Now You Can Live in a Remodeled Shipping Container

Boxouse is selling solar-powered mobile homes equipped with Alexa and is readying a smart toilet.

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By Max Chafkin

March 16, 2017 at 4:33 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the March 20, 2017 issue of businessweek.

Startup Boxouse sells “portable, affordable, beautiful smart homes” made from shipping containers (the “deluxe” edition costs $49,000 and includes shipping). Chief Executive Officer Luke Iseman, a Wharton graduate who previously ran Y Combinator’s hardware program, concedes that “container houses aren’t perfect” but says they can help ease housing shortages. He shares one with co-founder Heather Stewart that’s set up in an Oakland warehouse. They’re partly financing the business by renting out two others on Airbnb.

Shipping container
Iseman buys them used for about $2,000 each and retrofits them with the help of a half-dozen part-time workers.