Ryan Perrone is Defining His Own Name in Custom Building in Sarasota
The Perrone name is well known for luxury custom home building in Sarasota. Perrone Construction began 44 years ago and dominates the market—but one member of its second generation is coming up as a competitor.
Ryan Perrone didn’t get the chance to take over the existing company, so he chose to build a solid reputation of his own with Nautilus Homes. The consistent company growth and award-winning projects prove Perrone’s done just that.
Perrone has been honored in Pro Builder and Business Observer’s Forty Under 40 lists, earned the title of Certified Master Builder (one of just 32 in Florida), won the National Association of Home Builders Young Professional Award, and SRQ Magazine’s Best Home Builder—amongst the dozens of design awards.
In this interview, Perrone shares insights into his building of Nautilus Homes, his affinity for technology (plus some recommendations), and what differentiates Nautilus.
Custom Builder: You're a second-generation luxury custom home builder, but you chose the route of starting your own firm rather than joining the family company. Take us back to when you made that decision.
Ryan Perrone: My father wasn't ready to retire, and I like challenges. I like to figure out where my limits are.
I always go back to my experience working for my dad; I worked 60 hours a week and went to full-time college in the evenings to get my Construction Science degree. I had a particularly difficult week, and I called my father up, and I said, "Dad, I think I need help. I need somebody to take on some of the burden that I'm carrying at work so that I can focus on on college a little bit more.” And he said, “That's no problem, buddy. It's good to know where your limits are.” That stuck with me. The next morning, I called him back and said, "Forget that conversation from yesterday. I haven't hit my limits.” I think that speaks to why I wanted to start the company—I truly want to know where my limits are.
CB: Though you didn’t take over Perrone Construction, your company Nautilus Homes did have a connection until 2022, correct?
Perrone: We came to an agreement about a year and a half ago, and since then, it's been solely mine. They helped with a lot of the guidance, but at a certain point, I really started taking off with the company and developing our own sales and processes, and, I would say, a name for myself in the community. I've been on the board of a major organization for probably about five years now. I think stepping out and becoming identifiable as your own true self is what’s allowed me to take on the full responsibility of the company.
CB: So are your brother and father competitors?
Perrone: They've been in the business for 44 years. I started Nautilus Homes in 2010. I will say, that when we started Nautilus, the goal was to capture a market share that Perrone had elevated itself out of, which was 5,000 square feet and below homes. Over the past four or five years, we've started to get into houses that are 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. We're starting to play in a similar market. We have become somewhat competitors, although we don't find ourselves at odds with each other at all.
CB: One thing about you is that you’ve always been interested in pushing tech. Can you talk about your tech stack?
Perrone: When I did my thesis in college, I wrote it on utilizing technology to help increase the efficiency of both the company and its subcontractors, and therefore being able to spend more time creating quality. I have built the company based on that thesis, and it's neat to see it in practice.
I implemented Sage 100 Contractor probably about 10 years ago. That has allowed me to have a crystal clear vision of the finances of the company at any given moment and each project. And then about seven or eight years ago, I implemented Procore, and we use Procore to the nth degree. Just recently, we started working with Trimble and HP SitePrint to do a full site print of a house. When I say that, I mean that once we have the slab up, we can print where all the walls go, where all the electric goes, the recess cans, cabinetry—We can print it all so we have an extremely precise layout that is adjusted for field conditions for the subcontractors to rough into, which is really one of the key places where issues and unforeseen costs can occur.
I always say the efficiency that we create is not so that I can go to the beach, it's so that I can create a product that's even better than what my competitors create because I can spend the time refining details.
CB: What separates you from other builders?
Perrone: I'm a second-generation luxury home builder in Sarasota. My grandfather worked in construction. My great-grandfather was a brick mason from Italy. It is very much bred into me. I began working with my dad at 11 years old.
This industry is all about experience. There is nothing that makes up for experience in construction, and it goes into each and every home and each and every relationship that we build. There's an extreme level of trust we’re able to create with our clients, and I take that responsibility and that trust very seriously.
CB: We’ve done our Forty Under 40 programs for over 10 years, and it's really interesting to see what young professionals can do with an existing company. For example, someone takes over and within five years, they've doubled the company size. Young, fresh mindsets come in and want to push limits, and the result is growth and an improved product. And it sounds like your experience very much aligns with that.
Perrone: It does align with that. I didn't get the opportunity to take over an existing company, right? I would say it takes a lot to build a company from scratch. And one of the things that I said to myself, my father, and my brother at the time of creating the company, was that I wanted the experience of starting a new company. I wanted to truly appreciate everything that my father went through. And if at the end of the day, I came back to run his company, then I would know what that takes and truly understand that I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
CB: Can you share some insights into the Nautilus Homes process and your key role in it?
Perrone: My strongest skill set is to dream for my team to look at ways that we can refine processes while ensuring that we're creating the very best product and happy clients. I still love getting in the weeds with design, architecture, and detailing.
We're heavy into pre-construction, which I think is unique. I probably spend three-quarters of my time in the pre-construction process with my clients. I love this part because I get to deal directly with the clients. I get to deal with the architects, interior designers, landscape architects, and engineers and bring them all together from a project management point of view to kind of help provide a guideline for the schedule.
I would term ourselves as a construction manager, which implies that we manage the process from inception to completion. We don't have designers on staff because our goal is to produce the client's vision. If I had an architect on staff, it would limit the ability to achieve their vision because different architects are more appropriate for different clients.