LONGTIME FRIENDS INNOVATE BETTER WAYS TO BUILD IN BOISE
PHOTO COURTESY OF FLASHPOINT
BY DAVE SOUTHORN
Nick Stoppello and Pat Churchman have been friends for most of their lives, first meeting while attending Seven Oaks Elementary School in Eagle. It never really entered their minds until five years ago, but it seems destined that they would eventually work together, too. “All birds fly home,” Stoppello said. Both University of Idaho graduates, Stoppello and Churchman pursued business and architecture, respectively, and started their professional careers in construction. Meeting up over a drink, the pair “commiserated” over their jobs and realized they noticed the same mistakes being made. “We talked about how building plans are very complicated, they’re literally thick, and you have so many people working on them, they aren’t bulletproof…errors happen and they’re costly for everyone involved,” Stoppello said. The duo had the idea to engrave (using a laser) the blueprints onto materials at a jobsite to show how the structure is put together. Flashpoint Building Systems was then formed in late 2018 in Boise. “The ultimate aim is to be more efficient…plan sets are getting more and more complex,” Churchman said. “It’s taking information out of a dense document and applying it in a usable way.” Having it etched with a laser right on the materials with a CNC (computer numerical control) machine makes it so there is no need for paper blueprints, able to handle high amounts of foot traffic, and even helps overcome some possible language barriers. In September, Flashpoint earned a utility patent for the process. “I sometimes describe it as how difficult it would be to see a photograph and redraw it on a blank canvas, as opposed to already
having the image on there, just needing to be put together like a puzzle,” Churchman said. Flashpoint was recently utilized at a large housing development, and once the homes were completed, Churchman noted that the average time to complete meant a small framing team could finish an additional one or two houses a year. As business has ramped up, so has Flashpoint’s profile in the Treasure Valley. In October 2021, they won a $10,000 prize from Boise State’s Venture College and Boise Entrepreneur Week’s “Hacking for Homebuilding” competition. Venture College director Cara Van Sant encouraged them to enter Boise Entrepreneur Week’s Pitch Competition this past October, which Flashpoint also won, earning a $50,000 prize. “To date, we’ve been operating at a single brick and mortar location. We are the entire staff, business development to manual labor,” Stoppello said. “…in lieu of multiple locations, we are hoping to use the money to where we can put our manufacturing facility inside of a shipping container. That way, it can be brought to the customer, teach them how to use it, while providing back-end support.” From a friendship formed two decades ago to a business partnership, Stoppello and Churchman are enjoying the ride and eager to grow their idea in Idaho and beyond. “We were limited to the confines of a piece of paper, but in reality, there’s an abundance of space on the site,” Stoppello said. “In a way, your materials resemble a stack of paper, but you can print right on the piece. After that, you don’t need a bunch of words, it’s pretty intuitive for the team putting it together.” www.idahomemagazine.com
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