Roofr of the Month

Owen Atherton was headed to med school. Five years into pre-med, playing college baseball on the side, he had the whole plan mapped out with his wife. Then a broken hand his junior year and a torn hamstring the first game back senior year took that plan off the table. He was 23, newly married, and needed a paycheck, not a redshirt season.

A former teammate was selling roofs nearby. Owen called him, interviewed, and got hired on the spot. He spent the next three years learning the hard way: door-knocking storm and insurance work, no real training, figuring it out one house at a time. Then he decided he'd learned enough. He launched Rocket Roofing out of Minnetonka, Minnesota, 20 minutes west of Minneapolis, covering the West Metro.

Today, it's just Owen and a tight crew he trusts completely. The goal is to stay lean. He skipped insurance and storm work entirely and went all-in on retail: deposit up front, balance on completion, no adjusters holding his cash flow hostage. He prides himself on responding to everyone — prospects, customers, crew — within 60 seconds. That’s his edge.

Owen’s marketing strategy is deliberately unglamorous, but consistent: direct mail to targeted zip codes, yard signs at busy intersections, Facebook ads. Rinse and repeat every 30 days without fail. Plus a referral network with realtors and home builders Owen started building years before Rocket Roofing existed.

He's still a one-man show, still shows up to every job site, and still helps his crew haul materials and grab lunch. But the math is already working: Owen’s projecting $750k+ this year, with plans to hire a project manager and scale from there.