Aleks Gampel of Cuby Technologies argues that the US housing shortage is at root a skilled labor shortage. His answer is mobile microfactories that build ordinary, code-compliant homes with less skilled crews at cost parity.

Aleksandr Gampel, Co-Founder, Cuby Technologies

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In this conversation

Aleks's argument that the housing shortage is at root a skilled labor shortage, with 40 to 50% of the construction workforce expected to retire in about ten years.

How a single-family home moves today through a developer, a GC and around 22 subcontractors over 7 to 12 months, and why Cuby targets about 30 days.

The three bets behind the mobile microfactory: put factories close to the site, do not change what a home is, and match incumbents on cost.

Why he compares the model to McDonald's: a system costing about $10 million, run by a local operator and serving a 150-mile radius.

His read on why volumetric modular, panelized prefab and 3D printing have each fallen short for dispersed single-family housing.

How keeping engineering in Eastern Europe got the company to about 350,000 engineering hours, half of what he says a fighter jet takes, on far less capital.

If we don't solve housing we can't be a superpower. You just can't.

Aleksandr Gampel

Chapters

Why buildings, and why Cuby

Aleks's path from a real estate family and finance to partnering with a lean manufacturing engineer in Eastern Europe.

We are underbuilding

Why he sees the housing crisis as a shortage of skilled hands more than a problem of permits.

By the numbers

50%

Share of US renter households that were cost burdened in 2023, a record 22.6 million

Aleks says about half of the US is rent burdened, spending more than 30% of income on rent. Harvard's housing researchers put the share of renter households at half.

Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, State of the Nation's Housing 2025, via NLIHC ↗

A home in 30 days

How the mobile microfactory makes windows, piers, framing and panels near the site so unskilled crews can assemble the house.

From Sears kits to 3D printing

A short history of prefab and why he thinks volumetric modular, panelized prefab and printing have not scaled for housing.

Financing deep tech

The four-chapter master plan, 350,000 engineering hours, and why venture pays for R&D while debt should pay for factories.

Labor, permits and the Toyota of housing

Training a barista in two weeks, staying clear of permitting, and what success looks like in five years.

When you build a house, for every dollar that you spend on building it, 60 to 70% of that cost is a labor cost.

Aleksandr Gampel

Takeaways

Cuby's one KPI is building more homes with fewer, less skilled hands, since labor is 60 to 70% of the cost of building a house.

A single-family home today takes 7 to 12 months and around 22 subcontractors; Cuby targets about 30 days with no GC or subs.

The bet is to bring small, lower-capex factories near demand, not change what a home is, and match incumbents on cost or be irrelevant.

Each mobile microfactory costs about $10 million, serves a 150-mile radius, and is run by local operators, much like a McDonald's franchise.

Keeping R&D and engineering in Eastern Europe let the company reach about 350,000 engineering hours while raising far less capital.

If you can't be cheaper than, or at least at cost parity with, existing home builders, you're irrelevant.

Aleksandr Gampel