Construction hasn't changed in 100 years. We build houses the same way we did in 1920. I thought: what if we built them in a factory instead? Like cars. Like iPhones.
I ran Flextronics, one of the largest manufacturers in the world. I knew how to build things at scale. Construction seemed like the obvious next frontier. It wasn't obvious at all.
SoftBank gave us $1.1 billion. With that kind of money, we expanded into everything — architecture, engineering, materials, factories, general contracting. We tried to own the entire stack. The stack won.
We opened factories in Phoenix, India, and Saudi Arabia simultaneously. We acquired architecture firms and lumber companies. We were building the plane, flying it, and redesigning it all at the same time.
Construction is local. Every city has different codes, different unions, different weather, different soil. A factory in Phoenix doesn't help you build in Boston. We learned that the expensive way.
We raised $2 billion and went bankrupt. The idea was right — construction needs disruption. The execution was a masterclass in how not to do it.