3D Printed Homes With Recycled Materials with Gene Eidelman, Co-founder of Azure Printed Homes

Nate Smoyer (00:02.234)
Gene, welcome to the show.

Gene Eidelman (00:04.84)
Nate, great to see you. Great to be here.

Nate Smoyer (00:06.554)
Good to see you again. You've been on the road. You've been doing the road show and I'm glad you're finally back home. What's it been like on the road telling the world about Azure?

Gene Eidelman (00:18.472)
It's been great. You know, we've had, we've taken our.

Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, National Mall in Washington, D .C., Ohio, Arizona. And we've had like 5 ,000 people walk through one of our units in the last eight weeks. So that's great. And the most common reaction is, wow. It's like, if I hear yet another wow.

Nate Smoyer (00:43.866)
Hehehehe

That's awesome. Time to set up some cameras and then you can make a compilation video of people saying, wow, it's the next promo video. Yeah, well, for everyone listening, what Gene's talking about units, I'm gonna give a little intro here. So Gene Adelman, he's co -founder of a company called Azure. They are using 3D printing technology to create and build prefab homes, but they have a different take on this.

Gene Eidelman (00:56.232)
Exactly.

Nate Smoyer (01:17.242)
because oftentimes you hear of a concrete or some sort of cement mixture in prefab homes, and they're actually using recycled polymers and fiberglass to build their homes, making it 70 % faster to build and 30 % less expensive than some of these other existing. And that's not to mention even the change in environmental impacts. And so I'm excited for this conversation here. I think there's a handful of things that this touches on too. The housing shortage that we have nationwide and how far behind we are on new units.

affordability crisis. And of course, for many people, there's an interest in reducing environmental impacts from building new homes. I'd like to start with a little bit of a broad approach here if we can, Gene. Why are you pursuing what seems to be both an obvious but also impossibly large problem to tackle?

Gene Eidelman (02:13.992)
Good question. Yeah. So when my business partner and I started

almost five years ago, a little bit less than that. We on the blackboard road, three bullets, what we wanna accomplish. Build faster, build less expensive, and with less environmental impact. And it comes from years of building projects and coming in over budget, never meeting a timeline and creating, we were thinking just trash. It surely seems like everything I would buy in the Home Depot for my guys, half of it would end up.

freshmen.

So we thought that we were going to accomplish this with just being quote unquote smarter, using more technology, using less paper, and hiring better. And so first six months, we've tried all of that. We just, from the very beginning, said, well, it'll be paperless. It'll be, you know, schedules will be on, schedules will be online, and interview a lot more people, and really, really.

first six months was very frustrating because we've tried all of those things. We got first projects and it was we're right back to exactly where we were before. And then COVID hit. And so during COVID, we started to do a lot of ADUs. It even got worse because, you know, before it was just us knowing that things are not going well. Now we're building in someone's backyard and our customers are looking at our guys and

Nate Smoyer (03:28.122)
Mm -hmm.

Gene Eidelman (03:47.624)
on gene, you know, such and such hasn't showed up today. yeah, yeah, I know. He or she said that they're struck by COVID or, you know, why are you throwing away all this great, you know, just save the material you're throwing away or, well, they finished on Friday, I walked on Saturday and Sunday and I see quality issues. So really, during COVID, we kind of our first conclusion was we got to build in the factory because

building in the factory, bringing a home to the site will be monitoring quality much better. There's not going to be any layoff because of the weather. And we're in California, so weather here is nice most of the time, but it does get too hot, it gets too windy, there is traffic. So just quality and just...

consistency will get better. So for a while, we actually build some modules traditional way. And then, of course, you remember during COVID, there were all kinds of disruptions for supply chain. So we couldn't get materials. A lot of the materials that factory manufacturers use are come from overseas. So there were delays with that. So that's when we said, why can't we 3D print them? And we saw

Nate Smoyer (04:45.658)
Mm -hmm.

