Published April 7, 2026 . 0 min read

CM Red

CM Red is a first-tier cast-in-place concrete subcontractor operating across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The company runs approximately 15 active projects per month and has grown rapidly, from an average project size of $200K–$250K to nearly $750K today. They bill roughly $1.1 million per month across their active portfolio, with recent peak months hitting $1.5 million. Their current backlog stands at $11 million, up nearly 50% year over year.

CM Red relies heavily on local vendors and suppliers who expect to be paid on their own terms, not on the GC’s pay-when-paid timeline.

About CM Red

TradeCast-in-place concrete

RegionNC, SC, VA

Active projects~15/month

Monthly billing~$1.1M avg

Current backlog$11M

Websitecm-red.com

The Challenge

In the concrete business, the financial exposure starts on Day 1. Materials arrive. Crews deploy. The first billing goes out around the 20th of the month, and in CM Red’s world, that check won’t land for about 60 days.

“

You start a project on March 1st, you’ve got materials coming in on March 1st, you’re not billing until March 20th, and in the normal market, you’re not getting paid till May 20th.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

As their projects scaled from $200K to an average of $750K, the early-project cash gap grew with them. On a $1 million job, the first billing alone could be $340,000 with three months of payroll and vendor obligations to cover before a single dollar came in. That means fronting hundreds of thousands of dollars per project before any revenue is realized, creating a cash constraint that can limit how quickly the business can scale.

Their bank line of credit was an option, but tapping it repeatedly would affect their utilization rate, and that number shows up on every GC pre-qualification form. Drawing the line down meant risking their ability to qualify for the larger jobs they were pursuing.

“

In order for you to have growth in the construction market, you have to have cash flow, and QuickPay Direct allows that.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

As projects grew, this gap stopped being a timing issue and became a growth constraint. Without reliable access to early cash, CM Red would have had to slow project starts, turn down larger opportunities, or increase reliance on their credit line in ways that could impact future job qualification.

The Solution

About six months ago, CM Red began using QuickPay Direct, an accelerated invoice funding program built into the ProNovos financial intelligence platform and funded by Viva Capital. CM Red evaluates each submission as a cost of capital decision, weighing the QuickPay fee against avoided interest, preserved credit capacity, and potential vendor discounts.

The setup took less than a day. From there, David and his team developed a disciplined, strategic approach. Rather than using QuickPay Direct reactively, CM Red built a repeatable operating playbook around it.

Front-Load Every Project

Submit QuickPay Direct on the pay app #1 of every new job without exception. That first billing puts CM Red’s cash flow positive before the GC processes the draw. On larger projects, it covers three months of payroll and vendor obligations from a single submission.

Target the 15-Day Window

ProNovos tracks each GC’s historical payment timeline and predicts when a check is likely to land. When a payment is expected to arrive within 15 days, CM Red submits, locking in the lowest fee tier (1.5%). Precise timing turns a cost into a calculated trade-off.

Negotiate Vendor Discounts

With the 80% advance in hand, CM Red pays local vendors early and negotiates early-pay discounts. After six months, 2 out of 10 regular local vendors are now offering discounts for early payment. National vendors rarely budge, but local suppliers, who face their own cash pressure, respond over time.

“

Pay app number one of every project, we submit right away. We know that one is going to get us cash-flow positive right off the bat.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

Listen to David Reaugh and CM Red’s experience with QuickPay Direct

Results

Six months after implementing QuickPay Direct, the results at CM Red are concrete.

Metric	Before	After (6 months)	Growth
Annual backlog	~$7.5M	$11M	+50% YoY
Avg. project size	$200K–$250K	~$750K	~3× increase
Peak monthly billing	~$1.1M avg	$1.5M peak	+36%
Line of credit used	Drawn for cash gaps	$0 — fully preserved	0% utilization
Funding speed	60-day GC cycle	Same day	Morning submit
Vendor discount deals	0 vendors	2 vendors	Early-pay discounts

“

The growth that we’ve been able to accommodate over the last 6 months has been due to this relationship with Viva and ProNovos.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

These results reflect more than growth. They show a shift in how CM Red funds operations. Instead of using debt to bridge gaps, they are using project-level cash acceleration to stay liquid while scaling.

“

Every single time we’ve ever submitted, the money has been in our bank account within 24 hours. And I will say most of the time, the same day, if you do it in the morning.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

Before QuickPay Direct, cash flow planning required manual tracking, delayed decisions, and careful pacing of project starts. Today, CM Red can move forward on new work with confidence, knowing cash flow is predictable and accessible.

The Pre-Qualification Edge

One of the less obvious but highly strategic outcomes of using QuickPay Direct is its impact on CM Red’s pre-qualification profile. When GCs evaluate subcontractors for larger jobs, they ask two key financial questions: bonding rate and line of credit utilization.

Because CM Red uses QuickPay Direct to fill cash flow gaps instead of their bank line, their line stays untouched, at 0% utilization. That number, on a pre-qual form, tells a GC that this sub is financially healthy, well-managed, and capable of handling larger scopes without financial strain.

“

We leave our line of credit completely open because, from a subcontractor point of view, when we pre-qualify with our clients, one of those questions is, what is your bonding rate, and what is your line of credit utilization? This obviously does not affect your line of credit utilization and that is a plus whenever you’re trying to pre-qualify for a job.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

This positioning allows CM Red to compete for larger, more complex projects without appearing financially stretched, even during periods of rapid growth.

Platform Intelligence

QuickPay Direct runs inside the ProNovos financial intelligence platform, which connects directly to CM Red’s Foundation ERP. Every project, pay app, AR balance, and AP obligation is visible in one place with a 13-week cash flow forecast that surfaces gaps before they become problems.

David’s team previously spent a month manually building a predictive payment database tracking GC payment histories by project to forecast when checks would land. ProNovos replicated that analysis in approximately one hour. This visibility allows CM Red to make funding decisions proactively rather than reactively, shifting from hindsight reporting to forward-looking control.

“

We spent probably a month creating a predictive database of payments based on projects and GCs, and ProNovos did that in an hour.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

What makes this approach effective is the combination of timing, visibility, and discipline. CM Red is not using QuickPay Direct as a one-off solution, but as a core part of how they manage growth, protect their balance sheet, and strengthen their position with both vendors and general contractors.

“

The beauty of the combination of ProNovos and Viva is that they see your financials, they see your whole back end, and that helps everybody get comfortable with this process, and it makes it much more efficient and easy to use.

David Reaugh | VP of Business Development, CM Red

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