Episodes

How did life on a farm stoke the entrepreneurial spirit of a young kid? What sorts of problem-solving skills were instilled as part of daily life on a farm? How did an advanced engineering degree further complement the entrepreneurial skill set developed growing up on a farm? How did a love for fixing cars and pickups create enough side hustle income to pay for college? What finally compelled a services based entrepreneur to transition to a technology product entrepreneur? How did a teacher dip ...

How would one describe the current state of skilled trades in the built world? What are the transitions that the construction industry is facing? How many open jobs in the skilled trades are there at the moment in the US? Why are skilled tradespeople in the workforce aging out faster than new workers entering the profession? How can an increase in diversity within this industry help alleviate some of the resourcing needs? How can we create excitement around the skilled trade profession so more p...

How has the definition and usage of the term proptech expanded as the space has matured? Why has proptech innovation historically been extremely limited compared to other industries? How did effective data management allow M7 to differentiate itself for other real estate asset managers? Prior to Coyote entering the market, what tools were firms using to manage real estate asset data? Why did M7 decide to spinout Coyote instead of keeping it as a proprietary internal tool? What is the process lik...

Why is the reasoning from first principles approach so successful in unlocking creative solutions to complex problems? What can you do to differentiate true customer needs from the noise of what customers are asking for outloud? How long does it take the average homeowner to save up their down payment on their first home? Why does the real estate industry thrive on information asymmetry? What is the benefit to the individual investor of cutting out the middlemen currently involved with most resi...

From a professional standpoint, why do people choose to pursue a career in consulting? What were the travel advantages of working with real estate consulting clients versus other industries? What were some of the challenges with working with international real estate clients? How did the opportunity to evaluate proptech companies come about within a real estate consulting role? How do generalized skillsets developed while working for consulting companies translate to being an executive at a tech...

Why can there be value in recreating the wheel when first starting out in a new role? How is it that renting an apartment is a much harder and more involved process than people initially imagine? Why have independent landlords traditionally been a neglected customer base for technology companies? How can customer conversations uncover previously undiscovered revenue opportunities? What insights can be acquired by attending customer meetups during the early days of a startup? How can proptech com...

What are the synergies between crypto and real estate? Why has crypto traditionally lacked good real world collateral? Is real estate's % of GDP as large in other parts of the world as it is in the US? What caused the housing correction in China after the initial privatization run-up? What are the benefits of decoupling housing ownership and occupancy? Can technology innovation help solve many of the structural inefficiencies that exist in real estate investing? Are there similarities between th...

How did partnering with realtors through creative strategies lead to a successful insurance business being built at an early age? What challenges do real estate investors who intend to be landlords encounter when trying to get real estate insurance products? Why is it important today to be where the customer is and not rely on or hope that the customer comes and finds you? How did the opportunity arise to work with many of the most prominent insurance companies? What are the advantages of partne...

What is Chat-GPT's definition of proptech? Will Chat-GPT be a future podcast guest of Proptech Espresso? What material value has been generated from the considerable investment in proptech over the last couple of years? Has the use of the term proptech been overextended to the point that almost any company that touches the home is now considered a proptech company? How has a unique bond formed as friends contributed to the successful chemistry as co-founders? Why are traits such as grit and auth...

Does the generalization of the term proptech help those outside the industry establish a framework to start understanding the space? How did a background in consulting establish a strong underlying skillset for being a tech entrepreneur? Why is iterative problem solving important when improving processes for complex businesses? What has been the likely cause of poor tenant experience for renters historically? Why is addressing operations for landlords important in providing an improved tenant ex...

Can rental leases provide a pathway for building a career as a real estate agent? How did a high school friendship uncover the emerging co-living scene in New York? Why are real estate investors critical for the co-living business model? What sorts of opportunities are multifamily operators looking for to be innovative? Why would a successful real estate agent make the jump to a risky proptech startup? What is causing fewer and fewer renters to fit the ideal multifamily renter profile? Why do le...

How does the introduction and application of technology to an industry create a catalyst for change and re-invention? Why did a job at MTV during its heyday lead to a career switch into high finance? How did becoming an intrapreneur create massive opportunities to build new businesses at the intersection of two asset classes? Why can land registry be considered the original blockchain? What has created the trapped equity crisis that American homeowners are experiencing today? How is housing affo...

How can passion projects outside of work and school accelerate learning a new skill? In what ways do government regulations create so many complex challenges for businesses? Why isn't there more effort to invest in regulation reconciliation to alleviate inconsistencies? How has Microsoft leveraged natural language processing techniques and its global data sets to address hyper local and domain specific problems? What is the compelling reason to index every residential property in the world? Why ...

What is the difference between a proptech company and a venture backable proptech company? How does mixed-income housing support diversity and improve the chance for income mobility? Why is housing NIMBYism so pronounced in San Francisco and how does this contribute to its rampant homeless issue? What is the definition of affordable housing and how prevalent is it in the US? Is creating affordable housing only a big city issue or do rural cities also struggle with this? Why are there so many mis...

What compelled a rising star in GE's management training program to pivot and jump to the real estate industry? How did mortgage servicers look to find positive housing outcomes during the great financial crisis and help keep people in their homes? What is the importance of access to capital for real estate? Are there unique challenges you encounter when taking over a company from a founder CEO? How does a finance professional get deeply knowledgeable about the fundamental technology of an organ...

Which industries rely on real estate data beyond the home transaction itself? Why has almost no one heard of RELS? What are the benefits and downsides of being acquired by a co-owner? Why did the appraisal industry need innovation and what was fundamentally broken with it? How did the modern appraisal project come about at Clear Capital and what were there the challenges the team faced? What was it like partnering with the GSEs (Fannie and Freddie) to transform the home appraisal process? Why ar...

Has Amazon morphed into a proptech company? Is the US transforming into a warehouse nation? How did getting punched in the face by the 2008 financial recession force a career pivot into managing bank owned real estate assets? What learnings came from working through the foreclosure process with multifamily properties? Were virtual tours happening in New York City as early as 2006? How a lightbulb moment led to launching a startup developing storefronts into touchscreens for real estate companies...

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...