“You can have a lot of good ideas, but if you can’t bounce back, if you don’t have the resilience to keep at it, you will be done no matter how good your ideas are.” – John Galante
In this episode of Knoodle Founders Hour, Knoodle Founder and CEO Rosaria Cain talks with John Galante, Founder and President of AE Ventures, about building and scaling a media and events business serving the homebuilding, construction technology, and housing innovation industries.
John shares lessons from growing AE Ventures and leading platforms like the Builder Innovator Summit, insights on entrepreneurship and leadership, and what it takes to create long-term value as markets and technology evolve.
Listen now for founder-level insights on building a durable business in a changing industry.
Episode Transcript
Announcer 00:00
Welcome to the Knoodle Founders Hour, where we go founder to founder with host Rosaria King. Today, our special guest is John Galante, founder and president of AE ventures.
Rosaria Cain 00:10
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, John and welcome. Tell us about AE ventures and your work with home builders and developers around the country.
John Galante 00:20
Well, AE Ventures has been around since 2008 we’re small but mighty team, privately held. I’m the owner operator. I’ve been involved in this space where technology and construction meet since the late 1980s I’ve had stints with associations and media and event companies along the way, and we’ve been dedicated to serving builders pretty exclusively Since about 2019 owe previously operated events also for technology integrators. But in 2019 we turned our focus exclusively to builders and multifamily companies. We we’ve had a media brand in that space since 2001 it was the tech home builder was the brand originally, and it’s evolved to build their innovator. And then we’ve been producing these hosted style events for builders since 2014 since we emerged out of the residential real estate crash, you know, in the in the late 2000s early 2010s so 2014 we launched what was then the tech home builders Summit. And we’ve been producing, we’re going into our 12th year with this hosted style event for builders on innovation.
Rosaria Cain 01:48
Well, how are you finding the environment with home builders and multi family builders right now? It’s certainly interesting.
John Galante 01:54
Yeah. You know, there’s so many categories or facets of innovation that we pursue where there’s so much room for progress that these, you know, up and down blips in the market, we tend to like, shrug those off a little bit, because if I was selling lumber, I might feel differently. But most of what we represent is not deeply penetrated in the housing, and so there’s still room and opportunity even in even in times like these. So we we stay buoyant in times like these. And I do think there’s some really interesting structural advantages for builders in the market right now, right the parity on pricing with resale homes, we tend to look at this market and say, Well, you know, nine out of nine out of 10 homes, or eight and a half out of 10 are bought, are resale, so that’s the biggest competitor for the builder, and the fact that we’ve got price parity, we’ve got the ability to even on the economics, to buy down mortgage rates and appear even stronger from a pricing person perception. And this feature set advantage that we have of the floor plans that are tuned to today’s lifestyles, you know, all of the improvements in a new house versus useless, even if you’re just building the code, that code for this house today is so much better than the code from 20 or 30 years ago. So you got, you know, even if you’re just doing code, you’ve got advantages. And if you build above code, you’ve got even more significant advantages on future sets and things that like, mean real money, like the power smart power and the energy efficiency side of things. So I think it’s a great moment for builders, and we just got to help more of them to understand that and seize the opportunity, seize the day. Have you seen that the gap between pricing of resale and builders new builds have really narrowed? In fact, I hear it’s about the same price point right now. Oh yeah. I mean, statistically, that’s for sure. You know, you look at the one national statistic. It’s always, you know, a different story in every locality, but generally speaking, that is the there’s more pricing parity for new versus used, and there’s more value in new versus used.
Rosaria Cain 04:35
Well, tell us about your disruptive events where you’re getting home builders and technology together.
