When it comes to the construction field, David Bitan has done it all. He’s worked in HVAC, kitchen remodeling, solar roofing, “you name it,” he said. His latest endeavor is Bumble Roofing, which home services umbrella company Empower Brands acquired this month.
With just one open territory, Bumble Roofing is the first independent business umbrella company Empower Brands has acquired since its inception last year. Bumble serves the southern California area. Bitan co-founded the brand AID Home Remodeling, which he sold to a private buyer in 2019.
This acquisition makes Bumble the tenth brand for Empower, which formed after Lynx Franchising acquired Outdoor Living Brands in 2021. In April, Empower added Koala Insulation and Wallaby Windows to its portfolio.
“The reasoning for joining Empower Brands and partnering up with them is so that we can open more territories and more locations through the U.S.,” Bitan said.
Empower’s other brands are Jan-Pro, Superior Fence & Rail, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, Intelligent Office, Archadeck Outdoor Living, FRSTeam and Conserva Irrigation.
In March, Empower CEO Scott Zide told Franchise Times one of Empower’s goals is to incubate brands by “finding a category that we would believe is ripe for a franchise, and starting a brand from scratch by maybe acquiring a local company-owned operations and building the franchise around that,” and using that as a “pilot location.”
Bitan founded Bumble in 2019. He’s looked into franchising for about a year and a half, with plans originally to hire a third party to handle it. He learned about Empower through a broker last year, and it was “kind of love at first sight,” Bitan said. “They really felt like the best suitors to take this brand to places that I wanted to take it, which I felt like I just couldn’t do on my own.”
Bitan will stay on as brand president. “I’m going to be helping initial franchisees when they come on board with training and with any help they may need,” he said.
His goal for Bumble remains the same post-acquisition as it did before: “I wanted to be the Tesla of roofing,” Bitan said. “There’s some big names out there, that may be big in one state or in 10 states, but nobody’s really had a huge, national footprint.”
Bumble has a technology-driven approach to sales, Bitan said.
“We have no sales pressure approach whatsoever,” he said. “So, anybody that walks through our door—well, everything’s online these days, but anybody that walks through our website and requests their quote, we know we don’t prejudge.”
Bumble has a no-pressure philosophy, too. “We really wait for our customers to come back to us,” he said.
For clients who aren’t knowledgeable about roofing, Bumble implemented its version of an Apple Genius Bar, Bitan said.
“These guys are roofing geniuses. They know everything about Bumble and everything about roofing products that we sell,” Bitan said. “They’re there to basically educate all of our potential customers … from the moment they walk through the door.”