What are the similarities between the terms 'proptech' and 'I love you'? Why was learning to speak English so important for Oscar? What lessons on entrepreneurship did Oscar learn from being a real estate agent? Why is it important to break out of your comfort zone and put yourself in uncomfortable situations? What did Oscar learn about himself after working as an accountant for several months? Why is making mistakes so critical for entrepreneurs? How did the decision to build an international relocation consultancy come about? Why was the COVID pandemic so devastating for Oscar's original business? What insight caused Oscar to rethink the business strategy around international mobility and transform the business into a software technology platform for all key stakeholders? Which issues were international students and professionals facing regarding their residencies post move-in that pointed to the need for a holistic real estate management solution? Why are professionals increasingly seeking international work experiences?

Oscar Rubio - CEO and co-founder of Lodgerin, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how attending university internationally helped him develop the necessary expertise to reinvent himself as a relocation expert for students and professionals.

How are Norway and the Upper East Side related in Joachim's mind? Why did Joachim decide to pursue a corporate job after initially starting as an entrepreneur? What makes 40 year old entrepreneurs more likely to succeed than some of their younger counterparts? What sparked the entrepreneurial desire within Joachim? How did Joachim and his team turn a customer's bankruptcy into a spinout opportunity for a new product company? Why have shared spaces in multifamily buildings been largely ignored by technology device vendors? What is Defigo doing with AI to help solve building accessibility issues that handicapped residents face? Why is the ease of Defigo installation a major point of pride for Joachim? What is Defigo's integration strategy with other solution providers? Why is Defigo exploring a white label strategy for its access device solution?

Joachim Stray - CEO and founder of Defigo joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss the differences between selling and GTM strategies in the US and Europe, including the relative importance of security between the different regions.

Did Mark Andreessen's famous essay about software eating the world lead to the term Proptech being coined? How did having family members who were real estate investors, developers, and property tax collectors establish a deep foundation of real estate understanding for a young Joseph? What allowed Jospeh's grandfather, an immigrant hairdresser, to become a land baron in the northeast? Why are the off-the-shelf assessment models used by tax districts inherently flawed? What early entrepreneurial hustles did Joseph dabble in growing up and why was it important to ensure these ventures paid for themselves? Why did Joseph forgo a role at Nvidia to continue his PhD track at UCLA? Do overassessment protests result in cities and municipalities getting less tax revenue necessary to balance annual budgets? What does the property tax appeal process look like and why are there opportunities to digitize and scale this? What were Ownwell's initial quick wins from a technology perspective? How do differences around local tax districts impact the information mined and presented to Ownwell's in-house tax protestors? How are the needs of individual homeowners different from those of large commercial real estate portfolio owners around property tax savings?

Joseph Noor - co-founder and CTO of Ownwell, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how a chance encounter at a UCLA startup pitch competition brought about the convergence of his computer science studies and family heritage in real estate resulting in the launch of Ownwell.

Why have commercial real estate agents historically shied away from short-term rental needs? What are the issues with subleasing which cause parties to avoid the obvious solution? How can you automate the commercial leasing process which typically takes months and teams of lawyers? How do you build a two sided real estate marketplace where everyone wins? What impact has Amazon had on commercial warehousing in the US?

Brad Wright - CEO of Chunker, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and address the impact of COVID-19 on the global supply chain.

How does the complexity of real estate transactions create an opportunity for technology to improve the overall experience? What similarities exist between the adtech and proptech industries? How can the playing field be leveled for families and individuals that want to purchase homes and build communities? What can be done to empower real estate agents to help their clients in hyper competitive bidding situations?

Lindsay Van Kirk - VP, Sales and Operation at Ribbon joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and address the opportunity for seller agents to support the broader communities in which the live and work by discussing how home sales is much more than just a financial transaction.

Why does being an entrepreneur equip a founder to expect the unexpected? What lessons did Scott learn from losing almost everything in the 2009 financial crisis? What are the unique investment insights that Privy has built into it's solution to help individual investors make decisions? Why should novice real estate investors avoid the lure of gurus and the guarantees that the promise?

Scott Fahl - Founder & CEO of Privy joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share the many ups and downs of his entrepreneurial journey in real estate.

Can the current housing crisis be solved with technology? How have different government policies and social forces contributed to economic and racial inequality in housing? How is the Terner Center advancing innovative policies to influence the way government at all levels is directing money towards creative ways to address housing needs? What successes have the first cohort class from the Housing Lab achieved after the program?

Michelle Boyd - Program Director for the Housing Lab, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and address the need for an equitable recovery from COVID-19.

Michelle Boyd is the Program Director for the Housing Lab, the Terner Center’s program to support early-stage entrepreneurs tackling the high cost of housing. She brings nearly a decade of experience in community and startup finance, organizational design, and urban policy research. Prior to joining the Terner team, Michelle worked as a strategy consultant for the Bridgespan Group, collaborating with nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and foundation leaders across issues of community development, housing, and education. Michelle holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Real Estate from UC Berkeley, and a BA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. Michelle also serves as a Chamberlin Fellow with the Urban Land Institute.

In today's world, should we still be defining businesses along the traditional lines of product and services? How is proptech evolving and accelerating in India and surrounding markets? Can co-living recreate the missing physical connections of communities that increased internet usage has greatly reduced? Ajay Kumar - co-founder and CEO of TheHouseMonk, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss the path to building an international platform for centralized rental real estate management.


Ajay Kumar has been involved in the real estate and proptech domains for close to 7 years. He started Cozee Homes in 2014 as a coliving and rental management company in India and scaled it to 1,000 rental units under management. After exiting the business in 2018, he set up TheHouseMonk - The operating system for rental real estate. The platform helps property managers streamline their portfolio operations and enhance the tenancy experience. Currently,  100+ companies across 12 countries use TheHouseMonk to manage their business.
Ajay also runs RealEstateXTechnology - A newsletter about 'Modern real estate and the technologies that impact it', which has close to 3,000 subscribers. 

