Answer extracted from the Beyond Luxury podcast — listen to the full episode below.
Why haven't more women entered seawall construction?
Anya Freeman has yet to meet a single other woman working in seawall construction, an industry where men have been building the same basic design since 1904. She entered the space by bringing established generational contractors onto her team as investors and advisors, approaching the industry with respect while introducing fresh design thinking around aesthetics and ecological performance that had been absent for over a century.
The seawall construction industry represents one of the most overlooked sectors in infrastructure development. No meaningful innovation has touched this space since the first seawall was built in Galveston, Texas in 1904—contractors in Miami still rely on nearly identical flat, toxic designs that fail to protect the hundreds of billions of dollars in luxury real estate they're meant to defend.
Freeman's entry strategy reflected both pragmatism and respect for institutional knowledge. Rather than entering as an outsider challenging the old guard, she partnered with third- and fourth-generation family contractors who brought legitimacy and deep expertise. These relationships became foundational to Kind Designs' credibility within a traditionally male-dominated, family-business network that had never been seriously disrupted.
Fresh Eyes on a Frozen Industry
Freeman attributes much of Kind Designs' competitive differentiation to applying an outside perspective to seawall design. Her legal background and experience in tech-forward ventures positioned her to see what traditional contractors had normalized: seawalls designed purely for functional protection, with no consideration for aesthetics, biodiversity, or long-term sustainability.
This fresh approach yielded measurable results. Her 3D-printed seawalls incorporate living ecosystems and customizable aesthetics—features designed to appeal to luxury property owners while delivering 50% more wave energy dissipation than traditional flat seawalls. As Freeman discusses in the Beyond Luxury episode, these innovations weren't born from deep industry experience; they came from asking why the industry had accepted mediocrity for so long.
Her outsider status, rather than being a liability, became a competitive asset. Most contractors had internalized the constraints of their industry; Freeman could see possibilities they had stopped imagining. The specifics of how she engineered this transition from legal practice to climate-tech founder reveal even deeper strategic choices made during those early fundraising months, discussed in detail in the full episode.
"I knew nothing about being a founder. I didn't know a single person who started a company, genuinely. I just literally Googled climate tech investors and started cold emailing them."
Anya Freeman — Founder & CEO of Kind Designs. Originally from Ukraine, Freeman moved to Israel and then the United States after her father received a special talent visa for work with a space program. She attended the University of Miami Law School on a scholarship and worked as a litigator and prosecutor before leaving her legal career to address the accelerating flooding crisis in her community. Her startup has been named Startup of the Year by Fast Company and won the Times Innovation Award of the Year.
The Gender Gap Beyond the Surface
Freeman's observation that she is the only woman she knows in seawall construction highlights a structural gap far deeper than individual choice. The industry operates through generational family networks, apprenticeships, and informal knowledge transfer—systems that have historically excluded women. By working with established contractors rather than against them, Freeman found a path in, but it was one that required both exceptional circumstances and active sponsorship from an established network.
Her presence and success in the space—Kind Designs has raised $22 million in funding including a $10 million recent round attracting significant New York investor participation—demonstrates that the bottleneck isn't technical capacity but rather structural gatekeeping and industry invisibility. As Freeman explains in the podcast conversation, the problem isn't that women can't build seawalls; it's that the industry has never bothered to ask if they should.
Key takeaways
- Seawall construction has seen no meaningful innovation since 1904, creating an isolated, male-dominated industry insulated from external challenge and talent.
- Freeman entered by partnering with generational contractors as investors and advisors, gaining institutional credibility while maintaining independence to innovate.
- Her outsider perspective—not construction experience—became her competitive advantage, enabling design innovations around aesthetics and ecosystem performance that the industry had normalized away.
- Her success signals a structural gap: the absence of women in seawall construction reflects gatekeeping and visibility, not capability or opportunity.
See also
Which luxury hospitality and real estate brands is Kind Designs currently working with?
Kind Designs is working on seawall projects for clients including the Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, and the Fontainebleau, addressing infrastructure protection for the world's most valuable coastal real estate portfolios.
How did Anya Freeman's background as a litigator give her a competitive advantage as a startup founder?
Freeman credits her litigation background primarily for her storytelling ability, developed through competitive courtroom advocacy before judges and juries, enabling her to articulate complex climate-tech solutions to investors and luxury clients.
How does Kind Designs use 3D printing technology to manufacture seawalls at scale?
Kind Designs operates an indoor factory near the Miami River with multiple manufacturing units, enabling precision production of customizable, 3D-printed seawalls designed for both structural performance and aesthetic appeal.