Tim Costello
CEO, Polymagnet
- Principal Technologist, Built For the Future
- Founded and led Builder Homesite for 22 years
- GM Advanced Vehicle Engineering · Applied Materials
Your Briefing · Tim Costello
Who are you?
Choose one. The briefing reshapes itself around what matters to you. Switch anytime.
or press 1–4
The thesis
Let me roll up your industry.
Tim Costello walks into fragmented, stuck industries and builds the platform that consolidates them. Magnetics is next, and the timing is unusually good.
Fragmented market
One platform
The method
Three moves. Same playbook every time.
-
01
Spot the fragmented market
Many small players, aging owners, no standard-setter.
-
02
Find the picks-and-shovels layer
The layer everyone needs and nobody owns.
-
03
Build the platform. Let it compound.
Build or roll up onto one platform. Each addition makes the whole stronger.
Track record
Four industries. One pattern.
Auto
General MotorsTechnology Planning Manager, Advanced Vehicle Engineering
Helped launch the GM EV1, the first modern electric car.
EV1
Semiconductors
Applied MaterialsVP of Global Operations
Transformed how the industry manufactures, from craft to lean flow production.
Lean flow
Homebuilding
Builder HomesiteFounder · led it 22 years
Put rival national homebuilders on one shared technology platform. 1,300+ builders served.
The proof
Magnetics
PolymagnetCEO
Programmable magnets for the non-China supply chain the West needs.
Now
Proof · Builder Homesite
He has already rolled up an industry’s technology.
In 2000, Tim founded Builder Homesite as a consortium of rival national homebuilders and got fierce competitors onto one shared technology platform.
22 yrsLed the platform
1,300+Builders served
60%+Share of U.S. homes built by its builders
2024Sold to Zonda
LennarPulteGroupKB HomeBeazerand more
Builder HomesiteOne shared technology platformFounded 2000
Why now
Policy just opened the window.
- Apr 4, 2025
Export controls
China restricts rare earths and rare-earth magnets under MOFCOM Announcement 18.
- Oct 9, 2025
Expanded
For the first time, controls reach magnet-making equipment and technology.
- Now
The opening
The West needs a non-China magnetics supply chain.
Source: China MOFCOM Announcement 18 (April 4, 2025) and the October 9, 2025 expansion.
Polymagnet
A magnet you can program.
A MagPrinter prints arrays of tiny polarized maxels (magnetic pixels) into one magnet, so it can latch, align, spring or hold on command.
120+Patents
ShippingCommercially, including through Industrial Magnetics, Inc.
CMRCorrelated Magnetics Research, Huntsville, Alabama
Illustration · magnet faceLatch
N
NorthSouth
What it does
Latch. Align. Spring. Hold.
One programmable magnet can do each on command. A conventional magnet cannot.
Illustrative maxel patternLatch
NorthSouthSame magnet family, different program
Market signal
Consolidation has started. The window is open, and closing.
In June 2026, Arcline’s DwyerOmega platform acquired Lake Shore Cryotronics. The roll-up playbook is already live in precision measurement.
CompletedJune 2026
- Platform
- DwyerOmega · Arcline
- Acquired
- Lake Shore Cryotronics
- Space
- Precision measurement
Public serial acquirers in instruments
- AMETEK
- Roper
- Danaher
- Halma
- Spectris
The model investors already reward.
The arbitrage
Buy fragmented. Integrate. Get valued as a platform.
Earnings multiplesIllustrative ranges, not a promise
The gap
4–7x
12–20x
0x4x8x12x16x20x
Small private industrial firms~4–7x
Scaled instrument platforms~12–20x
Same earnings, two valuations
$2M of EBITDA
Valued at 5x$10M
Valued at 14x on a platform$28M
Arithmetic example only. Integration onto a platform is how the gap gets captured.
Roll-up calculator
Model the roll-up yourself.
Move the inputs. The gap between entry and platform multiples does the work.
Inputs Illustrative only — not a forecast or an offer.
120
$0.5M$10M
3x8x
8x20x
37
Total capital deployed$80.0M
Combined EBITDA$16.0M
Implied platform value at exit$224M
Multiple-arbitrage value created+$144M
Paid at entryCreated by the multiple gap
2.8x platform value ÷ capital1.6 acquisitions per year
Build-up by yearCapital deployedImplied value at platform multiple
Capital = acquisitions × EBITDA × entry multiple. Platform value = combined EBITDA × exit multiple. Holds EBITDA flat and paces deals evenly; ignores debt, fees, integration costs and growth.
Proprietary sourcing
382 magnetics companies. Mapped and graded.
Each graded on a live audit of its own web presence. Weak presence flags the most upside. Target map, competitive map and lead list in one.
382Companies, worldwide
315Sized
87Flagged high marketing-opportunity
78/100Average web score
Global magnetics directory382
High opportunity · 87Other mapped · 295
For owners
What stays the same.
What a well-built platform is designed to protect.
Your customers
The relationships you earned.
Your people
The team that knows the work.
Your know-how
The craft behind the product.
Your standing
Your name in your market.
Every deal is its own conversation. Nothing here is an offer.
For owners
What gets better.
What a platform adds that is hard to build alone.
Shared technology
One platform across companies, the model Tim ran at Builder Homesite for 22 years.
Modern go-to-market
Experience and brand, led by a dedicated CXO.
A strategic story
Part of the non-China magnetics supply chain the West needs.
Platform-scale multiples
Scaled platforms tend to trade at higher multiples. The next slide shows the math.
Illustrative. Every deal is its own conversation.
Beyond magnetics
One engine. Each vertical strengthens the last.
Magnetics is the first vertical, not the only one.
01MagneticsNow
02Homebuilding
03Auto
04Austin
05Colorado
The engine
Spot the fragmented market→
Find the picks-and-shovels layer→
Build the platform and let it compound
Momentum
Tim takes the stage at MMM 2026.
The 71st Conference on Magnetism & Magnetic Materials, in Honolulu. Polymagnet and CMR exhibit there too.
NOV52026
This week
Talk FC-09
Thursday · 3:36 PM HST
- Conference
- MMM 2026 · 71st annual
- City
- Honolulu
- Room
- Coral 1
- Exhibiting
- Polymagnet / CMR
The team
Who you would be backing.
MM
Melissa Morman
CXO
- Experience, brand and go-to-market
- Co-principal, Built For the Future
Next step
Book a capital conversation.
Twenty minutes on the magnetics roll-up, the sourcing map and where capital fits.
Conversation 01Operators in fragmented industries
Conversation 02Capital partners for the magnetics roll-up
MMM 2026 · HonoluluTim speaks Thu, Nov 5 · 3:36 PM HST · Coral 1 · FC-09
Prepared for Tim Costello · 20-minute call · calendly.com/timbuilt4f/instant-meeting