An Open Letter to Equity: What You Bought, What You Broke
Dear Private Equity,
You came into roofing with a plan—
Buy. Consolidate. Scale. Exit.
You ran the numbers. Roofing looked like a dream:
- Recurring revenue
- Predictable demand
- Fragmented market
- Subcontractor-heavy fulfillment model
But while you calculated profit, you miscalculated value.
You thought you were buying a business.
What you were really buying was trust.
Trust built between a contractor and a homeowner.
Trust built between a superintendent and a supplier.
Trust built on weekends, late nights, callbacks, and make-goods—not just spreadsheets and CRM fields.
And then you tried to scale it.
You replaced owners with operators. Craftsmen with middle managers.
You brought in dashboards, KPIs, and quarterly EBITDA reviews.
You optimized for metrics and forgot the mission.
Culture isn’t a cost center.
Craftsmanship doesn’t bend to Q4 targets.
You stripped the soul from companies that were built on legacy, pride, and people.
And now you’re wondering why it’s falling apart.
Let me tell you why:
- You treated subcontractors like liabilities, not partners.
- You buried the estimating team under unrealistic volume to “hit plan.”
- You silenced leaders who built the business, then wondered why no one had ideas.
- You broke systems that worked because you couldn’t see why they worked.
You didn’t scale excellence.
You scaled extraction.
And in doing so, you eroded the very thing you thought you were capturing: value.
This is not bitterness. It’s clarity.
I stayed quiet while I was still inside.
But now, I’m speaking plainly:
Roofing isn’t just another portfolio vertical.
It’s a living, breathing trade.
One passed down through generations, built on sweat, grit, and doing right by people.
You can’t automate that. You can’t franchise that.
You damn sure can’t spreadsheet that.
At Bitumen Machina, we’re not building for exits.
We’re building for legacy.
Because this industry deserves better than what you’ve given it.
To the leaders still inside: protect what matters.
To the crews on the ground: you’re the real backbone.
To the equity groups: either build with respect, or step aside.
We’re not done yet.
But we’re done staying silent.
—Patrick Moriarty
Founder, Bitumen Machina
