When accountant-turned-entrepreneur Clint Harrowing describes his startup Fiber Frame, he keeps it simple: think of a standard two-by-six in a house but made of fibreglass, and it clicks together without screws.
“It’s easier than IKEA,” he jokes.
Behind that simplicity is a serious challenge: how do you build durable, energy-efficient buildings quickly, in places where skilled labour is scarce and the climate is unforgiving?
That’s the problem Fiber Frame is trying to solve as a member of Innovate Calgary‘s Social Innovation Hub.
The idea for Fiber Frame began in a previous job at a prefab wall company, where Harrowing worked as a controller and later in sales and operations. The company experimented with fibreglass components, but they quickly ran into limitations.
Fibreglass had all the advantages they wanted — strength, water resistance, durability in harsh climates — but the way the products were designed made it frustrating to use on real job sites. Connections to roof trusses and sheathing were awkward, interior finishes didn’t fasten well, and attaching to the base plate was difficult compared to wood.
“All the positives that fibreglass has were erased by the poor design of what was available on the market,” Harrowing says.
Harrowing started sketching out a better system: structural members that would snap together in the field, with intuitive connection points and familiar installation methods. Builders would get the speed and ease of wood framing with the long-term durability of fibreglass.
That combination is especially important in remote and northern communities, where Harrowing has hands-on experience working with communities in the Northwest Territories. Getting skilled trades on site is expensive and difficult, and traditional materials like steel can deteriorate quickly in extreme conditions.
“If there’s something anyone can put together, it speeds up the process and makes it easier for people to get houses built,” he explains.
To turn the concept into a market-ready product, Fiber Frame tapped into Alberta’s innovation ecosystem. Through Alberta Innovates’ voucher program, the team secured roughly $100,000 in grant funding to support design, engineering, and third-party testing.
That support has helped Fiber Frame move from sketches to manufactured product. Moulds have been built, initial runs of the fibreglass framing members are in production, and independent testing labs in the U.S. will validate performance so that engineers and architects can confidently specify the system in their projects.
Even at this early stage, interest is strong. Fiber Frame has received multiple letters of intent from organizations willing to purchase the product once testing is complete. While the system costs more than treated lumber, it’s still cheaper than steel and offers advantages in durability, speed of installation, and reduced dependence on specialized labour.
Harrowing’s path to the Social Innovation Hub started with a practical need: protecting Fiber Frame’s intellectual property.
As a cash-conscious startup, the team was looking for ways to offset the cost of patent work. That search led them to ElevateIP Alberta funding — and to Innovate Calgary’s incubator network.
“In order to access that funding, we needed to work with an incubator,” Harrowing says. “Social Innovation Hub caught my eye pretty quickly.”
Once inside the hub, Fiber Frame plugged into a community and set of supports designed for founders working on solutions with social and community impact.
The team has worked closely with an IP coach (through the Expert Advisor Program) to develop their patent strategy, and Harrowing is now collaborating with a marketing expert to prepare Fiber Frame’s first go-to-market plan and launch.
Those resources, he notes, have helped them move faster and smarter than they could have on their own, from understanding how to protect a novel product to thinking strategically about which markets to pursue first.
For Harrowing, who still works full-time as an accountant while spending Fridays and evenings on Fiber Frame, the startup is about more than a new type of framing. It’s about doing tangible work that improves people’s lives.
Working with his hands, being outside, and seeing homes and community buildings rise from the ground has been “big for my mental health,” he says. But it’s the bigger picture — better housing in harsh environments, more resilient buildings, and community-driven solutions — that keeps him motivated.
Fiber Frame’s journey is still in its early chapters. Yet the company already shows what can happen when a practical insight and the right support system come together.