Meet Our Team: Nick Lancaster, CTO

As Chief Technical Officer, Nick Lancaster is part of ecovent’s founding team. He started his career in missile defense and aeronautics and is now leading the engineering effort that’s reinventing the way we heat and cool our homes.

In our first “Meet Our Team” interview, Nick explains where to get the “best burgers in Texas,” how to replace dead capacitors in your vintage gaming system, why he starts every day on a boat, and much more.

Describe your job at ecovent in five words or fewer.

Just five words? OK, how about: “I make stuff happen quickly.” That’s probably not specific enough, is it? Let’s say: “Make hardware and software cooperate.”

How did you get involved?

I actually started at Lockheed Martin on the exact same day as Dip, our CEO. We became fast friends, and that’s also how we met our co-founder and CIO Shawn Rose. All three of us were involved in the ELDP, which stands for the Engineering Leadership Development Program. A couple of years later, I moved back to Texas to be near my family. I was still with Lockheed working on counter-rocket technology and the F-35 fighter jet program, but when Dip called me up and told me he was starting a company, I was there. So I moved from Texas to Boston, and here I am.

So, you’re from Texas originally, right?

Yep. I grew up in Mineral Wells, Texas. It’s about an hour outside of Ft. Worth, a town with about 12,000 people. We lived in town, but my dad had 20 acres out in the country, so I kind of had the best of both worlds between the country and the town.

What’s the best place to eat around there?

Woody’s. Self-proclaimed best hamburgers in Texas. It’s a great dive bar on the county line because the next county over was dry. I also learned to play shuffleboard and pool there. So, you know, I gained some important life skills.

What’s the worst job you ever had?

I worked at the library in Mineral Wells for a while during high school. Don’t get me wrong, I love books and all, but the work was boring. At one point, I was sorting through the past 100 years of newspapers, but mostly I was shelving books. I will say the Dewey decimal system is brilliant. And if Google didn’t exist, it’s the next best thing.

You went from working in defense to working in technology. Was that a big shift?

It’s definitely a big change in that defense comes with a lot of overhead, clearances, processes, and things like that. I was part of the huge team working on the F-35 for my last job. I built an adapter for pressure testing in the cockpit so that the pilots have the right amount of air when flying. It was pretty cool to be in the manufacturing plant and walk the whole line—from where the parts come in to where a plane comes out the other end. You could be in that factory and see a billion dollars’ worth of planes at various stages of production. It gave me a ton of confidence and experience in managing a complex technical project with a big team, and it was great to be a part of it.

What’s the best gift you ever got as a kid?

Sega Game Gear. It’s the only thing I asked for for Christmas that year, but my mom was trying to trick me, so she packed it in this huge box. The first thing in there was a set of batteries, then I kept digging and there was a game, then finally the Game Gear. Color screen, man. Back then, that was the coolest thing. I actually still have it, but it needs new capacitors. I’ve actually got it in the office so I can open it up and solder some new ones on.

What’s your relationship like with caffeine?

Well, I’m from Texas, so I drink my daily Dr. Pepper. I used to live near the Dublin bottling plant where they still made it with real sugar. When it comes to coffee, I try to skip days, so you still feel the effect. I don’t want to get to the point where I’m dependent on it.

So I hear you’ve got a really interesting commute?

Yep. When I moved up here with my family—that’s my wife Candice, my son Patrick who’s four, and my twins Caroline and Audrey who are about to be three—we moved into a beach house in Hull that’s been winterized. We’ve got views to the bay on one side and the open ocean on the other. To get to work, I leave my house about two minutes before the ferry leaves. I basically ride my bike right onto the boat, get about a half hour’s work done on the ferry, then I bike a few more minutes to the office. I can actually see our building from the ferry when we go by the Seaport. It’s pretty cool.

Time for the Lightning Round.

Favorite movie? Groundhog Day
Favorite book? A toss up between a bunch of Stephen King books.
Favorite band? Foo Fighters.
Beatles or Stones? More Beatles than Stones.
Dogs or cats? Dogs. I’ve got two!
Tacos or pizza? Pizza.
Batman or Spiderman? Batman.
Ninjas or pirates? Ninjas.