Nate Smoyer (04:59.034)
Mm -hmm.

Gene Eidelman (05:13.416)
a lot of YouTube videos on companies that use 3D printing using cement. And I told my business partner is let's do, let's 3D print, but with anything but cement. Again, from my chemistry lessons, I remembered what kind of CO2 it generates. So the whole process for that. So that's short answer how we got there. It was really looking for a solution, not necessarily having in our mind that that's how we're going to go about it, but it evolved over the first two years.

Nate Smoyer (05:29.21)
Mm -hmm.

Gene Eidelman (05:43.144)
We have came to that conclusion by excluding the things we did not want to.

Nate Smoyer (05:47.802)
Yeah, and just to further set the stage here, I mean, for everyone listening, Gene, you've not just built like a house or two, but 3000 plus apartment units and condominiums. So you've been around the block, you've seen a few things, of course, obviously, the materials shortage that you're referencing, like the cost of lumber just totally skyrocketed amongst many other things. And I think it highlighted some of the

pinch that the housing industry was feeling. And even if you wanted to deliver a cheaper product to the consumer, it just really wasn't viable. There was no path there. And last thing, maybe you can talk to it, but one of the challenges with ground -up construction is just the lag time. We just saw San Francisco passed, or maybe it was the state of California passed a

I'm not sure if it was the state or the city, but now they have six months that they have to approve or remove building permits through their cycle. Prior to just the other week when that bill was signed, 26 months was the average time it took to get a building permit. And the world can change very much, 26 months. Because it was quite difficult to build.

Gene Eidelman (07:08.84)
No, that's the, yeah, yeah. It's the biggest challenge for developers. The developers get caught in this, you know, they buy the land and start planning the project in one interest rate environment. And by the time they're ready to break ground, the interest rate environment totally change or any some other regulations. So the speed is just max.

And the other thing we didn't mention is the quality of labor. I mean, we have, you know, immigration restrictions are putting even bigger squeeze on getting quality labor. And so we're just in an unbelievable shortage of labor. And then, you know, your experienced carpenters and plumbers and electricians are getting older. So it's demographics, you know, lack of immigration.

some kind of a plan and so all of these things point to needing to do factory housing and then comparing US to, I mean we're not in isolated, you know, it's the world out there. Why is Japan building 50 % of their homes in factories or Sweden and Norway and UK 20 to 25 % of their building in their factories? US under 4%. That doesn't make sense.

You know so again All of this all those facts and ideas. I didn't have when we started the company but kind of getting getting into nitty -gritty of the business it makes more and more sense of

Nate Smoyer (08:49.562)
Well, maybe we can shed a little bit of light on that because now that you're in the business and you know the intricacies, let's talk about the first, the construction of homes that you guys are working on. So you 3D print homes, but you also, you're building them within a controlled environment versus onsite. Maybe you can walk us through what that looks like, what you're using to construct. And then also if we can get into distribution because distribution of the product itself also offers up a few unique challenges.

Gene Eidelman (09:16.392)
you

Yeah, so our process is we 3D print modules. So we print 3D print, like about four walls. We print the roof, two sides and the floor. Now every structure has six sides to them, right? The front and the back, we don't 3D print. So we basically in the first step, totally automated process, it takes under 24 hours to print the roof, two side walls and the floor.

That's where the biggest saving of time is because you know if you again if you think about building a traditional house you need a slab right we don't even need a slab our buildings are installed on raised foundation or just piers because in most of the homes slab is your floor right so we print the floor print two side walls and so we basically don't use any wood we don't use any roofing materials no steel no sheathing

Nate Smoyer (10:04.154)
Wow, okay.

