Austin Fricker
- Owner
I was born and raised in Mid-Town Tulsa. My father was a Vietnam veteran and was also the person who taught me to go all the way in anything I do. My mother was a teacher at Marquette Catholic School for over 20 years, and they call her Saint Belinda because of all the acts of kindness and positive thinking she brought to the school and church every day. I grew up playing hockey, baseball, soccer, football, and skateboarding. I played hockey in a highly competitive league, and my coaches helped build my mindset of pushing physical limits.
My entire life, I had the mindset of gaining more out of simple actions. My parents wanted the yard mowed, so I started mowing the other yards in the neighborhood. I skateboarded, so I would buy discount skateboard shoes and sell them to kids at school for a markup. People parked outside our house for Tulsa University football games, so I rented driveways from neighbors to park cars for $10 a car, sometimes up to 40 cars a game. Around high school, I had an incident that almost caused me to lose my life and right arm. It was a three year recovery process, and I was introduced to a product that later became an addiction. This addiction took me down a path that most do not make it out of. I was fortunate enough to have been sent away and landed in a work program in Ada, OK. This is where roofing became my life. I was introduced to Mackey Roofing. After I graduated from the work program, two other men and I decided we were not ready to move back to Tulsa, OK, to finish our drug court program and wanted to stay in Ada, OK, where we had jobs, a positive environment, and... no place to live... So we talked with the director, and they agreed to open a sober living program for us to stay in until we graduate from the Tulsa Drug Court program and longer if needed. After two years in Ada I decided to return to Tulsa to pursue obtaining custody of my son and live with my partner. I started working for a company called Harness Roofing Inc., and this is where I learned about the commercial roofing and waterproofing side of the industry.
Fast forward two years, and my soon-to-be wife and I had been scrambling around with our son, side jobs that I had going on, and working, and during the start of COVID, we decided to take the leap of faith to start our roofing company. Neither of us had experience in running a company like this. We knew I could sell roofs and put a great roof on. I quit my job and started our own company in January 2020. It was the longest year that passed by like a good night's sleep. The amount of growth and support we received was out of this world compared to what we had imagined. We thought it would take years to get to this point and have a team as we do. We live every day grateful for each other, and the community we grew up in has supported us on this journey. My wife and I grew up with some rough patches in our lives. It has made us the people we are today and given us the passion for helping develop leaders and give back to the community we love. Today our mission is to continue building what we have started and give back to the community as often as possible. To date, we have given away tens of thousands of dollars of work to people in need, as well as jackets, blankets, firewood, and other items during the freeze. We are currently working on rebuilding a home for homeless teens with another partner.
