He Died on the Table. Then Built an Eight Figure Roofing Company

Jason Nemes was lying on a medical table when his heart stopped.

Doctors brought him back.

For most people, that would be the moment the story changes. The dramatic wake up call. The second chance that immediately fixes everything.

But that is not what happened.

Jason survived.

Then he went back to using drugs and alcohol.

Years later, the same man would enter an industry he barely understood, start a roofing company, report more than $5 million in first year revenue, and begin chasing a much bigger goal.

The strange part is that roofing was never supposed to be his story.

Before the Roofs, There Was a Very Different Business

Jason Nemes did not grow up around construction.

He was not a roofer.

He was not a project manager.

He had not spent twenty years learning insurance claims or walking roofs.

His background was network marketing.

And he had become very good at it.

Before entering construction, Nemes says he built an organization of roughly 4,500 people in the health and wellness industry. That meant years spent learning how to recruit people, sell an idea, build culture, develop leaders, and keep a large organization moving in the same direction. Those skills would eventually become extremely valuable.

But first, his life went in a very different direction.

His Heart Stopped. It Still Wasn't Enough.

Nemes has spoken publicly about struggling with drugs and alcohol and surviving two heart attacks.

During one of those episodes, he says he drove himself to a clinic.

Then his heart stopped.

He went into cardiac arrest and, according to Nemes, died on the table before doctors revived him. You could almost end the story there and write the obvious conclusion.

He nearly died.

He realized he needed to change.

He got sober.

Except that would not be true.

Nemes has said the experience did not immediately stop the addiction. Even after surviving the heart attack, he eventually went back to using.

That might be the most important part of the story.

Sometimes people imagine a turning point as one giant event. Something terrible happens, the person learns the lesson, and everything moves upward from there.

Real life is usually messier.

Jason had already been given a second chance.

And he was still struggling.

The Real Turning Point Happened in Costa Rica

Later, Nemes found himself in Costa Rica during another difficult period.

He has described walking into the ocean and praying for help.

That moment, rather than the heart attack alone, became part of the change he connects with finally getting sober. Nemes has also spoken publicly about losing his younger brother to a heroin overdose at only 28 years old. Eventually, the direction of his life started changing.

But there was still nothing about the story that suggested he was about to become a roofer.

Then came a phone call.

A Friend Asked Him About Roofing

In late 2023, a friend approached Nemes about getting into the roofing business.

There was one obvious problem.

Jason knew almost nothing about roofing.

So he went to Oklahoma and started learning.

He learned how contractors inspected roofs. He learned insurance claims. He learned door to door sales. He started understanding how roofing companies actually generated business and how a job moved from the first conversation to a completed project. In one sense, he was starting over.

But not completely.

He did not know roofs.

He did know people.

He knew how to recruit.

He knew how to sell.

He knew how to build enthusiasm around an organization.

He knew how to use social media.

And he knew how to lead teams.

That combination would become important very quickly.

Then the Partnership Fell Apart

Jason's entry into roofing did not smoothly turn into Summit Solutions.

An earlier business partnership ended.

According to The Kitchen Table, the partnership dissolved over disagreements involving equity. Nemes then launched the operation that became Summit Solutions Roofing and Construction around the end of June 2024. And the problems were not finished.

Nemes has also discussed losing roughly half a million dollars in a situation involving someone he trusted to represent the business. That is the other side of fast growth.

More people can produce more revenue.

They can also create much bigger problems.

Jason was learning that building a large company was not simply a matter of selling more roofs.

He had to figure out who could be trusted with the company.

Who could represent the brand.

Who could lead other people.

And who could operate without Jason standing beside them.

Yet despite those mistakes, Summit started moving quickly.

Then the Numbers Started Getting Big

According to Nemes, Summit Solutions generated approximately $5.1 million in its first year.

For someone who had entered roofing with essentially no previous construction career, that is a remarkable start.

And Nemes was already talking about something much larger.

By 2026, he was publicly discussing annual revenue goals in the neighborhood of $20 million to $30 million, while industry profiles described Summit as being on pace for eight figure revenue. The company also began expanding beyond a single market.

Summit's website lists operations in Texas, Oklahoma, and South Florida, covering residential and commercial roofing, repairs, storm restoration, and exterior construction. Now the question becomes much more interesting.

How does somebody with almost no construction background walk into roofing and build a multimillion dollar company that quickly?

The answer appears to have much less to do with shingles than you might expect.

Jason Was New to Roofing. He Wasn't New to Building an Organization.

A roofing business can start with somebody who knows how to sell a roof.

A large roofing company requires much more.

As Summit grew, Jason needed salespeople, managers, crews, systems, standards, recruiting, leadership, and a reputation that could survive beyond his personal involvement.