Are differing US municipal codes causing fragmentation challenges and thus preventing broader proptech adoption? Why isn't the home a more integral part of the financial advisor planning process? What causes people to talk about homeownership as a financial investment but in reality don't treat it as a financial investment? Why is financial flexibility so important for homeowners? Joe Cianciolo - Co-Founder & CEO of HomePace, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and much more.


Joe Cianciolo is co-founder and CEO of HomePace, Inc.  HomePace enables consumers to achieve their financial goals by providing them to access their home equity without taking on additional debt or interest.

Prior to founding HomePace, Joe was Head of Business Development at Unison.

Joe was previously an executive at FutureAdvisor where he joined as its fifth employee and first non-engineering hire.  As Head of Sales & Business Development, he was responsible for creating and leading client acquisition and revenue-generating functions at FutureAdvisor, driving the firm's growth in assets under management from less than $10 million to over $1 billion in less than 3 years.  Following FutureAdvisor's acquisition by BlackRock, Joe led commercial strategy and distribution for BlackRock's Digital Wealth Technology platform.  

Joe began his career as an investment banker at Thomas Weisel Partners and also previously led business development efforts at financial technology company SecondMarket (acquired by Nasdaq).

 Joe graduated from Pennsylvania State University with both a Bachelors in Economics and an MBA.  He currently lives in the Raleigh, North Carolina area with his wife Sarah and their son and daughter.

Why is the traditional rental showing experience so challenging and unsatisfactory for all participants? What percentage of a leasing agent's time is spent traveling to and from listings? How are different segments of multifamily leasing managers adopting technology to automate their processes? Chris Kostoulas - co-founder and COO of Peek, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how a virtual first leasing platform enables multifamily managers to rent their units much more efficiently, helping them rethink how all of their assets are shown.

Chris is the Co-Founder & COO of Peek, a virtual real estate tour company based in NYC, that’s providing the most seamless way for leasing managers, brokers, and agents to adopt virtual tour technology across their workflow and more efficiently rent apartments.

 Prior to starting Peek, Chris was an early Uber employee (~300) and one of the first in New York. Chris has built an impressive track record in operations, product and business development-- launching multiple US and international markets for Uber, as well as working cross-functionally on a product team, and working in business development for data partnerships. 

Fueled by a passion for social entrepreneurship, Caroline Pinal co-founded  Giveback Homes to empower the real estate industry to turn business into an opportunity for social good. Pinal and team deliver innovation and impact to their network of like-minded real estate agents, brokerages, technology, and service providers. In concert with these companies, Giveback Homes has helped deliver over 200 homes to families in need during the past five years.  Pinal worked directly with Concierge Auctions to establish Key for Key, an award-winning social good program that builds a home in Central America every time a property sold at auction. 

Prior to Giveback Homes, Pinal worked at TOMS, the business that pioneered the one-for-one model by giving shoes to children in need. During her time at TOMS,  she worked alongside Blake Andrews. After a giving trip in Central America,  Blake shared his goals to bring a sustainable giving model to the world of real estate. From this idea, the concept of Giveback Homes was born. Pinal has traveled the globe, leading building trips and conducting impact investigations in areas of greatest need. 

Born and raised in the Mojave Desert, Pinal studied Journalism at Cal State Long  Beach, worked at Fox News and The Walt Disney Company. The path was paved early on for Pinal as she always felt the desire to apply her experiences in storytelling and creativity towards something bigger. Her mission is to guide companies and individuals toward creating more intentional and socially responsible businesses.

What is the rooming house phenomenon? How do you provide housing for segments of the population that cannot afford market-rate housing? Is it possible for landlords to make a profit in the affordable housing market? Atticus LeBlanc - PadSplit founder, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how he is using technology to increase the supply of affordable housing and create a roadmap for affordable housing renters to become affordable housing landlords.

Atticus is the CEO & founder of PadSplit, an online marketplace that leverages shared housing as a tool for financial independence.  PadSplit is a public benefit corporation that has garnered national acclaim as a solution for housing affordability, creating more than 1,200 affordable units in Atlanta in the last 2 years. Atticus has been an affordable housing developer since 2008 and has presented on housing solutions at MIT, UC Berkeley, and the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation. He is also the co-founder of Stryant Construction & Management Inc. Atticus serves as the co-chair of ULI’s UrbanPlan Education Initiative, co-chaired the Design For Affordability Task Force in 2018, was a member of Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2020, and is currently a volunteer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Atlanta. He graduated from Yale University with a BA in Architecture, and currently lives with his family in Decatur, GA along with 2 dogs and lots of chickens.

JoyHub is a business intelligence platform specifically for professional rental owners, managers and operators. By providing access and connectivity across their existing technology infrastructure JoyHub provides rental operators with a holistic view of their properties, tenants and portfolios. Powered by a proprietary integration layer, JoyHub connects, collects and aggregates data from various data sources to support secure data storage, custom reporting and predictive analytics. With access to data from across their various systems, operators view dashboards, create aggregated reports and develop risk models to capitalize on trends, respond to unpredictability, and maximize NOI to deliver greater overall value to investors.

When understanding the definition of proptech, why does it make sense to look at who the definition is serving? How did a mechanical engineering student make their way to the Boston tech startup scene? What was it like building a social networking company during the pre-Facebook days? Why was Boston the wrong place to try to raise capital for a consumer technology startup in the early 2000s? What was the difference between Amazon and most other e-commerce companies during the post dot-com days? Why were the capital markets so apprehensive about initially participating in a shared equity product? How long did it take Point to get an agreed upon rating methodology for the shared equity product? When did Point issue its first investment securitization? How does the efficiency of the mortgage market today make it difficult to disrupt debt coupon products? How much in origination should the HEI product be doing annually?

Eoin Matthews - Chief Business Officer and co-founder of Point, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how helping a friend with the down payment on their first house and unexpectedly getting their money back led to the conviction that there was an incredible opportunity for a shared equity product to help homeowners.

