Menu
Listen to RJ Adler, Director of Growth at Wheelpad, discuss making homes accessible with innovative modular housing solutions. In conversation with host Kyle Rand, Co-Founder and CEO of Rendever, RJ shares the inspiration behind Wheelpad, which builds modular, accessible housing units for individuals with mobility challenges. RJ talks about the challenges and rewards of working at Wheelpad, the importance of listening and compassion in sales, and pivotal moments in his startup journey. He reflects on his background in psychology and teaching, and how these experiences shape his business approach. RJ also highlights Wheelpad’s commitment to social responsibility, exciting developments in their manufacturing capabilities, and the importance of finding the right company culture and team support. Tune in to hear RJ’s journey, his advice for aspiring founders, and the latest at Wheelpad.
Tanya Perkins, Host:
Welcome to AgeTech Talks, conversations about AgeTech powered by AgeTech Collaborative from AARP, leading a global mission to drive innovation at the nexus of longevity and technology. You are tuning in to a series of discussions recorded live at CES 2024 that highlight the dynamic startup founders who are making aging easier for everyone by pioneering innovative AgeTech solutions. In conversation with fellow startup founders, Kyle Rand and Tanya Perkins, each episode invites an AgeTech Collaborative startup founder to discuss their journey and share the invaluable lessons they’ve learned along the way. Today we’re thrilled to have RJ Adler, director of growth at Wheelpad, to share their story.
Kyle Rand, Host:
Welcome back for day two here at CES. We are broadcast live from the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP Booth, and I am joined by RJ Adler from Wheelpad. Tell us a little about yourself.
RJ Adler:
My name’s RJ. I live in central Vermont. Wheelpad is my company. We are based in Wilmington Vermont. We build modular, accessible housing that can rapidly make any property safe for anybody, but especially people with mobility challenges.
Kyle Rand:
Modular and accessible. How do you combine those two concepts?
RJ Adler:
We take a house and we put it on wheels.
Kyle Rand:
Oh, is that where the name Wheelpad comes from?
RJ Adler:
It sure is.
Kyle Rand:
Tell me more.
RJ Adler:
Well, it’s funny to be here at a tech conference because we’re not tech and we’re not necessarily new technology. We’re a shelter, which is a really old technology, on wheels, which I believe is the first technology. And that is a very interesting space to be in because if you take a tiny house and make it accessible, suddenly there is a huge market of people that are very interested in making their home accessible. But the existing infrastructure for making your home accessible doesn’t serve those people. If they don’t want to or don’t have the ability to live through a disruptive home renovation or they don’t want to go to a nursing facility or they’re disinterested in going to buy a new house, modular accessible housing is a really great option for them.
Kyle Rand:
Your role as director of growth. What does it take to be successful in your role?
RJ Adler:
Talk to people, be generally likable and listen. We spend a lot of time listening to people at a really tough moment in their lives. Their daughter just got in a car accident and she was about to go to college, so she’s deferred for a year. Hopefully she’ll be able to go next year. Or they just got an ALS diagnosis or they’re going through the reality of how am I going to care for my aging parent? And certainly I will listen and understand as best as I can. I was a psychology major, but I’m certainly not a trained therapist. Making sure that we’re coming to the table with the right amount of compassion to listen and pointing them in the right direction of people that know how to listen professionally. But I think listening is just important for any sales technique and making sure that we’re actually providing a service to somebody.
So I say to any of my customers, if you have the ability to make your home accessible without a Wheelpad product, great. You’re still achieving our mission. In a perfect world, we would live in such a way that Wheelpad didn’t have to exist because either people wouldn’t get hurt or all the homes would be accessible. That’s not the case yet so we’re going to start a company to try to solve that problem, but making sure that you fit in the right way into the industry, understand that you’re another option where more options are desperately needed. And just because the existing options, like I was saying, aren’t serving the full market, doesn’t mean that they’re bad options.
Kyle Rand:
I’m so curious, how did you go from studying psychology to saying, hey, I actually want to use this skill set to help a startup grow?
RJ Adler:
I started my career as a teacher actually.
Kyle Rand:
Oh, wow.
RJ Adler:
And I find that being in sales in startups is very similar to being a teacher. I treat everyone like they’re a middle-schooler. I just don’t tell them that I do it that way.
Kyle Rand:
Say more.
RJ Adler:
Well, if you can explain something such that a middle schooler can understand it, then everybody’s going to be able to understand it. So, as I’m talking to a homeowner about putting a Wheelpad on their house and making it accessible, I’m trying not to use industry insider language because mostly I don’t understand insider building industry language. But also people need to understand you install one of those outlets, like what you plug your dryer into the big round ones as opposed to saying, you just need a 240-volt, 50-amp breaker there and you set it right up and she’s good. So, there’s a difference of how you’re speaking to the customer. And even with a building professional, they can get it. They can understand. So, there’s certainly that flexibility of understanding who you’re talking to.
