Tech Nest: The Proptech Podcast: Recent Episodes

Nate Smoyer

Tech Nest is the proptech podcast where we discover all the latest in proptech by interviewing the innovators and leaders from startup that are challenging the way we buy, sell, and invest in real estate. When you listen to Tech Nest, you'll get in-depth interviews and discussions each week, focused on uncovering trends in proptech and how startups are transforming the real estate landscape.

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Cristine Brown the VP of Partner Success at Rhino, a company that been leading the multifamily industry in creating alternative solutions for the standard security deposits rents must put up to rent an apartment. Cristine shares a lot about the products at Rhino, but also their secret to success: talking to their customers. You'll hear multiple examples of how this has lead to new product insights and understanding who is influencing purchase decisions. Without talking to customers, startups run the risk of pursuing the wrong solutions or attempting to force demand where there is none. Listen in to hear from Cristine on this and more.

More about Cristine and Rhino
Rhino pioneered security deposit insurance to help making renting more affordable by removing the barrier of an upfront cash deposit. The company also offers deposit management services for property owners as well as renter's insurance and credit-building services to renters. Rhino works with a partner network that covers 6 million rental units across the country.

After more than a decade in banking, Cristine Brown joined the proptech industry to help create opportunities for renters and property owners. As Rhino's Vice President of Partner Success, Cristine focuses on reducing leasing teams' administrative burdens and strengthening their competitive advantage while helping renters keep more cash in their pockets and improving renting choices.

Connect with Cristine on LinkedIn
Follow Rhino on Twitter
Check out Rhino

What if sharing commercial real estate data could be more valuable than holding it all to yourself? This could be things like how the building was constructed, energy usable, roof condition, and more. Think CARFAX, but for commercial real estate. That's what David Kaiserman, CEO of the proptech company Backpack, is discussing on this episode of Tech Nest. David makes a compelling argument as to why data is better for everyone when shared, including reducing costs moving forward. Listen in to what he's got to say on this topic and more.

More about David and BackpackBackpack Group is a full-service open building data platform for the $16 trillion built environment. This new platform answers the growing call for affordable and accurate asset-level operating data from owner/operators, regulators, lenders, insurers, investors and equipment manufacturers.

Backpack is the first company to affordably make the individualized data of a building and how it operates available in one unified, cloud-based system of record. Unlike current market solutions, which often rely on this data as a means of propriety, Backpack empowers building owners to share data simply and efficiently with parties of their choosing. The result is both significantly simpler and less expensive than the current use of internal and third-party resources. It also lays the path to access for current and future benefits made possible by this data.aiser

Connect with David on LinkedIn
Check out Backpack

Ethan Lieber is the Co-founder and CEO of Latchel, a proptech based in Seattle that is working to improve property management companies' response times, as well as helping property managers achieve incremental revenue through resident benefits. Often times property management companies find themselves having to choose between delivering great service to residents or protecting margins of their business. Ethan breaks all this down, and how Latchel is building a solution.

We cover a range of topics in this interview including what are resident benefits packages, resident NPS, challenges with smart home devices as a property manager, benefits of going through Y-Combinator as a startup, and more.

Listen in to hear what Ethan has to say.

More about Ethan and Latchel:Ethan is a seasoned entrepreneur who started and sold an e-commerce startup while working full-time at One Planet Ops, running Product for contractors.com - before co-founding Latchel in 2017.

Latchel is a tech-forward property management business that was accepted into the Y Combinator program in 2019 (with alumni companies such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Doordash and Stripe). We completed our Series A funding (led by F-Prime) in 2021.

Renters today expect better service, more perks, and faster maintenance than most property managers can afford to provide.

Latchel is a software platform that enables property managers to be more responsive and offer better perks while also creating a new revenue stream so they don't have to choose between happy tenants and a healthy bottom line.

Connect with Ethan on LinkedIn
Follow Latchel on LinkedIn
Check out Latchel

Inc Magazine just published their annual list of the fastest growing, private companies in the US. Proptech had a great showing out on the list this year. The list below (which I discuss in this episode) isn't likely the exhaustive, entirety of all proptech companies on the list. However, this should satisfy giving you an idea of the types of companies working at the intersection of real estate and technology, that made the 2023 list of fastest growing private companies.