Victor Hunt is the CEO and co-founder of Astorian, a contractor marketplace for building owners and managers. Victor worked in property management for over a decade at a 5000 tenant portfolio in The Bronx where he was inspired by his own challenges hiring contractors. He and his co-founder started the company from their dorm room at Yale and have raised over $2 million in funding from First Round Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Village Global.

Bobby Bryant is the CEO of DOSS Group INC., the holding company for Ask DOSS, DOSS Pros, DOSS Social Agents, DOSS Home Loans, DOSS Home Warranty, etc... DOSS is a proptech company that's obsessed with creating an End-to-End Fair-Priced Digital Real Estate Marketplace. They are developing a Voice-Activated Intelligent Assistant built into a proprietary search and transactional platform that empowers the Consumer and REALTORS® to ask any question about any property in the world to get accurate, easy, and instant answers 24/7. 

Despite over a quarter of American's living in a form of an HOA community, HOAs remain very much a mystery to most of us. Buying into an HOA brings added diligence complexity to prospective homeowners around HOA rules as well as the financial viability of the HOA. Unfortunately, this transactional diligence is very archaic and paper-based. Luckily, our guests today on Proptech Espresso, Jamie Hankinson and Tom Beattie co-founders of Eli Report, are bringing much needed innovation to the HOA space and doing their part to make 2021 the year of Canadian proptech.

Jamie has over 10 years’ experience across technology investment banking, private equity and operations.  Before joining Eli, Jamie worked within the private equity arm of an established real estate developer in Vancouver.  Prior to this role, he was a technology and special situations investment banker at a prominent boutique investment bank in Vancouver.

Thomas has over 15 years’ experience in financial services and was CEO of fintech startup and FINRA broker-dealer Voleo. Thomas is focused on digital transformation; specifically the application of technology to improve efficiency, consumer protection and education. As a former investment banker and startup consultant, Thomas was involved with the raising of billions of dollars of capital for public and private companies. 

Jada Mclean is the Co-founder/CEO of Hurry Home, the platform enabling homeownership of houses valued at $80,000 or less through shared ownership. As an alumna of the renowned Techstars Accelerator and participant of UC Berkeley Terner Center’s inaugural Housing Lab cohort, Jada has been recognized for Hurry Home’s innovative approach to filling in the gap of financing for small-dollar properties. Prior to founding Hurry Home she was an investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Mccoll Partners (acquired by Deloitte Corporate Finance) where she focused on advising companies through mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. She holds a BSE in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University and currently resides in Chicago,IL. 

Why have real estate investors finally started trusting proptech solutions with their data? What are the primary operating tools being adopted by real estate portfolio managers? Andrew Flint - co-founder of Occupier, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how the success of commercial real estate owners has delayed the adoption of technology, with younger tech forward leaders now changing this approach.

Andrew Flint is the co-founder of Occupier, Inc., a Real Estate Success platform for commercial tenants and tenant rep brokers.  He has 10 years of experience in NYC commercial real estate and 9+ years at the forefront of commercial real estate technology.  Andrew realized the need for modern technology in Commercial Real Estate, experiencing the inefficiencies of the industry firsthand while at JLL.  In 2012 he joined VTS has the Head of Business Development after being an angel investor and first non-founder user of the platform.  Andrew graduated from the University of Colorado in 2000.

Ashleigh Wilson is the Founder and CEO of AuditMate, a vertical transportation software, and management company. AuditMate is on a mission to empower building owners and managers with data-driven maintenance auditing products that radically simplify vendor management and selection. Ashleigh believes that in order to do well, we must start by doing right and is proving this by making vertical transportation management accessible and simple.

Mr. Novin has over 14 years of experience in the multifamily development sector and has been involved with the development of over 9,000 multifamily units valued over $3.5B throughout California. Iman founded Novin Development to focus on urban infill, mixed-income, and transit-oriented development projects with a double-bottom line commitment to risk adjusted returns and social / environmental sustainability. 

Prior to starting Novin Development, Iman worked at MidPen Housing as Director of Acquisitions and at BRIDGE Housing as a Project Manager in both northern and southern California. While at MidPen, Iman lead acquisition efforts across the Bay Area, closing new deals and managing broker and investor relationships. While at BRIDGE, Iman helped secure entitlements and LEED ND certification for MacArthur Transit Village, a 675-unit masterplan community in Oakland among other successful investment and development projects. Prior to BRIDGE, Iman worked in the real estate and planning divisions of Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC, now Civic San Diego) on Public Private Partnership and affordable housing policy initiatives within the Downtown San Diego Redevelopment Project Area, as well as with Keyser Marston Associates (KMA) in their San Diego office. 

Iman has served as Vice Chair of the Walnut Creek Planning Commission, Board of Directors of the Trinity Center, a non-profit homeless service provider, and Board of Director of the Chamber of Commerce. Iman also enjoys helping shape housing policy at the State level as an elected Delegate in CA Assembly District 16. Iman holds degrees in both Structural Engineering and Urban Studies and Planning from the University of California, San Diego with honors.

Abbey Wemimo, Co-Founder, Esusu 

Abbey Wemimo is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Esusu, a financial technology platform that reports rental data to build tenant's credit scores while helping property owners increase revenue, lower evictions powered by differentiated data and insights. Prior to Esusu, Abbey founded Clean Water for Everyone, a global social venture providing affordable access to clean water for 250,000+ people in six countries. He also founded a data analytics company designed to gather machine-readable data on NGOs operating in Africa which was acquired in 2014. Previously, Abbey was a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PwC, where he worked on more than 20 buy and sell-side deals valued at over $50 billion. He also gained valuable experience working with Accenture, European Commission, and Goldman Sachs. 

