The History of Northstar - CEO Paul Inglese
Kyle
Welcome to an exciting episode of the Future of Construction podcast. Foc podcast. My name is Kyle McLaughlin. I'm your host today, and with me, I have a really special guest, somebody that's been a mentor to me over the last few years, somebody that I have a lot of respect for. He's taken on the ultimate responsibility and sacrifice by helping us put our company together. With me is Paul Inglese. And welcome to the show, Paul, thanks for being here.
Paul
Nice to be here.
Kyle
Yeah, thanks, man. So we're going to get to know Paul in a very intimate fashion today. He's going to tell us all about where he came from, his startup, like how he's gotten the company to the level that it's at today. Also where Paul started professionally, where he was born, and then some tips for the audience. If you're looking to either improve your building systems, if you're looking to start your own business, if you're looking to get into the construction industry, or you are in the construction industry, Paul's going to give us some great insight today on what it takes to really make an indent and make an impact in the industry. So, Paul, I'm going to just kick off by asking, just give me a little background. Where were you born? Kind of what led you down this trajectory and what really got you started in your professional career?
Paul
Right?
Paul
So I was born in upstate New York, Buffalo. So stayed there all my life till I got married and then moved to Florida.
Kyle
Go bills, right?
Paul
Yeah, right. Go bills. We'll try again next year.
Kyle
Right.
PAUL
In the year after. We love them anyways. And then I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, so graduated in 84 from high school, went to Pittsburgh, graduated in 86, degree in specialized technology, which includes architectural design, product development. Moved back to Buffalo after that. Started working for a local sign company. I was a designer for them. Designed some cool signs.
Kyle
How'd you get hooked up with the sign company?
PAUL
They were on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. Really cool store. We used to go down there. I seen an ad that they were looking for a designer and it was just like, man, it's cool. We used to print t shirts for the Goo-Goo dolls before where they were famous.
KYLE
Oh, really?
KYLE
Pretty cool.
PAUL
Yeah.
KYLE
That's awesome.
PAUL
Yeah.
KYLE
Was that something, was it just you? Was your wife involved in that, too?
PAUL
For that one? It was just me.
KYLE
Okay.
PAUL
Yeah. I was hired out of college as a designer. Tried to get into ad agencies and somebody either has to die or retire for you to get into, right?
KYLE
Yeah.
PAUL
So I was like, okay, so that was cool.
KYLE
That's awesome. So you and Victoria met at.
PAUL
We've actually so worked for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I've worked at the art store for probably about a year and a half. I designed a really cool sign for a company called Trippy Foods. They were rolling out a new deli concept for Sonoka Oil Company. And then I decided to go on my own. So I left, and a couple weeks later, I get a call from Trippy Foods, and they were like, hey, we love your sign, but we can't find anybody to make it because it was so unusual. And would you be interested in making it for us? So, being naive, I didn't ask how many or how much, and so I said, I'd love to. So I got a purchase order for 300.
KYLE
Oh, my God. Were you prepared for that?
PAUL
I was not prepared for that mentally or physically or financially. So one of my good friends, his mom, let me use her warehouse and hired my best friend, bought an old Scooby Doo van, and I would make the signs during the day. The weeks, he would load them up in the van, go out, install them, come back the next week, I'd load them up again. So we did that and worked really well. And I was in New York City for one of the projects we did there and met up with a Starbucks location. And it was just before they went IPO. And the project manager loved what we were doing and said, hey, would you be interested in designing one of our stuff and working with Starbucks? And I said, yeah. Cool. So I think it was in Connecticut. We got that location. We became an approved manufacturer then for Starbucks, and I think we did about 100 locations down the eastern.
KYLE
Steve, how long did that take?
PAUL
That was like a three year run, right till they went public. And then after they went public, we were still approved. And we were doing stores after that. I think we even did one down here in Miramar Mall when we were building that one up. And then that led to multiple other national accounts. So then we started working with Trippy Foods, more ca one sports services, which is out of Buffalo, owned by Delaware north. So we started doing the Ralph Wilson Stadium back then for the Buffalo Bills. Jim Kelly, Bill McGuire, they're building out the suites. So we did all 3d. That's how I got into fiberglass. We were doing 3d fiberglass of football players over the bars and all the signs and all that cool stuff. So that got us exposed with that. And then we went to another stadium and another stadium, and we started working in airports. And then, I remember in the Buffalo airport, we did brick was very prevalent back in the. They wanted us to do brick work, but be out by 06:00 a.m. The next morning. And it was like, it's impossible. We made some fiberglass molds, made some brick walls out of fiberglass, popped them up, looked beautiful.
