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Austin business Bob's Containers flips unassuming shipping containers into fully-functional homes. (Claire Partain/Austonia)

Once set out for long voyages at sea, Del Valle business Bob's Containers is looking to cater to the intersection of Austin homebuyers' interests—from affordability to sustainability—by transforming unassuming shipping containers into fully customizable homes.

As housing costs and the tiny home movement continue to rise in the Texas capital, the company has quickly grown in popularity in its three years of business—so much so that a deluxe version of their popular "Joshua" home model is set to be featured in the upcoming Austin season of life improvement Netflix show "Queer Eye," premiering Dec. 31.

A massive deck adds space to the Queer Eye unit built by Bob's Containers. (Bob's Containers)

While Bob's Containers originally sold shipping containers as-is, the company quickly saw demand in decking out the 20- or 40- foot units with insulation and basic housing amenities Bob's spokesperson Weston Field told Austonia. Customers looking for bare-bones hunting cabins or backyard Airbnbs began asking for custom add-ons to their 160-420 square feet, and soon the company transitioned into a fully-fledged contracting business that can flip a container into a fully-customizable home.

"We just got more and more requests like, 'Hey, can you put a door in?' Can you insulate it?' and then it just kind of snowballed from there," Field said.

Homebuyers who balked at Austin's soaring home prices may find solace at Bob's—the company's simplest units go for under $30,000, while more expensive units like the "Queer Eye"-backed model or multi-container homes run for as much as $89,000.

An even bigger draw for the company is those who want to add accessory dwelling units to their backyards to make extra change with Airbnb or even increase the value of their home.

The company customizes its homes for each customer's needs. (Claire Partain/Austonia)

Much like Austin company ICON, which quickly assembles 3D-printed homes, Bob's Containers can assemble a home quickly. Field said units can be completed in two to five weeks.

And because they're built on containers made for transport, the homes can be sent anywhere worldwide—Field said that one unit is setting sail for South America, while other containers have been shipped to California, Oregon, Idaho and Canada.

For urban nomads that don't want to stay in one place, Field said the portability of container homes has become a popular solution.

"They're movable (so) you can make some passive income through that," Field said. "And say a big subdivision gets built next door, and maybe the appeal for that piece of land isn't there anymore, or you have to sell... You always have the option to get one of those trailers come out and just pick it up and take it to your new place."

Bob's is far from the first to find a lucrative movement in the unlikely world of shipping containers, but they're gaining traction fast: the young company was given the Small Business Excellence award in 2021 by the Greater Austin Chamber, and while around 70% of their customers are looking for homes, some—including Elon Musk's The Boring Company—have gotten more creative with their requests. Musk's startup recently ordered offices from the Austin company.

Meanwhile, one innovative barber has transformed a unit into a mobile barbershop, and for those looking for a one-night getaway, The Container Retreat on the Hill Country's Canyon Lake has ordered over a dozen units for vacation homes.

There can still be some drawbacks to the container home plan, including potential zoning issues, high shipping costs and the industrial look of living in a steel container. But Bob's has found some workarounds by transforming the containers with paint, wooden add-ons and rooftop decks; and even attaching wheels so that it legally registers as a "recreational vehicle."

And with sustainability a hot topic, Bob's customers can be at peace in knowing that many of their homes were made from repurposed containers that sit idly after just one use.

Tesla has said people may not transfer, sell or buy tickets. And you have to leave the kids and fancy cameras at home, as the event is for adults only and Tesla won't allow drones or professional recording equipment inside. While some are willing to pay $500 to be someone's plus one, here are a few we know who have been invited or have traveled to Austin in the hopes of going:

Austonia talked to Theresa Ramsdell as she was preparing for her flight from Washington state, where she's the president of the Tesla Owners Club, to Austin for the grand opening. Ramsdell, who owns two Model 3's and a Model S Plaid, said her notice that she'd been invited came in about two weeks ago.

Ramsdell picked her husband as her plus one and is hoping to tour the factory. A while back, she had planned a club drive to the Fremont, California factory but couldn't go due to COVID-19 precautions. But now, she'll get an up-close look.

"I'm excited to see all the new tech that's going into the cars," Ramsdell said, noting the structural battery pack that Texas-made Model Y's are known for.

Other club presidents in the U.S. and Canada were also given an invitation, including the Austin chapter.

Adler has been invited, but it hasn't been confirmed whether he will be able to make it to the festivities. On Sunday, Adler tweeted he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Just days before, this Twitter user sent out a request to CEO Elon Musk asking for two invites. He says he got one arrived in Austin this week for the event. A flood of others have done the same, hoping Musk will help them in.

With nearly 17,000 YouTube subscribers, Tesla Joy is a Model 3 owner in Los Angeles, California who has also made the trip to Austin and swung by to see the factory from afar Wednesday.

Brett Hurt is the cofounder of data.world, an Austin company that nabbed $50 million in funding this week. (data.world)

Before Dell’s founding and Central Texas growing into the massive tech hub it is today, born and raised Austinite Brett Hurt started programming at just seven years old.

Now, the entrepreneur who has taken on a handful of ventures, including Bazaarvoice and Coremetrics, opens up to Austonia about what he calls his most ambitious and exciting one yet: data.world. This week, the company announced $50 million in funding led by Goldman Sachs. Additionally, in the next 12 months, Hurt aims to double the size of the team.

Data.world uses a cloud-native data catalog to map out distributed data and get answers on questions a business may have, and it was founded in 2016 by Hurt and three others whom he calls some of the best technology executives in Austin.

“We came together and we ultimately were brainstorming about the future of data and why data is so siloed in the world given that we’re supposed to all be networked,” Hurt said.

They went through theories and talked to people about how it came to be this way, and decided to do something to fix it. “It really prevents humanity from solving some of the bigger problems,” Hurt said.

Hurt lists off a few areas he hopes to remedy the disconnect whether it’s data on housing, dislocation or education.

For organizations operating in the public sphere and giving away their data to “increase the overall positive aspects of humanity,” Hurt says they’ve created a platform people can use for free. Whereas those using it private internal company data pay for the service.

In Austin, data.world’s customers include insurance agency The Zebra and driving school Aceable.

Though tech companies face a tough hiring environment with talent that has many options, Hurt thinks people are attracted to data.world because of its status as a B corporation, or one that prioritizes social and public good and operating sustainably. These companies consider a triple bottom line: people, planet and profit.

Think Ben & Jerry’s, which donates some of its revenue to charity or Patagonia trying to make improvements to the environmental impact of its fabric. So while Hurt sees the popularity of B Corps in consumer products, he hasn’t seen it adopted as much in the enterprise space.

But he’s hoping to change the tide. In a TechCrunch article, he advocated for Facebook to become a B Corp and noted other Austin companies are launching as or switching to B Corps like ZenBusiness, Osano and Capital Factory.

“Being able to pioneer a new way of being as a company, especially as a tech company, I think is really important,” Hurt said.

With data, he sees an opportunity to seek out facts and act on it.

“The basis of human progress has always been collaboration. A lot of people think, negatively, that human progress has been based on competition. But the reality is that we're very collaborative issues, and we're meant to help each other, we're meant to partner,” Hurt said. “That's the way that we survived the harshest times before we had shelter and everything else. And data really is at the center of that.”