John Galante 04:43
So first of all, we serve national and regional. Regional, higher volume builders is the biggest business category that we serve at our events. But we also do have discrete programs for luxury custom build. And for multifamily property developers and managers for the that national and regional builder, we have four facets of innovation that we help them explore. One is digital solutions. That’s mostly about marketing, sales automation, customer experience, as in from the time of contract to the ownership experience. So we’re looking at tools and techniques and best practices for builders and that that complex of of issues right and selling a home, it’s the most complicated and the biggest ticket product the other consumers ever going to to buy. So there’s a lot of different things to be sold as part of that process, and the marketing is is all over the place, right? There’s a hell of a journey. It’s been described as a fly in a box, more so than a continuum. And then you know marketing just is always evolving in terms of how to deliver messages and get folks converted, and how do you interface your marketing efforts with your field sales or online sales counselor. So there’s a rich complex of issues and opportunities there that we explore. That’s our digital solutions track. We have what we call finishes and design. The origins of that track were a deep focus on personalization and option selling. And you know, how to have good strategy around that, how to have technology supporting that effort so that we can overcome buyers fatigue and really help the buyers shop for and design in as many of the features as they want. And we can help the builder, you know, maximize the ticket sale price per home as well. So that’s, that’s the heart of it. But we’re also getting into, you know, what are the floor plans that are selling today, the elevations, the styles, the the the colors and and what are the included features? And that could be finishes stuff, but it also is major system stuff on the included features side of things as well. So that’s another area where we’re probing innovation structures and systems is the third and that is, you know, the innovative building materials, so the wraps and the structural components, and then the major systems, the stuff that’s in the basement and in between the walls, we have a strong focus on off site factory built components, because we do think that is the future, not necessarily being a modular builder, but Having more preassembled pieces and parts so that you can overcome some of the labor shortage issues at the job site, and you can get higher quality and better seals and all sorts of stuff like that, if you do it the right way. That’s structures and systems. The other thing I would say about structures and systems is because it’s the invisible stuff, so stuff in the basement and in the walls, and it’s not to see it, touch it, by it, stuff. How do you market that becomes really important, right? It’s like, why would you invest in that? Why would you invest in that? On behalf of your buyer, you have to tell that story to the buyer as well. So that’s a topic that we hit on there. You know, it may be for the building scientist type, the construction and operations type, to be able to take that information forward to their marketing team so that they can do a better job explaining those invisible features. And then the fourth area, which is our long and strong suit, is what we call tech home, and so that is the home technology piece. So we conceive of that pretty broadly. It’s smart home security, yes, but it’s also audio and video entertaining technologies. It’s lighting, it’s technology for healthy home. It’s smart power. And so we know from research that buyers really want this. We also know that builders have struggled with this category of stuff historically and have been burned in some cases buy it, but there’s no doubt that the buyers want it, and I think we can do a really good job of helping builders get it right for their business and for their buyers. And so those are the four facets
Rosaria Cain 09:55
Of all these pieces, is there one area holding builders back right now? In these times with interest rates and worker shortages and supply issues?
John Galante 10:06
And, you know, I’m a marketing and comm guy. So I’m gonna say be more aggressive in terms of bringing buyers, you know, to what you have to offer. And you know, maybe unit volumes going to make up for some less, lesser dollar availability, or maybe you’re just going to win more market share versus used you have that opportunity, but you only have that opportunity if you aggressively seize it. So like we we spend a lot of time talking to builders about, okay, first place people look. This is going to change with AI first place people look. Many people look as on the realtor.com or Zillow or what have you. And we have, historically, as you know, new home builders have not competed well in that arena. We showed dirt, you know, while the resale home has 35 images or a Matterport type tour, so we’ve got to do a better job at the first point of contact in the market to bring more buyers into the equation. So I would, I would start there is just compete more aggressively for the buyers who are out there. And you know, when you look at the housing headlines nationally, it’s like, we go from 5 million homes sold in year to 4 million homes. Worst case scenario, that’s a lot of homes being sold. And in any given market, there are tons of homes being sold. So I would just say, be more aggressive and have faith that your product is going to sell well, if you represent it well, as the buyer goes through their research.
Rosaria Cain 11:48
What do you think the outlook is looking at 2026?
