Innovators in housing construction and delivery face unique hurdles on the path to growth, including a complex regulatory landscape and financing challenges. But the worsening housing crisis and intensifying climate impacts make new approaches more important than ever. We created the Builders Lab to support visionary leaders in architecture, engineering, construction and hardware as they work to advance their innovations and change the housing landscape for the better. Today, we're thrilled to announce the selection of our first Builders Lab cohort, made up of six companies from across the United States: B.Public Prefab , Cloud Apartments, Cycle Retrotech, Hydronic Shell Technologies, MODSpdx, and Villa. They bring a diverse array of approaches, including panelized and volumetric manufacturing and strategies to scale deep energy retrofits, workforce development, and demand aggregation. We're grateful for support from strategic partners Eden Housing, Inc., Hilti Group, SCB, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and Suffolk Construction, and funding from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and JPMorganChase. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/g-YkH4iC #constructiontech #contech #proptech #modular #modularhousing #modularconstruction #industrializedconstruction #architecture #engineering #construction #realestatedevelopment #design #manufacturing #realestate #climatetech #climate #climatechange #sustainability #sustainablebuildings #sustainableconstruction #housing #affordablehousing #housingaffordability #builtenvironment #mmc
Terner Labs
Housing and Community Development
Oakland, California 2,658 followers
We scale critical housing innovations at the intersection of equity, affordability and sustainability.
About us
We scale critical housing innovations at the intersection of equity, affordability and sustainability. We were founded to compliment the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. Learn more about our initiatives at ternerlabs.org
- Website
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ternerlabs.org
External link for Terner Labs
- Industry
- Housing and Community Development
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Oakland, California
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2020
- Specialties
- housing, policy, innovation, real estate, entrepreneurship, research, program development, product development, data, technology, industrialized construction, and urban development
Locations
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Primary
Oakland, California 94609, US
Employees at Terner Labs
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Mike Reilly
Urban Economics, Planning, and Data Science
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Ada Arevalo
Founder & CEO at iimpact; increasing women representation in real estate through gender-lens investing // Board Member // Speaker//
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Catherine Bracy
Co-Founder and CEO at TechEquity; Author of World Eaters: How Venture Capital Is Cannibalizing the Economy (Dutton, March 2025)
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Michelle Boyd
Chief Strategy Officer, Terner Labs
Updates
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Terner Labs seeks a creative and detail-oriented Finance Manager to manage critical organizational functions including budgeting, accounting, reporting, tax and grants administration. This person will play a crucial role in our organization’s continued growth and impact. Find the full job description and application details on our website: https://lnkd.in/gMw5QtM4
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We’re hiring a part-time Finance Manager to join our growing team and help expand our impact! If you or someone you know has a track record of managing financial functions, including reporting, accounting, budget development and grants administration, read the full job description and apply on our website: https://lnkd.in/gMw5QtM4
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Terner Labs reposted this
Terner Labs is seeking a part-time Finance Manager to help us build systems and processes to expand our impact! We’re looking for candidates with experience managing financial functions at growing organizations, including reporting, accounting, budget development, and grants administration. If this sounds like you, check out the full description and apply: https://lnkd.in/gMw5QtM4 #accountingjobs #grantsadministration #financejobs #nonprofitjobs
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Terner Labs is seeking a part-time Finance Manager to help us build systems and processes to expand our impact! We’re looking for candidates with experience managing financial functions at growing organizations, including reporting, accounting, budget development, and grants administration. If this sounds like you, check out the full description and apply: https://lnkd.in/gMw5QtM4 #accountingjobs #grantsadministration #financejobs #nonprofitjobs
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With traditional single-family homeownership out of reach for many people in the United States, there's increasing interest in alternative models, from co-ops to community land trusts to ADUs. But how many people have taken advantage of these new options, and what percentage of the overall housing stock do they represent? This new resource from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco offers a window into the diverse array of homeownership types at play in today's housing landscape. We were delighted to see our friends and Housing Venture Lab alumni Frolic Community and @Parity featured in the brief, along with current Builders Lab cohort member Villa - just a few of the innovative companies advancing alternative entry points for low- and middle-income homeowners.
