An Interview with Kipcon’s Founder, Mitchell H. Frumkin (Part I)
Imagine your wife is pregnant with your first child, the two of you just bought your first home, and you’ve recently completed the five-year requirement for graduate engineers to receive their Professional Engineering license. Now you’re a licensed engineer, what do you do? Remember, pregnant wife, new house. Most of us would stay with the engineering firm you are working for, right? We’d consider all of our responsibilities, the need for financial stability, job stability. In this instance, Kipcon’s founder, Mitchell H. Frumkin, was not one of us. Mitch decided to leave his job and start his own engineering firm. This year, that firm turns forty.
In honor of Kipcon’s 40th anniversary, our 2026 blogs will offer a different kind of educational experience. You might still find some structural and reserve study related anecdotes in the months to follow, but you will also have a chance to learn more about the history and the people of Kipcon. This year, we invite you to celebrate Kipcon with Kipcon and really discover who we are, what we do, and what makes us special.
Because it does take a special type of person to quit his job, start his own business, and later help the world of community associations write several of the Best Practices reports we all follow today.
A Legacy is Born
Kipcon’s story starts with Mitch’s sophomore year of high school, where he took a technical drawing class. The average student completed about twenty drawings a year. Mitch completed around 120. During his junior and senior years Mitch continued taking technical and architectural drawing classes, confident that his future lay in the world of architecture. Mitch applied to several architecture schools and was accepted into Tulane’s School of Architecture, where he was introduced to structural engineering courses.
“I fell in love with structural engineering, and after my freshman year, I transferred into the School of Engineering at Tulane,” Mitch told me at the start of our interview. “The first class I had in structural engineering was with Professor Johnson. That first class, Professor Johnson stood up in front of the class, and said, one of the things you all have to know in structural engineering is that the unit of force, like when you measure a weight on a beam, is measured as a kip. A kip is a thousand pounds. I’d never heard of the terminology kip before.”
Mitch paused here to ask me if I knew what was coming. I’m sure you do too. “So, I’m sitting in Professor Johnson’s class and I say to myself, the name of my firm is going to be Kip Consulting. By the end of the class, it became Kipcon. And then when I went home for Thanksgiving, I registered the name Kipcon.”
The Kind of Knowing That Changes Everything
Unlike a lot of people who take years to discover their passions, Mitch just knew. He mentioned several times throughout the course of our conversation that from a young age, he just knew he was going to own his own business.
When I asked Mitch if he had any doubts or fears when he quit his job, Mitch said, “No, never. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I knew that I did it. I just did it.” As a follow-up, I asked if Mitch’s wife, Arlene, who is also a member of the Kipcon Team, was worried at the time. Mitch told me, “She has never questioned anything. From a business perspective, never. Ever.”
Kipcon started with some consulting jobs, with its headquarters based in Mitch’s home. Mitch’s first job was for the Magyar Reformed Church in New Brunswick; they had a structural roof issue.
The Night Mitch Discovered Reserve Studies
One night, around this time, Mitch and Arlene went out for dinner to an Italian restaurant where they bumped into Arlene’s friend from high school, Bonnie, who was married to Ed Guttenplan. “We were talking about what we were doing with our lives. Eddie had recently created the accounting firm, Wilkin and Guttenplan with his partner, Ed Wilkin. (He) was telling me about the world of community association and what a condo is, and it was the first time I ever heard the words ‘Reserve Study.’ And when I heard about the opportunity with community associations, I went home and taught myself about what a Reserve Study was. I taught myself about the industry, and what CAI was. And it’s because of that dinner meeting at the Italian restaurant where we bumped into Bonnie and Ed.”
Since that night, Mitch and the Community Association Institute (CAI) have developed a pretty solid relationship. Mitch has been a national president of CAI and the Foundation for Community Association Research. He has also served as president of both the New Jersey and Keystone (PA) chapters of CAI, and to date continues to present and write on state and national levels for CAI. (Don’t forget, you can also find Mitch presenting some of Kipcon’s webinars too.)
One of the proudest moments in Mitch’s career was being awarded with CAI’s Distinguished Service Award in 2024.
Throughout our conversation, Mitch spoke about the importance of these moments, of these connections, that lead to opportunity. Take the opportunity to connect with us again next month to hear more about Mitch’s (and Kipcon’s) story.
And, if you need us before, remember, you can always contact Kipcon here or call us at (800) 828-4118.