John Galante 11:52
Well, I mean, I think I’ve seen some of the statistical reports, you know, give us a 5% increase or so in terms of starts and sales. And I’m not an economist, you know, it seems like we have a structural overhang of not enough inventory availability. And, you know, unless there’s some sort of economic collapse, I would say 5% growth is very doable. You know, where is that going to be? It’s probably going to be a little bit up market, you know, more the move up and kind of like the set semi custom sort of markets versus, I think build a rent and resale are going to dominate on the starter home front, or for that, for that particular person looking for a dwelling. So I don’t know that that’s a thriller, but it’s also not depressing. That’s, that’s where I would peg it. I like that 5% number. And you know, it’s always going to be in different market bands, but the market bands, I think that will grow will be a little bit up market.
Rosaria Cain 13:07
So you think there’s some hope for move up buyers, because I know the the interest rates have shut a lot of that down, because the cost of getting into a smaller home actually increases the the mortgage or the price.
John Galante 13:20
Yeah, well, I think we’re going to have the interest rates come down a little bit. Yeah, I think we’re going to maybe have some of the folks who are locked in place with their existing low mortgages just have no choice but to make that buy to move up property. So I think there’s hope for that, yeah.
Rosaria Cain 13:46
So you’re saying you think there’s a lot of pent up inventory from the previous last three years?
John Galante 13:52
Well, we have just an overhang of pent up inventory of people who are have stayed at home as long as they could. Yes,
Rosaria Cain 14:00
That demand – It has to go somewhere?
John Galante 14:02
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 14:03
Okay, well, let’s talk about how you founded this incredible company that does all these things that bring construction together with technology. What made you go out on your own? What was that moment that that made you seize the opportunity?
John Galante 14:20
Well, I had a really nice 10 year run with EH Media where, you know, I did editorial and media stuff and and launched some really successful trade shows. And it is just got to the point where I wanted, wanted the ability to call my own shots and do my own thing, and so it’s just the opportunity to lead a company I think that really took me on my own and and I’m a, I’m a better mousetrap guy. I’m always looking for a way to do things. Things better and innovate. And, you know, I have the opportunity to be creative in as the owner operator. And the creativity has come out in a variety of ways, you know, and the hosted style event was not something that I invented. It’s something that I ran into that was really prominent in the information technology industry and and I liked the model because I liked to do new events, and it’s really hard to get people to attend a trade show, and it is easier to get people to attend when you host them. So really put me in a position to launch new products, to have the hosted model at hand, and then, you know, we’ve just been trying to refine it for for years, so that we have this strategy where we have multiple segments within a single event that most hosted event organizers don’t do. They’re one they’re one track one kind of audience. We have six related audiences where there’s they’re of interest to multiple sponsors, to hit all of those different verticals, whether that’s by job function or by business category, and it allows us to scale up the event and realize some economies of scale. And then I think the other thing we’ve done is focus strongly on the content, the session content, and have this blend of experiences so that we’ve got our session content, we’ve got our boardroom presentations from sponsors that are 35 minutes long and done in a Small Group, where there’s peer bonding and peer evaluation, and then the one on one meetings and the exhibits. So it’s a nice mix of experiences for the guests, and it’s a nice mix of engagement form factors for the sponsors. And it’s all designed to be, you know, efficient and enjoyable at some level, you know, you’re not going to eat your lunch on top of a garbage can or on the stairs at a convention center. So it’s got, you know, we don’t do it’s not a boondoggle, it’s not poolside with the spot spouse, but it feels good, physically, feels good. It’s not, you’re not brutalized, you know, which you are at so many trade shows, so I don’t know we just like, just worked it, you know, over the years, to get it to a model and where we feel like it has a good flow, it has a good feeling. And the other thing is to focus on the results that people get from participating, versus just the the experience, right? We have a great experience, but it’s a blur, blur of activity, and they don’t you don’t do anything as a result of it. Well, then we really haven’t achieved our goal. And our mission is to drive extraordinary progress on innovation. It’s not to hold, have great events that people go home and say, Wow, about we want them to do that, but that’s only instrumental to them actually achieving results and innovating.