PAUL
They loved it. And that's kind of how the North Star wall panel started.
KYLE
That's awesome.
PAUL
And how fiberglass started because of the.
KYLE
Limitation that you were having with brick.
PAUL
Yeah. To go in, do masonry work, and try to be clean in an open airport. These restaurants were open, and it was just not feasible.
KYLE
Yeah.
KYLE
So it was almost like a production limitation. So you had to think outside the box. How can I do this faster, easier? I have the limits that I have. Here's fiberglass.
PAUL
That's right.
PAUL
And panelized.
KYLE
And panelized.
PAUL
Right.
PAUL
And that's really what kicked.
PAUL
Put up like wallpaper. And we're out.
PAUL
Yeah.
KYLE
And this was early ninety s. That.
PAUL
Was probably early ninety . Yeah. Just when the airport going through a transition and they were remodeling. And then we got a really cool account with Roswell park, which was a cancer Hospital in Buffalo. It was called all about buffalo, I think. Or heard about buffalo.
PAUL
Sorry.
PAUL
We were making full size buffaloes out of fiberglass. Hundreds of them.
KYLE
Are they still around?
PAUL
They're all over buffalo.
KYLE
Yeah.
KYLE
We got to go up there.
PAUL
Yeah. So it was funny because there's a joke because we had to subcontract some of them because they were just too many, and the artist would buy them and then the artist would decorate them. So we made the buffaloes. But if you ever seen the movie when nature calls, when Jim Carrey comes out of the back end of the rhino, the guys had to get inside the two parts of the buffalo to fiberglass cement and then come out the back end.
KYLE
You're kidding.
PAUL
And then we had a company help us, but their molds had a gender. Our molds were gender neutral. So when everybody drives around Buffalo, they look, oh, that's a gender neutral buffalo.
KYLE
I've never heard this.
PAUL
Yeah, it's pretty cool. And we got hooked up with our friend Mike Binder.
KYLE
That's when you met him.
PAUL
Right.
PAUL
That's when he had capital signs. And that's when my wife, so her aunt worked for me as a sales, and then my wife graduated from design school, and so we were looking for graphic designer hired her.
KYLE
So to circle back. That's how you met her?
PAUL
Yeah, that's how I met her. And we worked 24 hours a day. Um, so she designed some amazing stuff with Mike. Uh, we did two miles in Puerto Rico with them. Plaza del Sol and Plaza Central. That they were giant fiberglass. One was a solar system, just giant giant planets at spin. And Mike's company made all the the motorized systems and did all the food court signage, all three dimensional, so that if an international traveler went, they couldn't read the menu, but they said, oh, this is this is McDonald's. Or they sell hamburgers. They sell pizza. So they could tell by the food product what they sold. So did two malls there. We did the American Airlines Arena with him, uh, bongos, um, Gloria Steffens, that big pineapple. We worked on all that stuff. Then we worked on Domino's Pizza with them, and then we picked up national accounts with Transworld Entertainment. Uh, movies. Plus one of the big rental stores were coming out, so we did movies, plus coconuts, peaches, Record Town.
PAUL
Um, and this was all.
KYLE
With Bender, right? With Mike.
PAUL
No, that was outside. Mike was all. Yeah. Mike was basically the Gloria Estefan, the, um, the projects in Puerto Rico. And then we also did the National Car Rentals Center, these giant fiberglass planters that were seats and these cool, light things, all really cool stuff. That's awesome. A lot of composite. And, uh, and you had to figure out how to engineer them to break them down. A lot of them, we had to fly to Puerto Rico. So they had to be small enough to fit. But then big one, they built them. Right. Um, and then Regal Cinemas, we did a ton of work for them.
KYLE
And this is all fiberglass, all fiber. So would you say that's is this Gen one or pre Gen one at this point.
