Community Highlights: Meet Kate Balsis of Concrete Collaborative

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Balsis.

Hi Kate, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m the founder and creative director of Concrete Collaborative. I took my design school and architecture experience and collaborated with my sister, husband and her husband to create our company. We all have varying backgrounds from design and fine arts to finance and business to architecture and construction management to mechanics and communications. We roped in my Dad who is a civil engineer who helped us with the mix of design and manufacturing. We are proudly a family business and never had any investors, just made it work project to project, client to client to grow. We have been at the forefront of concrete and terrazzo design and our business really scaled by demand as more and more people wanted our terrazzo tiles or counters we subsequently scaled our production and operations to support that interest. It’s been a long time in the making, over 15 years, but it’s exciting to see our products and brand really take on a life of their own.

I love that my partners pick up where I leave off in terms of managing the business and we all add value in different ways. I really feel I’m able to be creative every day and that is what drives me. Not only creative in developing new collaborations with cool designers or artists or coming up with new trends but also creatively problem-solving, which is really the bulk of running a business. We have grown to a showroom in Soho in New York as well as a new flagship space in San Francisco as well as 3 factories in San Diego, a new factory on the east coast in Georgia and a factory in Vietnam. We are pretty proud of the amazing projects our products have been featured in, you probably have seen Concrete Collaborative distinct terrazzo at a cafe in LA or the OC or in a magazine or on an AD house tour. It’s not lost on me how far we have come.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth sailing haha I don’t think it ever is! Commercial construction is not an easy industry, it is known for being rough and tumble. Especially when you are creating something new, pushing the envelope and disrupting the industry. We now have grown and have much more of a market share, a recognizable brand and that really translates to less pushback from contractors in negotiating the commercial contracts. I think being Australian and female also can be tough in the predominately male-dominated construction industry and I think that has helped me develop a thick skin in navigating challenges as they have appeared. You never really know what is coming next but we are really happy evolving as we go. Problem-solving the struggles, big and small, along the way is how we get better as a company, which we continually strive to do.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Concrete Collaborative is a manufacturer of modern concrete and terrazzo architectural finishes. We create distinct tiles and countertops and outdoor pavers and cement tile and lots of terrazzo! We are very creative in our use of color and referencing mid-century style in the current way. We work on both residential and commercial projects and have a broad appeal to a younger design market.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
Travel. Still the fuel the drives me. I grew up in Australia and went to the beach a lot and went camping with my family a lot. We traveled all over Australia. One of my favorite trips was to the Whitsundays in northern Queensland. I loved sleeping on a boat under the stars and snorkeling and exploring. Travel in Australia and the landscape really formed a foundation of inspiration for my art and design work.

Pricing:

• Tiles $15-25/sqft
• Counters $1500-2000/slab
• Pavers $20-25/sqft
• Terrazzo Tabletops $500-1000/top
• Cement Tiles $15-20/sqft

Contact Info:

• Website: concrete-collaborative.com
• Instagram: @concretecollaborative