Rosaria Cain 18:31
No, that’s fascinating. Did you have a moment where it was an entrepreneurial moment that you just had to do this? Did it come down to a circumstance or realization, or did it just brew over time?
John Galante 18:50
Well, you can have a lot of good ideas, and I’ve had a lot of opportunities to pursue good ideas before I started my own business. But the early years were just getting my feet underneath me in terms of running a business in a sustainable way, because there is a lot of stuff to be done from administration and HR and financial management side of things. So you’ve got to get that stuff solid at the same time that you want to be creative and work on your product. So I think my, entrepreneurial moment has come later, when the hard stuff of running the company has become almost as enjoyable, or as enjoyable as the develop the product and develop the market side of things, because I. I feel like I can be creative and use my impetus for problem solving in the business itself. Now, you know, as much as I – and I would say, that’s just in the last two or three years where I’ve like – “All right, what is the challenge?” How do we find the right people? you know, you could be frustrated by that, – there’s nobody good out there – or you could take that as a challenge and try to apply creativity to that. Or, how do I develop my people? Or how do I retain my people? Or, you know, what could I do with my business model, when people pay, how they pay, those have become areas where I’ve found the ability to exercise my creative muscles, as much as the product development side of things, that’s my entrepreneurial moment.
Rosaria Cain 20:56
Do you think you were born an entrepreneur, or did you develop into one? Did you have a lemonade stand as a kid?
John Galante 21:03
I didn’t. Well, no, I didn’t. I didn’t come from that. I did not. I mean, my father was an accountant. He was not an entrepreneur. I that be that was not modeled for me in my youth and and, you know, I went to Jesuit Catholic High School, one like that. There was not entrepreneur Central, and in my era, was of it was not one of entrepreneurship. I don’t, I don’t. I can’t even remember that word being said when I was in college. So I would say, you know, I didn’t know what that thing was for a long time in my professional career.
Rosaria Cain 21:46
You developed into it as a result your experience?
John Galante 21:49
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 21:50
I think that’s great. Well, that gives me a chance to ask this question, what characteristics, and you mentioned creativity, and I think certainly that’s a great characteristic. What characteristics makes a great leader and makes you a great leader? And what would you what would you tell other people about that subject?
John Galante 22:10
Well, you need determination and persistence, because you’re going to get knocked on your ass, you know? And so if you can’t climb, if you can’t bounce back, if you don’t have the resilience to to to bounce back and keep at it, you know you will be done no matter how good your ideas are. I think that’s critical. Uh, uh, you know, I think finding the right balance between single mindedness of purpose and drive and allowing people to be human beings is it’s a challenge, right? And if you’re going to be entrepreneurial, you want to do stuff differently. You’ve got to break the mold, and that that is not easy work, and people need to be pushed out of their comfort zones to get there. But they also need to be allowed to have a life. And so finding the right balance on that stuff, and that’s hard, right? Because, sometimes it seems like somebody’s personal convenience is getting in the way of the, you know, of the success of the business, and it’s a it’s a tough call to make. It’s a tough thing to see in the moment, especially if you’re working your your butt off and you know, and you don’t feel like it’s a similar level of effort from your colleagues. So I think finding that balance and refinding it along the way is important.
Rosaria Cain 24:10
Do you think covid changed the priorities of the workforce?