Kyle Rand:
So a lot of it comes down to simplicity and contextualizing the message.
RJ Adler:
Yes.
Kyle Rand:
I’m just thinking about myself as a middle-schooler. I feel like there’s some element of irrationality at that age. Do you find that your psych background helps you navigate a little bit of the irrational human mind as you go through a purchasing process as well?
RJ Adler:
There are certainly irrational people everywhere, and certainly I’m an irrational human sometimes. Feel free to double check that with my wife. But we’re oftentimes talking with people at a really hard moment in their life and sometimes that means that they’re going to be irrational with us. And that’s not nice. Any salesperson, their job is to make sure that they’re not bringing irrational people into the company because they’re going to cause problems down the line if there was going to be an irrational person, that you don’t subject your colleagues to those people.
Kyle Rand:
So let’s pivot a little bit. So what made you… You were a teacher, you have a psych background, you joined Wheelpad. When you found the company, when you met the team, what was it about Wheelpad that really made you throw your hand up and say, I got to be a part of that?
RJ Adler:
I need to sleep. Right? So, I really appreciate having my profession be something that I’m comfortable going to sleep every night knowing that I’m helping people. My initial interest in the industry was looking at the housing shortage, looking at the ADU industry that had grown out west, recognizing that there was a market solution, which was putting a backyard ADU up, and I thought, great, I’m going to start one of these companies in Vermont.
I started doing research on that. I found Wheelpad needed sales support, I needed a design team. And pretty quickly thereafter, I threw my idea aside and said let’s just go full-hog into Wheelpad.
Kyle Rand:
Love that. I love that. I think one of the best parts about the ecosystem in, the industry that we’re in… We’re at the AgeTech Collaborative from AARP booth. There’s all these companies, all these founders, all these teammates who I think resonate around this idea of being able to fall asleep each night knowing that the work that they put in was really for the betterment of humanity. Now, that’s amazing and it’s an opportunity. You joined Wheelpad four years ago, so obviously we all know as a startup there’s ups and there’s downs. How do you leverage that knowledge to help get through some of the down cycles that happen as you build a startup?
RJ Adler:
I’ve spent my career up until this point trying to find the trifecta of meaning in my work control over my time and financial stability. And it is very easy to find one of those things. With a good amount of work, you can get two of those things, and I had two of those things for the first 10 years of my career. And then when joining Wheelpad, I finally got to all three.
Kyle Rand:
That’s amazing.
RJ Adler:
Certainly there are ups and downs in any job where you’re going to have to rely on the other things that you enjoy in life, be it family, friends, hobbies.
Kyle Rand:
That’s awesome. So, a lot of the people who are going to be listening to this podcast may be founders, they may be teammates at the earlier stages of tech companies. What advice would you give maybe to the founders that are listening about how to include this concept of a trifecta in their approach to recruiting, building out their team, maybe building out their culture? Is there anything that really stands out that you guys do super well at Wheelpad?
RJ Adler:
I would say Julie, who is our founder, has a very good understanding that we are all human beings and we’re all people and we all bring to the table every day, just understanding that the flexibility that humans need in order to live their lives and be capable employees, understanding that they are human beings and starting with that.
When my daughter was born, it was never a question of you can’t take any time off. I sort of told Julie, “Hey, this is my plan and I’m going to take two weeks off when she’s born and then once Polly’s done with her leave, I’m going to take six weeks off.” And I knew we were at a place where I wasn’t going to be paid for that, but having the flexibility of that time was incredibly important because people want to do more than just work. They want to start families or play music or go skiing or whatever it is.
Kyle Rand:
It sounds like you found a company that fits that trifecta on a mission that fits that trifecta with a founder that fits that trifecta that you were looking for.
RJ Adler:
Yeah. I think it is finding the right company, but let’s also recognize that it’s easier for some people to find that trifecta than others. I had the benefit of having a partner that was earning enough of a salary that I could spend a few years earning less than I otherwise could working at a company that less easily fit that trifecta. Especially in the socially responsible business movement, I think it’s important not to… There are too many founders that think that that mission will feed people and mission doesn’t feed people. It feeds your soul, but it certainly doesn’t put food on your table. And if you’re putting your employees in a place of financial insecurity, that’s going to be a burnout as well.
Kyle Rand:
Yeah. For those who are listening, the social responsibility business movement, can you just share a little bit about what that really is and what that really means and maybe how you know found a company that fits that mold?
RJ Adler:
Yeah. I had a direct line from my former employer to this employer. Quite literally there was an email introduction. So Wheelpad is very involved in Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, as was my former employer and still is my former employer so in common, and that was a movement that was started somewhat as a phoenix from the ashes of Ben & Jerry’s being sold.
