From Mega Yachts to Mansions: Simon Wells on Reinventing Construction Protection with Protect X Surf

Quinton Comino: Hello, everyone. Today, my guest is Simon Wells with ProtectX. He has invented a first-to-market product for protecting your building or your boat or your high-rise from damage during construction. Now I don’t wanna spoil this—there’s some great things that we’re gonna learn—but a quick overview: typically the way people protect their house or what have you from damages, they throw down some cardboard, they throw down some paper—it’s like an afterthought. That’s not what ProtectX is. It’s a full-service company, a full-service solution to protect your home from damage, to protect your home from theft, and just to keep your privacy while construction is going on in your home. So from luxury yachts, luxury houses, high-rises, government buildings—ProtectX is there to solve that need.

Quinton Comino: Again, I don’t wanna spoil it—it’s really fantastic when I’m able to interview someone who has a first-to-market product. So tune in—you’re going to learn a lot from this episode.

Quinton Comino: So ProtectX—Simon—let us know. You’re the founder, you’re the CEO—you mentioned first-to-market company. So tell us a little bit about that—why people need ProtectX, what exactly it is, and really why you came over here from Australia to—it sounds like—to start this company here in Florida.

Simon Wells: Let’s begin with the most simplistic thing. Have you ever come across where you’ve dropped something on a floor—whether it be a tool or anything on a finished surface—and you’ve damaged or scratched something? What’s the first thing you ever do? Right?

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

Simon Wells: As humans we just walk up to the scratch or dent and we start rubbing it with our finger and hoping it magically goes away.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—yeah.

Simon Wells: Right? And then you’re gonna stare at it for a little bit and then you’re gonna think about it and then you’re gonna move on.

Quinton Comino: Right? Yeah—and then you can’t do anything.

Simon Wells: Yeah—and then the scratch or dent is left behind. It’s your choice whether you fix it or not. But if you apply that in you know a $60,000,000 mega yacht right—and the surface might be Carrara marble that you’ve chipped or damaged—and it’s—can’t replace it because you can’t match it—and now what are we gonna do? And so my background is I have twenty-five years in the mega-yacht industry—so I’m a yacht captain. That was basically my career since 2000.

Quinton Comino: Wow.

Simon Wells: It’s been fantastic—yeah—it took me eventually here in Fort Lauderdale in 2003 and I’ve been operating boats throughout the Bahamas, the Caribbean, East Coast United States as a yacht captain—it was great. But what I found with these motor yachts was yeah that I mean they’re you know the largest luxury asset—value asset you can ever have—well they need to go into service consistently. And so every time we would bring the yacht into the shipyard to be repaired it was bizarre—I mean you could think about there would be upwards of ten subcontractors on a yacht at any one time right?—and so yeah they will be repairing anything from electrical to plumbing—there will be painters on board—there will be carpenters—HVAC guys—just piles of contractors coming in to do work. And it’s typically left up to the yacht to provide cover and protection access to contractor work.

Simon Wells: And so here’s where the improvisation comes in—they would use old drop cloths—towels—sometimes nothing at all right?—and the problem was that these were being damaged—expensive surfaces were being chipped, dinged and scratched—and the result was everyone was just rubbing it with their fingers—staring at it—and walking away and not claiming responsibility.

Quinton Comino: So—yeah.

Simon Wells: I found a gap in the market and we started experimenting in 2016—I opened the company and I was like well nobody is doing professional cover and protect—everybody’s improvising—everybody runs to Home Depot and gets a roll of cardboard really quickly—half puts it down—people are putting tools on countertops—and there was one that was crazy—a story—I had to meet an owner and he was a very wealthy man.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

Simon Wells: He had a big yacht and I met him on his aft deck—and the beautiful aft-deck table I mean its value would have been probably about $50,000 with a beautiful furnished in-grained table—it had paint cans on it—it had brushes—paint trays—tools—I mean anywhere that people at waist height they’re gonna put things—and it had old bath towels that somebody had taken out of the guest bathrooms to cover—oh it was crazy—and these guys are looking at his boat getting pretty much destroyed during the period of the thing.

