Unlike most high school students, by his
senior year, Dave Lindoerfer didn’t have a
clue about what he wanted to do after
graduation.

With little alternative, he worked in the back-breaking construction,
masonry, concrete and moving industries in his native Chicago-
land for a few years, all without inspiration. Then, Dave stumbled
upon a job with the prominent, Chicago-based landscape
contractor, Lawrence and Ahlman.

For the first time, Dave looked forward to going to work. He
had been given the responsibility, intellectual challenge and
opportunity for promotion so lacking with those other jobs.
He also discovered his love for the landscape industry,
deciding this would be his chosen profession. But it
became obvious that for Dave to succeed in the
landscape industry, he needed to commit to planning
for his future, starting with his education.

Haunted by his poor high school grades, Dave
was unable to qualify for acceptance to most
desirable colleges. At the urging of his boss,
Ron Ahlman, a senior partner with Lawrence
and Ahlman, Dave applied for admission at the highly regarded
Mississippi State University. Fortunate for Dave, that institution was not
only unique in its offering of an accredited, four-year BS degree in landscape
contracting, but also it was willing to accept him as a probationary student with
his weak high school academic background. By his second semester Dave had made the Dean’s List at MSU, continuing his impressive academic excellence while participating in a position of leadership in extracurricular programs.

Upon graduation, Dave’s high academic achievement earned him a position with Gustin Gardens, at that time, Washington DC's most prestigious commercial landscape company. A secondary benefit of relocating to the Washington, DC area was its proximity to Dave’s lifelong personal passion, Civil War history.

Employed for 6 years at Gustin Gardens, Dave worked under the direction of Ray Gustin, the company’s founder. From
Ray, Dave thoroughly learned the process of both residential and commercial landscape design-build. For his last 2 years,
Dave was promoted to the position of Design-Build Sales Representative where he discovered another professional passion, sales.

When Dave joined Davis Landscape, a commercial contracting business whose headquarters was in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, his assignment was to start the company’s Washington, DC branch office. Throughout the 1980s, Dave
built this office into one of the areas largest and most respected commercial landscape ventures, recording record
breaking sales in excess of 11 million dollars. And that was in 1987.

Dave joined the burgeoning Ruppert Landscape company as one of three landscape maintenance branch managers.
At Ruppert Landscape, Dave learned many valuable lessons about financial management and landscape maintenance
production. By far, Dave’s most important lesson was learning personnel management at the tutelage of Craig Ruppert
and Chris Davitt, industry legends. The lessons he learned at Ruppert Landscape would be some of the most important of
Dave’s career, greatly influencing his future landscape endeavors. In his position as a manager at Ruppert Landscape,
Dave compiled an enviable sales record, exceeding 31 million dollars during the period of 1992 through 1999.

Dave’s lifelong vision was to own and manage his own company. In 2003 he founded InsideOut Services, LLC, a residential and commercial landscape company dedicated to the high standards Dave had adhered to throughout his career. The founding philosophy of InsideOut Services is, “Always treat your customer fairly, your employees with respect, never losing sight about how you achieved past successes. That philosophy", declares Dave, "will never change."