Episodes

How do you evaluate ideas on a quality scale to make sure you are pursuing those that will actually result in a successful business? Does perceived risk impact the willingness of a customer or individual to adopt a new technology? Can the pursuit of one's passion impact the staying power of a tech founder? Should the real estate asset class drive different customer engagement models? What AI initiatives are underway in supporting property management businesses? How does fostering community benef...

How was working as a management consultant at McKinsey similar to going to college? What was the intellectual challenge that compelled a deep tech engineer to change careers and go to work for a private equity firm? How essential is indoor air quality to physical well-being? How did trips home to Beijing uncover a rapid negatively changing air quality? Why have human senses not adapted to sense changes in air quality? How much worse can indoor air quality be than outdoor air quality? How did fea...

How did working for a highly ethical financial services company benefit a recent college grad? What practical life skills did jobs in finance and new home sales hone? What compelled a successful financial service professional to pivot and move into the homebuilding space? Why has the homebuilding space historically been reluctant to adopt visualization technologies like virtual tours? Why is there an online pricing transparency issue within homebuilding? What does the ideal customer journey for ...

Is the underlying purpose of proptech to make our lives better by improving the places where we live and work? Why are marketplace businesses so fascinating? How do network effects help create outsized economic value? Why are mercenary founders not as loved in the media as missionary founders? What caused the flurry of services companies working inside the home to fail? Why did working with local service companies prove more successful for Spruce rather than relying on gig workers? How did trans...

What compelled a successful construction entrepreneur to pivot and move into technology? Why have legacy construction businesses shied away from digitizing many of their paper processes? What are the supply chain challenges that exist today in construction that technology could help solve? Will construction's increasing adoption of bleeding edge technology draw a broader workforce into the industry? Can the rise of technologists within construction company leadership further accelerate the adopt...

How can technology empower the property experience and improve human interaction with the physical space? What stood out from the early success stories of the sharing economy as obvious lessons to apply to the vacation rental space? What are the challenges and benefits of selling to a strategic acquirer? What has been the catalyst for moving the mindset of vacation rental from a transaction to an experience? Why has the vacation rental space historically relied upon a single technology solution ...

Why can you order food delivery in a few clicks but resolving workplace building issues takes days? How do office environment issues impact productivity for office workers? Will return-to-work be an opportunity or an obstacle for building owners and operators? Where does technology aid employers and building operators in return-to-work? Given that 'returning to the way things were' is not an option, how do you positively convince workers that there are advantages to coming back to the office? Wh...

Why is the Austin business environment so compelling for startups? What is iBuying and what innovation has occurred within this space since its inception? Why has Opendoor been successful in iBuying but Zillow and several others have been forced to exit the space? How does real estate data quality impact the performance of national iBuyers? What is the opportunity for local market knowledge to improve the performance of iBuyers? How will the changing macro market conditions impact iBuying? Adam ...

Why has hospitality tech only recently started to address the short-term rental space? What unique hospitality challenges do short-term rentals face but traditional hotels do not? What are the scale advantages of launching a startup in the US vs Europe? How does speaking to hundreds of customers synthesize the underlying problems they face? Why are there so many different needs amongst mom & pop property managers? What prompts many property managers to release the software they build for interna...

As an entrepreneur, what are the measures of success beyond an outsized financial exit? Which parties win most often in company sales? What is the attractiveness of real estate for a former tech founder? How will the lack of discipline in real estate investing be exposed by a bear market? Which real estate asset classes were most impacted by COVID? How does the ability to improve NOI contribute to proptech solution adoption? Proptech investor Zain Jaffer joins Proptech Espresso to answer these q...

Why do entrenched incumbents afford newcomers the opportunity to think about industry problems differently? How can established companies foster an ongoing entrepreneurial mindset? Why do entrepreneurs benefit from a lack of industry knowledge? How has data transparency and transaction process clarity empowered the homeowner in Canada? Does caring the most about the transaction result in homeowners selling above similar agent-led transactions? Lindsay Skabar - co-founder & CMO of Bōde, joins Pro...

What are the myriad of layers and people involved in getting a successful real estate deal done? Why is there an information gap on how to successfully build a downpayment for a home? Why have lenders historically neglect long term prospective customers? What are the creative ways in which people can obtain financing in order to purchase their first home? How can technology accelerate the savings for home down payments? Pat McLoughlin- co-founder of Digs by OJO Labs, joins Proptech Espresso to a...