Abbey and his work have been recognized in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Quartz, Fortune, Teen Vogue, Vice, Black Enterprise, and Cheddar. Abbey was selected by Queen Elizabeth II as a Queen Young Leader. He was inducted into The Royal Commonwealth Society in 2017 and named to the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. He speaks at global conferences and has presented at the United Nations, the Vatican, the World Food Prize, and Clinton Global Initiative among others. Abbey graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. He holds a Masters of Public Administration degree from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School School of Public Service and a Leading Change Scholar from The University of Cambridge.

Samir Goel, Co-Founder, Esusu 

Samir Goel is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Esusu, the leadinga financial technology platform that reports rental data to build tenant's credit scores while helping property owners increase revenue, lower evictions powered by differentiated data and insights. Esusu’s renter ecosystem currently covers over 250,000 rental units in 35 states across the United States. 

Prior to Esusu, Samir Co-Founded Transfernation, a nationally recognized non-profit that uses technology to ensure that excess food goes toward underserved communities across New York City.  Transfernation has rescued over 2 million pounds of food and impacted 1.8 million lives. Samir’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, Quartz, Fortune, Vice, Black Enterprise, and he was named to the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. 

Previously, Samir worked at LinkedIn in Customer Success Consulting, Talent Acquisition, and Sales Strategy & Operations focused across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Samir also worked at The United Nations and Venture for America. Samir contributes for LinkedIn, The Daily Muse, Influencive, Mogul, and Quartz. He speaks at conferences around the country and has addressed The United Nations to the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting. He received his Bachelor of Science from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Krishna is an Associate with Moderne Ventures. Her primary responsibilities include supporting the Passport Program, sourcing new companies, and supporting Moderne's Portfolio. 

Prior to joining Moderne Ventures, Krishna was an analyst at Keller Williams Realty International. She worked on technology trends research, sourced startup companies for partnerships, and participated in special projects. During her time at Keller Williams, she even had opportunities to work directly with Gary Keller, founder, and CEO of KWRI. Krishna received her Bachelors of Arts with honors in Sociology and a minor in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Proptech Espresso is brought to you by Mark Hurst, owner and operator of HurstX Solutions.

Experienced CEO / senior leader across multiple industries Rick Altizer joined Earnnest in March 2019 from BP, where he was senior vice president of fuel sales and marketing for North America. He was named North America’s Fuels Leader of the Year in 2018 by Convenience Store magazine Prior to BP, Rick served as regional vice president for McDonald's, running a $1 billion region with 500 stores. He also served as president of Jiffy Lube International, vice president of marketing for Shell Oil Company, the first non-founder CEO of organic burger pioneer startup Elevation Burger and president of private-equity-owned McAlister's Deli. In 2020, he was named a RISMedia Newsmaker for his headline-making contributions to the real estate industry as CEO of Earnnest.

Under Rick’s leadership, digital payment maven Earnnest has raised over $5M in capital, increased revenue 15x and has grown staff 5x to 30 employees. Rick’s goal is to present Earnnest as “the one digital payment solution for the built world” beginning with residential real estate in the US. 

Does exposure to family entrepreneurship at an early age impact the likelihood of pursuing a startup later in life How extensively is fractional ownership touching the different real estate asset classes? Why is it important to get experience receiving a lot of "NO's" when pursuing a startup idea? Why is it important to find a champion when introducing a new product to a corporation? How did helping stand up the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) during COVID at Capital One prove to be an invaluable work experience? What about the mortgage industry value chain makes it difficult to create products that c reates pathways to more affordable homeownership? What is novel about the equity vs traditional debt structure that Quarter is championing as an instrument for homeownership? Why did Quarter feel it was important to go with a pari passu fee model? How has a focus on compliance shaped the product development timeline for Quarter? Why is education so important for a new home ownership instrument like Quarter?

Shannon Diesch - CEO and co-founder of Quarter, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how participating in a high school food science challenge led to an opportunity to collaborate with NASA and its astronauts.

Soner Hacihaliloglu started his professional carrier as Project Manager at Siemens Ares-account Technologies. After working 3 years in Building Technologies he was appointed as the MENA Region Business Development manager at E-on Ista Holding. During the time he served as a Business development manager he was responsible for the operations in 5 different countries in 3 continents. He set up operations from 0 to 50m Euro revenue in 2 years. Soner has been chosen as one of the best Innovators under 40 and Best young Energy Professional in the MENA region in 2017 and 2018. As of 2018, Soner is the CEO of BEAD Technologies, a company that has been awarded by the UN, Europe Union, Sustainable Management Assotioains as one of the best innovations in 2018.

00:01:12 Who is Soner and what is his professional, international background
00:02:10 How do you define Proptech?
00:03:21 How has the world changed in Proptech since Covid?
00:04:55 The notion of smart cities and how technology will change them
00:07:25 The biggest Proptech challenges facing the industry
00:09:28 How businesses want independence from real estate human interactions
00:10:57 The impact Covid has had on Proptech
00:12:33 Reducing overcrowding in buildings
00:14:49 What can we expect for the Covid future of real estate
00:18:06 Covid exposed international weaknesses
00:20:15 How siloed information limited tech flexibility

As the Chief Executive Officer, Mike Greene is responsible for all commercial activity at ResiShares.

Mike’s fascination with the housing market began with a guest lecture in his undergrad economics class by Nobel-winning economist Robert Shiller. The lecture focused on Shiller’s eponymous home price indices, which first drew attention to the possibility of liquid, geographically-based investment products.

During his 15 years in the securities industry, first on the sell-side and then as the head trader at Bocage Capital, Mike had a front-row seat to the rapid replacement of human discretion by algorithms in trade execution, portfolio optimization, risk analysis, and even asset selection. The implications of this evolution on the housing market were never far from his mind.

Mike left the securities industry in 2017 to focus on this new housing asset class, working with top SFR and whole loan investors at HouseCanary, leading home valuation and analytics platform. Witnessing the organic emergence of the single-family rental ecosystem convinced him that the world was finally ready to see Shiller’s challenge accepted.
ResiShares is the culmination of this career-long dream. 