The Inc 5000 ranks private companies, based on the self-reported percentage of growth over the last three years. Each company in this cohort had to have generated a minimum of $100,000 in gross revenue for 2019 and a minimum of $2,000,000 for 2022.

See the full Inc 5000 list for 2023 here.

Lula #125

Rental property maintenance solutions powered by a network of vetted contractors.

https://lula.life
$4.2M raised according to Crunchbase
3,871% growth

Transactly #126

Transactly provides technology and tech-enabled services to coordinate real estate transactions across US and Canada.

https://transactly.com
$11.5M raised according to Crunchbase
3,852% growth

Chunker #319

ON-DEMAND SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS Short-term Warehouses, Pop-up 3PL Services, and Transportation

https://chunker.com
$$ raised unknown
1,481% growth
Chunker on Tech Nest: https://technest.io/2022/01/how-industrial-warehousing-is-innovating

LiveEasy #487

(Previously known as MoveEasy) A surprisingly simple moving and living experience.

https://www.liveeasy.com
$13M raised according to Crunchbase
1,204% growth

BOSSCAT #497

(Previously known as PunchListUSA) Complete any home improvement effortlessly with Bosscat’s streamlined repair, renovation, and maintenance solutions.

https://bosscathome.com
$48.7M raised according to Crunchbase
1,175% growth

PadSplit #510

The nation’s largest co-living marketplace. Innovative. Affordable. ➡️ Unlock revenue. Positively impact your community.

https://www.padsplit.com
$35.2M raised according to Crunchbase
1,152% growth

Rebuilt #533

Buy. Sell. Invest. Grow your investment portfolio with off-market properties.

https://www.rebuilt.com
$17.2M raised according to Tracxn
1,096% growth

StackSource #777

Simplifying commercial real estate financing.

https://www.stacksource.com
$3.3M raised according to Crunchbase (this does not include debt facilities raised for issuing loans)
758% growth

Poplar Homes #865

A tech-enabled property management company providing streamlined renting process for owners and renters to live easy.

https://www.poplarhomes.com
$131.9M raised according to Crunchbase
683% growth
Poplar Homes on Tech Nest: https://technest.io/2022/08/venture-backed-property-management-with-chuck-hattemer-co-founder-and-cmo-of-poplar-homs

Snaplistings #902

Full-funnel real estate marketing agency utilizing data science and cutting edge strategies from impression to close.

https://hello.snaplistings.com
$$ raised unknown
650% growth

Orchard #984

Our mission is to make home buying stress-free, fair, and simple. With Orchard, your home sale never holds you back.

https://orchard.com
$472M raised according to Crunchbase
602% growth

RentSpree #992

Our vision is to create a world where people, rentals, and homes are easily connected.

https://www.rentspree.com
$27.7M raised according to Crunchbase
598% growth
RentSpree on Tech Nest: https://technest.io/2022/07/modern-rental-management-tools-for-real-estate-agents-and-investors-with-michael-lucarelli-ceo-of-rentspree

Roofstock #1375

Invest where you want, no matter where you call home.

https://www.roofstock.com
$365.3M raised according to Crunchbase
425% growth
Roofstock OnChain on Tech Nest: https://technest.io/2022/12/instant-real-estate-transactions-on-blockchain-with-sanjay-raghavan-and-geoff-thompson-of-roofstock-onchain

Curbio #1467

We provide real estate agents and their clients easy, hassle-free renovations that get listings sold faster—for more.

https://curbio.com
$126M raised according to Crunchbase
393% growth
Curbio on Tech Nest: https://technest.io/2021/10/s7e75-interview-with-rikki-rogers-vp-of-marketing-at-curbio

Evernest #1646

Your full-service real estate partner.

https://www.evernest.co
$$ raised unknown
341% growth

Valcre® #2009

More appraisals, in less time, with less work.

https://www.valcre.com
$12.7M raised according to Crunchbase
279% growth

RentDynamics #2024

(Acquired by Entrata)Multifamily CRM | Contact Center | RentPlus® Financial Platform

https://rentdynamics.com
$$ raised unknown
276% growth
RentDynamics on Tech Nest: https://technest.io/2023/06/resident-lifecycle-management-and-modern-multifamily-with-mike-wolber-cro-of-rent-dynamics

