land-development
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Dmitry Korolev Learned to Read the Ground by Flying Above It
A competitive paraglider turned drones from a costly coffee stunt into the eyes of a construction platform, where the real work begins after landing: helping every builder see the same site at the same time.
The Land Nobody Wanted in 1991 Is Now a 1.8-Gigawatt Bet
Leon Backes started Provident by buying land nobody wanted from failed savings-and-loans. Thirty-plus years and $7.5 billion later, the same patient-money playbook is building a 5,000-acre town and one of Texas's largest data center campuses.
LGI Homes
LGI Homes turned the intimidating business of buying a first house into a repeatable system. Its wager is that fewer choices, finished homes and a guided sales process can put ownership within reach - while keeping a national builder disciplined on cost.
M/I Homes, Inc.
M/I Homes sells the house, helps personalize it, finances the buyer and stays on the hook after closing. Fifty years in, that unusually complete chain is being tested by the most stubborn problem in American housing: affordability.
PulteGroup
PulteGroup turned one teenager-built bungalow into a national portfolio of home brands. Its real product is not a floor plan, but a system for matching land, lifestyle and financing to buyers at nearly every stage of adult life.
TraceAir Technologies
TraceAir Technologies is a Seattle-based construction-technology company that turns drone and LiDAR data into a site-intelligence platform for land developers and homebuilders. Founded in 2015, its software captures ground surveys, runs cut-and-fill and earthwork analysis, generates stormwater and grading reports, and gives executives portfolio-wide visibility from land acquisition through vertical construction. The platform is used by many of the largest U.S. homebuilders, including D.R. Horton, Lennar, Howard Hughes and Meritage Homes, and raised a $25M Series B in 2024.
Ivan Lvov
Ivan Lvov is the CEO of TraceAir Technologies, a Seattle-founded construction site intelligence platform that uses drone data and AI to help homebuilders and land developers measure, verify, and manage grading and earthwork from land acquisition through finished lots. He joined TraceAir in 2016 as Chief Strategy Officer and stepped into the CEO role in September 2025, succeeding co-founder Maria Khokhlova. Before TraceAir he spent years scaling a digital mapping and navigation franchise (2GIS) to 16 offices and 450 employees, and he holds an MSx degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business.