John Galante 24:14
Well, changed a lot. Yeah. I just don’t think we really, as a society, coped very well with covid. You know, we just like there were a lot of extreme reactions, you know, in everything and for work, absolutely. I mean, you just think about all the cockamamie ideas that surfaced during covid With regard to work, quiet, quitting. You know this idea of, I used to call it the bare minimum club: People who were like working remotely and do as you know, little as possible, so it seems like you’ve done enough to retain your job. But those things weren’t just like. But on the down-low practices, they were actually talked about and circulated as concepts for the younger generation to bring to the workplace, this whole adversarial, you know, approach to the employer and to work. So just, I mean that all has really kind of evaporated, or certainly tamped down considerably in four or five years time. But that was, that was not a fun time to run a business from any respect, you know, but, certainly the people piece was really tough.
Rosaria Cain 25:45
And it’s, it’s, it’s stuck with the culture, and it’s still with us today.
John Galante 25:50
It is, but, there’s not as much peer pressure to be like that. There’s actually been a little bit of a pendulum swing the other way, where that is not looked at at as admirable by the peer community. That’s my sense. You know, I don’t, they don’t let me hang out with them wherever they go.
Rosaria Cain 26:15
Well, it’s category specific too, right? So, I mean, some of it is, I think home building and development tends to be a more conservative category overall. Now, how, how is your company culture as it’s evolved over all this time? Tell me how you define, how you would define it, how you would classify it, and what it’s like to work for AE Ventures.
John Galante 26:42
Well, so we’re surprisingly process driven and methodical for our size. I mean, we have that as one of our core values is embrace process. So from a sales perspective, we have delineated our process. We have conversion metrics for step to step. We are able to keep track of and project the activities required to I mean, we have really very solid process on sales, on marketing, we have, like, overall corporate planning, where we’re we’re detailing what we’re trying to accomplish on a week by week, month by month basis, across multiple departments, and we’re tracking it to see if we’re doing that. So, like, part of our culture is very strong execution. Sometimes we drive ourselves crazy a live with a little too much of it, honestly, but that has emerged as a really important part of our culture. Love. The challenge is one of our is our top core belief, and that’s just basically says that there’s going to be changes, and you’re going to have shifts in duties and, like, it’s not good enough to just endure it. It’s like, love it and and figure out a way to do it well and make it enjoyable for yourself. So that’s it’s hard to do on everything, but we have a pretty, pretty good culture on that I’m giving you my, our, our core values on the culture side of things, which is our fourth is, is when is a team? And I like to always say that’s two parts. And a lot of people like to focus on the team part, and team part is important, but only if you win, because I’m a Cubs fan. You know, we had very lovable teams that never won damn thing, and it was, it was corrosive to our souls. So you got to win too. And winning can be, you know, whatever us achieving our goal with our products and as a company, but it’s also people hitting their quarterly metrics that’s winning too. So well,
Rosaria Cain 29:05
You’ve spoken a little bit on this. How do you future proof your business with all that is going on right now?
John Galante 29:12
Well, I think keeping the people engine getting better and better is one of the big keys. But the other thing is, just, you have to stay in touch with the market, right? And you have to, you know, consume information of all types from all perspectives on what’s going on in the market. And you have to figure out whether the place that you have in the market is sustainable, or whether you need to skate to the puck, skate to where the puck’s going to be.
Rosaria Cain 29:43
Very Gretzky, of you, yeah,
John Galante 29:45
I’m not much of a hockey player. I always get hit in the face with a stick when I played hockey, so I didn’t like that, rather of football with the face mask, right? But yeah, I I would put it to. Those two things is like, there’s an outside component to that, in terms of assessing your competitive position, where the market’s going, and there’s an inside piece, which is like, keep getting better, get the right people to do the job. That’s that’s the best you can do for future proofing.
Rosaria Cain 30:17
What do you see coming in the next five years? Oh, boy.
