Tech Nest: The Proptech Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this special episode, you'll get to listen in on conversations I had while attending Blueprint Conference, 2024. 

Here's the list of guests in this Part 3 of my Blueprint Conversations series.

• Pierre Calzadilla, Co-founder & COO at Upfront
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierrecalzadilla 
  • https://myupfront.com
• Mukund Venkatakrishnan, Co-founder & CEO at Upfront
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/mukund-venkatakrishnan-466636a5
  • https://myupfront.com
• Amber Kahr, Co-founder & COO at Billions
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberkahr
  • https://joinbillions.com
• James Gallagher, Co-founder & CEO at Greenlite
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesabgallagher
  • https://www.greenlite.com
• Ethan Lieber, Co-founder & CEO at Latchel
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanlieber
  • https://latchel.com
• Nick Durham, General Partner at Shadow Ventures
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-durham-a3708724
  • https://shadow.vc/

In this conversation I'm joined by Zumper Co-founder and CEO, Anthemos Georgiades. We discuss the evolving landscape of the rental market, highlighting the record supply of rental units in 2024 and the implications for renters and property management companies. I was excited to discuss the latest partnership between Zumper and Airbnb, exploring how this collaboration reflects the convergence of long-term and short-term rental markets. Anthemos has been in the trenches of this industry for quite a few years, stays in the data, and have some interesting outlooks for the industry to come. Do not miss this important episode! 

More about Anthemos and Zumper
After standing in the rain in London to try and get an apartment in his 20s, Anthemos realized how antiquated yet massive the rental industry was. So, Zumper was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, kicking off at TechCrunch Disrupt, to modernize the rental industry and they are now the largest privately owned rental platform in North America. 

Zumper is the largest privately owned rental platform in North America with more than 76 million site visits a year. Zumper is on a mission to make renting a home as easy as booking a hotel. To date, Zumper has raised over $178 million from Kleiner Perkins, Goodwater Capital, Headline, Dawn Capital, and the Blackstone Group.

• Connect with Anthemos on LinkedIn
• Follow Anthemos on Twitter
• Follow Zumper on Twitter
• Check out Zumper

In this episode, Phil Levin, Founder and CEO of Live Near Friends, shares insights on the importance of proximity in shaping our lives and the potential for multiplayer mode housing. He discusses the benefits of living near friends and family, how transportation influences city design, and the rise of cul-de-sac communities. Phil also touches on the role of ADUs in fostering closer-knit neighborhoods, the loneliness epidemic, and the health impacts of community living. The conversation highlights how proximity to happy friends can boost happiness by 40%, and explores the future of urban planning with self-driving cars.

More about Phil and Live Near Friends
LiveNearFriends reinvents residential real estate by focusing on the #1 amenity: people. We address many of today's biggest pain points: loneliness, isolation in raising families, and lack of rootedness in a WFH world. There’s a silver bullet for these problems, and it's living in proximity to people you love.

Today's product aggregates latent demand for living near friends & family, identifies existing housing supply that is a good fit for groups, and greases the behavioral mechanics. It's been covered by Vox, Guardian, Axios, Bigger Pockets and Business Insider. The vision is to become the marketplace where all "proximate housing" is marketed, developed, financed, and sold. 

Phil is the CEO/founder of Live Near Friends, the social real estate platform that helps people live within walking distance of friends & family.

Previously, he helped start Culdesac (a developer building walkable, car-free neighborhoods, $200m+ raised).

Phil started a housing cluster called Radish where he lives near 19 friends and 5 of their kids spread across 10 homes.  He writes about this on Supernuclear, the #1 newsletter on living near friends (160K reach).

Phil’s mission is to create forms of housing which makes us happy, healthy, and connected. And in doing so rebuild the social fabric of our neighborhoods.

• Follow Phil on Twitter
• Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
• Follow Live Near Friends on Twitter
• Check out Live Near Friends

Adam Stark is Co-founder of a company called Jet.Build. Jet.Build is a platform that enables real estate developers to streamline communication between vendors, partners, lenders, and other important stakeholders on projects. This is accomplished by digitizing and automating a lot of the manual processes you might encounter when completing a ground up or retro-fitting an older apartment building. Tools such as Jet.Build help companies initiate and progress significantly in digitally transforming; ultimately leading to saved time, money, and effort. Adam shares more about the opportunity of ahead of Jet.Build and the industry as a whole. Listen in to hear what he has to say.

More about Adam and Jet.Build
Think about organizations that leverage a Salesforce for their sales department, a Hubspot for their marketing department, an ADP for their HR department, a Netsuite for their accounting department—and so forth.

Jet.Build is the equivalent organizations necessity for real estate operators; a cloud-based command center. Jet-clients? Developers, contractors, owners reps, construction managers—and a few more unique cliental. 

