David Summerly (SquareDash)

David Summerly is a Partner Accounts Executive at SquareDash, a company that provides instant claim funding & outsourced AR for roofing contractors so that they can quit chasing insurance checks and get paid as they go.

Born in Alaska, Summerly spent the majority of his childhood in Arizona before ultimately graduating high school in the state of Virginia.

As a teenager, Summerly spent a lot of time alone, but he was never shy about protecting those who couldn’t or wouldn’t defend themselves.

“The guys who would pick on people were afraid of me because if I caught them picking on somebody, it wasn’t good for them,” Summerly shares.

His intentions were honorable, but after a slew of physical altercations, Summerly decided that the chaos associated with being an equalizer wasn’t how he wanted to conduct himself.

Around this time, seeking a healthy outlet, Summerly became Mormon.

“That changed me a lot,” he says, but his home life was still unstable due to the fact that his adoptive mom, despite her best efforts, couldn’t offer Summerly the guidance he needed.

“She loved me, but she didn’t know how to be a mom.”

Twice he was kicked out his mother’s home.

“I graduated high school homeless,” Summerly says, but he wasn’t one to allow himself to be mired in despair.

Summerly eventually found his biological mom, who pointed him in the direction of his father, and fortunately the two were able to connect and forge a bond.

“I went to Kansas City for Christmas to meet my biological family,” Summerly says.

“There were about 45 people there. Meeting that many people as family was both overwhelming but amazing. I have done Christmas with them nearly every year since.”

After his teens and a marriage that didn’t work out, Summerly found himself working for an industrial distributor and doing really well, but internal strife within the organization led to him losing his job.

Of course, after becoming unemployed, Summerly was concerned about how he was going to pay his bills, but by then he had accumulated a bevy of contacts in a variety of industries.

After posting on Facebook that he was looking for a new job, within five minutes he had secured a new position.

“That was the first time I learned the clear value of being authentic and having good character,” says Summerly, who today is revered by many across the country for his beaming smile and genuine desire to help others succeed.

As for Summerly’s new role, that consisted of doing sales for a marketing company, which involved constantly dialing and networking with business owners.

He was specifically drawn to the roofing industry as they seemed to appreciate his straightforward approach and their tickets were high enough to easily justify his services.

Through a wild series of events, Summerly ended up selling a roofing company an extensive and expensive marketing package, which then resulted in him being recruited by that same company to become a sales consultant for them.

“The owner was telling me about roofing and storm restoration, but I didn’t know anything about it,” Summerly recalls.  

“In that sense, I didn’t think that I was the right guy for them.”

But the owner, having experienced firsthand Summerly’s commitment to customer service and excellent communication, saw potential that even Summerly could never have predicted.

“He [the owner] told me that he was recruiting me because of my character, and not because of what he thought I knew,” Summerly says.

“Meaning, because I had worked with them when they were my client, they saw the type of work ethic, care, and drive that I had, and that’s why they wanted to hire me.”

At that point, Summerly left his role with the marketing company and became a sales consultant in the roofing and exterior remodeling industry.

In the years since, he has established himself as one of the premier sales reps in the country, both for his ability to get contracts signed, but also ensure that his customers are taken care of throughout the entire process.

Two years ago, Summerly was the SE U.S. Sales Director for Euroshield Rubber Roofing, which offers homeowners an alternative roofing option to traditional asphalt shingles.

At present, he is no longer with Euroshield, but he still says it’s an amazing product and he’s proud of the growth and industry notoriety he was able to help them achieve.

The well-traveled sales consultant has since landed with SquareDash, where every day he helps roofing contractors overcome issues with their cashflow.

For context, 80% of roofing contractors go out of business in their first two years of operation, something Summerly attributes to cashflow issues related to contractors waiting on revenue from insurance carriers, mortgage companies, and homeowners.

To combat those money headaches, SquareDash works quickly to collect money from insurance companies, and at a lower cost to roofing contractors than doing so in-house.

“It typically costs much more to hire somebody to manage your accounts receivables than it would to work with us,” Summerly says.  

“We have a whole team of people who can do it faster and at a fraction of the cost.”

For some roofing companies, outsourcing the arduous task of dealing directly with insurance and mortgage companies is a huge benefit, and for those business owners who simply can’t survive without steady and consistent cashflow, SquareDash is seeking to eliminate that obstacle and revolutionize the way roofers get paid by subsidizing direct payments to contractors as soon as they need the capital.

“When roofing contractors run into trouble with cash flow, they can end up bankrupt even though they’re doing nothing wrong,” Summerly notes.

“That’s because they’re at the mercy of getting paid by insurance and mortgage companies. What SquareDash can do, is as soon as a contractor needs to get paid so they can cover their overhead, we issue them money directly based on an approved scope.”

Of note: SquareDash charges roofing contractors 5% of the total dollar amount sent, a percentage that may cut slightly into their profit margins, but ultimately it will keep the company solvent.

Summerly goes on to explain that first-year business owners aren’t yet SquareDash’s ideal client because they haven’t cemented their cashflow structure yet, but roofing contractors who have been in business for a few years and are grossing around $1-10 million per year would certainly benefit from SquareDash’s current offerings.

“Looking ahead, SquareDash is going to make a massive difference in the industry,” Summerly proclaims.

“I think we’re going to help a lot of roofing contractors alleviate a critical pain point, and as a result, we’re going to become a trusted and reliable resource for those companies who don’t want to constantly stress over their cashflow and worry about how they’re going to get everyone paid.”

As for Summerly personally, he is excited about the potential SquareDash has, but he is also building out his personal business SummerLync, with the aim of better connecting roofing contractors with the best vendors in the roofing industry.

“For years I would go to roofing conferences and connect people, but I never saw any money from those partnerships,” Summerly lists as the basis for SummerLync.

“So now what I’ve done is create a type of affiliate marketing setup so that when I make these connections, my company gets paid on the backend for that referral, provided things work out between both parties.” QS

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