Meet Austin Simonton | Co-Founder and VP

We had the good fortune of connecting with Austin Simonton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Austin, what do you attribute your success to?
In the book “Good to Great” Jim Collins shares the idea of First Who, Then What. Jim Collins believes getting the right people “on the bus” is more important than where “the Bus” goes. At Nexstar Homes my partners and I have fully subscribed to this idea. We believe that the greatest asset we have is the people who work in the company. We have worked hard to create an amazing team that strives for
excellence. We did this by following the Elephant theory. When I was young, I loved the circus. I convinced my parents to buy me a DVD of how they train and practice for the stunts. One of the segments was on elephant and elephant trainers. One of the trainers explained how the easiest way to teach an elephant to stand on its front two legs is to start by looking for elephants that naturally like to stand on their front two legs, then reinforce that behavior. The trainer said it’s almost impossible to teach an elephant that naturally likes to stand on its back two legs to stand on its front two legs. I have always remembered this and believed it is the same with people and employees. We look for people
who have attributes that we need at Nexstar then we reinforce those good attributes. For Example, when we created the original Nexstar Construction Team from employees and trades that had spent the majority of their work experience in the Custom Home field. The experiences they gained in that field helped develop a desire and need for having quality in the homes they build. This is great for our Nexstar Homes because they still hold themselves and the quality of houses to the same standard that they were holding to on 5-million-dollar builds. By focusing on the quality of employees our homes archive a much higher quality than normal new home builds.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am most proud of the company we have created in such a short amount of time. We started this company in 2019 with one employee, construction on our first house started in December 2019. We have since grown to be a profitable company with 20 employees. We currently have 62 homes under construction in various areas around the valley. What was once just an idea in our heads has grown to be bigger than we could have imagined. We began with a goal to build 20 houses a year and ended up crushing those numbers in our first year. I am very proud of how we dealt with all the struggles that come with rapid growth.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have had many patient and wise mentors. My partners: Jake, Josh, and Dallin have been a source of support and a great resource for learning construction as well as how to manage and run a company. We are a family business and it all started with my grandfather, Scott Simonton, who had a great influence in teaching his sons Jake and Josh who then passed their knowledge down to Dallin and me. Scott also took the time to take me to business meetings with him to learn by watching him as I was getting started in the business world. My father-in-law Jonathan Lines has also been a mentor in the real estate and business world. More than all these people my wife is my greatest support and mentor. She is the most patient, kind, and competent mother and partner.

Website: NexstarHomes.com

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