XYZ Roofing & Restorations Owner Miguel Medina is a primary example of what happens when entrepreneurial drive fueled by family, meets opportunity in pursuit of the American dream. The Cancun native started his roofing business in 2013 in South Texas and has become one of the many success stories amid the wave of Latino-owned businesses that grew by 57% nationwide through 2022, according to research from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Latino Business Action Network. The research, derived from U.S. Census Bureau data, also hints at the dynamic growth seen in the Latino roofing entrepreneur space, particularly in Texas.

Medina has transformed XYZ Roofing into a regional force of 45 employees capable of reaching from the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio. In 2025, the company broke the $6 million revenue mark for the year, which he believes is a milestone, and also just the beginning.

“I see myself as a business owner of a roofing company, and I’ve learned now that I have the right structure in place to expand,” he said. “We are ready to grow.”

From Nightmare to American Dream 

Unlike many Mexicans who aspire to come to the United States with family or to follow their entrepreneurial spirit, Medina came to the U.S. alone and in pursuit of his family. Following a divorce, his American ex-wife moved to Brownsville, Texas, with their children, both under age 2. With his professional soccer career derailed by injury, Medina said he sought a law degree but quickly became disillusioned by the Mexican court system. With little tethering him to his homeland, he decided to move to Texas and make a difference in his children’s lives.

“That was the big, important decision that I had to make. I need to be present in their lives, and next thing I knew I was heading to Texas,” he said.

Medina established his residency and ultimately achieved citizenship through those family ties. Though he had a law degree from Mexico, getting to practice in Texas would require time, schooling and resources, which were scarce for the new immigrant. He took a restaurant job that paid a $300 salary, but made connections with frequent customers, including a roofing contractor. A friendship and business partnership grew for a few years, and while Medina focused on sales and office operations, he also picked up roofing knowledge and crew management crews from his veteran roofing partner.

With a $1,000 loan for t-shirts, business cards and to wrap his reliable Nissan Sentra, XYZ Roofing launched in Miguel’s name. The business relationship with the partner soured within the year when Medina said he discovered side jobs outside of their system, along with missing funds and materials.

“He basically told me this was how the industry is, and now I’ve learned my lesson,” Medina recalled. “And he left me with everything under my name, and that was another moment in my life where I defined who I really wanted to be.”

Discouraged but determined to stay in business, Medina said he negotiated his debts with suppliers and went back to the basics. He sought and took help from experts, learning everything he could about roofing and shingles from associations and companies that he now considers his new partners on the path to long-term success.

Building Trust Within

Given his background, Medina said trusting anyone in the business was difficult, particularly at first. He was determined to hire and develop his own employees and avoided sales reps and crew that were just dollar-driven.

“I wanted to be the company based on values and not money,” he explained. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t want to make a lot of money, but the money cannot be the main thing. It has to be a consequence of doing the right thing.”

It’s a message he said he tries to drive home with every new employee, along with a symbolic $300 stipend for completing their training.

“It’s significant to me, because I’m telling them, ‘Hey guys, this is what I earned when I started out, and if I can make it on that, I know you can make it, too.”

The company is also structured to prioritize customer care and empower field crews to stay flexible and efficient by making real-time decisions. While most companies have their CEOs perched at the top of the organizational structure, Medina said he inverts it, with the customer at the top.

He said he keeps decision-making simple when it comes to issues on the jobsite. If employees can answer three questions themselves, they can make the call without further input from headquarters. They are:

• Does this solve the customer’s problem?
• Are you protecting XYZ Roofing?
• Is the decision profitable?

“In reality, if the only thing you have to offer someone to work for you is money, you’re done. You’re going to fail,” he said. “There’s always going to be someone with more money. What I’m trying to do every day is give them a sense of belonging, that they believe XYZ is theirs.”

The company recently achieved a few big milestones, including becoming an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor. He’s now part of the top tier of contractors known for meeting strict standards for professionalism and craftsmanship, which can be a key differentiator in the residential world. The company also expanded services and now specializes in commercial and insurance restoration.

Miguel Medina at Roofing Contractor's 2025 Best of Success Conference
Photo: RC Staff

The Holistic Approach

Around the same time as Medina revamped his business, he also reprogrammed his life. He cut out destructive habits like smoking and started running again. Marathons at first, then he escalated to full-blown Ironman competitions. He’s competed in five so far, and said he is eyeing number six very soon.

He set a 10-year life plan that required discipline and made physical and mental fitness a priority. That bled into the work culture, where Medina brought in a performance coach to keep teams focused on goals and accountable. He also put a high priority on health and nutrition, implementing a company kitchen and hiring a full-time nutritionist to keep crews moving.

“The perception is that we want everyone to be skinny, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he explained. “If you don’t hydrate well or eat a lot sugar during the day you’re going to have crashes throughout the day and guys can start getting sick or slowed down more often.”

The proactive approach helps stop lulls in production and performance before they start, and it all begins with the knowledge the nutritionist provides about vitamins and individual metabolisms. The nutritionist works with employees on individual meal planning and moderates a WhatsApp group linking them all together for friendly competitions, idea sharing, and moral support. They also plan one company-wide event for physical activity each month, which he says is well attended even though it’s not mandatory.  

Investing in their overall health and well-being creates an atmosphere for high-performing and extraordinary people to thrive.

“We want them to be at peace 360-degrees at the same time, and when you get that fulfillment, you can conquer whatever you want,” he said.

It’s part of an integrated a philosophy of being "[X]traordinary" in both business and serving the community. Last July, the company was honored by a local school for sponsoring youth soccer uniforms. Medina views these initiatives as a way to "uplift the community," through leadership.

The former goalie likes drawing parallels between the teamwork needed on the pitch and what has to happen on the roof to complete a project successfully. He’s also set on being an authentic model for other Latino contractors looking to move into a strategic leadership position to join the growing group economic engines in roofing.

“There is a lot of support and momentum in the industry, and a lot of the focus is on pushing subcontractors to become knowledgeable enough and effective enough to go out on their own,” he said. “That’s an opportunity, but if they all grow into the contractor base without having values or being committed to doing the right thing, we’re all in trouble.”