Gene Eidelman (10:19.848)
no waterproofing because it's a solid structure. So that process, now it costs a lot of money to buy equipment to be able to make this, but once you make this one time investment, it doesn't take lunch, it doesn't need to go home for dinner or play with the kids, right? It's just water. That is the biggest time saving. Then the rest of the process is pretty traditional. So we do all of the electric,

plumbing, water, insulation in a traditional way. And it takes us to finish our modules range in size from 70 square feet to 180 square feet. So let's take the biggest, you know, the 180 square feet would have your plumbing and electrical, it would be for a house on their ADU. It takes three to four weeks to finish. We can still our goal as we move into.

we increase our capacity is to even cut down that size because if we can have prefab, the longest it takes is your kitchens and bathrooms. So if we can prefab kitchens and bathrooms, so instead of doing them in the very traditional way, we would just slide in those two pieces that could cut down the whole process from four weeks to even further, to like two or three weeks.

And then so for an ADU or a house that's bigger than 180 square feet, it takes multiple of these modules. For somebody who just looks for a studio or we have a unit on wheels that are 180 square feet, then it's just one unit itself. So we totally finish it in the factory and then put it on the back of a truck, ship it to customer's house.

And then installation attachment to this foundation connection to utilities locally happens on site. So it still can take depending on the size of structure from half a day to three or four days to completely finish it. But again, if it's an ADU and somebody lives in a house just eliminates all the distraction that a family would have was having something in their backyard from four days compared to a year. And of course, neighbors also, I mean, you go to

Gene Eidelman (12:37.384)
to a lot of the websites for the home builders. And if they're especially building in kind of in urban areas, you see the biggest negative ratings are from neighbors because they have to live with a year of construction going on next to their house. Yeah, and then just a little more details on our process. So we use a pallets, they already have our, so we're in the fourth generation of our material.

material consists of 65 % recycled polymers. The core of that material is PETG. It's a plastic that's used for water bottles and food containers. So 65 % of that, 30 % is fiberglass. It's fiberglass that's as rigidity to our products. So really think of it, fiberglass is now used to replace iron rods and foundation.

It's a very sturdy material and the recycled plastic is really more of a binder, right? But we give this formulation to companies who supply material to us. It comes to us in small pallets and then we melt the pallet, the 3D printer melts the pallets and that's how we build the structure. Yeah, so that describes the process.

Nate Smoyer (13:38.426)
Hmm.

Nate Smoyer (14:01.242)
Got it. And then when, once you've printed, so you're doing the two sidewalls, the floor and the roof. So that means the front and back you build on site.

Gene Eidelman (14:11.144)
No, that we again if it's just one unit that was we send then we finish the front in the back and we usually use cement board You know basically like Because we give customers options to pick what kind of door they want to do on the slider windows How many windows in use cement board and so we finish it totally in in the factory if it's multiple If it's multiple units

Nate Smoyer (14:31.098)
ICIC.

Gene Eidelman (14:40.104)
then we of course would finish the back wall to the back unit and the front wall to the front unit and then ship it in such a way where the units can be combined.

Nate Smoyer (14:50.49)
I see, I see. Because they can be arranged horizontally. What about stacked vertically? Do they stack as well? Not yet on stacking.

Gene Eidelman (14:57.768)
We still cannot do that. We cannot stack them vertically. Yeah, they really are not designed to be sitting on top of one another. We are working on, and it'll be right in the next six to 12 months, where we can kind of nest our units in the mid -rise or high -rise buildings. So basically, still somebody would need to build a steel structure and then nest our units in, basically attached to a structure. So instead of sitting on top of one another, they would be attached to the...

Nate Smoyer (15:27.578)
Understood. And so what are some of the challenges in actually delivering the unit? You know, like what does that look like?

Gene Eidelman (15:33.864)
Yeah, delivering the units is actually much easier because our units are lighter. So they weigh about half of what a traditional manufacturer housing unit weighs. So, you know, depending on where it goes, sometimes it can be lifted over the house or lifted and installed in the property. Sometimes it just can be picked up by a forklift and put in the property. So the fact that they're lighter,

Also, our modules are nine feet wide and under 14 feet tall. So, you know, we still require a permit, but nothing there is no need for a vehicle to follow the unit. So.