Simon Wells: So—well yeah—I started this company—we started in the mega-yacht industry—and eventually as time went by we started getting traction—it was difficult to try to educate people that they need to have to cover and protect their area before work begins—so easy to run into the job and just start tearing stuff apart—and then you’ve got things in your hands that gotta go somewhere you know?—things get dropped and that’s tools or debris or whatnot—and so cover and protect has always been improvised up until now.

Simon Wells: So yeah we started in 2016 in yachting—it took many years to get traction—but eventually it started to go—I changed the name of the company to ProtectX in 2023 because what we’d be opened up and we’re like well if we can do it in the mega-yacht industry why aren’t we doing it in the homes?—luxury residential and commercial—and sure enough we reached out to a lot of luxury home builders and a lot of commercial contractors—and now we’re busier than ever—everybody sees value in this you know?—everybody’s putting it yeah as a budgetary line item now you know?—it’s a line item—cover and protect right?—and it’s not just like I said is running to Home Depot or get a roll of cardboard—this is proper protection here—yeah I spent a lot of time engineering it and thinking about it and I filed and have four registered patents now—wow—on yeah on the method on how to do it—that’s awesome you know on how to apply it basically—yeah how to apply protective coating.

Simon Wells: And so the coating is nothing new—it’s a we’ve all seen it before—it’s a polypropylene sheeted plastic—yep—but you could drop a hammer you could drop a brick and you’re not gonna damage the surface or—and then it’s fully floating—so typically people would like tape plastic or whatnot to a wall and then you peel the tape off—you peel the paint off with the tape right?—

Quinton Comino: Done that too much.

Simon Wells: Yeah—and so our patented process is it’s a fully floating system so it floats on top of the surface and does not make adhesion to it—so it’s super super cool—yeah clean—it’s nice—what we’re finding the feedback is is the homeowners and the yacht owners are really impressed typically by the general contractor right?—because it’s showing that they cared—and so we’re sub-contracting out through GCs and making them look like rock stars so to speak because you know the area—being you know—it’s a sharp look.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

Simon Wells: Yeah—and so it’s a first-to-market idea—I have the intellectual property which has protected it now—and so now we’re at the point where we’re gonna start scaling—we’re really doing well in South Florida—and there’s so much construction in South Florida right now it’s crazy—but we would like to implement this this into you know across the United States pretty much.

Quinton Comino: It’s a really good market South Florida because you have luxury homes and yachts—I mean you ever go and obviously you’re down there—I’ve been down drive down to Miami and you just see the boats there—and it’s just in the marinas coming in and out of the inlets it’s just incredible how much money there is down there—so that’s the perfect market for you.

Simon Wells: It is—yeah—absolutely—and you know absolutely needed—what we’re finding as well is what we’re doing is saving time—that’s what the key is here—if you think about the chips nicks dings and scratches at the end of your project—yes there’s a dollar figure attached to it we know—but imagine the time loss to repair it—yeah right?—and so if you mitigate the time on your project you don’t have an overrun and then there you go—you come in budget and everybody’s happy—yeah—so yeah it’s working out.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—and now you’re from Sydney—Sydney is similar to me in the sense of very luxury real estate and very very high-end yachts—have you thought about opening up there and doing things in Sydney?

Simon Wells: Yeah—I have—however now I call South Florida home—yeah—and to be honest there’s a supply-and-demand factor there right?—so like there’s a lot more—it’s a lot broader in the United States—the target market is huge—yeah—so the idea was to establish ourselves through our high level of credibility our high level of service here in the United States before we scaled anywhere else.

Quinton Comino: Okay—you know?

Simon Wells: Yeah—the market’s a little smaller over there in Sydney—but yeah it’s kinda like one of those one step at a time.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—that’s awesome—so you contact these luxury builders and I’m sure you have a dick connections as far as yachts go because you’re the captain for twenty-five years right?—so you you’ve got tons to be able to say hey I know your boat was worked on and you called me in that one day I just ticked off about this and that—check out this product that I have—so I imagine that that goes pretty well for you—you’ve got credibility too—you know the industry—you’re not just some random guy—you know boats—you know yachts.

