In 2016, Nathan Rath stared at his ceiling, watching rainwater enter his house. Unsure what the problem was, he called a relatively new contracting firm — operating in West Lafayette, La., for maybe 18 months — named Pelican Roofing for a diagnosis.
Pelican founder George Boudreaux surveyed the scope of work and, despite questioning the architect's competency, said he would take on the job and fix it.
“He'll say it's probably — that roof was one of the worst roofs he'd ever put on,” Rath recalled when he and Boudreaux first met. “All kind of crazy pitches, and there were some valleys where there shouldn't have been valleys, and it was just — we had major problems.”
Boudreaux would have you think he took the job because he was a greenhorn, “…too dumb to know at the time to not take it on,” as he said. But his answer belies what makes Pelican Roofing unique: its operations are designed to wholly envelop the customer with transparency.
In turn, transparency is received as authenticity and engenders trust, which is affirmed through quality work and, in Rath’s case, Pelican Roofing’s ‘stick-to-ittiveness.’ Its ethos starts at the top and washes over the company’s 40-some-odd employees.
Pelican Roofing made several trips back to the house before all issues were resolved: “It wasn't the best experience as a customer from an end-user standpoint, but the service that he provided back then when [Boudreaux] was so young really set an impression in me,” Rath, now 41, added.
“And, so it leaked, and he called back, and he was not happy,” Boudreaux says. “He was not an easy customer at all … but, you know, we kept going back, and we eventually got it, and that resonated with him … he knew it was a bitch.”
Rath got his roof fixed, and Boudreaux conquered his customer’s funky roof, making it watertight. Seemingly, that was that.

Pelican Roofing is a stickler for safety in an industry notorious for the dangers roofers face while on the job, particularly those within the residential sphere. The U.S. Department of Labor says roofing remains one of the country’s most hazardous industries.
“I was a C-Plus Employee”
“I was a teacher and athletic director; I did sales. I was an oil and gas landman, but I was really kind of like a C-plus employee … [I] just wasn't interested in what I was doing,” Boudreaux says, explaining how his dad was an entrepreneur, showing his son how one could make money working for himself. “I grew up with [that] entrepreneurial spirit.”
Boudreaux, 45, finds himself in roofing by design. He has an easy smile and a soft-spoken Cajun — e.g., friendly — disposition. The Lafayette native is youthful, handsome, and inquisitive. I found him asking probative questions designed to engage a conversant; Dale Carnegie, author of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and the father of self-improvement salesmanship, would be proud.
Following high school and his series of adventures — by then, he was entering his early 30s — Boudreaux chose to enter roofing for reasons similar to why private equity has made the industry a beachhead today: a fragmented market and reoccurring revenue, chief among them.
Boudreaux explains that Pelican Roofing began with a simple premise: filling a gap in the market rife with what he described as shoddy workmanship and unreliable contractors.
“I was intimidated by the idea of tearing a roof off,” he recalls, which required channeling his entrepreneurial spirit to give a go into uncharted water. “I noticed roofing in our local market seemed soft.”
What started as a modest operation — his sister, Katie, was the sole employee — became a genuine, multi-million-dollar business with employees to manage and administrative tasks to execute.
“I had set a really low ceiling on the company’s potential,” Boudreaux says of the early milestones, like completing 20 roofs a month. “Fast-forward a few years, and we did over 120 in a month; it felt monumental.”
Yet, it wasn’t long before he realized scaling up came with new headaches: increased operating costs, logistical challenges, and the unrelenting need for customer service in an industry infamous for complaints.
“The key was doing small things really well,” Boudreaux says.
He relied on word-of-mouth marketing and a commitment to follow through on promises. By year two, Pelican Roofing was pulling in $2 million in revenue and growing steadily until a series of hurricanes hit Louisiana at the start of the 2020s. Then business went gangbusters as revenue ballooned from seven to eight figures seemingly overnight.
Charting one’s course, manning the helm, and taking responsibility for your employees — alone — can be exhausting. Boudreaux spread the word that Pelican was looking for a sales manager, ostensibly to relieve some of the pressure he was under. The heady days of uninterrupted insurance work were on the wane, and modeling showed revenue heading in the wrong direction.
I say “ostensibly” since a sales manager would be a Band-Aid, a bridge. What he wanted was a partner, although he may not have known it at that moment.
“I needed someone smart, motivated, and genuinely cared about people,” Boudreaux says.

