal roofing bid for homeowners within a minute within 5% accuracy. By using satellite imagery, Viirt can save homeowners 20-30% on a new roof. For example, a project typically costing $13,000 could be reduced by $3,000-$4,000.

Davis said in a previous SPN article last summer that the process is 10 times faster than a traditional contractor.

"Thanks to internet and satellite technology, Viirt will be able to execute most project management functions remotely and automatically, especially on the front end. We are creating much needed transparency in the roofing industry by putting the homeowner back in control of the entire roofing process. We're boosting consumer confidence," said Davis.

The process also helps contractors keep their teams busy.

"We're kind of the Priceline of the roofing business," said Davis on the Straight Shot blog. "But instead of filling empty airline seats we're filling up their downtime and giving them a secondary stream of revenue at a fraction of the legwork."

Viirt was one of seven startup companies chosen in the 2014 class of Straight Shot, Omaha's e-commerce and software-as-a-service startup (SaaS) accelerator. Straight Shot, headquartered in Omaha, NE, is an accelerator dedicated to rapidly developing technology startups in a way that will allow them to succeed at scale.

According to AngelList, Viirt received $20,000 in seed funding in July 2014. That's included in the $900k, according to Davis.

Viirt is active and receiving customers in Omaha and Portland (OR) markets

The sign is appropriate as we are all a bit squirrelly to be doing this.

Twil, in Oregon, any contract over $2,000 has to include 3 pages of consumer protection information, so the starting point is 4 pages.

Here's the latest report here in ground zero of the Viirt assault. It's here that he is planning on taking his company from one that generates leads for his brother to within a year be at 5,000 roofs ($35 to $50 million?) on his way to 50,000 roofs. So far the only evidence of this barrage I have seen are these little signs littering roadsides.

So everything you thought you knew about marketing is wrong. You don't need to mention your product or service, just get a weirdly spelled name.com and a cute blue squirrel with a hammer and wait for he millions to roll in. Maybe he doesn't mention roofing because he has his sites set on expanding to other trades with a hammer; carpentry, handyman, nut cracker........

That might be the basis here Frank. The contract will prolly be 6 pages long.

Or........the guarantee covers nothing, because they simply do so little for that rock bottom price. It might be a few pages thick too

How in the heck you gonna up sell when no one is there and everyone is clueless?

This sounds like a great opportunity for the "contractor" to steal someone's customers....and the neighbor's roofs too :laugh: Eagleview does not show yard signs.....at least not until the next go around of satellite photos

This should prove interesting. How many times have we all had to submit CO's in writing or verbally, blowing the initial budget out of the water due to the nature of the business, ie: water damage, and unseen structural damage, etc? :huh:

natty Said: Did anyone read that article in one of the roofing magazines about roofing contractors and their subs? The article was about the emerging Hispanic workforce, but the interesting point made was the typical roofing contractor of today basically just sells the job then turns it over to an independent sub who does all of the training and installs. It went on to warn current contractors that unless they start training their own people, these subs will soon learn to market their services directly to homeowners. The article was written by a Hispanic, so I assume it was not racially motivated, but that is how I took it.

OMG.....They're about three decades late on that report.....Thank God that chit doesn't happen west of the CD, where there's generally authentic licensing, (funny how that works). Although, I've noticed a couple signs of attempts. In any event, the "sub-game" will never approach the level to which it is played in states w/o licensing.

GKRFG Said: Another scammer if you ask me. Obviously the venture capital people dont know anything about roofing. Must be a smooth talker.

They must not have had a bad roofer on their house.

They should move to Florida where they can make $40....for a 13 hr. day, minimum.

Oh well, we throw away about 30% of the food anyway

twill59 Said: Anyway its called externalizing your costs.

Uber, the app, prolly has a higher dollar value than all of the legal taxi cabs in A,erica combined

Is this why Warren Buffet stays out of tech stocks? :laugh:

Anyway its called externalizing your costs. Either be a paper contractor and dump the costs of being a roofer onto a (underpaid) Sub.

Or be a roofing contractor and----VOLIA!----that $7,000 roof is a $7,000 roof and NOT the $5,500 roof that Viirk promotes

Old School Said: I am thinking about this and I have to wonder, who carries the license, who carries the insurance, who gets the permit? Who calls for an inspection? The company that gets paid? that would be Virt I think. He will have a hard time getting a license in Florida or Michigan!

Exactly...they claim to be brokers with no responsibility, but if you are negotiating price, that makes you the contractor. Oooops, there goes that 30% savings. Govt does not know what to do with these guys- yet. We all want free expression over the internet, but with this new age of entrepreneurship and the internet, they want to make all of the money for doing not much of anything.

Just wait for the first and subsequent lawsuits.

I am thinking about this and I have to wonder, who carries the license, who carries the insurance, who gets the permit? Who calls for an inspection? The company that gets paid? that would be Virt I think. He will have a hard time getting a license in Florida or Michigan!

They are doing that around here now natty.....contractoring out at sub contractor rates.

Come to think of it, the Anglos do that too :dry:

Another scammer if you ask me. Obviously the venture capital people don't know anything about roofing. Must be a smooth talker.

Did anyone read that article in one of the roofing magazines about roofing contractors and their subs? The article was about the emerging Hispanic workforce, but the interesting point made was the typical "roofing contractor" of today basically just sells the job then turns it over to an independent sub who does all of the "training" and installs. It went on to warn current contractors that unless they start training their own people, these subs will soon learn to market their services directly to homeowners. The article was written by a Hispanic, so I assume it was not racially motivated, but that is how I took it.

I see viirt of the type similar to Uber which is a service to hookup passengers with "independent drivers" directly, thus bypassing the evil "middleman". This is fraud on its face. To the venture capitalist, it is all the rage. Uber claims not to be a taxi company, thus not subject to all of those awful regulations imposed by the cities. The truth, which is now coming out, is that Uber takes all of the profit off the top, and the "drivers" make chicken scratch. The drivers supposedly assume all of the responsibility but do not carry the proper commercial insurance and don't make enough to assume all of the depreciation on their vehicle. And the passengers risk their lives with a total stranger. Wait for the first lawsuit for all of that crap to come tumbling down.