How Boxabl Faked Its Way To $3 Billion

[Music] It's no secret that there's a housing shortage in the US. According to Zillow the US has a deficit of 4.7 million

homes. This has resulted in 8.1 million

homes. This has resulted in 8.1 million American families sharing homes with unrelated families as neither of them can afford a home on their own.

According to Pew Research, almost 1/3 of American households spend more than 30% of their income on housing. One

potential solution is pre-fabricated tiny homes. Boxible is a Las Vegas-based

tiny homes. Boxible is a Las Vegas-based startup founded in 2017. They plan to build tiny homes in a factory that cost only $60,000.

Starting around 2022, Boxible received an unprecedented amount of attention on social media for a startup of its size.

The company has almost 1 million followers on Instagram. If you look up Boxible on YouTube, you can see many bigname YouTubers who've made videos about the company. ENZ Plus made a video

about Boxable that got 15 million views.

One of Boxable's own videos got 7 million views. Graham Stefen got 3

million views. Graham Stefen got 3 million views on his Boxable videos. The

title is touring Elon Musk's $50,000 home. Elon Musk actually has nothing to

home. Elon Musk actually has nothing to do with Boxable, yet unwittingly became one of the key drivers of Boxable social media hype. Boxible has parlayed the

media hype. Boxible has parlayed the success into one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in history. To

date, they've raised approximately $140 million from retail investors through crowdfunding at a valuation of more than $3 billion. On August 5th, 2025, Boxible

$3 billion. On August 5th, 2025, Boxible announced they'll be going public by merging with a spa. Despite the

company's success in fundraising, its operational performance has been underwhelming. To date, they've built

underwhelming. To date, they've built 718 tiny homes, of which only 279 have been delivered to customers, and there have been reports of serious quality issues. In this video, we'll look at how

issues. In this video, we'll look at how Boxible parlayed viral social media hype into a $3 billion valuation and why this might not end well for investors.

Boxible was founded in 2017 by the father-son duo Paulo and Joliano Tirammani. Before founding Boxible

Tirammani. Before founding Boxible Paulo led an intellectual property licensing company. Jolaniano started a

licensing company. Jolaniano started a Bitcoin ATM business and was involved in the legal cannabis industry. Boxible's

idea was to create tiny homes in a factory using the same assembly line and mass production concepts used in automobile manufacturing. This will

automobile manufacturing. This will increase labor efficiency and thus reduce costs. The homes are small enough

reduce costs. The homes are small enough that they can be folded up and transported by semi-truckss. Boxible

argues that this will be much cheaper than traditional construction methods where homes are made by hand on site.

They call their tiny homes cassitas. The

smallest version is 361 square ft, so about the size of a very small studio apartment. At first, they said it would

apartment. At first, they said it would cost $50,000. The price has subsequently

cost $50,000. The price has subsequently been raised to $60,000. In 2021, Boxible raised approximately $30 million by selling convertible bonds. They use this money to build a factory in the Las

Vegas area. Boxible claims that this

Vegas area. Boxible claims that this factory has the capacity to build one cassita every 90 minutes or 3,600 per year. Boxible's first major customer was

year. Boxible's first major customer was the US Department of Defense. The DoD

was planning to host trials for inmates held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. If such a trial were to take

center. If such a trial were to take place, they would need to fly in lawyers and jurors to the island. The detention

center lacked accommodation for this, so they decided to purchase 156 cassitas from Boxible, which were delivered in 2022. Once delivered, each cassita was

2022. Once delivered, each cassita was only supposed to take 1 hour to assemble. The assembly ended up taking

assemble. The assembly ended up taking months. The cassitas were not properly

months. The cassitas were not properly waterproof and started leaking during heavy rains. They had to hammer plastic

heavy rains. They had to hammer plastic sheeting on top of the roofs to prevent leakage. This is all according to the

leakage. This is all according to the New York Times.

In 2021, SpaceX was rapidly expanding its facilities in Bokh Chica, Texas where they manufactured their Starship rocket ships. As their headcount in Bokh

rocket ships. As their headcount in Bokh Chica swelled, there became a shortage of residential real estate in the local area. In June of 2021, Musk tweeted that

area. In June of 2021, Musk tweeted that he was living in a $50,000 tiny home in Bokh Chica. According to the publication

Bokh Chica. According to the publication NDTV, Boxible published a blog post on their website claiming that Musk's tiny house was a Boxable Cassita. This

created a huge amount of buzz on social media. Boxable subsequently deleted this

media. Boxable subsequently deleted this blog post. So why did they delete it?

blog post. So why did they delete it?

