David Weingot // DMAC Security, Palm X Holdings

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, as the seventh of ten kids. When I was three, my family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and then to White Oak, Pennsylvania (in the Pittsburgh area), when I was eight. Both of my parents were in chinuch. My mother was a preschool teacher for over 30 years. My father was involved in Hebrew Academy and the Yavneh Girls High School in Cleveland, and then he was asked to start a yeshivah in Squirrel Hill—the high school for the Hillel Academy. My father expanded it and brought in out-of-town bachurim and started a beis midrash and a kollel.
“My father was the type of person who radiated simchah and warmth in Yiddishkeit. He brought chiyus and chizzuk to bachurim who needed more than the mainstream systems provided. He passed away last year at the age of 69. His legacy continues through his family and thousands of talmidim and talmidos.
“We had a heimishe background. My father wore a bekeshe with a bend-down hat, even though it wasn’t the norm where we lived. He was a pioneer in that way; he wanted to bring Yiddishkeit to other places that needed chizzuk. People were very drawn to him. People around the world still call my father ‘Rebbe.’
“I went to Hillel Academy for elementary school in Pittsburgh, and then to Telz in Cleveland. After that I went to Rav Schlanger’s yeshivah in Baltimore because my family moved back there and I wanted to be local. I graduated early, then I learned in the community kollel in Olney, Maryland, under Rav Shaya Milikowsky and Rabbi Yaacov Lipsky.
“As a teenager, I was always exploring opportunities. In the summers, I offered to cut the neighbors’ grass, and I also had the classic drink stands. As early as eight years old, I was sketching ideas and writing business plans. I’m pretty artistic, so I would draw up sketches of buildings and other things I wanted to build one day. When my wife Rivka and I lived in Baltimore, we designed a house based on a sketch of a home I did in tenth grade. I would do home repairs as a handyman in the summers as well. I haven’t worked with my hands in many years, but I have a strong background, so I understand the inner workings.
“I began in construction and property management after high school, in 2005. I did that for about a year and a half and then said, ‘What am I doing? I’m young and all of my friends are in Eretz Yisrael.’ So I stopped the hustle and went there to learn. My brother was learning in the Mir and I had a close friend at Aish, so in the mornings, I would learn with my brother in the Mir, and in the afternoon, I would learn with my friend. I trained for Magen David Adom and Hatzalah in between and kept quite busy.
“Back in Baltimore, I returned to construction and property management, as well as being a dorm counselor at Lev Shlomo, a teens-at-risk program. I got my contractor’s license. I was doing renovations—bathrooms, basements and other residential projects. A friend of mine was in property management, so I started working with him as well. That branched into property preservation, which is taking care of bank-owned houses and foreclosures. When the mortgage isn’t being paid, the property can become decrepit very quickly, so it has to be serviced. With the mortgage crisis, there were a lot of homes that were sitting and decaying, so there is a big demand.
“I heard about a Yid in Cleveland named Mendy Klein, who was very well known and successful in this space. He designed this concept of property preservation. He was a taxi driver, and he kept passing houses that were not being taken care of. He looked into it and realized that they had gone into foreclosure, so he reached out to the banks to tell them about the situation. He began hiring contractors in every zip code throughout the country to service bank-owned homes. I reached out to Mendy, and he responded to my email right away. I started working for him in Maryland.
“I was servicing bank-owned houses throughout Maryland, and I eventually branched out into DC and Virginia. I was essentially a subcontractor for Mendy. I quickly realized that I was one contractor, and the volume of work I needed to be successful was tremendous. While grateful for the opportunity, I realized I was building his business, not my own. He was handing me leads, but I was young and had a lot of energy and ambition. I was willing to work hard to get a bigger reward.”
“I realized that there are many banks with houses that need servicing. I emailed and cold-called realtors who listed bank-owned houses and told them that I specialized in maintaining those types of properties. It took three months for me to get a response, and slowly things went from there. I went from one house to the next, and before I knew it, I was getting all of the listings from BB&T bank throughout the mid-Atlantic. Mendy encouraged me to go out on my own.
“I started building crews and contractors under me. I had to be creative; I ran a very lean operation and was hands on. Sometimes it would take a few months for the banks to pay me, but I kept my cost of living really low. My apartment in Baltimore was only $680 a month (this was 18 years ago). I drove a pickup truck. I went out every day and worked. Our name was Weingot Brothers Contracting, since my brother worked with me at the time. Now he’s a social worker and founded Toras Shalom, continuing our father’s legacy.”
“I got married, and in 2008 my wife and I decided to move to Olney, outside of Baltimore. It was a kiruv town. We were very close with the rabbi and rebbetzin, who had brought in a few young kollel families as well. It was a really special community. We moved there for our shanah rishonah, which turned into five years. We bought a townhouse behind the shul for just $170,000!
“I continued property preservation. I also became a licensed home inspector, since I was essentially doing inspections for the banks, and I offered that service as well. But I didn’t want to be a contractor for life. I felt that I was limited in how I could scale it. I had a friend who was doing something similar and was very successful, so I sold him my business. In between this job and my next move, I purchased a house, rehabbed and sold it.
“In 2010, I got a call from Yehuda Dafna, who ran a security business, ISS Action, with his wife. They contracted with the federal government, the largest buyer of security guard services. I got to know them because they davened by Rav Moshe Weinberger in Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, and my brother is Rav Weinberger’s son-in-law. Yehuda called me one day and said they were looking for a young, energetic guy to be their go-to in the Maryland, DC and Virginia market. He said, ‘If you’re interested, you’d be the perfect guy for us.’ They wanted a paratrooper, someone who was not afraid to try new things and meet new people. Within a few minutes, he sent me a bunch of emails of federal proposals and RFPs (request for proposal). I dove into it.
“I worked for them for five years. I reviewed federal RFPs, looked at federal opportunities, decided which ones we were going to bid on and managed the bid process. I traveled, took people out to dinner and learned everything about the contracts, which often included 200-300 officers. Once the bids were submitted, I tracked them with the government. When word of award came back, I shifted to transition manager, getting the contract successfully transitioned to our company, along with our corporate team and on-site management.
“The last contract I worked on was a TSA screener partnership program, which we’ll probably see more of in the next administration as they privatize part of the TSA services. During that time, because I was in the security space and we were licensed in several states, I brought on commercial contracts such as schools and other institutions in the Baltimore and DC area. I recruited and hired everyone needed for the commercial contracts. For the federal contracts, we hired managers. Many times, we hired the team that was already there, and they just put on our uniform and went on our payroll. For the commercial contracts, I networked with people in the community as well as people who owned real estate. Once I became known in the security space, I became involved in the conversation. If a school got a security grant and needed guards, I would take care of them. I was personally involved. I was also a founding member of Shomrim in Baltimore, so I was very involved with the community and public safety concerns. It was a natural crossover.
“I worked with Yehuda and his wife for five years. They were doing well and I learned a lot from them. They were very good to me, and I will always have hakaras hatov to them. They focused on the federal side of things, while I started to appreciate the commercial side and the private sector. It was a better fit for my skills and talents. The relationships with the clients in these areas were able to turn over the sales cycle much quicker. The federal sales cycle included months and months of working on these contracts. I was drawn to the human element and the people.
“I decided I wanted to go back into business on my own, on the commercial side. Yehuda encouraged me. I signed a non-compete for a few years, agreeing not to compete in the federal space, and I purchased the commercial accounts that I brought in while working for them.