In September 2010, a year and a half after ex-William Lyon Homes executives Doug Bauer, Tom Mitchell, and Mike Grubbs cobbled together a business model for their own home building company on the back of Starbucks napkins, they got a call from Starwood Capital CEO Barry Sternlicht. The call led to an investment of $150 million by Starwood for 94% ownership in the fledgling, mostly fee-building California-based TRI Pointe Group.

Fast-forward to fall 2012, when Bauer stood on the sidelines of his son’s football game in Santa Ana, Calif., and the caller ID on his phone flashed: Barry Sternlicht. Sternlicht, Bauer knew, was traveling on business in Korea. Bauer could guess this call was not likely to be of the casual “Hello, how’s the game going?” variety.

The outcome of the game was a win for his son’s 9-0 freshman team. The outcome of the call was TRI Pointe’s Jan. 31, 2013, IPO, a bright-line moment in capital strategy timed to housing’s current recovery.

Sternlicht’s epiphany in Korea changed the direction Bauer, TRI Pointe’s management, and its group of financial services advisers were heading, from defense to offense.

“When I’m offshore and can’t sleep is when I do my best thinking,” says Sternlicht. “This is when, as a principal owner, you overrule your investment bankers and challenge your management to think bigger. Long-term businesses are about management teams.”

Of TRI Pointe CEO Bauer, president and COO Mitchell, and CFO Grubbs, Sternlicht says, “We had a great team in place, one that could both tell our story, and, at the same time, not get distracted by the time and energy it takes to go public. It was important that they had been kicked in the butt a few times by then, which they had, and that’s good about their background.”

Today, TRI Pointe is ranked No. 13 on the Builder 100, with 4,057 closings in 2015 and revenue in excess of $2.4 billion.