00:38 Who is Mike Greene?
02:09 How do you define proptech?
06:40 Why is proptech important right now and where are the challenges going forward?
08:52 Painful personal experience of real estate
11:01 What to expect the second half of 2020?
14:30 Doing well versus when tough times
16:36 Strategic priorities businesses need
18:22 Covid-19 crisis - How will that impact proptech?
19:37 What can you divulge about Resi Shares?
22:20 How to allocate money?
23:32 What city would you invest in first?

Proptech Espresso is brought to you by host Mark Hurst, owner and operator of HurstX Solutions. 

Today's guest on Proptech Espresso is Wendy Gilch. Wendy is the CEO and Founder of Selling Later; an ally for consumers that let’s future home sellers and home buyers connect in advance.  In addition to giving time back to consumers, Selling Later also peels back the layers of secrecy within the industry by educating consumers on the selling/buying process.   Their unbiased platform creates a safe place for consumers to connect, without selling member information or participating in referrals programs.   They believe that referral companies work against consumers and agents, and instead allow direct connections between future buyers and sellers. Their mission is to be a trusted ally for consumers by giving them time and transparency in real estate, while also supporting nonprofits.

Wendy is a graduate of Slippery Rock University (yes, it does exist) and currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and two kids (three if you count their dog).  She believes that a successful founder focuses on solving a problem and supporting those that are making a difference in small communities.

Timestamps:

01:29 How is Proptech Defined

02:36 Why is Proptech still unknown?

04:07 What was compelling about becoming an entrepreneur

05:38 Challenges in selling real estate

08:18 A fear of missing out

11:19 How do you know if you have the best agent

14:54 How different groups are monetizing proptech

17:15 Real estate is such an asset class - with money to be made

19:45 Consumers are missing valuable allies

23:04 Determining who and what gets funded

27:23 The race to see who gets there first

30:44 How do we empower home buyers and home sellers

Proptech Espresso is brought to you by host Mark Hurst, owner and operator of HurstX Solutions. 

Alex Villacorta is a pragmatic and enterprising Data Scientist with a diverse business and analytics catalog, delivering industry-validated analytical products through proven executive leadership. Engineer of advanced statistical models in both design and production implementation, attaining key intellectual property and multimillion-dollar contracts. Housing industry expert regularly cited in tier one media outlets for predictive housing analytics. He is an expert statistician and business executive combining over 10 years of statistical analysis in both consumer and business analytics with extensive board room communication experience. 

00:43 Who is Alex Villacorta

01:40 How do you define Proptech

03:13 How things have changed in history

04:17 What is Proptech's biggest challenges?

05:41 Reason Proptech is so important today

08:52 The driving forces of shelter and safety

09:53 The ultimate vision

12:18 The vilification of models

14:00 Differentiating one's self from the fray

17:12 The tale of two cities

19:59 How covid changes our view of the work environment

24:36 Will people go back to their childhood communities?

27:42 American cities changing during Covid-19

30:17 Sharing homes - the new trends for multi-family and single-family dwellings

Matt is a strategy, innovation, and business development executive with deep experience in housing and community development, finance, and urban policy. He has a track record of creating value and revenue growth through discovering and conceiving new ventures, business planning, managing cross-sector teams, deal-making, and supporting entrepreneurship with a core focus at the intersection of technology and housing. His career experiences in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors support a deep commitment to civic engagement and problem-solving for the common good that brings disparate parties together.

Matt founded HousingTech Ventures to invest in early-stage companies with tech-enabled solutions that have the prospect to increase housing availability, attainability, and affordability. With over 20 years’ experience building businesses in the housing and technology sectors, Matt most recently served as Vice President of Innovation for Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national real estate financial services platform serving the affordable housing sector. In that role, he built an investment portfolio of HousingTech companies and led the launch of an online impact investing brokerage.
His previous experiences include serving as a policy advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and running a federal interagency taskforce on e-commerce; providing business strategy and policy consulting to high-tech and startup companies as Vice President of E-commerce at Infotech Strategies; and co-founding and running a real estate development company in Baltimore, Maryland. 

He currently serves as an UrbanTech advisor to  Dreamit  Ventures, an Ivory Innovations Fellow, and member of the Multifamily Operating Standards Assessment & Improvement Council.  Matt has served on numerous non-profit boards and currently chairs the real estate finance committee of Benedictine Programs & Services, which helps children and adults with developmental disabilities achieve their greatest potential and is undergoing a $40 million campus transformation.

He is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (MPP) and Brown University (BA).

00:28 Who is Matt Hoffman

01:57 Why is proptech defined so differently?

02:59 Real estate's impact on society

04:47 Evolution of the industry

06:01 Why is proptech important?

08:25 Market forces

11:13 Changing capital forces

12:21 Force of equity and social justice

14:21 How Covid-19 impacts the future

15:35 Wet, Dry and Scrub encounters

JP is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Data Collective Venture Capital.  JP advises several early-stage organizations on GTM and product strategy.  Prior to DCVC, JP started a residential lender - SimpleFinance led commercial efforts as EVP, Head of Sales at HouseCanary, and spent a decade at PulteGroup helping to manage the community portfolio, acquisitions, and dispositions.   Through his roles, JP’s led partnership with SFR Operators, iBuyers, lobbying groups, governmental and rating agencies, capital providers, lenders, insurers, data providers, and analytics developers.

00:30 Who is JP Ackerman
01:42 Defining Proptech
02:44 The Great Recession
04:03 Three stages of proptech
05:58 Are banks getting on board?
07:00 Globalization of the proptech industry
07:58 The most important area of proptech
10:46 Cost considerations
12:09 We still know very little
13:40 Challenges in the industry
14:20 Covid 19
16:18 How the industry has been impacted
19:35 A trend long underway
20:57 Employee mandates for work from home
23:05 How we define community has changed

How did an Environmental Sciences degree lead to a career in sustainability? How did attending DesignX at MIT sow the seeds for TULU? Why did Yael become a minimalist? Where did the name TULU originate? Why did TULU believe fast experimentation was extremely important when building an MVP? What did TULU learn early on about customer preferences and did the usage data bear this out? How is the TULU app helping it become a data driven company? Why are brands and retailers partnering with TULU and how was this strategy envisioned from the very beginning? How many different ways does TULU incorporate surveying into its platform? What surprising usage/consumption patterns have emerged with TULU? How is TULU supporting creators and work from home employees?

