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From Marketing to the World's Most Demanding Projects
Steven Rossi didn't start in lumber.
In 2014 he was working in marketing for a tropical hardwood importer and lumber mill, hired for his background in marketing, not his knowledge of wood. He knew nothing about species, nothing about sourcing, nothing about what separates a tropical hardwood from a domestic one. That wasn't why he was there.
Then one day he picked up a piece of Ipe.
He still remembers the weight of it. The density. The way it looked nothing like what most people think of when they think of wood. He started asking questions, the way someone does when they sense they've stumbled onto something they didn't know existed.
What he learned stopped him cold.
| Fire rating | Class A, the highest possible. The same classification as concrete and steel. |
| Density | So dense it sinks in water. One of the hardest naturally occurring woods on earth. |
| Lifespan | 75 years or more with minimal maintenance when properly installed. |
| Track record | Used on the Coney Island boardwalk, the Smithsonian, and the world's most demanding outdoor installations. |
He had one question.
"Why doesn't everyone use this for outdoor projects?"
He never really stopped asking it.
Why He Started Ipe Woods USA
By the time Steven left the industry to start Ipe Woods USA in 2017, he had learned two things with equal certainty.
The first was the material itself: the species, the grades, the sourcing, the installation requirements, the long-term performance characteristics that separate a 75-year deck from one that needs replacing in fifteen. He had learned it the way you only learn something when you're genuinely obsessed with it.
The second was how the industry treated the people buying it.
He had watched customers receive wrong grades for their application. Wrong species for their climate. Advice that was technically plausible but practically useless from people who had never worked with the material at any real scale. He had watched companies treat a $15,000 purchase the way a big-box store treats a $150 one: process the order, move on, hope nothing goes wrong.
He knew he could do better. So he did.
Ipe Woods USA started as a small online consulting and sales operation. Steven handled everything: sourcing, specifications, customer questions, project advice. The model was simple. Know the material better than anyone, and treat every customer's project like it mattered.
Because it does.
What That Looks Like Today
The projects have grown considerably since 2017.
Ipe Woods USA has supplied material for some of the most demanding installations in the world: projects where material failure is not an option, where specifications are exacting, and where the supplier's expertise is as important as the product itself.
- •World-famous theme parks
- •The private residences of some of the wealthiest individuals on earth
- •Historical preservation sites where materials must meet exacting standards and last generations
- •The façades and outdoor spaces of skyscrapers in major cities
- •Some of the most luxurious hotel brands in the world
- •Pool decks and cabanas at Las Vegas mega resorts
- •Some of the largest restaurant chains in the world
- •League headquarters and training facilities of professional sports organizations
- •Personal projects of professional athletes
The common thread across all of it isn't the scale.
It's the standard.
Every project, whether it's a 500 square foot backyard deck or a 50,000 square foot commercial installation, gets the same thing: a team that knows tropical hardwoods inside and out, advice that comes from experience rather than a script, and a level of customer commitment that the rest of the industry still hasn't figured out.
The Commitment That Has Never Changed
Steven started Ipe Woods USA because he saw how tropical hardwoods were being sold. This is how he believed they should be.
Every member of the Ipe Woods USA sales team carries a minimum of 10 years of hands-on experience working specifically with tropical hardwoods. Not lumber in general. Not framing. Not composite decking. Tropical hardwoods: the species, the sourcing, the installation, the long-term performance, and everything that can go wrong when any of it is handled incorrectly.
When you call us, you are not talking to someone reading from a script. You are talking to someone who has seen what happens when the wrong species is specified for a coastal environment. Someone who knows why acclimation matters more than most suppliers will tell you. Someone who can answer the question you didn't know to ask.
That is what Steven set out to build in 2017. It is what Ipe Woods USA still is today.
We are not the easiest call to make. We are the right one.