Nate Smoyer (16:16.986)
So you don't have to have that train of oversized vehicles following you to deliver the unit.

Gene Eidelman (16:22.6)
Exactly exactly. So again just in class our 3d printer can't print bigger structure. So it's it kind of works But our units are tall and they are So, you know, basically, you know The structure need to be under 13 and a half or 14 feet depending on where in the country they're going the height of the Floodbed truck is three feet. So our units are 10

Nate Smoyer (16:32.954)
Yeah.

Gene Eidelman (16:51.048)
to 11 feet high, so people love high ceilings. So comparing our unit to like a container, container usually eight feet high, our units are 10 and a half feet high. Containers are usually eight feet wide, our units nine feet wide. That one foot makes a few differences. It's a double bed and a queen size bed.

Nate Smoyer (17:02.266)
Mm -hmm.

Nate Smoyer (17:11.802)
Yeah. You know, a friend of mine, he lives in Pittsburgh on the side. He was building a container home, pulled up to his house. One day I was staying with him on a trip and shipping container in the backyard and he's outfitting it. And he ended up, buying a small piece of land in West Virginia, totally off grid and, and moving it down there. And it was, it was, it was nice. But like you said, like that low ceiling and, and kind of narrow. Yeah. It was, it was a little tight.

It was a little tight in there, even for just the two of us. You know, I can see if it was maybe a getaway, but if this is going to be a living quarter on a regular basis, it becomes pretty enclosed. And so you'd have to be really comfortable with his small spaces, I think, on stuff like that.

Gene Eidelman (17:59.464)
Yeah, our units are also made very well insulated. So we insulate as a base R30 on this four walls. And I actually use a little unit that's in the backyard of our factory here. It's amazing that good insulation not only works for temperature control, but also sound. We're on a very busy street and when I close the door, very quiet. So, so it's a...

Nate Smoyer (18:26.682)
Huh.

Gene Eidelman (18:29.672)
You can check insulation of your property not only by how cool or hot it gets, but also how quiet it is. Never thought of it this way.

Nate Smoyer (18:37.242)
Now, you guys recently were able to expand your manufacturing capacity. You now have three robots working within your facility in California. What sort of output can that look like?

Gene Eidelman (18:54.568)
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, we are kind of our history. So I said, I said five years ago, we started the company, but really the manufacturing of the, the Azure Print Homes part of the company started just in March of 22. So we moved pretty rapidly. And in the first three years, it was a lot of thinking.

Nate Smoyer (19:12.314)
Mm -hmm.

Gene Eidelman (19:16.296)
R &D and we're actually were able to print the kind of proof of concept, right? But it still took us a year after that to build our first 3G printer. So in May of 23, we started to ship units. And then, you know, we had such a limited capacity that we were concerned of promising deadlines and bidding on some contracts.

So we spend most of 23 raising our $5 million seed round that allowed us to move into our current facility. So by March of this year, 24, we have three printers, a modern facility, 20 ,000 square feet facility. In terms of how much we can turn out, we can do basically about $25 million worth of product. So what that equates to is about...

Gene Eidelman (20:16.168)
it's about 100 ,000 square feet of units. Again, you can think of it as, it's a lot. And yeah, yeah.

Nate Smoyer (20:19.994)
Okay.

Nate Smoyer (20:27.194)
And that's on an annual basis. Okay, yeah, so there's a fair amount of capacity. And then are you only shipping within California? Are you able to distribute outside of that?

Gene Eidelman (20:37.96)
No, most of the stuff that's been shipped has been in California, but we just got an order last week to go to seven different states. So we are expanding. That was the reason it's a glamping resort operator, has glamping resorts in Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Washington state, Arkansas. So you're going to see our units spreading out the country, but

That was the reason for my road trip. We now feel confident that we can ship units. We have enough capacity to be able to ship units anywhere. And we have customers from 19 states. And shipping costs have actually come down quite a bit since COVID days. And so now they could go on trains, but even that is not necessary. It's about $2 per mile.

