Fireside Chat
3D Home Printing for the Developing World – Alexandria Lafci and Brett Hagler of New Story Charity
- Organization Profile: New Story is a non-profit, one of the first to graduate from Y Combinator, focused on building housing and communities for impoverished populations in Haiti, Latin America, and developing regions.
- Operational Model: The organization partners with local governments to secure land grants, installs utilities, and subdivides land; families living in informal settlements actively co-design their homes and retain ownership of both the structure and the land.
- Founding Motivation: Co-founder Brett Kennedy was inspired after visiting Haiti years after the 2010 earthquake, observing that millions remained in tents with no protection, highlighting a critical gap in global aid where shelter was neglected despite the availability of food and water aid.
- Market Gap Identified: The founders identified a systemic lack of transparency and accountability in international non-profits, where significant donations often yield minimal results (e.g., one prominent organization raised $500 million to build only six homes over six years).
- Philosophy Shift: The team pivoted from skepticism of traditional aid to a strategy centered on "making something people want" for two distinct users: donors requiring transparency and families requiring dignified, locally sourced housing solutions.
- Initial MVP Strategy: Lacking engineering resources and capital, the founders created a "fake" crowdfunding platform on Webflow to test demand; they manually updated donation meters and sent personalized videos of families moving into homes funded by the platform.
- Early Traction: The manual MVP concept generated $100,000 in donations within months, proving donor willingness to support a model where 100% of funds went directly to construction, funded by a small group of private investors covering overhead.
- Y Combinator Influence: Under the mentorship of partners Kevin Hale and Aaron Harris, the organization adopted an "audacious goal" framework, compressing a 12-month goal of 100 homes into a 100-day target.
- Execution Result: The team exceeded their YC goal by completing 100 homes in 92 days, establishing a core company value of "think big, break down, and execute."
- Strategic Pivot to Bulk: To scale further, the organization launched an "Architects Program" in 2016, encouraging companies to fund entire communities (approx. 100 homes) rather than single homes, raising the per-donation commitment to ~$600,000.
- Cost Structure: Traditional housing construction costs approximately $6,500 per unit, while the goal is to reduce this to $3,000 per unit through innovation without compromising quality.
- Impact Data Program: The first post-YC hire was an Impact Data Manager to track rigorous metrics beyond vanity numbers, focusing on life-altering changes such as increasing family sleep time from 4 hours to 7–8 hours upon moving into secure housing.
- 3D Printing Initiative: In late 2017, the team initiated an R&D project to 3D print homes, aiming to reduce construction time from 15 days to under 24 hours (goal: under 12 hours) and cut costs by half.
- Partnership: New Story partnered with the robotic construction startup Icon to design and build the world's largest 3D home printer, funded by private donors willing to take calculated risks on R&D.
- Proof of Concept: The first 3D-printed home was built in Austin, Texas, in early 2019, passing strict city housing codes and testing three times stronger (in PSI compression) than traditional concrete block homes.
- Material Technology: Unlike plastic filament printers, the new machines print with cement, creating a continuous thermal envelope with zero waste; the printer's CAD capabilities allow for complex, curved designs and built-in channels for plumbing and electrical wiring.
- Design Constraints: The printer was engineered with specific constraints for emerging markets, including the ability to withstand power outages, operate without potable water on-site, and be maintained by non-specialized local labor.
- Future Deployment: Phase two involves scaling the technology to El Salvador, with plans to 3D print an entire community of homes by Q1 or Q2 of 2019, aiming to be the first to bring this technology to the most vulnerable populations.
- Fundraising Innovation: To attract high-level donors and partners, the team utilizes creative, high-touch outreach methods, such as mailing custom, foil-stamped invitations resembling wedding invitations via FedEx to influential figures.
- "Her Story" Program: A specialized initiative targets single mothers, empowering female leaders in the U.S. to fund and advocate for housing projects, demonstrating a strategy of matching specific donor interests with granular community needs.
- Team Culture: The organization prioritizes rigorous hiring processes, treating recruitment as a significant time investment to ensure cultural fit, as the founders believe "bold ideas attract bold people" and that team cohesion is the primary asset.
- Risk Assessment: The leadership views the 3D printing project through an asymmetric risk lens, noting that while the cost of failure is limited to the R&D investment, the success potential could revolutionize global shelter for a billion people.
- Community Focus: New Story emphasizes building "micro-economies" within communities, involving families in the design process to ensure safety, cohesion, and local economic development through entrepreneurship.
- Open Source Intent: The organization aims to democratize their 3D printing technology and design templates, eventually sharing the innovation with other non-profits and governments to scale the solution globally.