MoxiWorks #2824

Let's sell more homes together.

https://moxiworks.com
$$ raised unknown
189% growth

Josh Ernst, Founder and CEO of Backflip, a fintech focused on helping real estate investors through enhanced investing tools and by providing loans, brought the heat! Very few interviews with founders get into the specifics of product-led growth like we did in this one. Josh emphasizes the importance of starting with the customers' problems first, and then working backwards to find the right solutions and models. This is probably one of the most product and growth focused episodes we've published recently. This is not one to skip!
More about Josh and BackflipBackflip is a real estate financial technology company that supports individual entrepreneurs reinvigorating the housing supply by acquiring and renovating single family homes. The company offers purpose-built technology and capital products used by its members to source, analyze and finance residential real estate investments. Backflip’s platform democratizes technology, data, and financing strategies that were previously only available to institutional investors and large corporations.

Josh founded Backflip with Jake in October 2020. Josh holds a passion for driving innovation and value creation, which has been evident throughout his diverse and accomplished career, and brings a wealth of expertise from his previous professional experiences:
Josh served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at DeShong Companies (dba "Trelly") and Myers the HomeBuyers, where he oversaw all internal operations and executed the company's vision, with responsibilities spanning product development, sales, marketing, operations, human resources, and finance/accounting. During his tenure, the company successfully completed over 1,500 investment and sales transactions annually, expanded the team to approximately 80 people and established offices in four locations. Additionally, Josh held a position on the company's Board of Directors.

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn
Check out Backflip

More about Donato and BightInvestorBy day, Donato is a geospatial analyst for the Department of Defense. By night, he is a commercial multifamily syndicator with $15M in assets and another $15M under contract & is the CEO of BrightInvestor!

He met his co-founder, Drew McCluskey, two years ago and have worked together to bring this amazing resource to new real estate investors everywhere.

BrightInvestor helps real estate investors get the answers they need by turning hours of market research into minutes. Crime stats, appreciation rates, population & job growth...even development activity tracking so you're always one step ahead of the competition. No more wasted hours bouncing from site to site. No more throwing money away on a dozen different subscriptions. You get everything you need in one place with BrightInvestor. BrightInvestor - market research made simple.

Connect with Donato
Check out BrightInvestor

In this episode, we're joined by the CEO of Azibo, Vikas Gupta. Azibo is an all-one-solution for mom-pop landlords—specifically for those with 50 units or less. In the last few years, there's been significant changes to the rental landscape including how owners collect rent, reporting on-time rent payments to credit bureaus, and how many are becoming investors (think: accidental landlords) due to the interest rates environment we're in. One of the most important topics we discuss goes beyond proptech. Vikas shares about the importance of delivering delight when building tech products. Jump in to hear what Azibo has to say.

More about Vikas and Azibo
Azibo is a unified financial and property management platform for independent real investors.

Vikas Gupta is the CEO of Azibo, a unified financial and property management platform for independent real investors. Prior to Azibo, he's held a variety of roles at different pre-seed to Series B startups, including as a founder, as a product leader, and a marketing leader. Over his 15+ years in technology, Vikas has helped companies grow from pre–revenue to 8+ figures in revenue. Today, Azibo helps property owners manage tens of thousands of rental units across the U.S. which includes hundreds of millions of rent payments, annually.

Follow Vikas on Twitter
Connect with Vikas on LinkedIn
Follow Azibo on Twitter
Check out Azibo

More about SkylightSkylight connects multifamily units to your city's top leasing talents.

Our technology platform allows for your internal leasing team to be more competitive and efficient while providing you unlimited access to additional leasing talent in the area.

Lease faster. Achieve higher rents with fewer concessions. Less headaches around finding and retaining leasing talent.

Follow Skylight on Twitter
Follow Jason on Twitter
Follow Max on Twitter
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn
Connect with Max on LinkedIn
Checkout Skylight

Welcome to another episode of Tech Nest. In today's episode, we have a special guest joining us, Bill Martiner, the CTO and Co-founder of Avenue One, a Proptech company that has quietly risen to unicorn status in about three years time. Avenue One recently made headlines by successfully raising an impressive $100 million round of funding. While they may be a quiet company, their impact in the residential real estate space cannot be ignored.