How is the shift in the way people are living and working driving interest in the short-term rental market? What defines turnkey short-term rental investing and why is the appealing to prospective investors? What are the differences in serving mom & pop investors versus professional investors in the short-term rental space? What are the toughest scale challenges that short-term rental investors face when expanding their property portfolio? Trent Hawthorne - COO of Rabbu, joins Proptech Espresso ...

America's housing affordability crisis needs innovative solutions. Fortunately the Ivory Prize was established to spur this exact innovation, supporting companies and groups working on ambitious, feasible, and scalable solutions addressing this complex issue. The Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability focuses on solutions from three categories: construction and design, finance, and public and policy and regulatory reform. Abby Ivory and Jenna Louie from Ivory Innovation join Proptech Espresso to ...

How is technology evolving the full value chain of real estate assets? What are the technology categories that make up the built world? How do the unique needs of different real estate asset classes increase the complexity for developing vertical software solutions? Why have paper processes and human errors traditionally made insurance compliance the bane of property owners and operators? How does the friction from insurance compliance reduce transaction volume in and around real estate? Omri St...

What is GIS and why is this technology so important for real estate? Why is city planning at the core of almost every aspect of real estate? Why is lead follow up for sales people, inside and outside of real estate, such a struggle? What is conversational AI and why does it make sense to use this tech for sales lead follow up? How is the predictive analytics branch of AI being used in proptech today? Nate Joens- co-founder of Structurely, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and dis...

How does the scale of European and US proptech initiatives at the city level compare? How does the mix of proptech funding across residential, commercial, and retail differ in the US versus Europe? What are the seven key challenges of real estate that individuals and cities face regardless of geography? What inspired a physical manufacturer of door lock technology to innovate and create an entirely new SaaS platform to re-invent the smart lock industry? How has the door been transformed to be th...

How do the realities of a home being sold influence the spectrum of staging opportunities? How has virtual staging impacted the home selling process? What are the different relationship dynamics at play between the real estate agent, client, and stager when working on a sale listing? How does location and proximity come into play when considering staging services? How is Stagerie leveraging tech as a means of removing emotion from a highly emotional process? Nora Crosthwaite - founder and CEO o...

How solving key management issues for commercial markets unlocked (pun intended) multiple residential property management opportunities? How did technical innovation force a classic start-up pivot from PointCentral's original lockbox product? What are sensory buildings and how do IoT devices enhance these buildings to deliver improved resident experiences? How does PointCentral leverage its parent company Alarm.com's technology innovation to exploit opportunities in its established markets? Nate...

What is placemaking and how does this concept intersect with proptech? How has location data emerged to significantly improve decision making by expanding what is known beyond the limited data contained within the four walls of a building? What are location scores and how are these the backbone of Local Logic's product suite? Sara Maffey - Head of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Local Logic, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how her desire to work withi...

Why was real estate industry operating like the wild west before the advent of the internet? How has the proptech space transformed over the last 20 years? What are the complexities of zoning in real estate and why is this the invisible hand in real estate development? Is real estate zoning a challenge globally? Are we incorrectly blaming zoning for real estate development issues or are development incentives simply not correctly aligned? Jason Doyle - CEO of Gridics joins Proptech Espresso to a...

How and why has the definition of proptech changed over the last ten years? Why is it important for founders to remain involved in sales discussions for early stage companies? What separates good and great product managers at tech companies? Who are some of the proptech companies to keep your eye on during 2022? Russell Smith - CRO of Earnnest, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and share how buying his first house inspired him to improve the process for future homebuyers.

How can upheaval and uncertainty create opportunities in unexpected segments of the real estate market? What are the benefits of cutting your teeth in new real estate investment areas quickly and at scale? How has technology better enabled home sellers to market their homes? How can for sale by owner and real estate agents work together to have the best experience for all parties in a home transaction? PJ Mitchell - co-founder and COO of Sold.com, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these question...

Why are highly regulated industries difficult to innovate in? What are the challenges and opportunities of launching a startup during a global pandemic (while living in lockdown with your co-founders)? What are some of the ways in which real estate photos are underutilized? How has the real estate photo space been positively and negatively impacted by the huge adoption of smartphone cameras by agents Mert Karakus, Mine Kanso, and Ege Ozgirin - co-founders of Oda Studio, join Proptech Espresso to...