PAUL
That was like pre gen one. Yeah. Where the the brick wall panels was like pre gen one. And then when we basically we were doing a big project down here for Turner Construction on Miami South Beach. Uh 555 Washington. It was a mid rise. And we did these fiberglass fins that went between each floor with fiber optics and a really cool. And my wife came down. She was our project manager at that time. And middle winter four feet of snow at home 80 degrees here. So what are we doing or what's not even in Buffalo? Yeah, let's move to Florida. So we moved to my parents condo in Fort Myers Beach. I lived there a year, travel to Miami every day. That was 2000, 2000 a year.
KYLE
2000. Yeah.
PAUL
And then we after that project, we were then it was 2001. We were like, let's move down. So we moved down, moved to Fort Myers Beach, lived there for a year. Um, I didn't know the area that well in Naples, and it was exploding with precast concrete. And this is where Gen one came in. So, uh, I was working for a precast company, Precast Concrete, doing crown molding and really, really elaborate railings and columns for like, Port Royal homes and stuff like that. So I opened the plant for them, built it up, and then I moved on. Um, one of my good friends at that point had a relationship with, uh, the vineyards and had said to him, hey, uh, we opened up a precast company, we'd like to do your work. And so, uh, we got the work and, uh, we were in the vineyards from 2002 all the way to 2008, 2009, when the economy went down.
Paul
We were doing a ton of work in there. We had a ton of work in Fiddler's Creek. And, uh, and that's how Gen one came. So we started doing, uh, coining, uh, precast for the walls of the homes in Port Royal.
Kyle
And I was watching the walls.
Paul
Right. Yeah, the exterior walls. And I was looking at all the other companies putting just thousands of holes into the the block which leaked. Right. And so I was like, let's make bigger panels. Um, so now the panels got so big that I said, let's put them on a frame. That was the first panelist wall. And now I was like, well, now we're building a wall and putting it on the wall. Why don't we just be the wall? Be the wall. Right. And so that's kind of what happened. And so that was Gen one. So awesome. Like H metal stud two inch concrete.
Kyle
So over the next, you know, 20 years you went through Gen one all the way to Gen six was the first structural load bearing wall. Was it Gen five.
Paul
Gen five.
Kyle
Gen five okay. So where are we like Gen five as far as timeline in your life and and before Northstar.
Paul
Gen five was 2015 and 16 and then in 2017, early is when I started to look at ways to reduce the steel and replace the concrete, because one, it wasn't efficient because you had to do those in outside outdoor casting yards. And so working with our partner strong, well, um, had them. To me some samples. They did my fiberglass embed anchor. That was the first patent. Um, and then, uh, I was like, man, this stuff is incredibly strong. It's actually stronger than the steel, easier to work with. Orlando worked with us. Then our guys would come in all cut up because the metal was cutting their legs first.
Kyle
Uh, employees as.
Paul
Our first employee, um, and then, um, to get away from the concrete, I knew I needed something that could handle Florida impact. Right. And so we started looking into the ballistic panels. And so Gen six was developed in 2017 early. And, um, and then 2000 or the Gen seven, which was there were some problems with Gen six, obviously through product and, you know, R&D part of the process. And so Gen seven came out in 2020, right? Um, blew everything away. Um, exceeded every building code between here in California and um, that was
Kyle
Really the birth of Northstar.
Paul
That was the birth of North Star six. So Gen seven. Yep. So North Star was born in 2020 to bring Gen seven to market.
Kyle
Yeah. And that's that was one of the questions I had going into today is you know why North Star right. You talked about a lot of great things like labor uh, product efficiency. Right. Resiliency when you're talking about Florida weather impact rating from hurricanes, energy efficiency, which we haven't really touched on what we will. So when you were thinking to yourself, hey, I'm going against the grain, right? I'm not using concrete anymore. I'm not gonna, you know, settle for anything less than the best possible standard that I can deliver. Yep. Right. That was really the reason for North Star, right? That's right. That was just product elevation. Products. Excellence is really delivering something at a higher level than was currently available. Yeah.
Paul
And because it was a dynamic product, we needed a really good team to bring it to market, right? I.e. how we all met. Right. Um, and so, you know, I need know we needed somebody that was excelled in sales that could basically build that team. Um, finance for Scott came in, uh, Clinton with his international experience and stuff. So that team was natural progression. That's right.
Kyle
And you're leading engineering and manufacturing?
Paul
Yep. Then we got into engineering manufacturing handle all that in-house because it's proprietary. And um, and our star was born.
