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POWERS

POWERS

By: Chris Powers
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Conversations with the best founders, entrepreneurs, and investors.2026 Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Finance Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Developing North Texas' Iconic Master Planned Communities with Lucy Billingsley (#428)

    Developing North Texas' Iconic Master Planned Communities with Lucy Billingsley (#428)
    Aug 26 2026
    This week Chris sits down with Lucy Billingsley, Co-founder and Partner of Billingsley Company, the Dallas development firm she started with her husband Henry in 1978. Lucy is the daughter of Trammell Crow, who built the largest real estate development company in America. She left the family business because she did not want to be a minority vote. She and Henry built their own firm instead, and today they run it with their kids. Billingsley plays a longer game than almost anyone in real estate. They buy land 30 or 40 years before the growth arrives and hold it until the market is ready. Cypress Waters alone is 1,300 acres zoned for 10,000 apartments and over 12 million square feet of office. They discuss:• Why every building they develop goes in the kids' names from day one• The rule that keeps siblings from ever voting on each other's deals• The lake at Cypress Waters they bought for 50 cents a foot• The difference between a park people look at and a park people actually use• Why new office space now rents for more than Dallas has ever seen• Where AI is already saving them real money in construction Timestamps(00:00) Intro(00:52) Building a Family Business and Putting Assets in the Kids' Names(05:55) From the Dallas Market Center Into Development(09:15) Picking Land and Staying Ahead of the Growth Wave(14:33) Designing the Public Arena to Make a Place(18:00) Zoning Is an Art, Not a Guarantee(20:52) What Cities Want and What the State Took Away(22:31) The Future of Office and Why Amenities Win(28:44) How They Decide What to Build and Where to Buy Next(33:15) The Events Business and Public-Private Partnerships(36:52) Buying a Lake for 50 Cents a Foot and Draining It(37:54) Construction Costs and the Frozen Single Family Market(42:07) Reinventing Herself and the Cypress Waters Trail(46:37) Going All In on AI === Presented by True North Advisors:True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com === Sponsored by: AirshareAirshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. They give you a smarter way to fly private, over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO
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    51 mins
  • Reindustrializing America: Building NOX Metals & The Future of Manufacturing with Zane Hengsperger (#430)

    Reindustrializing America: Building NOX Metals & The Future of Manufacturing with Zane Hengsperger (#430)
    Sep 9 2026
    This week Chris sits down with Zane Hengsperger, Founder and CEO of NOX Metals, a metal supplier in Detroit he started in 2025. NOX buys metal from the mill, cuts it to the exact size a machine shop needs, and ships it out. The whole operation runs on software the company writes itself. Zane is 26, and his first job was scrubbing the floors of his dad's machine shop at 14. He went into software, then came back to run a machine shop. That is where he saw that metal was the bottleneck for everyone making parts in America. The incumbents have been around for 200 years and have never put software to work. NOX is a year old and has raised an $11.5M seed round. It has written a million lines of code and quotes an order in 10 seconds. They discuss:• The 18-minute call with Y Combinator that put him on a plane the next day• Why his dad hired software engineers for a machine shop back in 2017• How one piece of software does the work of 20 salespeople• Why two of his engineers moved their desks onto the factory floor• Why the forklift driver gets equity after three months• The 7pm order that was in Dallas by 10 the next morning• Why he says America needs 100x more factories• Where AI has let him down so far This one is for anyone betting on American manufacturing. Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:10) Reading Alex Karp and Walking Back Into a Machine Shop(06:06) Hiring Young Technicians Who Want Hard Work(09:10) Why the Brand Is the Moat(14:28) Lessons From a Dad Who Ran a Machine Shop(16:14) Getting Into Y Combinator With One Day's Notice(22:06) Buy a Saw and Write Instant Quoting Software(27:37) Software Engineers on the Factory Floor(34:29) Is America Actually Reindustrializing?(40:55) America Needs 100 Times More Factories(45:26) Quotes in 10 Seconds Instead of Eight Hours(50:09) Delta Cargo Deliveries and Why Detroit Is Ripping(56:07) Where AI Falls Short and What the Next 24 Months Hold(59:13) The Customer Is the Core Thing Left in America === Presented by True North Advisors: True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com === Sponsored by: AirshareAirshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. They give you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNXVisit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • The Man Who Took Elon to Russia & Why His New Company Phantom is SpaceX's Unfinished Business with Jim Cantrell, CEO of Phantom Space (#427)

    The Man Who Took Elon to Russia & Why His New Company Phantom is SpaceX's Unfinished Business with Jim Cantrell, CEO of Phantom Space (#427)
    Aug 12 2026
    This week Chris sits down with Jim Cantrell, Co-founder & CEO of Phantom Space. He co-founded Phantom Space in 2019, where he is now trying to mass produce rockets. He was employee number four at SpaceX and its first VP of Business Development. Jim is one of a handful of people who was actually in the room at the start. They discuss:• How getting arrested for espionage in Russia is the reason Elon Musk ever called him• What a fishing trip in Florida taught him about raising money• Why he believes SpaceX only exists because the Russians said no• What Carl Sagan asked him in a traffic jam• Why the rocket companies that worked spent a few hundred million and the ones that failed spent billions• What he means when he says he is building the Henry Ford of space• Why he thinks the only sovereign place left for a data center is orbit Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:00) Getting Into Space by Accident(07:06) The Real Soviets and Getting Arrested for Espionage(13:54) The Cold Call From Elon Musk(20:27) The Moscow Trips That Created SpaceX(31:55) From SpaceX Employee Number Four to the Skybox Exit(39:12) Searching for Serendipity in Hotel Boardrooms(43:06) Faith and the Unfinished Business Behind Phantom(53:29) The Case for Mars and SpaceX as a Nation State(57:04) Why America Has to Win Space(1:05:42) Becoming the Henry Ford of Space(1:10:49) Why Data Belongs in Space(1:20:27) Why Phantom Builds Its Own Rockets(1:28:54) Seeing the Future and Staying Under the Radar(1:35:52) The Executives Who Wanted to Destroy Elon(1:40:50) The Launch Shortage and Data Centers in Space(1:49:04) Keeping Space Free of a New East India Company === Presented by Airshare:Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: True North AdvisorsTrue North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral PartnersCollateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human CloudRelay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media:X: https://x.com/fortworthchrisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcastLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO
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    1 hr and 52 mins
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Chris is great at asking his guests questions that the listener is thinking to ask.

His approach allows himself and guests to share their story and experience in business where the story tellers and listeners benefit.

Great podcast - especially for DFW residents

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