OEN Member Spotlight of Avi Feuer of Feuerflex Corporation
Exclusive installer of a proprietary cleantech roofing system, we will upset a $30 billion market with a longer-lasting roof at half price. 
Q: What does your business do?
A: Feuerflex sells and installs our proprietary roofing system. Applied by spray, it lasts twice as long as composition roofing at half the price, and is good for the environment.
Q: What problem does it solve?
A: Currently residential roofing is expensive, wears out quickly, and bad for the environment. Roofing is a $30 billion industry, larger than energy drinks, smartphone apps, Hollywood box office, and hybrid cars combined.
Q: How did you come up with this business idea?
A: In 1978 when I was 20, I bought some apartments and quickly learned about the short life and high cost of roofing. As a contractor since the 1980s I learned all about the roofing business. For over 30 years I’ve searched for a solution. Finally on September 3, 2010, I hit on the idea of a sprayed polymer roof while on an airline flight with our chemist who is now our CTO.
Q: What are your biggest challenges?
A: The biggest challenge for us was arriving at a good roofing system that could be reliable, save money, and still offer a long life. Over the course of decades, I investigated and dismissed many options, before inventing the Feuerflex system.
Q: What are your goals for the company?
A: To save the consumer money, help the environment, create real value, and make money for ourselves and our investors.
Q: Are you looking for funding?
A: Yes. We’re looking to raise an equity round of $966,000.
Q: What would funding enable you to do?
A: Bring the Feuerflex roofing system to launch and set it on a path for rapid growth. Based on realistic sales assumptions detailed in our business plan, we can expand to 30 cities with $4.9 million in quarterly profits in 5 years.
Q: Have you been an entrepreneur before?
A: Yes. I’ve been a real estate broker, contractor, and real estate investor since 1978.
Q: What brought you to OEN? What do you hope to gain from membership?
A: We’ve joined OEN looking for funding to launch Feuerflex.
Q: What has been the biggest surprise in your entrepreneurial experience to date?
A: The magnitude of the response we’ve gotten. The resonance people have with our search for a better roofing system is really amazing. Every time we present, people tell us their roofing horror stories, and tell us they too want a better solution. This really is an industry primed for a transition.
Q: What has been the best entrepreneurial advice you’ve received?
A: Paul Graham is constantly saying that the essence of entrepreneurship is to make something people want. That’s what we’ve tried to do with Feuerflex: create a roofing system that will make the consumer happier.