My co-founder and I know each other first as enemies; competing in high school sports agains one another. Fast forward, we end up in the same military enlistment as airborne troops (paratroopers). Fast forward again, we end up in NYC working for real estate developers. Here, we recognized the need for a better 'salesforce' equivalent solution for the industry; the legacy products that exist are simply outdated, clunky, and wildly priced. Jet.Build will standardize the industry as the essential organization management software.

• Follow Adam on Twitter 
• Connect with Adam on LinkedIn

Join host Nate Smoyer on Tech Nest podcast as he sits down with reAlpha President, Jorge Aldecoa, to discuss their concept of investing in vacation rentals like stocks. Jorge will share his insights on the current state of the vacation rental market and explain how owning a share of the budding vacation rental industry is more attainable than ever before. Jorge shares how reAlpha is approaching vacation rentals investing differently than others using their proprietary AI-powered reAlphaBrain, Elon Musk deep-fake viral marketing, and offering a Reg A product. Whether you’re an experienced investor or just starting out, this episode is a good listen for anyone looking to learn more about something new in the vacation rentals space.

More about Jorge and reAlpha
reAlpha is building a digital real estate investing platform that enables its members to simplify wealth creation opportunities through investments in vacation homes while striving to deliver exceptional guest experiences. reAlpha sources and scores properties from the wholesale market using a proprietary AI-driven algorithm called reAlphaBRAIN. It then predicts the viability of each property for the short-term rental market, as well as the projected long-term value. reAlpha’s business plan contemplates eventually allowing investors to buy equity in specific properties, providing opportunities for short-term passive income generation via Airbnb, as well as equity-driven capital appreciation. reAlpha is based in Dublin, Ohio. For more information, please visit www.realpha.com.

Check out reAlpha

Want to see that viral video reAlpha created using a deep fake of Elon Musk? Watch it on TechNest.io

Max Brickman, founder of Heartland Ventures, discusses his unconventional approach to venture capital investing on Tech Nest. Brickman has an incredible background as an operator, and that experience has helped him rethink the approach to venture capital. All the way from the investors he partners with all the way to how his firm determines what companies to invest in.  

More about Max and Heartland Ventures
Heartland Ventures is an unconventional venture capital firm focused on connecting startups from traditional tech hubs to industrial corporations in America's heartland. Founded in 2016, Heartland has over $100 million under management and has invested in 14 high-performing portfolio companies.

Max is the Managing Director of Heartland Ventures, which he founded in 2016.  He manages the fund’s relationships with other venture capital partners and oversees key investment decisions with the Heartland team. He was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2022.

• Follow Heartland Ventures on Twitter
• Follow Heartland Ventures on LinkedIn
• Check out Heartland Ventures

Tech Nest Podcast brings you an interview with Lily Liu, CEO of Piñata, an innovative new app that rewards renters for their monthly payments. In this episode, Lily discusses the inspiration behind Piñata, how it works, and the benefits it offers to both renters and landlords. She also shares her insights on the future of the rental market and how renter amenities will take shape in the years to come. Tune in to hear more about this exciting new app that is changing the game for renters everywhere.

More about Lily and Piñata
Piñata is the nation’s largest rental membership program on a mission to make renting smarter and more rewarding for tenants and landlords alike. The company, founded in 2020 and led by women of color, offers renters a unique set of financial benefits including free rewards and credit-score-boosting opportunities, while also providing a unique amenity for landlords. Piñata has raised $20 million from leading investors including Wilshire Lane Capital.

Lily Liu's career started out by straddling the lines of technology and government founding PublicStuff, which she sold to Accela that was then acquired by Berkshire Partners. As the CEO of Piñata, Lily has brought to life her vision of creating financial equality for renters. In 2017, she was recognized as Forbes’ 30 under 30 Top Entrepreneurs and Business Insiders’ People to Watch. Her entrepreneurial leadership allows Lily to address glaring systemic issues in the financial and real estate industries. Learn more at www.lily-liu.com.
 
Lily is a first-generation Taiwanese American, raised in a blue-collar family. Her interest in building companies started at a young age stemming from her childhood experiences working at her father’s business. At 18, Lily started her first organization, providing free tutoring services to inner-city urban Pittsburgh students. From there, she became the youngest analyst under Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education for special analytics and projects. In 2009, she founded her first tech start-up, PublicStuff. 

• Connect with Lily on LinkedIn
• Check out Piñata

More about Cherre and Kevin
Cherre is the leader in real estate data and insight. We connect decision makers to accurate property and market information, and help them make faster, smarter decisions. By providing a unique “single source of truth,” Cherre empowers customers to evaluate opportunities and trends faster and more accurately, while saving millions of dollars in manual data collection and analytics costs.

