ICON

company on 10 shows · 16 statements across 6 episodes · said 53 times in 13 episodes since 2018

How I Built This 19 Top Founders 8 the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 7 American Optimist 4 Capital Allocators 4 TBPN 4 the Startup Ideas Podcast 3 20VC 2 BigDeal 1 the a16z Podcast 1

Mentions by year, every show

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00102204201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode

How I Built This 19Top Founders 8the Y Combinator Startup Podcast 7American Optimist 4Capital Allocators 4TBPN 4the Startup Ideas Podcast 320VC 22 more shows

2026 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2025 9 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2024 19 mentions in 1 episode
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2018 14 mentions in 2 episodes 7 per episode

every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →

16 statements about ICON, every show

TBPN Assertion Supported
Ridge uses Icon AI video editor to stitch footage for targeted concepts
“Icon's been cool in that because it is basically an AI video editor. We can say, Hey, we want a concept to appeal to 40 year old men in flyover states, and it will put together A concept and kind of piece together and stitch together the content to do that.”
Conor Macdonald Mar 24, 2025 ▶ 11:08 Conor Macdonald on "Why Meta Ads Are Failing" and "How AI is Saving E-Commerce".
Ballard: 3D printing is for large bespoke structures, not cheap small items
“We were using it to make small things that were already mass produced very affordably. Like a lot of times people were, three printing coffee mugs and spoons and stuff. It's like, we already have a lot of those and they're made really cheaply. It's like a, it …”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 3:45 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
Ballard: Concrete homes produce less lifecycle carbon than traditional stick-built homes
“When you sort of did the whole accounting, sort of the life cycle accounting, there was a good argument to be made then and now that a house made of like more resilient, energy efficient materials on a life cycle actually would produce less carbon than one tha…”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 7:02 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
Ballard: Drywall is the worst building material ever invented by humans
“Like if I offered you a million dollar prize, or the whole audience listening to the show, a million dollar prize to come up with a building material that could actually pass building code that was more cheaply and poorly made than drywall, nobody would win th…”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 10:16 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
HOW I BUILT THIS Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ballard: ICON hand-loaded concrete into failing 3D printer for first prototype
“For instance, the pumping system completely crapped out and like, it never worked. And so we were actually like with buckets, hand loading the printer. So our joke to this day is like, it was an artisan, three D printed house.”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 19:51 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
HOW I BUILT THIS Assertion Partly supported
Ballard: ICON's 3D-printed homes sustained zero damage in 7.2 magnitude earthquake
“So, yeah, that's a very active seismic area, and not a lot, and so we designed the houses to be seismic. We had to go through a bunch of seismic testing, seismic evaluation, seismic structural and civil engineering, and then not long after we finished the proj…”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 22:16 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
HOW I BUILT THIS Assertion Supported
Ballard: ICON's 3D printers lay concrete continuously without pausing for drying
“No, it keeps moving. And by the time you're ready for the next layer, then the layer below it is ready to receive that layer.”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 24:01 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
HOW I BUILT THIS Assertion Supported
Ballard: ICON's early Austin 3D-printed homes sold for $400,000 to $800,000
“I think the, there are four, all four different sizes. I think the cheapest of them was like in the 400,000 dollar range. And the most expensive was like in the seven or 800,000 dollar range, if memory serves me correctly.”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 25:52 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
Ballard: In 3D-printed construction, complex curves cost the same as straight lines
“Yeah, you got things that look expensive. But are the same price to print as a straight line.”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 27:01 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
Ballard: NASA contracted ICON to develop lunar and Martian 3D construction systems
“We got a contract to develop, ah, a construction system as part of the Moon to Mars program. Ah, so it's a construction system that's supposed to be for the Moon, but it should also be easily repurposed for Mars.”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 30:48 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
HOW I BUILT THIS Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ballard: Municipal curfews halt automated 3D printers, doubling ICON's labor costs
“There's no hammering, but the building code says you have to stop at seven PM, but these machines are designed to just turn them on and print. And so right now, like I could print homes in one week for sure, but it's taking us two weeks, which means even with …”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 34:36 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
HOW I BUILT THIS Assertion Supported
Ballard: ICON launched a $1M contest to design $99,000 3D-printed homes
“We launched a year ago a global design contest called initiative 99 with a million dollar prize to design homes that could be built for 99,000 dollars or less.”
Jason Ballard Feb 1, 2024 ▶ 37:03 3D printing a housing revolution with Jason Ballard of ICON
a16z Assertion Partly supported
Neumann: Construction tech company ICON can build a home in four days
“There's a construction company here called Icon that's using technology that the government is going to need to partner with them at some point, because they have found ways to build a home In four days, that used to take, ah, that used to take a year and a ha…”
Adam Neumann Feb 6, 2023 ▶ 51:08 Disrupting the World's Largest Asset Class with Adam Neumann
Churi: Trust Ventures invested in Icon, which 3D-prints houses in 24 hours
“We did a company, we invested in a company called Icon, three D printed houses, right? It looks like a tube of toothpaste squirting out concrete and in 24 hours they can put up a house.”
Sal Churi Sep 3, 2021 ▶ 1:16 Sal Churi, Keri Findley, and Wesley Chan: Innovators Changing Our World Right Now · Joe Lonsdale
TOP FOUNDERS Disclosure
Mask: Infusionsoft has 150k users, but only 3k attended ICON
“When you get to a point that you've got a 150,000 users and only 3000 of them can afford to leave their business for a week, come and put a lot of things on pause to invest in their growth.”
Clate Mask May 27, 2018 ▶ 2:49 1037 Clate Mask on ICON, Infusionsoft IPO, Exit Strategy
Y COMBINATOR Assertion Contradicted
New Story and ICON built the first 3D printer for remote regions
“Our printer that we've designed is a printer that's ready to work in some of the most remote areas in the world, some of the You know, most difficult to work places in the world which is the first of its kind.”
Alexandria Lafci Apr 4, 2018 ▶ 42:37 3D Home Printing for the Developing World – Alexandria Lafci and Brett Hagler of New Story Charity · Y Combinator

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