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Terner Labs reposted this
We had a blast at the Builders Lab retreat in San Francisco along with our partners at Cycle Retrotech! We were inspired by the program put together by Ben White and Tyler Pullen, introducing us to leaders and ideas at the forefront of industrialized construction in the US. We’re honored to be part of this first cohort of companies that are pioneering innovations to bring scalable solutions to the affordable housing crisis. Thank you to cohort members B.Public Prefab , MODSpdx, Villa, and Cloud Apartments for sharing your experience and wisdom with us. Special thanks to Ben Silverman and Hugo Bovea who couldn’t join us because they were taking care of business back in New York. And to Terner Labs and all the program partners we met in SF that are too many to list here. We’re excited to participate in this program over the next year, which comes at the perfect time for us as we plan our next steps towards deployment of Hydronic Shell at industrial scale. You can learn more about Builders Lab here: https://lnkd.in/gmMfunHy #affordablehousing #modularconstruction #retrofit
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Terner Labs reposted this
Can we use Lean principles to accelerate housing production? At last week's Builders Lab Retreat, our cohort members had the opportunity to explore this question in theory, practice, and play 😊 We had a rich discussion around how Lean can be used to facilitate efficiency and continuous improvement in the sales cycle, which is critical for early- to mid-stage companies like those in our cohort. The indomitable Iris D. Tommelein, Patricia Tillmann, Ph.D., CM-Lean and Rafael V. Coelho helped us grasp the Lean concept and explore its application across the diverse group of Builders Lab cohort organizations, first with an interactive lecture and then with a game involving manufacturing widgets out of different colored paperclips. Some of our entrepreneurs who manufacture volumetric and panelized modular housing may be able to diversify their product offering 🖇 We also enjoyed visiting the Walters & Wolf facility in Fremont, California. The Walters and Wolf team has successfully incorporated Lean principles in their curtain wall manufacturing organization, and I was especially impressed by their application of the “employee genius” concept - anyone at the organization can get time with leadership to explore process improvements 💡 This retreat was a great start to the Builders Lab program, and I couldn’t be more excited to be on this journey with our wonderful group of cohort members and the team here at Terner Labs 🏗 Tyler Pullen B.Public Prefab Cloud Apartments Cycle Retrotech Hydronic Shell Technologies MODSpdx Villa Edie Dillman Sean Roberts Tony Daniels, RA, David Goldstein, PE Nathan Young Curtis Wong Apoorva Pasricha #constructiontech #contech #proptech #modular #modularhousing #modularconstruction #industrializedconstruction #architecture #engineering #construction #realestatedevelopment #design #manufacturing #realestate #climatetech #climate #climatechange #sustainability #sustainablebuildings #sustainableconstruction #housing #affordablehousing #housingaffordability #builtenvironment
Yesterday was the kick-off of Terner Labs Accelerator Program: The Builders Lab! This first cohort features six groundbreaking startups in industrialized construction, each with their own unique way to transform the housing industry - panelized and volumetric manufacturing, revolutionary product platforms, and different strategies to scale deep energy retrofits. I’m thrilled to share that I was there along with Iris D. Tommelein and Rafael V. Coelho to welcome these entrepreneurs and hear more about their amazing stories! We started a very interesting discussion about how Lean fits into their product development strategies, production planning approaches and workforce development! We got to visit Walters & Wolf Lean facility and also play a fun new simulation to understand the implications of batching and matching problems. I’m excited to be supporting this forward-thinking group of entrepreneurs as they incorporate some of these learnings into their journeys and shape the future of construction! Thank you Tyler Pullen, Ben White and Ben Metcalf for this opportunity. #IndustrializedConstruction #Innovation #Contech #LeanConstruction More details about the Builders Lab and this very interesting cohort here: https://lnkd.in/dGti3R8r
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We were so excited to meet our first-ever Builders Lab cohort in person last week at our Bay Area retreat! The group came together from across the country to get to know each other and share common opportunities and challenges in scaling construction innovation. We toured local curtain wall manufacturer Walters & Wolf's facility in Fremont and spent the afternoon on Berkeley's campus with Program Advisors Iris D. Tommelein and Shanti Pless. As the program progresses, we're thrilled to be cultivating not just a small group of successful innovators but also a broader community of practice. Thank you to the many special guests who joined us for the week - we can't wait to keep building together!
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Last Thursday, we co-hosted "Climate Migration: Getting Ahead of the Next Housing Crisis" with the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, bringing together leaders in climate and housing to talk about what climate displacement will mean for our shared future. We were joined by author Abrahm Lustgarten, Kate Gordon of California Forward, Evelyn G. Sánchez-Shu of the American Institutes for Research, Saharnaz Mirzazad, AICP of ICLEI. and Dave Jones of UC Berkeley's Climate Risk Initiative. Thank you to the panelists for sharing their knowledge and determination to adapt our housing landscape to an uncertain and constantly shifting future 🌎