Kyle
That's right. And we've had a lot of significant milestones over the last really over the last three years since inception. But why don't you tell us about what you briefly touched on, what some of those were like creating our our team. Right. Putting our manufacturing facility together. For those of you that don't know where I'm Bonita Springs, we have roughly 30,000ft² that we operate out of, which is a huge accomplishment, accomplishment in its own, uh, running two CNC machines, full engineering, full in-house design and modeling. But what are like from your perspective as a CEO, as an inventor is the one that really took the risk on to get us here. What are you give me some of your top milestones, whether it's 3 or 5 of them, whatever you can think that comes to mind. You're like, man, I'm really proud of that. Yeah.
Paul
So first is negotiating for somebody to believe in you, to even give you a lease. Yeah. Number one. Right. That's. Um, that was number one. Number two is trying to, you know, ruffle up enough money to, you know, build the plant to start making stuff manually. And so, you know, um, Tony Pecoraro was our first North Star employee. Um, then we brought Orlando and David and the other ones on, so, you know, but they knew the system because they came from. So that helped jumpstart or star because they already kind of knew how to build it. Um, so that was a milestone, just getting the plant launch.
Kyle
People to believe in the system and the product and launching the plant, obviously, which required a lot of capital, a lot of expense.
Paul
Yeah, yeah, 2020 was just great money. Yeah.
Kyle
Great year to start a business. Yeah.
Paul
Yeah.
Kyle
That's you want to talk about bootstrap. It was bootstrap pants drop. Everything was strapped. So yeah, it was uh full blown. Give it all or go home at that point. And if you're not willing to put it on the table, um, and that goes to any entrepreneur, right? I mean, you could. So when you do stuff, you know, not to discredit other industries. Right. But if it's paper, really it's time, right? You're selling time, right? Um, when you have to put a manufacturing facility together and you have huge overhead, huge liability, product liability, engineering liability, human capital, it's just all or nothing, right?
Paul
It's very, very intensive and complex, you know. I look at the industry I came from in real estate. It's it's paper, you know, you learn how to become a licensed real estate agent. You go through your certification, and then it's just relationships and moving a contract around back and forth. But you're between the capital resources invested between the capital, the human capital people being in here and the complexity of what we do. And then on top of that, being something revolutionary that that nobody really has heard of before. Right, right. So we have we're really working uphill here to try to get people to believe in us. So I agree with you, a milestone of just getting people to believe in the system, whether it was the first employee, the first investor, the first customer, the first coworker, the first partner, right. That in itself is huge.
Kyle
Yeah, we still do it right. So we have to educate before we can sell. That's right. Um, and a lot of GCS didn't adopt it, so we had to become our own GC. Um, engineers didn't know how to engineer with it because they weren't trained on composites in school. So we had to create our own load charts and our own engineering and so yeah, it was like building an industry from nothing. Exactly. Um, first of its kind in the world, really. And it was pretty, pretty impressive. And, you know, we went through finances yesterday. We, we had like, I don't know, $20,000 in revenue in 2020. Um, it like like quadruple, quadruple 2021. And then we had 528% growth between 2021 to 2022. So it was like straight
Paul
That's another milestone right there.
Kyle
That's another milestone growth.
Paul
Aspect of how fast everything is escalated.
Yeah. So we went from one employee to over 45 within three years. Um, we have now two patents that have been granted the only full building system in the world. Um, now we're working with international partners to try to develop overseas, um, our own products here locally high rise cladding, as you know, we're coming out with our Gen eight, um, which is going into performance testing and that that's another that's probably the next huge milestone. Once Gen eight is fully tested, um, it will revolutionize high rise cladding in wall panel systems.
Kyle
It'd be a good Segway because I want to know from your perspective what the next five years of North Star look like, right. So Jenny is obviously going to be leading that right from a curtain wall standpoint from an info wall standpoint. But tell us more about that. Yeah.
Paul
So from so five year milestone. Um, we're in the final preparations of opening a plant in Georgia. Um, so now it's just how do you keep up with production? We have projects for specified on, um, large project, $3.1 billion in new Jersey. Right. Um, we have projects up in Seattle, in Vancouver that were working with design teams on and design development for high rise cladding. Right. So, um, now it's just how fast can we grow? How fast can we fine tune the system? That's right. Um, we're working with robotics. So, you know, again, trying to fine tune that process to go faster. But better. Um, so five years, we look to have our, obviously our plant here in Florida's growing plant and Georgia plant in new Jersey, um, and then potentially plant overseas. And then we're looking for two other plants either in Texas or Nevada.
