Turning the corner on 3D-printed Housing
This feels like the corner we turned with Electric Vehicles a few years ago.
The process for building homes has evolved over the centuries and in modern times. One of our favorite examples regarding automation is the nail gun, for example. Innovations that stick often produce higher quality, more standardized, and less expensive, homes. But other innovations push costs higher due to materials or labor involved.
Every new technology’s adoption curve has certain pivotal moments where it seems to have gained a stronger foothold on the future. 3D-printed Housing seems to have attained one of those pivot points at this year’s SXSW: showing off a curvaceous and beautiful 3D-printed home that is the kind of house upwardly mobile techies would desire to live in - not just build for others.
Austin Inno’s article covering the developments of this 3D home are the best coverage I’ve seen. It’s the first 3D printed home that looked like something I would want to live in. Not just “wouldn’t mind living in”, but “would desire to live in.” This house looks fabulous, and does things that would be prohibitively expensive with traditional construction methods! Icon has typically focused on smaller or more affordable houses - but I don’t see any reason that they can’t subsidize that mission with high-end homes that really pop.
This feels like the turning point that was made in EVs (Electric Vehicles) when Teslas introduced their roadster. It wasn’t going to be a volume car - this isn’t a volume house. It was going to appeal to people at a certain income bracket and environmental disposition - and this house fits a similar appeal. It started to make EVs objects of desire, not just practicality - and this house serves the same purpose (assuming it can be repeated even at small scale. Tesla’s goal was to build EVs for the masses - and they started with EVs that regularly cost more than $100,000 - perhaps Icon can learn some lessons from this approach and apply to the housing market.
Austin Inno: For Icon, one of Austin's best-known and fastest-growing startups, the luxury home represents a new chapter in its development. The company has largely made a name for itself by being the first to develop a habitable 3D-printed home and by using its technology to mostly build small homes for people with very low incomes or those who are experiencing homelessness. It went on to build homes for people in need in Austin and Mexico, as well as projects with NASA.
There are other pivots we’ve all lived through. I remember when smart phones went through a pivot from “feature phone” to Palm Pilot, to Blackberry. Each one improving on the last. And then the iPhone came along and changed the game (eventually at volume as well). But each of these products were game changers for a subset of the market. I can’t help but wonder if Icon is now at a game-changer position for a certain set of home buyers.
In my own market, around process and automation, a key inflection point was when the industry agreed on a standard for process notation (called BPMN or the Business Process Modeling Notation). That standard helped pave the way for an explosion of business process tools and solutions, redefining the industry. I’ll be curious to see if certain standards and points of interoperability emerge from ICON’s progress as well.
In personal news, this past weekend our school - the Magellan International School - which has taught our children Spanish, English, and Mandarin for the last 13 years, celebrated it’s first in-person fundraiser since 2019. I’ve been a parent, board member, Treasurer, and President on the board in the past (for 5 years), and I am now serving the remainder of my term on the board after having handed the baton to a great new President - Arthur VanderVeen. Magellan has been what my wife, Cindy Lo, and I refer to as our “third startup” - after RED VELVET and BP3 - with just as much pride and love. Magellan has been a passion project for us. Together, we helped found the Francis Lo iLab for Design+Making - a place for students to turn their insights into tangible actions and results. Our desire was to connect the International Baccalaureate curriculum - which is amazing for its multi- and trans-disciplinary approach - with entrepreneurship, making, and tangible things you can touch. Magellan has delivered on that dream with the leadership of Erika Velez, Christen Wilson, Marisa Leon, Patrick Benfield, Andrea Norman, and many others! We are so grateful - many kids tell us it is their favorite part of school!
On March 26th, Magellan bestowed upon me the Erin Defosse Inspirational Leadership Award. As President of the board, I have had a hand in giving this award to the two previous recipients (which I view as really the next highest honor). Erin Defosse founded Magellan and inspired many of us to join him - by sending our kids to school there - but also by giving of our time and treasure to turn Magellan into one of the truly great educational institutions of Austin. Austin is an emerging international city, and it needs an international school that lives up to that future, and that helps usher that future into being. Magellan has benefitted from two visionary heads of school - Marisa Leon (our founding head), and Scott Hibbard, our current head of school - and from a talented and experienced faculty and staff, 70% of whom are from outside the United States.
Receiving this award has been one of the great honors of my life - and I consider it an award for our whole family because it was a team effort with Cindy and our children being 100% behind Magellan as well! Receiving this recognition in front of my peers and friends at the Magellan Noche de Gala was inspirational, for me, and I hope to others!
I hope that my small example will inspire others to invest in Magellan - or whatever you are passionate about in your community. I have learned so much from my experience with Magellan that has made me a better husband, father, and CEO. And I am forever changed by the experience.
Listen to one more thing. SXSW wrapped up just a short week (or two) ago. SXSW 2022 was the first live event since the 2019 edition. Three long years passed in-between live conferences, and I for one was quite excited to have it back on. For the first time in years I was able to socialize with peers from Austin and outside of Austin.
For a view into SXSW from the perspective of a first-time attendee, check out the Austin Next Podcast - Jason Scharf and Michael Scharf discuss the event - Jason having attended, and Michael interviewing him on his experience.
I attended some of the same sessions he did, and enjoyed them (and tweeted about them). I also had a great experience with the Austin Technology Council Gateway Event (if you’re not a member, why not?!), the JP Morgan Chase welcome event, the Ireland IDA reception, and the Austin Entrepreneur’s Lounge on the rooftop of Fogo de Chao (truly one of the best experiences of SXSW every year. If you’re a visiting entrepreneur you should inquire about an invite).
It’s so good to have everyone back *in person* again, at SXSW, and at Magellan!