Matt Irvin

Florida roots

I grew up around Jacksonville, Florida, and graduated from Baldwin Middle-Senior High School in 2006. My family has been in roofing and construction for more than 50 years.

Today Nicki and I make our home in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

your parents and what they taught you about work

My first roof

I started roofing when I was 12, helping my brother, who was a roofing sub. I was the trash guy, and sometimes they'd pay me extra to carry bundles up the ladder. I worked every weekend and every summer until I graduated.

After graduation I ran a crew in Florida for $10 a square, and I signed up for roofing school to learn the business and the law, not just the trade. At 18 I started my own company as a cash contractor. It grew to about $5 million a year, and in 2011 I took on my first out-of-state insurance reroof.

I started out as a roofer, not a salesman, and I still look at a roof the way the crew installing it does.

Building a national company

After Hurricane Michael in 2018, I teamed up with Justin Reichl and we switched RestoreMasters to commercial roofing. We did $41 million in projects in our first year together.

From there we grew RestoreMasters into a national commercial roofing and storm restoration company with offices in Tulsa, St. Louis, Dallas and Wichita. In its best year it did $113 million. It made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies four years running and Roofing Contractor's Top 100 list every one of those years.

The switch to commercial wasn't easy. A commercial claim can take a year to get paid properly, so you have to plan and invest ahead of the growth. Running a national company also taught me what the back office takes, and that it isn't where I do my best work.

Running toward the storm

I've been a first responder to hurricanes, tornadoes and floods: Hurricane Michael in Panama City and Mexico Beach, Sally in Pensacola, Ida in New Orleans, Irma in Clearwater, Ian in Southwest Florida, and tornadoes in Nashville. After those storms I've managed multimillion-dollar restorations from the first tarp to the final walkthrough.

After Hurricane Michael, a neuromedical hospital's flat roof was blown completely off. We had to find a way to keep the water out of the building right away, with no roof system at all.

After Hurricane Ian damaged the only causeway to Sanibel Island, we moved trucks, materials and crews over by boat and barge. A couple of years earlier we couldn't have done that. As you build up resources, you can just make things happen, and it's a good feeling.

Giving back

After disasters in Florida, we donated new roofs to homeowners who had nowhere else to turn.

In Pensacola, when the water damage at First Baptist Church was more than the crew already on site could handle, we offered our services for free to help save the building.

Where I am today

In my biggest year running my own organization, we secured more than $100 million in approved roof claims. I've worked claims over $30 million, approved and denied. What I learned is that I'm at my best in the field with customers and in front of insurance companies, not behind a desk running the back office.

That's why I built SkyView Restoration Group: a small, tight-knit team that handles every side of the storm industry, with the best installers in the industry behind our customers.