Kyle
So yeah, I was going to ask about West. So Nevada would be a target. Yeah.
Paul
Nevada and possibly one up in Vancouver, British Columbia to handle that.
Kyle
So we were talking about plants that were opening up through the United States. We talked about Florida. We talked about Georgia, which is the next one coming up. We talked about Jersey. And I want to talk a little bit more about Jersey here in a little bit. We talked about Texas, Nevada and then possibly Vancouver. Right. I get all this right. Correct. Tell us about the one in Jersey and why that's so significant. It's probably going to tie back to not only a milestone, but also the early days of your career and how it really came full circle. Cool story. Yeah.
Paul
So, um, the project is called, uh, Renaissance at Bader Field. Um, Bader Field has been underdeveloped for years. It's a triangular island in the intercoastal of new Jersey. It was a World War two airport, decommissioned. Um, Mike binder and a dream team, uh, that we had talked about earlier, um, envisioned building a Formula One syndicated race track that compete with Monaco. Um, to bring Formula One more to the US and in addition to Miami. Um, but it was more than that. It was they wanted to develop a totally sustainable city. And, uh, that was run off of a microgrid. So, you know, you're talking all alternative energy. And to be able to do that, they had to have an ultra high performance building system. Uh, and you can't get to that type of energy efficiency where the owners of those units don't have an electric bill because it's all regenerated. So, um, we had got on a phone. Um, I mean, we could circle how that connected, if you want.
Kyle
Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Let them know.
Paul
So 2020, when, uh, our office was at Naples Bay resort, and we were working out of the back of a boat.
Kyle
Uh, humble beginnings.
Paul
Ralph Schmelzer, our, um, one of our second investors, had bought a boat so we could have it as a. It was a yacht. It was beautiful.
Kyle
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Paul
We we he bought it, and that was our office. And, uh, I was in the tunnel of Naples Bay resort, and, um, got a call and, uh, somebody got on the phone and we were talking about this project. And as we were going on, um, I had said my name, and he goes, is this Paul Inglese from Buffalo? And I go, is this Mike Bender from Philadelphia? And he goes, yeah. And it was a crack. What it adds to that. And so from that point for three years we've been part of the design team. We are a, um a partner of the development team. Uh, we've been doing preliminary engineering, pricing, scoping, uh, over the past three years. And so actually, I leave for Atlantic City tomorrow. That's right. Um, uh, Mayor Marty Small introduced the project last year. Uh, this is an update for the the the state of the city address. And, um, and now we're also looking at a building out there for potential North Star factory.
But it it's a $3 billion project. Uh, North Star is specified on the complete building system for print is about 299, uh, low rise condominiums, uh, curtain wall cladding systems, Gen eight on mid-rise. And then there's the track side impact barriers, um, signage, uh, the the crash barriers. Working with Bob Barnard from Bernard Motorsports. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Legend and former world renowned race designing track designer, uh, out of Spain. Really cool guy. Um, so it's just been a really cool ride. And, um, and so it's a 5 to 7 year project for North Star. We made a commitment to Atlantic City to put a factory there and to build that factory and build that market, so that even after the project, that factory can go on creating high paying jobs.
Kyle
Obviously, we're in pre-construction right now, just early beginnings. But when do you expect that to potentially break ground from a range standpoint?
Paul
Um, my understanding through the development updates, they're hoping by, um, maybe the end of second, third quarter to have basically secured the land because they're going through redevelopment right now. Um, so within probably a year, that site development would start, and we're part of that as well. Um, we would be released on engineering, uh, you know, through that whole period. And then vertical construction would probably be the year following that.
Kyle
That's a huge project. It's a huge obviously, we're all very excited about that.
Paul
Yeah, I'd be a that that is a that will be a global focal project or.
Kyle
Will be recognized across the.
Paul
World. Yep. And that's kind of how we got connected in Saudi Arabia. And uh, so we're working with them with their vision, uh, 2030 to go fully sustainable. Um, we have uh, exclusive JVs in place with teams out there, um, for multiple projects, from the line to, um, Georgetown to the Red sea group. Uh, we're part of the design development team out there. Um, I should know, we just had a visit from the. Asia government for desalination plants out there and, um, very cool stuff.
