This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Chris Tatge, founder and president of DC Materials.
Tatge discusses the Stoughton-based company’s recent rapid growth, which landed it on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies.
“We’ve grown 1,126% in three years,” he said. “There’s a lot of exciting things that happen when you’re sort of rapidly growing business, and a lot of new opportunities.”
The building material supply business provides framing materials, wall panels and more for large multi-family residential construction projects in southern Wisconsin.
“Normally if you want to build a building, you buy lumber from a lumber yard, you pay somebody else — a contractor — to bring the labor to put all that lumber together, right?” he said. “We sort of combine the two, so we’re a labor and materials contractor.”
Tatge discusses his path to business ownership, building on two decades of working in carpentry. And he shares insights on the building industry, noting the clash between new technologies and innovation and the “old-school” nature of construction.
“There’s been a lot of capital, which means a lot of opportunities — a lot of opportunities to fail, a lot of opportunities to succeed,” he said. “But in general, I think it’s starting to push construction, and leaders in construction, into much more of a forward-thinking position.”
The podcast also touches on the future of DC Materials, including ongoing plans to increase capacity, as well as changes Tatge hopes to see in the industry.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
