Mike Goldenstein is the chief revenue officer for Roofle, a software company that provides premier estimating and lead generation tools to roofing contractors.
From rural Iowa, Goldenstein grew up on a hog farm.
“Where I’m from, it was 20 minutes to the nearest stoplight, and even that was just a flashing yellow,” he says.
“Yeah, the middle of nowhere.”
After high school, Goldenstein was looking to earn some money, so he joined a traveling circus, otherwise known as a roofing crew.
“I was living out of a suitcase, traveling around the country installing shingles,” he recalls of the summer before he enrolled at Taylor University in Indiana.
“We would wake up at 4 A.M., work until around 1 P.M., and then take a few hours off because it was so hot. Then we would continue shingling until the sun went down.”
A long summer on roofs behind him, Goldenstein began studying computer science.
“But the only computers on campus were in a dungeon in the basement. We didn’t have them in our dorm rooms,” Goldenstein says with a laugh.
Despite possessing an affinity for computers, Goldenstein eventually lost interest in the discipline and began working toward a degree in Christian education.
Around this time, he met a young woman from Minnesota, and thus he headed north, further cementing himself in the Midwest.
For many years, Goldenstein, leveraging his past experience on roofs, was a contractor in the Twin Cities.
In 2010, he stopped doing contracting and went to work for one of the country’s biggest shingles manufacturers as a territory rep.
For the next dozen years, Goldenstein developed relationships with other contractors around the state, including one that was always at the forefront of innovation.
This specific roofing company routinely saw sales as an opportunity for creativity, including showing potential clients what their roofs, siding, or windows would look like before a nail was ever pounded.
“They were always very innovative, and that executive team started to ask what’s next,” Goldenstein says, and in 2020, the world economy in flux but construction still thriving, the aforementioned but unnamed company brought e-commerce to roofing, revolutionizing the customer experience by developing a technology that enabled homeowners to shop for roofs without ever having to call someone.
This impressive technology is none other than Roofle, a software that sold over $7 million in roofing jobs during the pandemic.
The wild part?
“When contractors would shingle a roof that someone bought on Roofle, that was the first time they saw that roof in person,” Goldenstein notes, meaning these roofs were purchased by individuals who never even interacted with a contractor in-person.
At Roofle, the goal is of course to help contractors sell more roofs, but more crucially, Roofle has given homeowners immediate pricing transparency, similar to what many see in the car industry today.
“The entire automobile industry was disrupted and completely rebuilt by technology,” Goldenstein says.
“That’s what Roofle is doing.”
In spring 2022, Roofle had enough traction that they began selling their technology to roofing contractors around the country, helping those contractors implement software that allowed users to visit their website and shop from the comforts of their own home, provided users input their information first.
Of note:
Roofle does not determine how much contractors will charge for a roof replacement, and Goldenstein says that all prices that appear on a contractor’s website are widely deemed to be approximate.
“The American consumer understands that the price they see online is not 100% accurate,” Goldenstein asserts.
In many ways, determining an exact price for a new roof online is too complex because there are ancillary factors like upgraded shingles, decking, additional ice and water shield, etc. to be considered.
At the same time, by outlining these variables to prospective clients at the outset, roofing contractors are building trust, and solidifying that trust when their instant estimate rivals that of their final estimate.
“The whole point is to be transparent,” Goldenstein says.
“In the cases that there are additional costs, we want the homeowner to see what those added costs could be because that’s ultimately how you build that trust with the consumer.”
Some roofing contractors have been reticent to adopt Roofle’s technology, claiming that since Roofle shows consumers all of what goes into a roof replacement, a contractor’s sales process becomes almost irrelevant.
“That’s the part that some roofing contractors don’t like because they want to sit down with the homeowner and explain all these details,” Goldenstein shares.
“The problem with that is that it is 2025, and you do not have that luxury anymore because of this thing called the internet.”
Adds Goldenstein:
“Homeowners now do the research themselves and make decisions. They want you to come in and basically finish the transaction.”
For the many contractors who have invested in Roofle, the ROI has been immediate, particularly in the form of more leads, an all too precious commodity in roofing.
According to Goldenstein, 2 out of every 100 people who visit a contractor’s website will input their information.
“When a potential client fills out that form, that becomes the lead, and the contractor can process that however they choose,” he says.
Homeowners, and people in general, typically don’t like sharing their information online, but much of that is because doing so often has no tangible benefit, but with Roofle, once homeowners share their information, in a matter of seconds they will get an instant and highly accurate estimate for a roof replacement on their home.
“As a contractor, if you’re offering a free inspection, people are not all that excited, but if you’re telling them that you’re going to get them a quote on their roof in less than 30 seconds, from the comfort of their couch, at any time, day or night, now they are more likely to give you their contact information,” Goldenstein explains.
“It’s not a mystery why contractors have gotten six times more leads after they become a Roofle subscriber, and that’s because they are answering the questions that homeowners have.”
Expediting information and qualifying candidates has generated revenue for countless roofing contractors around the country, and Roofle has also made the job of sales reps easier by lessening their workload.
“The leads that come through are very qualified,” Goldenstein remarks.
“The homeowner has already seen the pricing, the products, and financing options. At that point, the sales rep is processing the order as much as they are selling a roof.”
Perhaps a reminder is not needed, but technology is here.
It’s invading every aspect of our lives, and in the roofing industry, the contractors who oppose these advents are likely to lose revenue, simply because they are not meeting the customers where they are at.
“For roofing contractors who continue to wait, that puts them further and further behind,” affirms Goldenstein, before mentioning that a roofer doesn’t need to do $10 million in revenue to benefit from Roofle.
Even someone who just opened their doors a couple weeks ago can immediately start using the software to boost their business.
In the coming years, Goldenstein says Roofle will stay in their lane, but it’s also likely that Roofle’s technology will appear in other trades outside of roofing.
“Instant estimating is our thing,” the Iowa native says.
“Anything from HVAC to driveways, home security systems, landscaping, and fencing; all those industries don’t have this type of technology yet, which is why we’re looking to expand into those spaces.” QS
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