Kyle
Got a lot of really cool stuff that we're working on. And on that note, I mean, what, you know, we have the Bakersfield project, we have the Middle East exposure that we're getting in Malaysia. Um, you know, we're working on some huge curtain wall projects. I mean, we're in a few different markets. So for the audience that is just meeting you for the first time today, or is just getting to know North Surf for the first time today, what are some of our top markets that we're focused in, not only today, but obviously for the next five years? We're talking about this forecast.
Paul
So, um, military and defense is huge. Um, we had a visit from the Navy. So we are working on some modular units for them. Um, also for data centers. We just produced our first 55 foot modular data center, the only one in the world that was 100% composite, ballistic rated, um, seismic snow load, wind load anywhere in the country.
Kyle
Destructible.
Paul
Lifted with one crane put on a truck, shipped to Colorado for integration.
Kyle
And it weighs. What, like.
Paul
It was about 30,000 pounds compared.
Kyle
To, which is like a third of what the steel weighed like.
Paul
Correct. And then it was, uh, sustainability was huge for them. So through our partnership with Owens Corning, um, their sustainability team put together how much we can reduce the embodied carbon. I believe it was almost like 50 tons of CO2. We were able to reduce in the manufacturing of that unit. So that's huge. Uh, we are the.
Kyle
Lowest, uh, for embodied carbon, lowest building system out there, right?
Paul
That's right. And the embodied carbon is in the manufacturing of the raw materials. So steel you have, you know, molded steel. So, you know, large furnaces, you have, um, same thing with aluminum luminance, even higher grade to concrete because of the fly ash. And again, it's all anything time you have to burn something like that. Um, wood from deforestation. Right? Sure. Uh, we're super light, so we can transport more. So that all goes into the equation of how much you can reduce the footprint. Yep. Um, and that kind of led us into alternative energy market. So, uh, we were awarded our first contract with solar. Um, we have the first again, anywhere in the world. 100% solar parking canopy. Um, for large scale utility grade. Um, that's a project in new Jersey. And, uh, so solar was a huge market for us. Um, aerospace and defense, huge market for us, uh, modular data centers and, uh, curtain wall and residential.
Kyle
Obviously, we've done great in that market, you know, so, uh, as we we make a product and that product can build multiple things.
Paul
It becomes a leader. Right. And that's the interesting thing about our product site is that it it hits different markets, but it has very multiple variables of application. So for example you can build modular but that could just like it could be a data center. It could also be one of four different modules for a house, or even for a building or for a hotel, for a commercial, in a warehouse or what have you.And it's the same product. So to the plant, they don't know whether it's a wall for a home, a defense project, hospital. It's all the same efficiencies.
Kyle
That's right. Yep. So speaking of efficiencies, you talk about everything that we gain from being offsite construction, you know, centralized location, um, for engineering, for manufacturing, you know, across the plants that we're planning on building. Right. Um, if you look at the industry as a whole really focused on construction, right, that's free truck construction podcast is what we're focused on. What do you think are some things that are holding the industry back from your standpoint? Right. Because you've you've pioneered a whole new building system, right? Because you you were in the weeds, you were boots on the ground. You were you were literally in your hands. You were seeing what the issues were with traditional building systems. So you pioneer this new system that's revolutionary, that hits all these boxes, that solves all these problems. So obviously you identified something back then. What are some other things in the industry right now? And it doesn't have to be specific, but just from a call it a 30,000 foot view that you feel are holding construction, the construction industry back from really taking that huge leap like technology did over the last ten years
Right. Or transportation has or things of that nature. Yeah.
Paul
Um, it comes down to education. The universities, the engineering schools are not teaching composites. So all the engineers structural that are coming out, they have no idea with it. So if they don't have an idea about it, they can't specify it, they can't engineer it. And so we're having to create our own team. So the goal would be is to get composite engineering training into the schools, um, not just how to build with it, but the material science behind it. Um, that's super important. I think that's one of the major hold backs. Right. So to a general contractor, if the building is specified this way and the architect designs it this way, then the builder builds it that way. That's right. But you have we have to solve the first problem first. And that's educating the structural teams coming out to actually utilize it.