Yael Shemer - Chief Customer Officer and co-founder of TULU, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how her education in environmental science and sustainability initially led to a feeling of slight depression about the state of the world, but that she was able to change this perspective and identifying ways in which she could make a positive change on the environment.

What was it like to be involved with the European proptech scene as it started to gain momentum and formalize into a tech space? How did a Latvian trait of resourcefulness continually re-enforced by his grandfather inspire Mikus to provide real estate agents with tools to help them create visualizations themselves? Why did the first wave of VR tools and solutions lead to bespoke and niche visualization projects for high-end real estate? When brainstorming ideas for his next company, what drove Mikus to want to build a subscription business that is applicable during the entire lifecycle of the customer? Why do SaaS businesses allow companies to justify spending resources/investment on customer satisfaction while project based businesses do not? What makes smartphones an inferior product to capture real estate scans? How will real estate digital content requirements continue to grow over the long term? Why are quality real estate images hard to capture? Why are real estate agents interested in creating and controlling the real estate visualization content they create?

Mikus Opelts - CEO and co-founder of Giraffe360, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how attending art school inspired him to pursue visual information and storytelling that naturally led to the creation of his first startup and set off a career in real estate visualization.

How did an investigation into 3D printing houses spark an interest in real estate? On ICON's first marketing flyers, what price did they believe they would be able to sell their 3D printed homes for? Why does Germany build denser housing than the US? Why are there so few books on real estate development? What makes local city real estate decisions so difficult to identify and analyze? How does the age/maturity of a city influence the types of real estate decisions being made? What unintentional action created a lot of interest in ReZone's launch? How many real estate decisions are being made at the city level weekly? Why are researchers so interested in the data that ReZone is producing? How are advancements in AI making ReZone's analysis possible today?

Daniel Heller - CEO and co-founder of ReZone, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how starting a business with friends during high school was such a positive entrepreneurial experience that it continues to be revisited amongst them to this day.

How did an early career in consulting shape an understanding of the need to deliver both on time and at the highest level of quality? Why is it important for entrepreneurs to be able to step into the shoes of their customers every single day? What are some of the challenges of long-term business planning that the quarterly reporting cycle for public companies creates? How does investing in real estate provide more predictability on outcomes vs other alternative investment markets? Why is communication challenging for condos and HOA boards? How has email contributed to the challenges of task management? Why is UI becoming less of a focus in the age of AI? How do you break down the walled gardens of property management to unlock data insights? What are the opportunities for sentiment analysis around communication for property management?

Lindsay Liu - co-founder and CEO of Super joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how her college roommate friendship built the trust that was necessary for a successful startup co-founder partnership.

Does construction tech end once occupancy of a building happens? Why is it important to be able to professionally reinvent yourself? What was the draw to the clean tech space after spending time in the aerospace industry? Why has construction insurance costs ballooned? What can GCs do to mitigate risk and thereby help keep insurance costs in check? Why has water become such a larger driver of construction related insurance costs? What have been the drivers of IoT device adoption on the construction site? How is technology adoption on construction sites different from the rates that you see in other industries? Why is technology adoption becoming a competitive advantage for many early adopters of technology within construction? Why is the data from the interconnected job site so valuable for construction companies? Why is the outlook for construction so bright?

Alex Fuentes - EVP Strategic Growth at Brickeye, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share the unique coop program of the University of Waterloo engineering department that exposed him to a wide variety of industries including power generation, consumer electronics, manufacturing and aerospace to name a few.

What was it like growing up as part of a multi-generational family construction business? How did being immersed in the family construction business provide unique benefits while working on Bryce's master degree in college? Why were the inefficiencies that Bryce observed in the asphalt industry such a professional draw for him? How do you change the image of the construction industry as being unsexy, consisting of long hours, and lots of callouses? Why has the adoption of technology accelerated in the last couple of years? How did Bryce become a simultaneous serial construction entrepreneur? Why did Bryce decide to exit his other businesses and focus on his software startup? What sort of compliance issues are part of infrastructure construction projects? How does weather impact infrastructure construction projects? What unique part of Pavewise's sales process has resulted in a 100% prospect conversion rate? Why have word-of-mouth referrals been such a strong source of sales leads for Pavewise? How has Pavewise integrated AI into its solution? 

Bryce Wuori - co-founder and CEO of Pavewise, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how participating in research projects across his 20-year career in asphalt has given him unique expertise, making him one of the few recognized asphalt scientists in the U.S.

Is robotics the ultimate tool for giving humans superpower capabilities? Why are snake robots Kevin's nemesis? What prompted Kevin to learn to code? Why is it transformational to bring robots out of the lab/factory and into everyday human environments? How did a summer job in construction provide the basis for focusing on bringing robotics into the built world? What robotic research project with the US military inspired the movie Big Hero 6? Why did the idea of soft robots ultimately not prove to be a good basis for robots in the real world? What is it about surface paint prepping that makes this task so difficult and at the same time such a big opportunity? How did speaking with hotel owners about renovations lead to the concept for Canvas? What are the staggering rates of long-term medical issues construction workers experience due to either accidents or repetitive motion jobs? Why have robots in construction historically not been developed for use in the interiors of buildings? What is the meaning behind the company name Canvas? How are Canvas robots helping to bring drywall workers into the construction industry? What are the constraints that construction robots have to deal with that manufacturing robots do not? Why do construction tech startups need to fully understand the economics of the skilled trades they are impacting when exploring a new technology to bring to market? What causes construction to be such a distributed system? Why is achieving commercial reliability so important for construction robotic companies? What do robotic construction tech companies need to understand about hardware production cycles?

