Why We Built NEXGEN Roofing: The Story Behind Jacksonville's Most Transparent Contractor
Category: Choose a Roofer | Read time: 7 min | By Brandon Cornellier
Tim Betros and I met at the University of Florida in 2013. We didn't know it at the time, but we had more in common than a college campus.
Both of us had grown up around the roofing industry. Both of our fathers had spent their careers in it. And both of us had watched our dads work hard — genuinely hard, genuinely well — for companies that didn't deserve it. Companies that overcharged homeowners. Companies that cut corners on materials, skipped communication altogether, and disappeared when something went wrong. Companies that treated their crews as a cost to minimize rather than people to invest in.
By the time Tim and I started talking seriously about building something of our own, the conversation kept coming back to the same place: the industry had a trust problem that went deeper than any individual contractor. It was structural. It was cultural. And the people paying the price for it were Jacksonville homeowners who had no reliable way to know who they were actually dealing with.
NEXGEN Roofing was founded in Jacksonville in 2018 to fix that. Not as a talking point. As an operating model.
The Short Version
NEXGEN was founded in 2018 by Brandon Cornellier and Tim Betros after both watched — from different angles — what the roofing industry does to homeowners when nobody is holding it accountable. Brandon's father spent his career at companies that cut corners and misled clients. Brandon and Tim were on the ground in Panama City after Hurricane Michael watching contractors fabricate damage, inflate insurance scopes, and disappear before the work was finished. NEXGEN was built as the answer to all of it — transparent pricing, documented installations, no subcontractors, and a workmanship warranty that actually means something. That mission hasn't changed. Get your free inspection →
What We Saw in Panama City
Before NEXGEN launched publicly, Tim and I were on the ground in Panama City in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael — doing water mitigation, mold remediation, and remodels alongside homeowners whose communities had just been devastated by one of the most powerful storms to hit the Florida Panhandle in recorded history.
We went there to help. What we witnessed from other contractors operating in those weeks was the worst the roofing industry produces — and it wasn't incompetence. It was calculated.
We realized that nothing had changed in 30 years since our Dads started in the industry.
What we watched contractors do in Panama City
- Arrive with out-of-state plates and high-pressure door-knock scripts specifically designed for disaster victims
- Submit insurance claims using storm dates that didn't match when actual damage occurred
- Physically damage roofs during inspections to manufacture evidence for inflated claims
- Collect insurance payouts, subcontract the work to the cheapest available crew, and pocket the difference
- Disappear before warranty claims could be filed — leaving homeowners with poorly installed roofs and no recourse
We watched an elderly woman in Panama City sign an AOB she didn't understand, handing control of her entire insurance claim to a contractor she'd met twenty minutes earlier. We watched a crew tear off a roof and leave it tarped for six months while the contractor and the insurance company fought over an inflated scope — with the homeowner stuck in the middle of a dispute she didn't know she'd entered.
That's not roofing. That's predation. And we decided our company would be its antidote.
Why This Is Still Happening in Jacksonville Right Now
Panama City in 2018 wasn't an anomaly. The same playbook runs in Jacksonville after every named storm that touches Northeast Florida — and increasingly, between storms, as insurance claim volumes have made roofing fraud a year-round operation rather than a seasonal one.
But what if there isn’t a storm where every roof is damaged?
The manufactured damage scheme deserves specific attention because it's the one homeowners are least prepared for. A contractor gets on your roof unattended. In the time it takes to walk to the ridge and back, shingle tabs can be broken, granules scraped, impact marks created. The photos submitted to your insurance company are indistinguishable from legitimate storm damage to anyone who wasn't watching — and the homeowner, who signed an Assignment of Benefits in the driveway, is now the named insured on a fraudulent claim they had no idea was fraudulent.
#1
Florida leads the nation in roofing insurance fraud claims
$1B+
Estimated annual cost of roofing fraud to Florida insurers
AOB
Assignment of Benefits — the document that starts most fraudulent claims
The mechanics are more sophisticated now than what we saw in 2018. The websites are more polished. The pitches are better rehearsed. But the underlying operation is identical — find a homeowner, manufacture or misrepresent damage, inflate the insurance scope, collect the payout, and move on.
The specific scheme that has accelerated in Jacksonville over the past several years involves contractors who physically damage roofs during inspections to create evidence for claims. A contractor gets on your roof unattended. In the time it takes to walk to the ridge and back, a shingle tab can be broken, an impact mark can be created, granules can be scraped from a surface. The resulting photos are submitted to your insurance company as storm damage.