Those were problems he had already spent years thinking about.

His network marketing background had forced him to learn how to build teams and create culture long before he ever walked onto a roof. And that changed the way he approached the company.

Instead of viewing Summit only as a roofing operation, Nemes repeatedly talks about the people inside the business.

Who gets hired?

Who gets developed?

What does the company stand for?

How do employees feel about being there?

How do you keep the organization moving when the founder cannot personally control every interaction?

Those questions become more important as the company grows.

At $500,000, an owner can still touch almost everything.

At $5 million, that starts getting difficult.

At $10 million or $20 million, it becomes impossible.

He Also Understood Something Many Contractors Ignore

Before Summit, Jason had already spent years building a personal brand online under the name The Tatted Prez.

So he entered roofing with something many new contractors do not have.

Attention.

Nemes was comfortable appearing on camera, telling stories, communicating with an audience, and making himself recognizable.

The Building Dallas interview specifically discusses his social media growth and his ability to gain attention in the blue collar space. That matters because roofing is crowded.

From the homeowner's perspective, one contractor can easily look like another.

Similar trucks.

Similar websites.

Similar offers.

Similar promises.

Jason understood that people remember people.

And a recognizable founder can make an otherwise ordinary contractor much easier to remember.

The lesson is that being invisible makes growth harder.

Homeowners are more likely to remember the company they repeatedly see explaining problems, showing projects, introducing employees, sharing real customer experiences, and talking openly about the business.

Your website, reviews, social media, videos, salespeople, and customer experience all contribute to the same thing:

trust.

Then Growth Created a Different Kind of Danger

Once Summit started growing, Jason's biggest problems were no longer the same ones he had when entering roofing.

Getting jobs was only part of the challenge.

Now other people were carrying the company's reputation.

A salesperson could overpromise.

A project manager could mishandle a homeowner.

A bad hire could damage reviews.

Someone Jason trusted could make an expensive mistake.

Nemes has spoken publicly about being burned by people he trusted and about how seriously he now views hiring and reputation. This is where a small roofing business begins turning into an organization.

The founder can no longer solve every problem personally.

The company needs standards.

It needs systems.

And most importantly, it needs people who can be trusted to make decisions when the owner is not there.

One Market Wasn't Enough

Summit eventually began expanding beyond its original territory.

By 2026, Nemes was discussing expansion into multiple states, while Summit's own website showed the company operating across Texas, Oklahoma, and South Florida. That creates an entirely new test.

A local business can depend heavily on its founder.

A multi market business cannot.

The brand has to work in another city.

The sales process has to work there.

Training has to work there.

Customer service has to work there.

The company's reputation has to mean something even when Jason Nemes is nowhere near the job.

That is the point where the business becomes bigger than the person who started it.

Is Summit Already an Eight Figure Company?

There is one important distinction.

Public sources do not provide a verified financial statement showing that Summit has already completed an eight figure year.

What Nemes has publicly reported is roughly $5.1 million in first year revenue, along with much larger future targets. Industry profiles have also described Summit as being on pace for eight figures. So the more accurate story is not:

Jason Nemes has unquestionably built a verified $20 million roofing company.

It is:

A man with virtually no construction background entered roofing, launched a new operation, reported approximately $5.1 million in first year revenue, expanded into multiple markets, and began publicly targeting eight figure scale.

That is still an extraordinary transformation.

Especially when you remember where the story started.

A Few Years Earlier, the Business Didn't Even Exist

There was no Summit Solutions.

There were no multiple markets.

There were no millions in roofing revenue.

Jason Nemes was dealing with addiction, personal loss, heart attacks, and a life that nearly ended on a medical table.

Even surviving did not immediately fix him.

That came later.

Then came roofing.

Then came the failed partnership.

Then came Summit.

Then came millions in reported first year revenue.

And now the goal is much bigger.

The fascinating part of the story is not that Jason found some revolutionary way to install a roof.

He didn't.

The transformation happened around the roof.

He brought sales experience.

Recruiting.

Leadership.

Culture.

Personal branding.

Social media.

Then he began learning how to connect those skills to a roofing operation.

That is what turned someone with almost no construction background into the founder of a rapidly growing contractor.

The service itself usually isn't revolutionary.

A roof is still a roof.

What changes is the business built around it.

The company gets better at attracting attention, generating opportunities, hiring people, selling, training, delivering the work, protecting its reputation, and repeating the process.

Jason Nemes had to rebuild his own life before he ever built Summit Solutions.

Years later, he is trying to build a roofing company that can continue growing without everything depending on him.

And considering where this story began, getting the chance to build anything at all is probably the biggest win.