Kevin Albert - Founder & CEO of Canvas joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discusses how a frustrating second place finish in a high school bridge building competition left him with a chip on his shoulder and fueled a career in wanting to design and build things.

 Jenna Louie, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer of Ivory Innovations, joins Proptech Espresso to announce the winners of the seventh annual Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability. This year's winners were selected from a record 280+ nominations within Construction & Design, Finance, and Policy & Regulatory Reform. These companies represent the most compelling and novel housing innovation solutions directly addressing the widening housing affordability crisis in the US.

Why is there so much bespoke design happening with real estate development projects? What is meant by design productization? Why have some companies championed vertically integrated construction? What was Katerra's business model and secret sauce? Why is innovating in construction tech so difficult? What are the challenges for VCs when considering non-software investments in construction tech? Why is the construction industry facing major challenges when manufacturers are investing in industrialized construction and developers/contractors want to do more prefab work? How is the labor crisis impacting the construction industry? Why is the transition to offsite construction critical in a shrinking labor pool environment? When evaluating the space, how are construction robots commonly segmented? Why is changing the established behavior of architects as it relates to building design and construction tech so challenging? What is a coordinated construction model? Why is the logistics related to offsite construction so tricky?

Justin Schwaiger - General Manager US at Kope, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how observing the effects of earthquakes locally and internationally in his youth was a major factor in steering him into a career where he could impact and improve the built environment.

Why can long tenures in industries stifle innovation? How did John and his wife end up in Mountain View, California? What were some of the memorable dates that John took his wife on? Why was it beneficial to write business plans on any idea that John researched? What prompted the research and launching of Sara Schools Music Program? Why was the concept of leasehold improvements so frustrating to John? What lessons and struggles came with running a service business? What divine inspiration did John receive while processing his frustrations with the commercial leasing process? What types of research was John doing to form the education foundation necessary to build the wall system he was told to create? How did the initial funds become available to start prototyping the wall system? Why is it important to bring low or no-skill workers into construction? What is meant by the category 'Productization of Construction'? How can construction benefit by focusing on circularity and sustainability? How is Låda Cube integrating with design solutions like Revit to introduce wall standardization into digital wall plans? What are the three (3) R's that Låda Cube allows for? How did a dream about Tesla become so significant for John's Låds Cube journey?

John Fay - Founder & CEO of Låda Cube joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discusses how his curiosity about his entrepreneurial bug led him to explore alongside his wife many potential business ideas before being told to pursue the opportunity that would become Låda Cube.

Which emerging trend caused Skye not to pursue a degree in architecture? What was it like building a startup within Oracle? How did personal experience draw Skye into the proptech space? What realization around purchasing a home was the inspiration for starting Crib Equity? Why are third-party investors interested in helping unknown individuals purchase a home? What are the systemic structural issues that first-time homebuyers are faced with today? Why are homebuyers no longer putting 20% down and what was this average down payment % changed to? Who is a nepo-buyer? Nationally, how long is it taking a prospective homebuyer to save for a 10% down payment? How are real estate agents providing a greater degree of financial advice to home buyers today? What does the landscape of alternative home purchase options look like?

Skye Laudari - Co-founder & CEO of Crib Equity joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how traveling internationally for two years immediately after graduating from college was transformational and helped develop personal and professional life skills that can take most people decades to learn.

Despite many advances in proptech, has it also regressed in certain senses? Why has the technology adoption chasm been so big to cross in proptech? Can proptech solutions hope to introduce change management to companies that still solely rely on Excel to run their business? Why did Kyle see technology as an advantage over his potential commercial real estate broker colleagues? What has it been like launching a technology startup with no prior background in technology? What is an asset operating platform? For asset managers how does saving time result in improved NOI? Why is early customer feedback so critical for designing a successful and scalable solution? Are we seeing the era of brokerage consolidation in the commercial broker space? Is there an issue with having real estate LPs in proptech VCs sway portfolio company roadmaps to benefit themselves instead of designing solutions for the broader market? How does the HBO show Silicon Valley accurately portray start-up life?  Why is figuring out a business more than simply bringing a product to market? How is AI going to positively impact the commercial real estate space over the next couple of years?

Kyle Waldrep - Founder & CEO of Dottid joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how a major illness in college changed his priorities and closed the door on the professional tennis career path that he had always envisioned.

Is the right way to think about proptech to frame it in terms of how humans live, work, and function in our communities? What is the proptech scene like in Romania? Why were real estate developers experiencing so many issues in their sales process and turning to tech solutions to solve these? What has led to Romania having such a high property ownership rate? Why are Romanian property valuations continuing to grow year over year? What impact is AI having on the real estate industry? Why was it important for the solution Vaunt was building to maintain the feeling of being proud that goes along with buying a property and in no way take away from it? Why have real estate agents historically not been a profession in Romania? What has the introduction of private creditors done to open up access to foreign buyers across Europe? How has word of mouth been instrumental in Vaunt's growth? What has allowed Vaunt to build a valuation index so buyers can appraise their properties on an ongoing basis? Why are foreign buyers purchasing investment homes across Europe? How is Vaunt planning to tap the US market?

Irina Constantin - Co-founder & CEO of Vaunt joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how internships were instrumental in exploring potential career paths and ultimately giving her the conviction to seek out an entrepreneurial opportunity where she knew she would not be bored.

Why has proptech evolved from initially innovating and disrupting the four walls of a physical asset to now primarily encompassing secondary industries such as financing and servicing which are asset light? Does ESG fall under the big umbrella of proptech? What are the benefits of having job experience in an industry and getting the exposure necessary to be able to speak the language of an industry? How was the New York startup scene changed since the early 2010s? What are some of the most important skills learned working in management consulting? Why is culture and cultural fit so important in successful M&A transactions? Is Airbnb a proptech company? What are the challenges of choosing a vacational rental property that will be profitable? Why are most vacational rental properties not a passive investment? How has Summer expanded its product offering to vacational home buyers since its initial launch? Why do vacational rental property owners need better data?

