Clay Blair

Clay Blair is the founder, CEO, and one of the owners of Vita Roofing. 

In his own words, Clay grew up on a farm where they were taught to be self-sufficient and do everything themselves. He learned from a young age that you have to work hard to succeed. This came naturally to him as he also grew up around construction tradesmen, immersed in their teachings. His dad and grandpa spent a lot of time building houses while his dad's cousin has always been involved in residential and commercial construction. This inspired Clay.

"As soon as I could drive, I started working. I went from property management to working with my dad's cousin doing commercial construction, then eventually I switched to seamless rain gutters where I learned the skills needed to start my first company doing seamless gutters. This led me to Dallas TX, the southern hub of roofing. That's when I realized roofing was where I wanted to be.", says Clay. A year later he moved back to Fargo and started his original roofing company, Minn-Dak Roofing and Exteriors. One more year later, Clay brought on Jack on as a partner and rebranded as Vita Roofing.

Clay's work ethic comes from hands-on experience and the "school of hard knocks" as he phrases it. Because Vita Roofing is on the border of MN, he also holds a GC (general contractor) License for the state of MN. This will be Clay's third year owning a company, but only his second as owner of Vita Roofing. He believes that getting a good, productive start to his day is essential, which is why he starts his day in the gym. From there, he gets to the office and does some paperwork before markets open, which is when he does a bit of trading. After that is when he starts running appointments, checking in on job sites, or networking with builders, realtors, and other industry-involved professionals.

Despite stock trading being a part of his workday, he loves doing it in his spare time. Clay also enjoys traveling, seeing new places, golfing, hunting, fishing, active self improvement, spending time with his girlfriend, and working on future business ideas or new ideas for Vita.

Clay loves being so hands-on with Vita Roofing and having the freedom to be his own boss, but most importantly he enjoys having the ability to build something. He is a big sports fan and considers business to be somewhat like a sport in itself; he says, "I'm always trying to figure out how we can improve not only in the company but also as a human. I'm always coming up with new ideas, whether that's a future company or product. My brain never stops. I also love the ability to meet new people and help homeowners out regardless of the circumstances."