This is vandalism. It is insurance fraud. And the homeowner — who signed the AOB in the driveway — is now the named insured on a fraudulent claim they didn't know was fraudulent.
The consequences for homeowners caught in this aren't abstract. Policy cancellation. Difficulty obtaining new coverage. Potential fraud exposure if the scheme is investigated and the homeowner's cooperation — however unwitting — becomes part of the record.
The protection is simple and takes thirty seconds: record video of your roof from ground level before any contractor arrives. Stay present during the inspection. Ask for a timestamped before-and-after photo report before any claim is discussed. If a contractor discourages any of these things, you have your answer.
What NEXGEN Was Built to Be
NEXGEN launched in Jacksonville in 2018 with one founding principle: a homeowner should be able to trust exactly what their roofing contractor tells them.
Not because it's a nice value to have on a website. Because we'd both seen firsthand what happens when that trust is broken — and we'd seen it broken systematically, across an entire industry, in ways that cost real people real money and real peace of mind.
Transparent pricing — every line item
We quote every line item. Materials, labor, permit, disposal, wood replacement rate. No single number. No surprises after you sign.
Documented installations — everything on record
Every NEXGEN job is photographed and video documented from tear-off through final cleanup. Nail patterns, underlayment, flashing, deck condition — all of it on record and provided to the homeowner.
No storm chasing, no pressure, no deductible games
We don't knock on doors after hurricanes. We don't waive deductibles. We don't file claims on damage we can't honestly document. We give homeowners honest assessments and let them make their own decisions.
Local ownership and direct accountability
Tim and I live and work in Jacksonville. Our crews are direct employees. When something goes wrong — and in roofing, occasionally things do — there's no runaround. We own it.
What We've Built Since Then
Since 2018 NEXGEN has installed over 1,500 roofs across Jacksonville and Northeast Florida. We hold an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor designation — held by fewer than 1% of roofing contractors in the country — which allows us to offer the Platinum Preferred warranty: 50-year non-prorated material coverage and a 25-year workmanship warranty backed by the manufacturer.
1,500+
Roofs installed across Northeast Florida
4.9
Google rating across 450+ verified reviews
Top 1%
Owens Corning Platinum Preferred nationwide
$150K+
Donated through the NEXGEN Foundation
We carry a 4.9 Google rating across 450+ reviews. Both Tim and I were named to the Jacksonville Business Journal 40 Under 40 — Tim in 2026, me in 2025 — in consecutive years. We launched the NEXGEN Foundation which has donated over $150,000 in roofing services and community investment across Northeast Florida.
None of that happened because we were the cheapest quote. It happened because homeowners who trusted us told their neighbors about it.
Why This Still Matters in 2026
The roofing industry in Jacksonville has gotten better in some ways since my father's years in it. There are more good contractors operating with integrity than there used to be.
But the bad actors haven't gone away — they've gotten more sophisticated. The websites look more professional. The pitches are better. The fraud schemes are more elaborate. And the same Jacksonville homeowners who would never fall for an obvious scam are signing Assignments of Benefits in their driveways without realizing what they've handed over.
NEXGEN was built for the homeowner who wants a contractor they can trust with something as important as their home. Every decision we've made since 2018 — the documentation practices, the direct-employee crews, the no-pressure approach, the transparent quotes — traces back to the same two experiences: my father coming home frustrated, and what Tim and I watched happen in Panama City.
That's still what we are. That's still why we show up the way we do.
If you're getting ready to replace your roof in Jacksonville — or you want an honest inspection before hurricane season — we'd like to earn your trust too.
What NEXGEN Actually Means — The Real Story Behind the Name
The name isn't marketing. It's literal.
When Tim and I started NEXGEN, both of our fathers were still working in an industry that had never fully deserved them. We built a company that did. Both of them came with us.
My father, Armand Cornellier, now runs our warehouse at NEXGEN. He manages materials, supply chain, logistics, and the quality oversight that keeps our installation standards consistent across every job. He does it with the same exacting standards he always had. The difference is he does it now for a company that was built around those standards — not in spite of them.
Tim's father, Tim Betros Sr., is a leader on the sales team at NEXGEN. He does what he's always been exceptional at — talking to homeowners, understanding what they need, earning their trust. Except now when he tells a homeowner that NEXGEN will permit the job, warrant it, document it, and stand behind it — he knows every word of it is true.
The real meaning of NEXGEN
Two fathers. Two different skill sets. Two careers spent doing excellent work for companies that didn't deserve it. Both of them now working for their sons, at a company their sons built specifically to fix what was wrong.
That's what NEXGEN means — not the next generation of roofing products. The next generation of contractors.