Paul Kromidas - Founder & CEO of Summer joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss why its important for proptech companies to develop relationships with the city officials that the company will be operating in. 

Why are many of the most successful real estate agents true entrepreneurs at heart? How is Redfin able to focus on solving the core issues of the real estate agent and in turn solve problems for the homebuying consumer? What has been the driver of more and more homebuyers looking to purchase real estate properties outside the US? Why is purchasing real estate internationally such a black box? What are the primary differences between purchasing a home in the US and purchasing a home in Mexico? Why is working with a real estate agent in Mexico as important for home purchases as it is in the US? Why aren't cross border mortgage products more readily available to international homebuyers? How do marketplace business models make or break growth dynamics for early stage tech businesses? Why are the best real estate agents so relationship focused? What telephony challenges for international real estate transactions has Far Homes needed to build technology to help solve? Why has technology for the real estate agents in Mexico not achieved the adoption levels of their US counterparts? How do you solve for listing aggregation when there is no MS equivalent in international markets? What are the profile types of US buyers purchasing internationally? Are there opportunities to create deeper technological innovation within cross-border home buying?

Chet Kittleson - co-founder and CEO of Far Homes, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how watching the personal struggles and triumphs of his real estate agent mother created a love of home ownership and a deep entrepreneurial drive from these deeply impactful childhood experiences. 

Why does coming to terms with the fact that you won't lose everything by becoming an entrepreneur help founders cross a mental threshold for diving into a new venture? How did the term 'burn it to the ground' directly apply to the entrepreneurial ventures of Brandon's family? Why is galvanizing a team and building a great culture central to entrepreneurial success? What was the importance of Geokey being hardware agnostic? Why is it important to use data to make better decisions and to then pivot based on these insights? What are the benefits of having a solid grasp of all functional groups and how they holistically impact an organization? Why is understanding the impact on NOI critical to companies looking to enter the multifamily space? What is the difference between a B2B company and a B2B2C company in the multifamily space? How many times on average does a person in a multifamily unit access their unit daily? What are the benefits of hardware implementations in multifamily? What does it mean to do deep integrations in the mobile access space for multifamily? Are there challenges to retrofitting an existing building for mobile access? What are the critical differences between multifamily and student housing industries that proptech companies need to fully understand?

Brandon Peterson - co-founder and CEO of Geokey, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how being part of a serial entrepreneur family that has started more than 50 businesses across multiple industries, sees that success many times boils down to having a good idea that solves a problem and surrounding this idea with a team of great people who want be part of the journey.

Why is it important to include supply chain in the proptech tent? How do asset lifecycles contribute to the complexity of the real estate industry? In what ways did a class in entrepreneurial marketing at Harvard Business School cause a reset of notions around who can be an entrepreneur? How did a personal experience with a shipping oil spill in her backyard cause Kathleen to rethink how commerce and the environment need to interact? Why does the built environment provide such a large opportunity to impact sustainability? What are the different impact buckets that fall under the sustainability umbrella? Why was a product catalog of building materials and sustainability data forming a single source of truth desperately needed across multiple stakeholders in the built environment? Who are the constituents of Ecomedes' three-sided marketplace? How has the federal government taken the early lead in driving standardization and reporting of real estate sustainability? What circumstances led to there being over 100 different sources certifying and testing building materials? Why is building an API an important strategic initiative to broaden the distribution of impact awareness data? How will generative AI help a broader group of people engage with Econmedes' sustainability data?

Kathleen Egan- co-founder and CEO of Ecomedes, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how a missed opportunity to be a Disney Imagineer led to a career in consulting that enabled her to cultivate her broad interests as an intellectual dilettante. 

What macro factors motivated Eric's initial decision to enter the construction field right out of college? Why is it so difficult to drive change within the construction industry? Is technology adoption within the commercial construction sector finally starting to the hit the adoption hockey stick? What are the cost advantages of using technology in pre-construction to minimize in the field problem issues?  Where is the bulk of cost in construction projects? Why are back-office construction technology solutions easier to develop than in the field solutions? What are the two technology levers driving in the field construction innovation? Why are construction field crews so supportive of robotics innovation? What are the primary categories of construction robotics currently being used in the field today? Why is deconstruction better environmentally and economically as compared to demolition? What is meant by the term urban mining? Why are field tests so important for construction robotics? How do lumber mills participate in the partner ecosystem for reclaimed lumber? Why would a lumber rental model make sense for the construction industry? Can contaminated wood be reclaimed? Are there reclaiming opportunities for Urban Machine robots outside of the construction industry?

Eric Law- co-founder and CEO of Urban Machine, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss why reclaimed lumber hitting price parity with virgin lumber is such an important milestone for the construction circular economy.

What are the primary differences between Proptech 1.0, Proptech 2.0, and today's Proptech 3.0? In what way did Brian's consulting work quickly change as financial firms navigated the Great Financial Crisis? What was it like to be at the forefront of the technology revolution within investment management that led to quant investing? Why did Brian get the chance to build a reinsurance business from the ground up and how did this work establish his credentials for raising institutional capital? How did a weekend and weeknight personal research project on shared equity in real estate lead to a role at Unison? Why was it important that from the get go the Jubilee Homes solution work within the existing real estate ecosystem? What is a leasehold product and how does this differ from a traditional mortgage? Why is Jubilee Homes focused on markets where there is a high land share percentage for home purchases? What attributes of the residential ground lease asset class make it particularly interesting for institutional capital? Why was it important for Jubilee Homes to build trust with real estate agents? Does the leasehold product work for real estate asset classes outside of residential real estate?

Brian Elbogen - CEO and co-founder of Jubilee Homes, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how a conversation with a professor on a recruiting trip around the opportunity to study operations researched tipped the scale in favor of attending Princeton over the Univeristy of Penn.