Nate Smoyer (21:22.298)
Can they fit on trains?

Gene Eidelman (21:33.704)
take it around the country. So for an average unit that sells for 40, 50 ,000, even to take it across the country, it adds maybe 5, 10 % to the cost. So it's really nominal. And we can, again, we now work with a couple of shipping companies that specialize in units like this. So we can quote the cost at the time of the... When customer goes to our website or talk to us, we can quote the complete cost.

We also have a configurator on our website. Our advisors who helps us with configurators, somebody who used to work with Tesla. So it's a very similar experience to Tesla. You can pick your colors or finishes. A lot of, you know, half an hour, you can really have a unit of your own and then click a buy button and have it. And then now we're adding this, the cost of shipping.

Nate Smoyer (22:20.474)
Got it.

Nate Smoyer (22:28.25)
Let me ask you this. I mean, you know, lenders and insure insurance companies typically have like special rules on manufactured homes. And that's because those are the traditional manufacturer home is on a trailer, which is technically a vehicle that gets registered with the DOT. This is not coming on a trailer, but it's obviously a form of manufactured home. Do you get any pushback from lenders or insurance companies as like, Hey, this isn't the standard stick built. So

we have a special programmer, you need this type of policy or loan, that sort of thing. What does that all look like?

Gene Eidelman (23:02.888)
Yeah, so first of all, we have a unit that comes on wheels as well. So one of the units we ship is on wheels like a trailer and those get financed with equipment finance company. There are lots of people who, they finance like personal property. You have lots of lenders who finance those, right? And those are actually very popular, especially for Glendale Resorts and RV Park owners and stuff like this. For a unit that gets attached to the foundation, it's classified as a manufacturer.

Nate Smoyer (23:19.962)
Right.

Gene Eidelman (23:32.872)
And we really don't have any pushback because we get state approval before the unit leaves the factory. And so for all intending purposes, it's just like in -house. I mean, it gets a state insignia that will allow it. And then we also have traditional plants. We have a structural plan. So we have, I think what helped us in this regard, the fact is that we were general contractors.

Nate Smoyer (23:45.914)
Mm -hmm.

Gene Eidelman (24:02.408)
So we really approached the lending and permitting and insurance before we started on this. So we have structural calculations that, and we put in the material, we put fire retardant material and destabilizer so that it really classifies just like any house. I mean, yeah, it's a manufacturer home when it leaves the factory. Once it gets attached to the foundation, it's a real problem. Right. So we have

Real property is finance like real property and then we have units that come on on wheels and that's your tiny homes, RV park owners, camping, glamping. They love that product. It's quite honestly for them. I mean, again, the guy who is buying for seven parks, some of his parks are very seasonal. So he has a park in Montana that is now going to operate during the winter. So he's he's planning to take that unit to his Utah property during the

Nate Smoyer (24:32.026)
Got it.

Gene Eidelman (25:01.128)
in what's off season in one place and not off season in another. So it gives a lot of flexibility.

Nate Smoyer (25:05.644)
that's interesting. Yeah, there's a few places in, I imagine in Utah as well, but in Montana, the winter can be a little bit unrelenting and tourism does slow down quite a bit. I know because I drive through Montana almost every winter.

Gene Eidelman (25:23.624)
Yeah, he has a place in Glacier National Park, actually, where I was a couple weeks ago. Beautiful. But it'll be, yeah. So these humans are not intended to be driven like RVs, right? But they can easily be moved a couple times a year.

Nate Smoyer (25:28.186)
yeah, yeah, yeah. That is a beautiful area.

Nate Smoyer (25:43.898)
Now, one thing that we kind of emphasized early on in the beginning of the discussion, we talked a little bit about pre -show is there's a conscious awareness of environmental impact. And so I'd love to kind of get your take on how should we be thinking about housing in regards to its impact on the overall environment and what are the options, whether it's prefab or not prefab that we can be taking that could have less of an impact.

