Every company has a beginning.
For E5, that beginning was not a boardroom, a branding session, or a product launch. It started with a concrete finisher, a family story, a relentless drive to solve problems, and a purpose much bigger than business.
In the first episode of The Concrete Podcast, Joe Shetterly sits down with co-host Joel Cookston to share the deeply personal story behind E5 — how it started, what shaped it, and why its mission has always been about more than concrete.
Watch or listen to the full episode below.
A podcast built for the people who make concrete happen
The Concrete Podcast was created to bring together the people who design concrete, produce it, place it, and build with it every day. From ready-mix producers and contractors to engineers, researchers, and innovators, the goal is simple: create real conversations that help move the industry forward.
This first episode sets the tone in a powerful way.
Rather than jumping straight into product talk, Joe starts where every meaningful story begins — with life experience, values, family, and the path that led him into the concrete industry.
Joe’s story starts long before E5
Joe explains that the roots of E5 go back much further than the business itself. Raised in a family shaped by faith, hard work, and discipline, he grew up under the influence of a father whose standards were high and whose work ethic was uncompromising. That environment helped form the mindset Joe carried into construction and concrete finishing: do it right, take pride in your work, and never cut corners.
That mindset would later become essential.
Joe went on to build a strong career in concrete, growing Trace Construction into a major operation in Indiana. He knew the field. He knew finishing. He knew the pressures contractors face, the realities of the jobsite, and the frustration of dealing with problems that should not exist in the first place.
That firsthand knowledge would become one of the biggest advantages in the development of E5.
The personal journey behind the mission
What makes this episode especially powerful is that Joe does not tell the story of E5 as just a product story. He tells it as a family story.
Joe and Lisa met when they were just six years old. They started dating at fifteen, built a life together, and later became parents to two children. When their daughter Hanna was diagnosed with autism and intellectual disabilities, everything changed.
That moment became a turning point.
Joe shares openly about the emotional impact that diagnosis had on their family, the strain it created, and how he and Lisa responded in very different ways. Lisa poured herself into caring for Hanna. Joe buried himself in work. Over time, the search for support, services, and answers revealed a much bigger problem: families like theirs often had nowhere to go for coordinated help.
That realization became the seed for Giving Hope Foundation — a vision for a place that could support families facing disability and life challenges with practical, emotional, and therapeutic care in one location.
And that vision became deeply connected to the future of E5.
From topical experimentation to Internal Cure
As Joe explains in the episode, E5 did not begin as a plan to build another chemical company. It began with experimentation in the field.
In the early days, Joe and his team started working with topical applications and testing what the chemistry could do in real concrete conditions. Because he approached the process as a finisher rather than a chemist, he was evaluating everything through the lens of real-world performance: workability, timing, finishing behavior, cracking, durability, and risk.
That perspective mattered.
Instead of stopping at what was already being done in the market, Joe kept asking a bigger question:
How do we make this internal?
That question ultimately led to the development of E5 Internal Cure — a solution built not just around lab theory, but around practical jobsite needs, hydration behavior, and the realities of placing and finishing concrete.
The episode walks through that evolution from Specification Products to Element 5, and eventually to the E5 name the industry knows today.
The people and partners who helped make it possible
Joe makes it clear throughout the conversation that E5 did not come to life in isolation.
He highlights key people and organizations that helped move the vision forward, including Shelby Materials, Purdue University, and Meyer Najem, along with others who believed in the mission early and helped validate what was being built.
Those partnerships played a major role in connecting field experience with research, testing, manufacturing, and broader industry application.
That intersection — real-world experience plus scientific validation — helped E5 move from experimentation to a technology with growing impact in the market.
More than a product story
One of the strongest themes in this episode is that E5 was never only about product performance. It was about solving real problems for real people.
For Joe, that means helping concrete finishers, contractors, producers, and owners reduce unnecessary challenges on the job. But it also means building something that can support a bigger purpose — one that reaches beyond concrete and into the lives of families who need hope, resources, and support.
That is what makes this episode different.
It is not just the story of how a company started. It is the story of how calling, hardship, field experience, faith, and persistence came together to create something meaningful.
Why this episode matters
If you work in concrete, this episode gives you valuable insight into where E5 came from and why its perspective is different. It explains the mindset behind the innovation and why the company continues to focus on practical solutions that serve the people doing the work every day.
If you know the E5 name but have never heard the full story, this episode is the best place to start.
And if you care about the intersection of business, mission, and impact, Joe’s story is one worth hearing.
Watch the episode
We invite you to watch the first episode of The Concrete Podcast and hear the story of E5 through Joe’s own words.
Stay connected
This is only the beginning.
Future episodes of The Concrete Podcast will feature contractors, finishers, engineers, producers, and industry professionals sharing their experiences, challenges, and perspectives from across the concrete world.
To learn more about E5 and the technology behind Internal Cure, comment SPEC or reach out to our team.
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Mar 23, 2026 11:50:30 AM
