Matthew Hand

Matthew Hand has always been one to climb the ladder in every organization he has been a part of. Starting out as a Crew Member at a Wendy's restaurant in 2000, he moved up to an Assistant Manager position in a "Training Store" where he not only oversaw the regular restaurant shift operations but also trained up-and-coming managers before they went back to their own stores.

After that, he had spent a year as a CNC machinist with Superior Technology, starting out cleaning up small parts and later moving to one of the company's key positions - programing and operating a vertical lathe and CNC mill to produce train brake rotors and then machining the rotors precisely to balance them.

During all of this time, he ran a side-hustle repairing cars. Anything from oil changes to body work and rebuilding engines was in his wheelhouse and he would even bring his tools with him and service vehicles at the customers' home or their workplace when conditions allowed.

Eventually, he joined Hudson Steel Fabricators and Erectors in Rochester, NY as a detailer where he was trained on the drafting board, then in AutoCAD and later, SDS2. Being fabricator-trained allowed him to gain a solid background in fabrication operations and methods, as well as a knowledge of field conditions and erecting procedures.

After gaining all of this general-business and industry-specific knowledge, he co-founded United Structural with Nicholas Coffee in 2013. Starting the company on a shoestring budget, they could only afford a single license of SDS2 between the pair of them. At that time, the SDS2 licensing still revolved around a physical hasp be plugged into the computer in order to run the software. This led them to working opposite shifts and driving the hasp back and forth between their home offices in order to maximize the usefulness of the license.

It did not take long to realize there had to be a better way. They set to work trying to devise a method for forwarding the hasp from one station to the other, allowing them to cut out the physical transportation requirement and simply focus on using their software. This work was the precursor to developing their entire cloud-office infrastructure they now provide to other detailing companies through their second company - Unite3D Inc.

He has been invited to the SDS2 Summit (previously User Group Conference) several times to present and has done so on a wide range of topics from parametrics and custom members to managing a cloud-based office. He has been a beta tester for SDS2 and has been heavily involved with the SDS2 user message board over the years. In the past few years, he and his partner have launched a YouTube channel to share commentary on detailing, the construction industry in general, and tutorials for various pieces of software and hardware; as well as a Discord server to help fuel the conversation of construction professionals well beyond the confines of a single message board designed only for SDS2 users.

In addition to his roles as a business leader, he has also taken on roles as a leader within his community. He served his village's Planning Board as Chairman as well as being a member of his county's Planning Board. He is also involved with his local school district by serving as an officer in the Elementary PTA and as a Music Booster.

His wife is no stranger to leadership either. She is a Girl Scout troop leader, President of the local Elementary PTA, and Treasurer of the local school district's Music Boosters. She has worked with United Structural as a detailer in the past and today serves as an Administrative Assistant. Together, they have 3 children in middle and high school who are heavily involved in music and drama programs in their schools, volunteering in elementary classrooms, and are members of the National Honor Society. Each of them hold elected positions as well. The oldest NHS treasurer, the second is vice president of the Drama Club, and the youngest is a member of her Student Council.