There’s a great book about Ben & Jerry’s starting this movement with Patagonia and Stonyfield. It’s called Double Dip. So, again, I was lucky enough to find my way to that industry in the beginning, but there are still hurdles that any business goes through trying to be part of the socially responsible business movement. And my dad said, “Socially responsible business. RJ, that’s an oxymoron.” A business is a socially responsible enterprise. It’s just been bastardized into corporate greed. But people that run businesses do great things for society. They help people fix their cars, they help manage their finances, they help X, Y, Z and it’s just this is the system by which we make it happen. And it was very eye-opening when my dad said that to me. It was 10 years ago at this point. You just have to know that you’re making the world a better place in whatever way, shape and form you’re making the world a better place.
Kyle Rand:
I think it’s so, so true in a lot of people are picking up on it, especially a lot of people here, on the fact that impact and profitability can go hand-in-hand. Finding it is hard. It takes deep work, it takes a lot of conviction, but there’s no doubt that it’s possible. I’m curious, does Wheelpad have investors?
RJ Adler:
We have a few investors and backers. We are not out there looking for VC money because, well, we’re spoiled I guess is really where it comes down to. We’ve had a lot of people that have just given us money. And that’s amazing for any business. So we are also Wheelpad L3C which is a low-profit, limited liability company. And there’s only about eight states I think that recognize an L3C, same as any other business, but it gives us the ability to take grants and program-related investments from foundations and still have those foundations be able to count those dollars as part of the 5% that they have to give away per IRS rules. Once that box is open, it’s really hard to go back and say, wait, we have to find… There’s this more expensive capital? So, yes, like any other company, we’re looking for investment, but we’re trying to find mission-aligned investors that would be able to give us 4% for 10 years on debt so we can build ourselves in inventory and be able to more quickly respond to customers.
Kyle Rand:
Totally. Maybe we can wrap on one final piece of advice for founders who know their mission but are dealing with some of that pressure. Maybe they have teammates who want to grow faster or they have prospective investors who are looming right around the corner. Any advice to navigate that space?
RJ Adler:
It’s such a specific space, it’s going to be different for every company and all people. One of the pieces of advice that was given to us was date your investor for a long time, know who they are, who you’re getting in bed with. Julie and I, I put a small financial investment and a whole lot of sweat equity into Wheelpad, and Julie and I didn’t ink that deal as it were until I had been working for the company for four years, so we knew each other inside and out as partners.
And as we were doing that, the investment advisors that we were talking to said, “You really did this the right way because too many people don’t spend those years getting to know each other before they go into trying to start a business with one another.” Friends, family members start businesses together all the time. Ours was a very specific path from employee to partner, but don’t discount what it means to really get to know a person before you do business with them. And I guess that can be on the level of investor, that can be on the level of employee or that can be on the level of the customer, like I was saying earlier.
Kyle Rand:
Before we really wrap this conversation, I’m curious, you said you were spoiled, so I assume that there’s a lot of exciting things that are happening within the company. What are you excited about?
RJ Adler:
So many things. We are about to put the final touches on our manufacturing facility in Wilmington Vermont, which is going to be really the first of its kind in a number of ways. We’re finally going to have control over our product. We’re going to be able to build our own. Joseph Cincotta, who’s the architect and inventor of Wheelpad has invented a whole new slew of different ways to heat buildings and absorb sounds in manufacturing facilities and have floors that are more comfortable for people to stand on that won’t give them sciatica. So it itself is a work of art and it’s coming together. We have great relationships with new contract manufacturing partners who we’re going to be able to actually build. It’s not going to be that difficult for us to be in the black this year for the first time in seven years.
Kyle Rand:
That’s huge.
RJ Adler:
It’s huge.
Kyle Rand:
That’s amazing.
RJ Adler:
Yeah. And that’s like running the numbers and making sure that we’re paying people type of thing. There’s so many things to be excited about in 2024. A number of states have caught wind of what we’re doing and are interested in helping us grow. Certainly Vermont, our own state has invested a lot into us and now it looks like they’re going to be investing into our actual product to help out other Vermonters that have disabilities and need housing. The state of Maine has also done a lot in that realm. Shout out to Chelsea Hayman, director of housing policy at the Maryland Department of Disabilities for doing just an incredible amount of consulting work with us and believing in us to see us grow.
Kyle Rand:
RJ, I got to say, you said spoiled. What I really hear throughout this conversation is you guys are doing it right. You’re doing it with the right set of passion, the right set of dedication, and with this focus on being a socially responsible corp and that needs to go applauded. So I applaud you, I really appreciate the conversation and I hope you have an amazing rest of CES and a great start to 2024.
RJ Adler:
Yeah, I appreciate it. I will pass your congratulations on to Julie because I think a lot of the reason that we are what we are today is because of decisions that she’s made.
Kyle Rand:
We all know it’s a team effort. Cheers. All right, RJ, thank you so much.
RJ Adler:
Thank you.
Tanya Perkins:
Thanks for listening to AgeTech Talks from AgeTech Collaborative from AARP. You can learn more about today’s guests and all the innovative startups in the AgeTech Collaborative by visiting the startup directory on agetechcollaborative.org.
