Our Investment in BuildCasa
At Gutter Capital, we believe that big businesses are built in response to big problems. There is no bigger issue facing the US today than that of housing affordability.
Since we published our housing thesis one year ago, the problem has only gotten worse. At the same time, investor interest in the housing market, previously chilled, has frozen over. While rising interest rates were no match for the undersupply of housing, they were more than enough to scare away venture capital investors. We’ve been told by proptech funds that they only invest in software now. Regrettably, software can’t build homes.
By our estimation, to keep pace with population growth and changing demographics, we will need to build 25 million new homes in the US over the next decade. The capacity of status quo homebuilders is only on pace to build about half of that. I’m very excited to announce our investment in BuildCasa, a company poised to fill the gap.
BuildCasa is on a mission to build 100,000 new homes in the places people want to live the most. New upzoning regulation, like California’s SB-9, has made it possible for homeowners to subdivide their property into new buildable land. BuildCasa is able to make new homes appear, by guiding homeowners through that process. They make homeowners an offer to acquire an unused portion of their lot, take the project through construction permitting, and then offload the shovel ready project to developers. People say that it’s a nightmare to get permits in California. For BuildCasa it takes 44 days to split a lot.
Dan first met Ben Bear (CEO) nearly a decade ago, when he was VP of Sales at Vungle (Acquired: $BX). Most recently, Ben was CEO of Spin scooter, a micro mobility platform acquired by the Ford Motor Company, and sold to TIER Mobility under Ben’s leadership. After the acquisition, he shared the insight for BuildCasa with Dan over a beer, who nearly fell out of his chair. The next day, Ben came into the Gutter office where I heard the pitch and met him for the first time.
To bring the vision to life, Ben brought on co-founders Matt McBride (CFO) former VP of Finance at Wonderschool, and Ben’s former Head of Strategic Finance at Spin; and Paul Steidl, AIA (CPO), previously an Architect and Planner at HOK, executing projects for the likes of Apple and the State of California.
Since leading the pre-seed last fall, BuildCasa has generated significant traction in Sacramento, their first market. Today, they’re operating with attractive margins and poised to expand state-wide. All the while, they’re changing the lives of their homeowners, and creating big opportunities for their build partners.
We started Gutter Capital to fund founders like Ben, Matt and Paul. It is a team that, having blitz scaled a scooter business, is ready to scale a company that could forever change the trajectory of housing in the US. I am grateful to be a small part of their story.