Kevin is recognized as one of the leading commercial real estate executives and currently the Global Head of Innovation at Cherre. 

• Follow Kevin on Twitter
• Follow Cherre on Twitter
• Follow Cherre on LinkedIn
• Check out Cherre

More about Roofstock onChain and Sanjay Raghavan and Geoff Thompson
Roofstock onChain is the web3 subsidiary of Roofstock, the leading digital real estate investing platform for the $4 trillion single-family rental home sector. Using blockchain technology, Roofstock onChain provides investors the ability to purchase tokenized single family rental properties with one click, and to transact with crypto, cutting the time and cost incurred by legacy systems. 

Roofstock provides extensive resources for investors to actively participate in the SFR space, including data analytics, connections to property management companies and contractors, and other management tools. Founded in 2015, Roofstock has facilitated more than $5 billion in investment transactions to date.

Sanjay is the Head of Web3 Initiatives of Roofstock onChain where he leads the real estate investing platform’s blockchain initiative. After being accepted into Cypher Accelerator, the first-of-its-kind Wharton-backed program for blockchain startups, Sanjay continues to build connections between real estate investing and blockchain. Sanjay is also an Advisor at Pudgy Penguins NFTs. With over 20 years of finance and product experience, Sanjay has an extensive background consulting, developing, and founding several financial companies. Prior to Sanjay’s current role at Roofstock, he was the Co-creator and GM of Roofstock One, an innovative, transparent rental investment platform that allows accredited investors to get targeted exposure to the economics of curated SFR properties. Before joining Roofstock, Sanjay served as a Product Manager at Renew Financial and Director of Carolina Financial Group LLC. He also co-founded LCAP Advisors which provides Wall Street caliber portfolio analysis and risk assessment solutions to small banks and credit unions for their on-balance sheet loans. Sanjay has a Masters in Business Administration from The Wharton School. 

Geoff is the Chief Blockchain Officer of Roofstock onChain where he leads the real estate investing platform’s foray into web3. After being accepted into Cypher Accelerator, the first-of-its-kind Wharton-backed program for blockchain startups, Geoff continues to push the blockchain ecosystem forward through real estate investing. Geoff built his career at top tier law firms practicing in the areas of capital markets, banking and credit, structured finance, private equity and cross-border transactions. Geoff’s prior role at Roofstock was as General Counsel where he advised on partnerships, product innovation, fundraising, deal structuring, real estate matters, securities law, international expansion, and all other legal and compliance matters. Before joining Roofstock, Geoff served as General Counsel at ApplePie Capital, where he was instrumental in helping the company originate over $500 million in small business loans in 3 years. He previously practiced law at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, White & Case and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Prior to attending law school, Geoff was an associate at McKinsey & Company. Geoff has an undergraduate degree from The American University of Paris and a Masters in International Economics from SDA Bocconi in Milan. He earned a JD and LLM from the Duke University School of Law. 

• Follow Sanjay on Twitter
• Follow Geoff on Twitter
• Follow Roofstock onChain on Twitter
• Connect with Sanjay on LinkedIn
• Connect with Geoff on LinkedIn
• Check out Roofstock onChain

What a time to be alive. It truly is and this episode is proof of that. I'm talking with Brent Hasse, CEO of Flat. Flat is a subscription service for homeowners. They're leveraging smart technology, combined with a network of vetted trade partners, to provide superior home maintenance and wellness checks to homeowners. Brent gives us all the dirt on the business, including how strategic channel partnerships have proven to be significant driver of growth versus other more costly channels like digital advertising.

When building a startup in a category consumers don't know to search for, it can be a tough go. Listen in to hear how Brent is bringing Flat into homes today and what their expansion plans for the future looks like.

More about Brent and Flat
Flat is working to vastly improve the home ownership experience through data and technology. The company provides a subscription service that includes Wellness Checks (think Oil Change, but for your home), performs comprehensive maintenance and assessment of a home’s condition, and has the option to book repairs immediately with our network of vetted partners all through our platform. Flat offers homeowners peace of mind, reduced risk for major repairs through regularly inspecting a home, and frictionlessly performing timely minor maintenance.  Everything will be trackable and could be used as a Carfax report for your home.  

Brent is the founder and CEO of Flat, a tech-enabled proactive home maintenance and management platform to help flatten the cost of homeownership. He noticed we take better care of our cars and pets than our largest asset - our homes - and decided to create a platform to capture potential home issues as they arise and make projects more efficient for local vendors. He has over 10 years of real estate services experience and a passion for all things Chicago, Purdue basketball, and real estate.

• Follow Flat on LinkedIn
• Check out Flat