Uplift: Making Temporary Housing Deployable Anywhere
from Inevitable Hosted by Cody Simms, Charlie Nitschelm
Charlie Nitschelm is the co-founder and CEO of Uplift, a company building affordable, rapidly deployable temporary housing. Uplift’s first product is a 90-square-foot, off-grid home designed for one to two people that can be transported fully assembled, placed with a standard forklift, and self-level without a foundation or skilled labor for deployment. In this episode of Inevitable, Nitschelm explains how his experience at SpaceX and Starlink, followed by an intensive period of studying homelessness, poverty, and other social challenges, led him to think about housing as a problem that could benefit from a fundamentally different architecture. The conversation explores how Uplift is designed to work immediately after deployment, including its approach to power, water, sanitation, connectivity, and remote monitoring. Nitschelm also discusses the company's manufacturing ambitions and its potential applications in workforce housing, disaster response, global shipping, ADUs, and affordable housing developments. Episode recorded on September 15, 2026 (Published on September 29, 2026) In this episode, we cover: (0:00) An overview of Uplift (1:38) Charlie’s path from SpaceX and Starlink to Uplift (3:57) Learning about homelessness, poverty, and other social challenges (8:22) Why housing needs a fundamentally different architecture (12:00) Why eliminating skilled labor is central to Uplift’s design (16:49) Forklift deployment and off-grid utilities (23:33) Starlink, solar power, and building a connected fleet (25:03) Applying car manufacturing principles to housing (28:07) Workforce housing and infrastructure projects (32:16) Why disaster housing can take months to deploy (34:12) Global shipping, ADUs, and affordable housing applications (37:04) “Speed to sleeping” and the economics of temporary housing (39:58) Uplift’s manufacturing ramp and the path to HUD approval Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected]. Connect with Override: Cody Simms on LinkedIn Visit ovr.vc Subscribe to the Override Newsletter *Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Charlie Nitschelm is the co-founder and CEO of Uplift, a company building affordable, rapidly deployable temporary housing. Uplift’s first product is a 90-square-foot, off-grid home designed for one to two people that can be transported fully assembled, placed with a standard forklift, and self-level without a foundation or skilled labor for deployment. In this episode of Inevitable, Nitschelm explains how his experience at SpaceX and Starlink, followed by an intensive period of studying homelessness, poverty, and other social challenges, led him to think about housing as a problem that could benefit from a fundamentally different architecture. The conversation explores how Uplift is designed to work immediately after deployment, including its approach to power, water, sanitation, connectivity, and remote monitoring. Nitschelm also discusses the company's manufacturing ambitions and its potential applications in workforce housing, disaster response, global shipping, ADUs, and affordable housing developments.
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