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The migration of tech and auto execs to the modular building industry is driving innovation in manufacturing and sales of modular homes. And, it’s success is on full display at US-based modular builder Connect Homes.
Greg Leung had worked at Apple for 12 years and was overseeing its global supply chain planning and management when he got the call to interview with US modular builder Connect Homes.
The pitch — building a starter home for a much lower cost than other prefabricated houses on the market, and one that could be dropped in to locations in the urban core of most cities — was too good to pass up.
He’s now been in the Connect Homes CEO seat for six months and thriving.
Founded by Jared Levy and Gordon Stoddard, two architects who worked in the pre-fabricated building division of the firm Marmol Radziner, Connect Homes last year raised US$27 million to build a vision of prefab future.
That capital includes a recent US$5 million round that served to reboot the company and refocus it around its manufacturing technology that can create deployable shelters alongside its housing work. That was another draw for Leung, whose experience in Northern California made him acutely aware of the housing problem the nation faces.
US modular builder Connect Homes now builds its units the same way Apple creates its phones: by “understanding every stakeholder and every piece along the journey,” Leung said.
Despite the obvious differences between Apple and Connect Homes, Leung says his experience at the tech giant – and a previous smart home tech startup – has lent itself to turning Connect Homes and the prefab home industry into one that can more frequently produce higher quality houses while using less time and money.
“Imagine you were to approach building a house the way Apple would approach building a product … from an end-to-end standpoint,” Leung explained. “By thinking about it from that standpoint, you’re able to optimize and make decisions that allow the entire thing to work seamlessly for the end consumer, and for [the process] to actually run efficiently and effectively.”
For modular home builders, this execution could be the difference between being a niche home builder or a “game-changer” that could replace “traditional construction in many use cases,” Leung said.
The objective for Connect Homes is to become a national home modular home builder.
“Prefab has been around for decades, and it has overpromised and under-delivered because prefab in and of itself is not the answer, it’s a technique that’s used to address the problem [of our housing crisis],” Leung said.
See: connect-homes.com
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