The app this Nebraska roofing company built to help its business has become a super tool for contractors nationwide

There are many ways to measure the success of Company Cam, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based startup unicorn that popularized a photo-focused construction tracking app that’s become popular within the roofing industry. But one of the clearest signs that its design, utility, and functionality are hitting the mark is the variety of users the app continues to attract. There are shipbuilders who use it to track how vessels are built and to certify the strength of a hull. Retail merchandisers love the ability to showcase product setups and track subcontractors. Property managers use it to oversee buildings. “We have some aestheticians—which I think our terms of service say they shouldn’t use us for—doing ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos for CoolSculpting,” said chief financial officer Tullen Mabbutt. “One thing that has always fascinated me about our business is all of the interesting use cases that we never intended to solve.” The firm grew out of founder Luke Hansen and his family business, White Castle Roofing, which his father started in the 1980s and he took over with his two brothers, Dane and Jake, in the mid-2000s. The Hansen brothers wanted to scale up and expand the firm, and through the process of growing, came up against the challenges of workplace documentation for roofing contractors. Insurance companies needed detailed images of damaged roofs and the finished repairs. Homeowners wanted to know if the crews on top of their homes were damaging things. And the company had challenges while overseeing multiple crews: getting updates when projects finished, and managing materials and labor flows with quick updates from job sites. Photos became central to the company’s processes and its reputation locally, and helped back up its motto, “Built by trust, proven by time.” By the late 2000s, before more sophisticated phone photo apps became de rigueur, White Castle crews were carrying a digital camera with an SD card to job sites, tracking work and th