Just a few months later, Musk tweeted that the $50,000 house he mentioned was not a Boxable. So there was a lot of confusion as to whether or not Musk even owned a Boxable. On August 4th, 2022

Elon Musk appeared on the Full Send podcast. The host asked him about the

podcast. The host asked him about the rumors that he lived in a Boxible. Musk

explained that he bought a very small house in Bokh Chica for $45,000.

This was a regular house, not a prefab and not a Boxable. This is where he normally stays when visiting the Starship facility. He said he does own a

Starship facility. He said he does own a Boxable prototype, but he does not live in it. On August 5th, just one day after

in it. On August 5th, just one day after Musk's appearance on the Full Send podcast, Boxible published a YouTube video titled Delivering Elon Musk's Boxable Cassita. It indeed shows them

Boxable Cassita. It indeed shows them delivering and assembling a cassita at the premises of a SpaceX facility. But

there are a few things to take note of.

There does not appear to be any plumbing or sewage. It appears to be connected to

or sewage. It appears to be connected to a diesel generator for electricity, so it can't be supplied with electricity but at great cost. Due to the lack of plumbing, nobody can live in this house.

Its purpose is unclear. It looks more like a publicity stunt than anything else. This is presumably the cassita

else. This is presumably the cassita Musk was referring to in the Full Send podcast.

This whole thing is a bit confusing, so let's look at the timeline of events. In

June of 2021, Musk claims he is living in a $50,000 house in Bokh Chica. In

October of 2021, Boxible published a blog post saying Elon Musk's tiny house is a Boxable Gazita. This blog post was subsequently deleted. In November of

subsequently deleted. In November of 2021, Elon Musk said his $50,000 house in Bokh Chica is not a Boxable. At some

point prior to August 2022, Boxible delivers a cassita to SpaceX's facility in Bokh Chica. In August of 2022, Musk confirmed on the Full Send podcast that he owns a Boxable prototype, but does

not live in it. We don't have full information, but based on the timeline of events, we can make some inferences.

In October 2021, Boxable's blog post was highly misleading, if not an outright lie. Musk exposed this lie in November

lie. Musk exposed this lie in November of 2021. Seeing this PR disaster, it

of 2021. Seeing this PR disaster, it likely became a top priority for Boxable to deliver a cassita to SpaceX. They

subsequently convinced SpaceX to accept delivery of a cassita, but this appears to have been little more than a publicity stunt.

This whole Elon Musk narrative is basically a farce, but many social media influencers have run with it because it makes for good clickbait. For example

the popular personal finance YouTuber Graham Stefen visited Boxable's factory in early 2023. The video was titled Touring Elon Musk's $50,000 tiny home and included a photoshopped picture of

Stefan standing next to Musk. If you

look at Boxable's YouTube channel, you'd be forgiven if you thought they were a social media operation as opposed to a construction company. For example, they

construction company. For example, they published a publicity stunt where they had a Tesla and a Lamborghini towing their cassitas. They also have a video

their cassitas. They also have a video titled Tesla Secret revealed by Boxible CEO. It's a one-minute video where Paulo

CEO. It's a one-minute video where Paulo talks about Tesla's Optimus robot.

Generating social media buzz was very important for Boxible. To date, they've relied primarily on equity crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding allows nonacredited retail investors to invest in private companies. In 2021, they raised $30

companies. In 2021, they raised $30 million by selling convertible bonds to institutional investors. They also

institutional investors. They also started equity crowdfunding, but only raised about $5 million from this source in 2021. In 2022, they raised an

in 2021. In 2022, they raised an eyepopping $95 million from crowdfunding. This was at the height of

crowdfunding. This was at the height of the Elon Musk hype. In 2023 and 2024 they raised about $15 million. Boxable's

equity structure is a bit complicated.

The shares that they sell in the crowdfunding are non- voting preferred stock. These are economically identical

stock. These are economically identical to common stock except they don't have voting rights. The founders Paulo and

voting rights. The founders Paulo and Joliano Tirammani collectively own 99.8% of the common stock. No matter how many preferred shares they sell to retail investors, they maintain complete voting

control over the company. Boxible use

the crowdfunding proceeds to build out its factory as well as to pay for their corporate overhead. With crowdfunding

corporate overhead. With crowdfunding there is no liquid secondary market, so the share price is determined by the company itself. This makes the valuation

company itself. This makes the valuation somewhat arbitrary. In their 2024

somewhat arbitrary. In their 2024 crowdfunding campaign, they sold shares for 80ent each. This gave Boxable a valuation of more than $3 billion. This

is a pretty steep valuation considering that their property, plant, and equipment was only valued at $9 million and they only generated $3.4 million of revenue that year. Crowdfunding is not only a way for Boxible to raise money

but also a way for the founders to cash out. In February of 2024, Jolano and

out. In February of 2024, Jolano and Paulo Tirammani each sold 6.25 25 million of their own shares, netting approximately $5 million for each of them. There's nothing inherently wrong

them. There's nothing inherently wrong for a founder to sell some of their shares in a startup, but this is generally viewed as a red flag as it may indicate that the founders believe the shares to be overvalued. And it's not

like the Tirammanis needed the money.