Simon Wells: Yeah—it’s well what I also tried to implement here is it’s not just like laying plastic down on a surface right?—so we are service-based—so I have to bring the mentality of yacht-quality-style service into cover and protection as simplistic as it may sound—and the result is great—my guys are all heavily vetted—they’re well-dressed—we don’t sort of roll up you know looking like a bunch of ragtag pirates so to speak right?—we buy ourselves from that—we deploy really quickly—we’re really used to what we call 911 or panic calls because we’re still finding that a lot of people start the job and then discover they need to protect the area—really?—yeah—but we deploy very quickly because of that—and that’s that we’re just bringing that level of service higher to where it’s needed you know?—and we’re getting great customer feedback because of that because we care you know?

Quinton Comino: So—so these 911 these panic calls—I mean what’s a typical call like that Spike?—what’s it look like?

Simon Wells: I’ll give you a classic example—yesterday a yacht I don’t know it’s like a 165-foot yacht has come into the shipyard—they arrived and immediately the subcontractor began demolition work right?—so they’re doing you know a couple of $100,000 refit in the main saloon area where they’ve gotta demolish all of the bar the countertops everything’s coming out—wow—well they just started right?—and then we get the call was oh no no no you cover up—hurry up come in—and now we’re trying to work over the top of guys with jackhammers and—

Quinton Comino: Oh yeah—tactic.

Simon Wells: And it’s crazy—and it’s just sort of that’s—but we’re used to it because an educating process—we just hope that the next project they think ahead—yeah—it’s like we need you guys in here two or three days before—protect everything first to stop damage—and then we’ll get the demo we can do to you—you know what I mean?

Quinton Comino: So how do those people reach you?—did they obvious well maybe they know about you before—they just didn’t think they needed it or probably they don’t know who you are and they found you—like how where do you where are these calls coming from?

Simon Wells: Yeah—so interestingly it’s at the moment it’s word-of-mouth through referrals—and then it’s face-to-face networking is where we get the most traction—we’ve tried reaching out through like the CEOs and Google and you know social-media posts—it just there’s no connection on who we are and what we do until we meet face-to-face and we keep—and then—

Quinton Comino: They really see the value.

Simon Wells: Yeah—they see the value when we install it—yeah—and then the value comes and then the word gets out—yeah—and it’s happened like that in luxury residential industry—you know we started that in April 2023 and now we’re busier than ever—yeah—so all it was one project to get it covered and then got out—and yeah so we’re pretty proud of that you know?

Quinton Comino: Yeah—really—you just do one and like the luxury builders they’re—they because I’m sure they’re aware of one another because it’s a niche sort of market—and so I wouldn’t be surprised that they’re like hey—they communicate with each other—we’ve got a great contractor to make sure you don’t damage stuff—because I’m sure they’ve all had problems with that you know?

Simon Wells: Correct—yeah—and you know their name is and their reputation is more important than anything in that space—and the same industry—so nobody in both of those industries Googles anything—they just you know it’s—yeah a system—and so that’s right—yeah yeah in a relatively short period of time I think you know we’re utilizing the credibility in yachting and really really going for the results you know ensure that everybody’s happy.

Quinton Comino: So yeah man—so would there be value to on website having you know these are people that we’ve done it for—this contractor that contractor—like having photos of it—reviews from them—or like you said the people just really they don’t they don’t look stuff up online at all—it’s just completely hey I got this guy on my phone?

Simon Wells: Right—well we do have a few testimonials but sometimes once it it’s a discreet industry the yachting one the luxury residential one—you know it’s very discreet—like a lot of the time we can’t even disclose the properties that we did work on or the yachts—oh no way—you know what I mean?—and it yeah—it’s sort of which makes sense you know?—so we kinda we try to with our with advertising on the website or not we tend to sorta just try to make it as informative as possible without—yeah specific—oh yeah no.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—I get you—and it’s it’s what you guys do—you’re very clear—it’s clean—like you totally make sense—there’s no question about what it is.