John Galante 30:22
Well, I, you know, be, if I didn’t say, AI, I would be
Rosaria Cain 30:28
Now, that’s not five years from now,
John Galante 30:30
Yeah, but it’s, it’s, really is five years. I mean, it’s just like we’re just past the hype phase, and we’re to the point where there are actually companies coming with application specific stuff for your industry, your vertical, your task set with AI. Now we just have to, I don’t, I don’t think it’s, it’s any different than when information technology arrived, and I can remember that era when information technology arrived to do tasks. It’s like, can it do the task better? Does it change the nature of the task? How much better can it do it? Do I you know, will I be able to use it to get that task done? I know that there are bigger things than that that the AI industry wants to sell to me, but for me, for now, it’s like, what can I do more quickly, better or more easily with AI and so, and I think we waited long enough as a company to let some of The hype flush out, and now we have a really solid approach to applying AI that’s going to change a lot of things. It’s going to it’s going to destroy some jobs. It’s going to be Schumpeter scale, right? Who Alfred Schumpeter is? He was a Harvard economist. He talked about the creative destruction of capitalism. That’s what we’re going to have. Some things are going to be destroyed, and new green shoots will pop up. You know, we’re, we’re looking at simple things like, how do we record a one on one meeting at our events so that there’s a set of minutes and action items that the people can follow through on, so they could be present with each other, but then they have a documentation and a go forward on that. That’s, that’s like, simple, but that could be a big deal for us. So AI is going to be, you know, a big game changer in many ways, you know, in home building, and it’s like the energy piece, energy efficiency is already a great differentiator for new homes versus used and we have the ability to generate our own power and distribute it smartly and store it in houses and like there’s going to be a lot of money spent on energy that’s going to be drawing off of that grid. So that’s, that’s a an area that we’re going to have to address, that we should address, that we can address, and have a structural strategic advantage on the energy piece. I think water is going to water conservation is going to be a big deal. I think water quality in terms in terms of stuff in the housing market, you know, I think water quality and water smarts is kind of where, you know, air quality and air smarts was 15 years ago. We’ve got a set of technologies. We’ve got a loosely configured Group of Companies. They they need to come together and help builders understand what to do with water, because people do care about what they breathe, and they care about what the water that goes into their lungs and their their bellies and their bot on their bodies. And so I think that’s an area for growth. I think my smart home industry is like, I am, like every new home should be smart. That’s one of my themes. And like, I can’t take it anymore. The idea that people don’t want that around here. People want it everywhere. People are buying it for their existing homes. People have it at their workplace. People have it at their eating and drinking establishments. They have it in their car. They don’t stop wanting it in their new home. It’s patently ridiculous, so, but we got to figure out a way for it to feel comfortable and for builders to get it right, and there’s a million different ways. So I think we’re going to get to over the over the early majority and into the late majority and close to the laggards in the next five years on the smart home stuff with new homes, I predict that.
Rosaria Cain 34:50
I think that’s a solid prediction. So when you’re not working, which is probably not that often, but when you’re not working, what. Kind of habits keep you grounded, what keeps you sane?
John Galante 35:03
Yeah, well, I have a lovely wife who is couldn’t ask for a better companion in terms of the laughs that we have together and and the experiences that we take in. We’re both theater and movie lovers and music lovers, so we take in our fair share of live performance and then also a lot of stuff via TV and and cooking is, I don’t get to do much cooking anymore, but I get to do the eating. I would like to do more cooking, but I just can’t get kicked out of the kitchen. So, but Cook, cooking is, I’m Italian, I, you know, I really, I think you might be too, but so like, food is very important to us, right? And it’s important to both of us, so that that keeps me entertained and grounded, and I have homes on the water so that I can look out my window at the water pond on Cape and Boston Harbor here in the city, and that has a that connection with nature and with with the seas and the ponds is is a grounding factor for me as well, and then just get down into the gym and pedal that damn bike for 45 minutes
Rosaria Cain 36:48
Spin class, or just?
John Galante 36:50
just, just me and me and my stationary bike. That’s it.
Rosaria Cain 36:54
This has been incredibly helpful and full of wisdom, and I wish you luck in in the future of your business.
John Galante 37:02
Well, thank you. This is very nice of you to do this.
Rosaria Cain 37:06
my pleasure. I hope you have a wonderful day.