Housing Crisis | Using Robots to Build Homes Faster & Cheaper, with BotBuilt CEO Brent Wadas

08/23/23 • 40 min

Brent Wadas is the CEO at BotBuilt, a Y-Combinator Construction technology company based in Durham, NC that is revolutionizing building homes with robots to address the labor shortage and housing affordability crisis. Brent served in the US Army in Afghanistan after 9/11, where he fulfilled his patriotic calling. BotBuilt employs a methodology that makes homebuilding less capital intensive, creating less waste and enabling a much more sustainable building process. Brent served over 10 years in the US Army as Assistant (to the) Regional Manager. Brent is an experienced business entrepreneur with a flair for achieving goals through actions and a passion for bringing dreams into focus.

(1:34) - Brent Wadas' entrepreneurial & military journey
(8:57) - What makes BotBuilt special
(13:52) - Feature: CREx - Makes it easy to get data out of Yardi, Salesforce, and more.
(15:15) - BotBuilt's factories: Durham, NC
(16:56) - Lessons from Katerra's $2 billion saga
(22:29) - Delivering a venture-scale return in Contech
(25:51) - BotBuilt's unit economics & business model
(31:49) - Contech adoption among homebuilders
(34:40) - Collaboration Superpower: William "Wild Bill" Donovan (Head of the OSS, precursor to CIA) - Wiki
(35:54) - Brent's 'Grand Daddy's' influence: 1st Scientific sharing agreement between USA & USSR
💚 Learn more:
➡️ BotBuilt's site
➡️ Brent's email: [email protected]
➡️ Katerra - Wiki

💚 Feature:
➡️ CREx (learn more) - Makes it easy to get data out of Yardi, Salesforce, and more.

💚 Connect with Tangent:
➡️ Edward Cohen on Twitter
➡️ Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
➡️ Jeff Berman on LinkedIn
➡️ Zach Aarons on Twitter
➡️ Tangent on LinkedIn
➡️ Tangent on Twitter

Disclaimer: Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advise. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Camber Creek, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

💚 Feature:
➡️ CREx (learn more) - Makes it easy to get data out of Yardi, Salesforce, and more.

Previous Episode

Creating Pro-housing Ecosystems, with Ivory Innovations' Chief Innovation & Strategy Jenna Louie

Jenna Louie leads partnerships and strategic outreach at Ivory Innovations, and was previously an investor with the Urban Development Deal Team at Stanford. Ivory Innovations' mission is to catalyze innovation in housing affordability by promoting the most compelling ideas in housing by convening industry experts, inspiring students to tackle housing issues, sourcing and supporting the best innovative housing entrepreneurs, and putting these innovations into practice.

💚Learn more:
➡️ Ivory Innovations (see portfolio)
➡️ Esusu - Helping people build financial opportunities (learn more)
➡️ Outreach Grid - End homelessness together (learn more)
➡️ PermitFlow - Fast, easy permitting (learn more)➡️ Acre Homes - It's not a mortgage. It's not renting. It's Acre. (learn more)

💚Feature:
➡️ Blueprint (BlueprintVegas.com/Tangent for ticket discount) - Most global event of Proptech innovators leading the charge in changing the built world in Las Vegas this September.

💚Connect with Tangent:
➡️ Edward Cohen on Twitter
➡️ Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
➡️ Jeff Berman on LinkedIn
➡️ Zach Aarons on Twitter
➡️ Tangent on LinkedIn
➡️ Tangent on Twitter

(2:52) - Ivory Innovations intro
(5:53) - Ivory ecosystem
(7:43) - How to align stakeholder incentives to put housing solutions into practice
(11:34) - Portfolio: Esusu, Outreach Grid, PermitFlow
(19:05) Feature - Blueprint Vegas: Global event of Proptech innovators leading the charge in changing the built world in Las Vegas this September.
(20:43) - Pro-housing innovation cities: Salt Lake City & Minneapolis
(26:30) - "Low hanging fruit" pro-housing policies
(31:46) - Role of Academia in catalyzing housing disruption
(34:08) - Homeownership vs. renting & building wealth
(38:15) - Housing funding environment: VC's vs. other creative funding ways
(42:51) - Collaboration Superpower: Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore's First Prime Minister)

Next Episode

Housing Crisis | It's Not a Mortgage, It's Not Renting, It's Acre, with Acre Homes CEO & Co-founder Mike Schneider

Mike Schneider is the CEO & Co-founder of Acre Homes. Acre combines the ease of renting with the financial upside of owning. Acre is available in Raleigh-Durham, and will be launching in Atlanta and Nashville soon. Previously, Mike served as the VP of Technology Strategy at RE/MAX, and Co-founded First, a real estate tech company that leveraged machine learning to help agents win more business.

(2:12) - Acre: Breaking the Renting or Home Mortgage paradigm

(7:13) - Acre's model during variable interest rate environment

(8:59) - Opportunity residents & investors

(10:19) - Market growth

(10:54) - Taking the Tesla approach: 10x better than mortgage

(12:48) - Buying a home with a partner

(15:28) - Acre Homes price point

(16:47) - Feature: Blueprint

(17:52) - Rent-to-own, buy before you sell, Home Equity products.

(21:41) - Challenges of mortgages & bias in home appraisals

(25:07) - Generating returns in Single family homes

(25:42) - North Carolina ecosystem: Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle

(29:51) - US cities transport options

(33:26) - Collaboration Superpower: Steve Jobs

(38:57) - Discomfort Zone: Is Built-to-rent overrated?

💚 Learn more:
➡️ Acre Homes (site)
➡️ Mike Schneider on LinkedIn

💚 Feature:
➡️ Blueprint (BlueprintVegas.com/Tangent for ticket discount) - Most global event of Proptech innovators leading the charge in changing the built world in Las Vegas this September.