Boudreaux walks the walk — or runs, in this case — when it comes to giving back to the community. Last year, he dressed as the company’s mascot, Roofus the Pelican, pledging to run five kilometers daily for 30 days, helping raise money for a family beset by injury and illness.
Bayou Country is Small
A few years after the ‘roof snafu’ of 2016, Rath and his wife moved their kids to a new school. Thinking he wouldn’t know any of the families there, by luck or otherwise, he knew one: Boudreaux’s children were in attendance. And, while not friends, the men knew each other, and one thing about a good roofer — after finding one, you tend to keep them in your Rolodex.
Rath was in a transition of his own. With a background in finance, he had been a bank executive for over a decade before moving to energy — Halliburton is pretty much in his backyard. There, he quickly moved into the field, which was everywhere except Louisiana. His travels took him from the Persian Gulf to Alaska.
It was hard to be on the road for long stretches as a young, married man with his wife and first child several thousand miles away.
“In the field, traveling my longest year, offshore or away, was 294 days away from home,” he shared. “And you can imagine, you know, with that comes great reward in terms of money — you're compensated heavily for that — but you do sacrifice time away from home.”
Rath learned of Boudreaux’s staff search and asked for a meeting. While he knew nothing about roofing, a company's product is often secondary for those who know the secret of making money for a company.
Boudreaux said that within five minutes, each man realized that a sales manager position at a roofing firm was not where Rath would land. But, these two guys also saw something in the other and committed to continue kicking ideas around. It would come to pass that what Boudreaux saw in Rath were those essential traits he was looking for in a partner: Rath checked all the boxes.
Their partnership formalized in 2023 after months of mutual vetting. Boudreaux describes the dynamic as complementary: “I’m more of a dreamer; Nathan is the guy who dives into the details and gets things done.”
Together, they’ve tackled challenges like expanding into Baton Rouge, refining their sales processes, and navigating a fiercely competitive market.

A multi-unit residential project undertaken by Pelican Roofing’s commercial division. The company’s bread and butter is single-family homes, but it fields about 10% of its revenue through commercial projects.
Forward Harch
Pelican Roofing’s internal culture reflects its external ethos. Monthly initiatives focus on community engagement, from sponsoring local events to building birdhouses with seniors. Employees are encouraged to pursue personal growth through fitness challenges, book clubs, or anything inspiring.
“Our two guiding words this year are growth and care,” Boudreaux says. “It’s about being better in every facet, not just revenue.”
The approach has created a workplace that the principals agree is “electric.” The company’s annual Christmas party includes awards like “Customer Review of the Year,” recognizing team members who go above and beyond.
“It’s about making people feel valued,” Boudreaux explains. “Happy employees make happy customers.”
As Pelican Roofing eyes its goal of $25 million in revenue, Boudreaux and Rath are focused on scalability and sustainability. While Boudreaux had previously been courted by private equity, the addition of Rath seems to have settled him into believing the time may now be at hand.
They’re exploring private equity partnerships but remain cautious about aligning with the right investor.
“It has to be someone who values our culture and long-term vision,” Rath says.
For Boudreaux, the future is also personal. After years of burnout, he’s rediscovered his passion through self-reflection and leadership development.
“I realized the company’s growth is tied to my growth,” he says.
Rath’s complementary skill set to Boudreaux’s horizontal vantage point has reinvigorated Pelican’s founder, helping fuel their efforts to make Pelican Roofing not just a company that installs roofs but one that builds lasting relationships and stronger communities.
“[E]verybody wants to be loved,” Boudreaux says.
He was referring to interacting with his employees, but the statement can be extended to his customers, friends, partner, family — ad infinitum. Boudreaux wears his heart on his sleeve, an axiomatic way of describing authenticity.
“[I]t just works because that's how humans are wired,” he says. “So, what I've learned is to really double down on that, like, how can I be of service every day? It checks several boxes for me; I just feel good about what I'm doing every day. I feel good about my people here, and I've been convinced that it actually works. It's probably the fastest way to where I'm trying to go, anyway.”
Corrections: Nathan Rath's home was in West Lafayette, La., not New Orleans, which a previous version reported. George Boudreaux is 45 years old, not 41, as previously reported. [Updated: Feb 2, 2025 | 19:05]