Richy Nelson is the co-founder and CEO of Roofr, the cloud-based operating system for roofing contractors. A third-generation roofer who first climbed a roof at twelve years old, Nelson transformed decades of hands-on industry experience into a platform trusted by over 12,000 roofing companies across North America. After selling his house to fund the company, surviving Y Combinator in 2017, and raising a Series B from TCV and ABC Supply in January 2025, he leads a 150-person remote team on a mission to build the most trusted roofing platform in the world.
Michael Ding is the founder and CEO of Bobyard, an AI platform that uses computer vision to automate construction takeoffs and estimates. A Stanford-trained engineer and award-winning mathematician who grew up in Cupertino, he earned his California general contractor license as a teenager before dropping out of Stanford to launch Bobyard in 2023. By teaching machines to read blueprints the way an experienced estimator would, he's helped hundreds of contractors cut takeoff time by 65% and add over $1M in annual revenue per estimator. In December 2025, Bobyard raised a $35 million Series A led by 8VC, cementing its position as the leading AI platform for construction preconstruction workflows.