Gene Eidelman (26:14.888)
No, in a traditional construction class, it's very tough. You can be environmentally conscious, but it's just very tough not to build cement, you know, slabs, right? Which, I mean, again, 3D printing with cement goes above and beyond that. I mean, it's just, it's, it was popular during COVID because again, speed, but now cement is more, the cement price has gone up, lumber prices went down. And so...

That just economics doesn't work, but just pure waste. I mean, you know when you're building on site So a big way to kind of move to more sustainable construction is even using panels I mean again when use a wall panel, you don't have waste right and you have less waste So Yeah, but a lot of customers that are very attracted to our product love the fact that we use

Nate Smoyer (26:45.754)
Mm -hmm.

Gene Eidelman (27:11.048)
equivalent of 150 ,000 empty water bottles to make a module. And now some of them have concerns about off -gassing and again, there's been a lot of publicity over plastic being off -gassing, but that's why we're using PETG. We're using the product. So just let me give you overall for the industry. US uses 40 million tons of plastic every year. That's what we make. Of that 40 million, 20%, 8 million is used for

recycle use PETG bottles and and the we only recycle in this country five percent, we only recycle two million. So you have I mean just the amount of plastic that goes into the into the landfills and find their ways to bottoms of the oceans. It's just I mean it's just US. So it's just enormous, right? So we

Nate Smoyer (27:54.457)
Hmm.

Nate Smoyer (28:07.546)
And that's just US, yeah.

Gene Eidelman (28:10.824)
So we can be selective. We don't have to use plastic that have gases. We use the plastic that has been tested on humans the most, and that's the PETG. It doesn't have gas. The way our unit constructed is you wouldn't have any exposure to plastic on the inside of the unit. We have the insulation and then the cooling of the drywall. So basically, on the inside, I mean, think of it this way.

the vinyl siding's been used forever in construction, right? So it is like using vinyl, equivalent vinyl siding on the outside. But the only thing is the fact that we printed, we were able to use structurally, it's adding the fiberglass that adds rigidity to the structure.

Nate Smoyer (28:44.698)
Yeah, totally.

Nate Smoyer (29:03.002)
Got it, yeah. Yeah, I think there's, I hope we find some solutions to this, because I tend to agree that the use of plastic is a bit concerning. And obviously I think there's more awareness coming out about our recycling programs in the US haven't exactly been the most honest about what's actually been recycled.

Gene Eidelman (29:24.008)
Well, it's not always, I mean, some of it is just basic education. I mean, again, since I've gotten into business, it's like I used to throw every plastic bottle in my recycling bin. And then you realize that energy to sort, to sort the plastic, you use so much energy, you can use up the benefit of using it, right? I mean, it's very easy to tell consumers, you look at the bottom of every plastic bottle you have, and if it has a one or two on the bottom, right here.

Nate Smoyer (29:36.794)
Mm.

Gene Eidelman (29:52.328)
you know, in there is a little circle. If it's one or two, it's going to be recycled. It goes from one to eight. If it has numbers three to eight, don't waste your time. Don't put in the garbage. That's where it's going to end up anyway. But it's just, I just don't understand why, why it's not being said. That just doesn't make sense.

Nate Smoyer (30:04.986)
Interesting.

Nate Smoyer (30:12.666)
There's a lot to get out there. I think there's a little bit of an information gap. But obviously you're on a path to closing that. Well, Gene, we're going to transition here. We're going to jump down to the bottom of the show for a segment I like to call For the Future. For the Future is when I get to ask each guest who comes on the show to give their best predictions based on the following four questions. Are you ready to play? All right. Number one, what does Azure look like one year from now?

Gene Eidelman (30:33.704)
Let's do it.

