She Became CFO at 25. The Roofer Went From $30M to $75M

Hargrove Roofing now brings in about $75 million a year, up from roughly $30 million. Anna Cox was 25 when she became its CFO in May 2023. One of the biggest changes she flagged this past year: more insurance claim denials.

What Hargrove Roofing actually pulled off

Hargrove Roofing & Construction is a Shreveport, Louisiana-based contractor that has made Roofing Contractor's Top 100 list six years running. Anna Cox became its CFO in May 2023, at 25 years old. The magazine notes she was among the youngest women to hold that job at a company of Hargrove's size.

Since she took the role, the company has more than doubled revenue, from about $30 million a year to $75 million. It has gone from five locations to 16 across four states. And it has gone from two revenue streams to seven.

Those are roofer numbers. Not tech numbers. Not fund numbers.

So what does the CFO who helped pull that off say is one of the biggest changes she has seen this past year? It is not growth. And my read is that it is already sitting in your pipeline.

The change she flagged this year is not growth

Cox says one of the biggest changes she noticed this past year is the rising number of insurance claim denials, which she says has put more pressure on profitability across the industry. Her answer: watch costs, run leaner and hunt for new ways to grow.

Hargrove found some of that growth in a Louisiana Department of Insurance program called Fortify Homes, and some through work connected to Amazon's data centers. Cox's read is that the industry is changing, and that traditional roofers are being pushed to adapt and diversify.

My read: the claim job is getting harder to get paid on. The company added revenue that did not run through the same pipe, growing from two revenue streams to seven.

So how do you add a pipe? That is the next part, and it is not about marketing.

Where the growth actually came from

Hargrove's expansion approach starts with a person, not a zip code. Cox says: "Our approach to expansion has always been centered around talent rather than the location" (Roofing Contractor).

In practice, she says they identify a branch partner who fits the culture and vision first, and that is when the startup process begins. Building from scratch gives them more control over the team and the processes, but she says gaining traction that way usually takes longer and costs more.

Then there is the back office. Cox stepped into accounting as a one-person department. Today her team is 10 people, and she says the work has moved from building the foundation to keeping up with growth and getting out ahead of it.

Her warning for anyone chasing scale is blunt: "growth doesn't always equal profitability" (Roofing Contractor).

That is a CFO who has watched it happen in her own markets. Which raises a question about your own numbers.

What this means if you sell roofing or HVAC work

This part is my read, not hers.

Picture a roofing company where most of the work comes through insurance claims. Denials climb, and the homeowner who was ready to sign stops. The job that felt sold turns into a conversation about cash, and your closer spends the week re-selling work that was already sold. The fix is not a better claim pitch. It is having something to sell that does not depend on an adjuster's decision, whether that is repair work, maintenance, or a second service line you can deliver without waiting on a third party.

Now picture an HVAC company. Your version of the denial may look different. A rebate program that shrinks. A builder who switches vendors. A lender who tightens up. Same shape, same result: one outside decision-maker controls your month. If you cannot name what share of your revenue runs through one of those, you are flying blind. My read is that the owners who win the next few years are the ones who already have a second and third path built.

That is why the move from two revenue streams to seven matters more to me than the $75 million line. Here is how I would start.

How I would use this in your business this week

1. Pull the last 90 days and split revenue by service line. Roofing and HVAC get separate columns if you sell both. Put gross margin next to each one. This takes an hour in a spreadsheet, and it is the only way to see whether growth is actually paying you.

1. Mark which lines depend on somebody else paying. Claims, rebates, builder contracts, financing. Write the name of the decision-maker beside each one. That list is your risk.

1. If you are thinking about a new market or a new service, name the person first. Hargrove picks the branch partner before the market. Write down who runs it, or do not start. Cox's advice for stepping into something bigger than you feel ready for: "leave what you know to find out what you know" (Roofing Contractor).

1. Hire the boring back office one step early. Cox started as a department of one and now leads a team of 10. If quotes, invoices and job costing live in your head, that is your bottleneck, not leads.

1. Run a 15-minute denial review every Monday. Pull last week's denials and look for the pattern. Same adjuster? Same documentation? Same scope language? Fix the paperwork or fix the pitch, then move on.

1. Write the scripts before you need them. Three prompts I would keep in a notes app: one for calling a homeowner whose claim just came back denied, so you can explain their options without sounding pushy; one for a three-text follow-up to a homeowner still deciding on a replacement quote; and one for a one-page weekly scorecard that lists leads, quotes given, jobs sold, revenue and gross margin by division, plus a row for jobs that came back denied or delayed.

1. Pick one thing to stop. A division that never makes money, a service you keep discounting, a market you cannot staff. Growth is easier when you are not dragging dead weight.

None of that costs money. All of it takes a couple of hours this week.

Mistakes I see owners make with a story like this

• Opening a market because the map looks good. Hargrove starts with the person. If you do not have the person, you do not have the market.
• Reading total revenue and calling it profit. Cox's line about growth and profitability is the whole lesson. A bigger top line with a thinner margin is not progress.
• Treating one denied claim as a one-off. She says denials are increasing across the industry. One is noise. A pattern is your problem.
• Waiting until the back office is on fire. Cox was a department of one and built the team to 10 as the company grew quickly.

Get those four right and the rest gets easier.