Simon Wells: Yeah—so it’s a new and exciting stuff—talking about discretion—we do work in a lot of high-profile properties right?—what I built or created out of that was we’re building these tunnels right?—so I built a tunnel system—and so we’ll build a tunnel from service access point in the house all the way through to the job site which means that the workers are fully enclosed inside the tunnel right?—and so I’ll give you an example—say you’re renovating your master bathroom right?—and they come in and they’re gonna break out all of the rock or all the marble whatever it is and redo it—but you’ve got like however many subcontractors going through your house in through your look accessing your personal space right through your bedroom and into a work zone—and then they’re carrying out buckets of rock and dust and tracking crap all over the place—so what we do is we build a whole entire tunnel all the way to the bathroom—it’s one it protects from all the debris and the dust—yeah—but also it’s a security thing—I mean it ensures that there’s no eyes on any sensitive areas yeah right?—you might have artwork or I don’t know—

Quinton Comino: Yeah—something—

Simon Wells: True of significance that you don’t want people to see you know what I mean?—and you know I’ve got personal stuff family stuff who knows?—and so we’re getting some great traction with that as well—isolating the work zone from the livable area you know?

Quinton Comino: That’s so—yeah—no that’s really great—but you are—there’s a two ways to that—it’s protecting the actual surfaces right?—but then also protecting your privacy and your assets—so actually it’s yeah—you say three ways to it—you have protection from damage—you have protect from theft and privacy.

Simon Wells: Yeah—going back to the privacy one—this is a bit funny but we often see this is sometimes a contractor or a subcontractor they gotta go to the restroom—and there’s nowhere to go—and so they’ll just go and use your restroom and not tell you right?—we’ll block it off—we build walls like across things like that to stop them from doing it—we see it a lot on the yachts too—

Quinton Comino: Oh I’m sure you do.

Simon Wells: Try to go and then it’s just like what?—and so we’ll—it’s basically it’s not even like you could put a sign on a bathroom door that says do not use—put a wall across it and they don’t even know that it’s a bathroom.

Quinton Comino: Yeah—right?—that’s so good.

Simon Wells: Yeah—it’s cool—it’s some cool stuff—I really like inventing and creating some new innovative ideas.

Quinton Comino: No—that’s awesome—I love this is this just makes sense—this product just absolutely makes sense—so you said people they’ll just like go grab cardboard and they just kinda make the best of it—I noticed on your website you had a couple different things different names—looks like you’re comparing versus maybe different products or different companies?—I don’t know.

Simon Wells: Yeah—we both a product comparison—yeah right?—but our thing is more well it is the product sure for impact protection right?—not just foot traffic you know?—it’s you know because the stuff that we’re comparing to that you can get at your local hardware store or you know is it’s thin right?—and it’s designed for foot traffic—and you know you put a path for foot traffic but it doesn’t stop anything from if you drop something heavy you’re gonna damage underneath yeah—and so that’s what we’re comparing to—but it’s also our method of install you know that we’re trying that you know it can’t be beat—it can’t be copied and that’s what we’re proud of you know?

Quinton Comino: Yeah—that’s good—no so you take in yeah you’re just totally the way to do this from your traditional yeah just make sure you’d foot traffic too—no this is full protection—privacy theft damage—this is everything—absolute the best product—and it’s a fit for luxury—absolutely.

Simon Wells: Yeah—no I’m pretty proud of it man—that’s been it’s been quite the journey so far you know?—and so do my guys—the guys on my team they’re awesome but they really love the environment that they get to work in as well you know?—and you know they take pride in they do—I know it’s once again it’s simplistic but right down to how we run the tape seams and what kind of—yeah I mean it’s spot on—factor there—and you know I’ve got a fantastic team of people—and yeah we’re steadily growing—so super super happy.

Quinton Comino: So if interested in learning this then they’ll just need to head to protectx.com?

Simon Wells: Yeah—they can check out our website—we’ve got some social media on Instagram and Facebook for you know some projects that have been in the past just for some example stuff—but yeah the website’s quite informative—and then we’ve got a few YouTube videos up as well.

Quinton Comino: Great—yeah—awesome—well thank you Simon—appreciate having you on the show man—I’m really excited to get this one out there and for everyone to hear—this is just I love innovative products like this—I love solutions to problems and it’s exactly what this is—so really appreciate having you on.

Simon Wells: Thanks for having me Quinton—you’re a legend—thank you—yeah appreciate it mate—yeah see you—alright cheers man—thanks.