Gene Eidelman (30:41.0)
One year from now, we will have at least two factories. So we received the $3 .9 million funding from state of Colorado to open another factory there. And so we'll be definitely be opening a facility there next year. And so what that means is we're hoping that 25, 26 fiscal year will generate about $50 million revenue. Right now we're a tiny company. We did 4 million last year. So huge growth trajectory.

Nate Smoyer (31:10.842)
All right. Number two, this one's might be a little bit of a challenge. How many prefab homes will be distributed in the US per year by 2030?

Gene Eidelman (31:25.064)
Again, manufactured housing is an industry. It's a close to $10 billion industry. And I know now I'm switching from number of homes to the volume. But I really think by 2030, that number will double.

Basically, what I'm seeing is that the percentage of homes that are built as an overall will go from under 4 % to between 8 % to 10%. It'll still be well below some of the countries in Europe and Japan. But the only way to meet the affordability gap is to make more homes in fact.

Nate Smoyer (32:20.186)
Number three here, what's one industry trend do you think will continue but you wish would go away?

Gene Eidelman (32:28.264)
I'm sorry, what was one

Nate Smoyer (32:31.066)
Yeah, let me mark that clip there. Number three here. What's one industry trend do you think will continue, but you wish would go away?

Gene Eidelman (32:43.88)
Wow.

Gene Eidelman (32:49.704)
I really believe cement 3D printing will continue and I'm just really concerned about sustainability. So I think that if we can figure out how to use cement that has less environmental impact, that would be good. But you have countries like Dubai announced that they want to do 25 % of construction, all cement 3D printing. So I'm hoping that that'll continue, but we've got to find a way that's using cement that generates less CO2.

Nate Smoyer (33:21.722)
Yeah, you know, maybe you can confirm this, but there are companies in the US who actually purchase CO2 from the Middle East. And I can't remember who I learned this from, but what I was shared with me was we actually expend more CO2 to purchase and ship CO2 from the Middle East to the US for concrete production because the cost is cheaper to get it that way.

Gene Eidelman (33:49.0)
It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.

Nate Smoyer (33:51.258)
So it is one of those things that's just like, there's gotta be a fix to this here. Yeah. All right, last one here on For the Future. What's one thing you believe will dramatically change or fade away in real estate as a result of tech advances?

Gene Eidelman (34:08.872)
We got, you know, having 650 ,000 homeless people in the US is not okay. Having people spend 50 % of their income on housing is not okay. So I really believe that the only hope we have to have more affordable housing and have some housing for people who are on the street now is use tech. So just, we gotta find a way to produce.

a lot more housing, less expensive. And I've tried to do it without tech and even with tech. And that's only hope.

Nate Smoyer (34:50.01)
Jane, this has been great. Thank you for coming on the show. I enjoyed our conversation. What you guys are building at Azure, both as a company, but also physically what you guys are building. I think it's very cool, very innovative. Before we close out, for those who want to get in touch with you and or learn more about Azure, where do they go? How do they do that?

Gene Eidelman (35:10.504)
Yeah. So they can, my email is gene, G E N E at azureprinthomes .com. Our investment site is wefounder .com slash Azure. They can learn all kinds of information on the company there. I'm easily reachable. I just did a TEDx talk so they can watch my TEDx talk on YouTube and it's about future construction. So easily findable and Nate, I really appreciate.

spreading the word out. I mean, it's still, you know, just as much as we talk about it, as much as publicity we've gotten over it, still very few people know about it. So my hope, my hope, my goal is to get the word out. So really appreciate your time and your podcast.

Nate Smoyer (35:53.914)
Well, I think what you guys do is still early innings. There's a lot of ground to cover. There's a big knowledge gap to close. And I think this is gonna help drive innovation and creativity within real estate. So I think it's pretty cool. So I'm honored to have you guys, to have you on the show. And of course, I hope to see you at the next either geek estate meetup or maybe I'll catch you at one of your road show appearances. But until then, Gene, have a great one.

Gene Eidelman (36:21.192)
Take care, great to talk to you.

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