How Cover Is Building The House Of The Future

ABOUT JOHN COOGAN:

I've been an entrepreneur for nearly a decade across multiple companies. I've done a lot of work in Silicon Valley, so that's mostly what I talk about. I've raised 10 rounds of venture capital totaling over $100m in funding.

I work mostly in tech-enabled consumer packaged goods, meaning I use software to make the best products possible and then deliver them to the widest possible audience. I'm a big fan of machine learning, python programming, and motion graphics.

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Disclaimer: This video is purely my opinion and should not be regarded as a primary source. I am not a financial advisor and this is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Always do your own due diligence.

[juakinwages]

I'm seeing 70k for a backyard bedroom to 250k for a two bedroom, this is absolutely insane, at this point it's just cheaper to buy some land and build a full size home

[stephenc]

Prefabs don't address the most important part of a house, the foundation! Once you have a complete plumbed and wired foundation, you can put anything on top.

[sirukin]

What is the R-value of these panels? How does the exterior of the panel hold up to moisture, sunlight, etc compared to the weathering steel?

[jeremylarson]

the big concern here is cover is just another company in a pretty crowded niche segment - there are competitors to cover that have been doing similar for longer and are much further in their progression (assembled at build site), yet the more mature version companies have not been able to find any significant market share from traditional home building.

[artktek]

Always amusing to me when I see yet another *startup* that thinks it's reinventing architecture, Tesla'ing homes, disrupting an industry... and *boom* $60MM is thrown their way - funded! With $60MM in hand, they better be able to invent something. If the panels are the focus, it would have been nice to see/hear more about the panels (other than a few flashes of 3D modeled small box structures). Any small flat-pack house can be assembled in a month... What would make this concept special, is if the panels are structurally, insulation value, and means and methods wise revolutionary. They could be. SIP's are great, and most out there are still pretty low tech. Buildings have roofs and floors as well, so a smart wall panel needs a whole system. But, with $60MM, Cover should be able to hire up, pulling engineers from Tesla, et al, and make this into the... next... Tesla... LOL.

[tessiepinkman]

This is exciting. I live in Norway (though I come from Sweden) and I can see this being popular over here. Since we're looking for any new idea that can up productivity + being somewhat nice towards the nature. This is amazing. Plus - they look very much alike the typical Nordic design. They are both beautiful and *smart* - two things I love. Gonna be fun to follow this in the future, to see how they will solve different issues. I have faith. Alexis seems like he's got a great plan, and stands by it. That's a fantastic start.

[livingworkingoutsidebox]

I can see how these can work in the L.A. area and most metropolitan areas of California. Their price points just don't make sense for the 90% rest of the United States. Many towns and counties are adopting similar regulations allowing ADUs. But until prefabs can scale to a point where they become more affordable than a traditional stick built home, they will continue to be just bubble start ups unable to scale.

[antonallen]

Panelists housing isn’t necessarily a new innovation - the Soviet Union built so many panel homes, most notably “Brezhnevka’s” - panel apartment complexes built during the Brezhnev area. Alexis has basically made it more new, refreshing, and geared towards the American market, especially because of how it looks more like a single family home in structure. Props to him though, genius idea

[counterstrikelord]

We already have panelized houses here in Australia. I was actually planning on getting one myself. You just need a concrete slab.

[StartupSpells]

I love the way you choose topics. Always something to learn!

[austinalentejano]

In my experience as a framer and now an construction estimator, prefab single family homes seem to have very little of the prefab market and prefab companies tend to focus much more largely on multi family as it provides more efficiency in that type of building. The other aspect, is prefab homes (for what you are getting) are rather expensive.

[ACM]

I looked into this company earlier this year, and, as much as I wanted to like them, I was not impressed. Outside of sustainability, they don't actually solve any of the issues currently plaguing the housing market. First off, they're made exclusively as backyard add-on units, so the only people who are going to be interested are people who already own homes, therefore cutting off first time home-buyers. Secondly, they're not affordable (and for the sq footage you get, actually a bit overpriced), therefore NOT making home owning more accessible to lower income buyers & families. Thirdly, for devil's advocate sake, let's say down the road the company is able to make affordable stand alone single family units like they plan to, the cost of buying land to build upon and going through the structural inspection process is going to drive the cost right back up, not to mention that the permitting process instantly intensifies when you're building a stand alone house...So, no matter which way you look at it, it's gonna be costly and only accessible to a small select audience.

[moviladaniel]

These panels remind me of Gropius ang Wachsmann back in the '50. Their factory (a former war aircraft factory) named Panel House Factory got funding for the government itself. But the architect failed to deliver a panel and connection good enough for the concept to work. I think tho these can change with the current technology and most imp the software technology which Gropius and Wachsmann didnt have back than. The term is mass customization and it's gonna be possible with the help of software and ai soon.

[dozensofus]

Great breakdown! Thanks for covering such an important development.

[shamaldesilva]

Woow.. the quality, the information and the delivery done prefectly 🤩👌

[zenflynn]

I've toured one of their units, absolutely brilliant stuff

[ProxyProof]

Exciting video.
I don't think I understand Cover yet though. I don't think I could sum up why they are doing well, and why we haven't seen module based pre-fabs take over decades ago. Is it simply that no one else has tried properly before? I understand that Cover are doing a lot of things right, but is this really it?
* modular design - sweet spot between customizable and standardized
* niche beach head - get started in a learn fast high end market
* timing wrt new regulation

Honestly I would also have liked more. More on Cover - how young/old of a startup are they. How many houses have they built? How much revenue do they make?
More on the technology and production. Like what modules are there, what do they standardize and how. Do they have anything special production wise?

That said I enjoyed it a lot and will look more into Cover. Keep up the good work!

[undefined]

Here is what videos like this don’t tell you.. the typical million dollar house in CA only costs about $300k - $500k to build, the land costs $450k and government fees another $80k - $150k.. prefab makes housing maybe a little cheaper, or maybe it just makes the land owner richer.

[shukun-luxxy]

The way this guy chose to structure his answers to this "interview" and the general showcase of his company and vision really displays that he has no clue what people want to hear from a company that will build their homes, that provides safety and rigidity to their lives. Now, I think honestly the concept could be great, as long as you get some people who can market your product in a better way, laying focus on the integrity and incomparable robustness of these panels, the safety they provide, etc. In general, disrupting the flow of negative criticism that is thrown towards them.

[sparrowwav]

Thank you for calling out the inefficiencies or flat out dangerous of shipping containers!