Kyle
Yeah. And that's a huge difference that I've noticed. You know, my time in real estate, in construction. Now that I see two different types of GCS, you see your more what we call like almost like a paper GC or like here's a floorplan, here's a house, here's a commercial building, here's something. Build it and they'll do it as cheap as possible. And that'll be that job completed. Move on to the next one. And then you almost have like you're talking about building a materials science. They're almost like these building science, just very engineer driven, very design driven individuals and builders out there that understand the benefits of using better technology and better materials. Right. And the engineering that goes that's associated with it. And then the long term effect of that versus just putting together a house or a building as cheap as possible and moving on to the next one. Right. I feel personally. That's a huge thing that's holding us back is maybe whether that happens at the barrier to entry level for some of these people, or just from an education standpoint overall, is how do we continue to evolve?
Like why do we why are we faced with big natural disasters such as hurricanes that we're very familiar with in Florida, or fires like in California, or earthquakes or snowstorms and everything gets destroyed, and the first thing we do is build it back the same exact way that it was built before, maybe with a couple of different code upgrades, but nothing, nothing crazy.
Paul
I think Florida's been very progressive with that. Right? So every major event, they increased the code, um, because wood, steel and concrete has been in the code forever. That's what they know. Yeah, right. But now FRP is right. They just got into the international building code and that was the other holdback is nobody was being proactive enough. Like Owens Corning is right there being proactive fiberglass rebar. Um, that is a huge advancement because what happened in Miami was because the the rebar rusted all of our groundwater is salty. Right? So it's rusting the rebar, it's basically compromising the structure. So when you can identify that, you fix the problem, right. Every other industry, this doesn't work. Let's fix the problem. Computers. You know, they used to have major hard drives. Now they're the size of this room. Yeah, exactly. Right now they fit into a little laptop. So every industry is evolved. But but construction has not. You know, and through my 37 years in commercial construction, I've built with every building system.
So I looked at, okay, this system has this problem, this system does this good. And that's how the system was developed. Are we do we remove every other building material in the in in existence? No, because concrete has a great purpose. Right, right. Um, but you have to look at the need of the, the project. Where does FRP fit? Where doesn't it fit, where does steel work better? Where does concrete work better?
Kyle
Highest and best use. Right. That's right. Yeah.
Paul
Would you always have termites? You always have mold. But it's beautiful when you, uh.
Kyle
When it's finished.
Paul
That's right. Yeah. Exactly.
Kyle
So yeah I agree, I agree. And I think as we round off this episode, um, I want to leave the audience with, with a piece of advice that you would give them. So think about, um, whether you have an executive listening to this call or to this podcast or you have, uh, a business owner or startup entrepreneur or somebody that's maybe bootstrapping things like you did back in the day, or even just a major corporation. Right? That that really is, is inspired by what you've done over the last 30 years. If you could think about Paul, you know, a decade ago or two decades ago or at the beginning, what some advice that you would give that. Paul.
Paul
Yeah, you have to be persistent. You can't either you're all in or you don't go in. That's right. And if you're in, then you find out ways to make it work. There's always a way. Right. So our old saying here, if you can't go through the mountain, you go around it. So you just have to be, you know, persistent. You have to look at the benefits. You have to believe in what you're doing and put everything behind it or it won't work. And don't do it for the money because there is no money up front. You're doing it to change something for the better. The money is a byproduct.
Kyle
That's right. Change that you created. Correct? That's right. That's well, that's really well said. And I think, um, a lot of people maybe in as generations of changes are looking for that like one quick solution that like, you know, one push, one button, take one pill, do one thing, instant gratification or all your problems are solved. And that's just not reality, right? If you want to do something worthwhile, it's definitely not right. Yeah, it's not sustainable.
Paul
And if you go into the business for the money, then that's just a job, right? When you go into it to change, that's a career. That's right, that's right.
And you work hard and you stay dedicated and no matter what happens, you laser focused and get the drop down like you have over the last 30 years, and surround yourself with like minded people.
Kyle
That's right. Thank you. Yeah, that's a great way to end it, man. I want to thank you for being on the show today. Thank you for everybody that listened. If you have any questions about what we've talked about today, if you have any specific details that you'd like to hear about regarding our building system or pulse story, please visit our website as North North Star. Com or on the residential side, it's Northstar homes.us and we'll look forward to hearing you and seeing you on the next episode. Thanks so much. All right. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. That was good. Yeah that was good. We got the full we got the full story. Yeah. That's awesome.