They pay themselves cash salaries of approximately $900,000 per year. The

CFO, a man named Martin Costas, was paid more than $10.5 million in 2024. Only

about $500,000 of this was cash with $10 million being paid in stock. An 8

figureure salary is a bit excessive for a company with $3 million of revenue and 167 employees. The CFO was paid more

167 employees. The CFO was paid more than three times the company's revenue for that year.

Boxible has incurred operating losses since inception and revenue to date has been minuscule. In 2022, they generated

been minuscule. In 2022, they generated 11 million of revenue. This was mostly from their Guantanamo Bay contract.

Their revenue declined to almost nothing in 2023. This is because they lacked

in 2023. This is because they lacked permits to sell the cassitas to residential customers. The Boxable

residential customers. The Boxable Cassita finally received modular housing approval in Arizona during December of 2023, followed by New Mexico and California in 2024. In 2024, they sold

51 cassitas, generating $3.4 million of revenue. Boxible claims to have many

revenue. Boxible claims to have many thousands of customer reservations, but they faced many delays in fulfilling these orders. Most states require

these orders. Most states require various dealer and installer licenses which Boxible lacks, so they have to contract with third party installers.

It's taken them a long time to build up a network of licensed installers, thus causing delays in customer deliveries.

Boxible first advertised that its cassitas would cost $50,000. They

subsequently raised the price to $60,000, citing inflation. But if you want to live in a cassita, the total cost will be much higher than this.

First of all, the cassita doesn't come with land, so you will need to buy or rent whatever land it will be placed on.

Boxible also charges a transportation cost of between $3 and $10 per mile. You

then have to pay to get utilities hooked up. According to tiny houseousplans.com

up. According to tiny houseousplans.com the cost of transportation, site prep and utilities is between $20,000 and $60,000.

Assuming you also need to pay $10,000 or so for the land, a typical casita buyer can likely expect to pay well over $100,000 in total. $100,000 for 361

square feet isn't that cheap.

Boxible claims that it factory system is far cheaper than traditional construction methods, but this is debatable. According to the National

debatable. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average sales price of a newly built single family home in the United States was $665,000

of which $428,000 was construction costs. The average size is $2,647

costs. The average size is $2,647 square ft. So, the construction cost is

square ft. So, the construction cost is $162 per square foot. In 2024, Boxible sold 51 cassitas at an average price of $66,200 each. Their cost of goods sold was

each. Their cost of goods sold was $294,000, so they incurred a gross loss of $227,000 per cassita. The atrocious

gross margins can mostly be blamed on poor capacity utilization. They only

sold 51 cassitas when their facto's maximum capacity is supposed to be 3,600. The fixed costs of the factory

3,600. The fixed costs of the factory are spread out across a very small number of units. Boxible disagregates

its cost of goods sold into direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. Direct material

manufacturing overhead. Direct material and labor costs will scale linearly as production increases. These are variable

production increases. These are variable costs. In 2024, direct materials and

costs. In 2024, direct materials and labor costs were $66,300 per gazita. That's slightly greater than

per gazita. That's slightly greater than the average sale price of $66,200.

Because the variable costs are higher than the sale price, they will never achieve gross profitability, even if they do ramp up production. Each cassita

is only 361 square ft. So, Boxable's

variable manufacturing cost is $184 per square foot. Earlier, we calculated that

square foot. Earlier, we calculated that the average construction cost for single family homes in the United States is $162 per square foot. Boxable's factory

is actually more expensive than traditional construction methods.

The story of Boxible shows how a startup with a business model that's probably not viable was nonetheless able to leverage social media hype to raise over $100 million from retail investors.

All right,, guys,, that, wraps, it, up, for this video. What do you think about

this video. What do you think about Boxible? Let us know in the comments

Boxible? Let us know in the comments section below. As always, thank you so

section below. As always, thank you so much for watching and we'll see you in the next one. Wall Street Millennial signing