Avenue One's mission is to revolutionize the industry by creating a comprehensive service platform and marketplace catering to institutional owners, buyers, and sellers. During our conversation, we'll delve into the fascinating journey of Avenue One.

Press play to learn about this emerging proptech company.

More about Bill and Avenue OneWilliam Martiner is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Avenue One. As a Senior Technology Executive with over 20 years’ experience in driving growth and innovation for the Financial Service Industry, William has focused on applying technology to empower and transform business processes.

Avenue One is a property technology service platform and marketplace for institutional owners, buyers and sellers of residential homes.

Avenue One makes investing in the residential rental market more transparent and efficient for institutions, while also supporting local businesses. The company does this through a service platform that combines proprietary data and a network of local partners to identify, acquire, renovate, lease and manage residential investment properties. This ecosystem of independent businesses - including brokers, contractors, title professionals, and property managers - provide local expertise to create and maintain portfolios of quality rental properties across the country.

Avenue One’s technology is hyper-scalable and nimble, enabling its rapid growth. Avenue One also offers a marketplace of services to buyers, owners, and sellers of residential real estate. By offering a robust marketplace and not buying for its own balance sheet, Avenue One has been able to quickly attract a wide variety of market participants.

Connect with Bill on LinkedIn
Follow Avenue One on LinkedIn
Check out Avenue One

Join us on this episode as we delve into the world of rental with the founder of Rentbase, a new solution for agents and brokers in the real estate industry. Noam Blum, the founder, shares his personal experiences as an agent and the challenges he faced. With Rentbase, he aimed to automate leasing workflows and uncover sales opportunities. Rentbase is working to simplify the leasing process, from pre-qualifying leads to nurturing them into sales. Learn how Noam's unique approach and collaboration with a seasoned CTO aimed at revolutionizing the rental market, and empowering agents to maximize their commissions.

More about Noaam and RentBaseRentBase is an innovative proptech company that helps agents and brokers automate their leasing workflow and discover sales opportunities within their rentals.

With their unique ability to create a sales lead funnel from an agents rental data, RentBase has now begun partnerships with major MLSs and are in the process of closing company-wide deals with some of the largest brokerages in the country.

Connect with Noaam on LinkedIn
Check out RentBase

"More than a marketplace" is how ReWyre desrcibes their procurement platform for proptech solutions. Rasheq Zarif is the Co-founder and COO of ReWyre, and he wants to help property professionals find the right proptech solutions that meet their business needs in a more efficient and seamless way. Rasheq is leveraging his experience as an accomplished consultant, CEO, and tech advisor to guide real estate companies in identifying and adopting the right proptech solutions.

More about Rasheq and ReWyreCovering the entire proptech ecosystem, ReWyre is an online platform that makes it easy for property professionals and companies to discover, procure and optimize the right technology for every project and requirement. By providing tailored, best-fit, recommendations, ReWyre saves property players time, confusion and stress when it comes to choosing and deploying new technologies across their real estate portfolio.

Rasheq Zarif is Co-Founder and COO of ReWyre. Prior to his current role, Rasheq was MD of Deloitte's Future of Mobility & Smart Logistics function. He is a Member of the Advisory Board for Parkmyfleet.com, as well as Lead Strategic Advisor to Crown PropTech Acquisitions.

Connect with Rasheq on LinkedIn
Check out Rewyre

Alex Czarnecki is leading the charge at Cottage, focused on modernizing the way in which homeowners can build ADUs. The popularity of ADUs only seems to grow as housing becomes tougher to afford while legacy zoning laws have made it very difficult to build new, infill housing units. With legislation changes to zoning laws and increased focused on units such as ADUs, it's no wonder the opportunity to revolutionize this segment of real estate is only accelerating.

Even though Cottage has only been in business for a little more than two years, the've completed projects in over 100 California cities, with a focus on the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas. Alex breaks the opportunity down, mentioning this is not a winner take all game, but rather, there will be many winners (ideally that also means homeowners and renters win in all of this, as well).

Listen in as Alex breaks down the hubbub around ADUs.

More about Alex and CottageCottage is an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) design-build firm committed to providing homeowners with the easiest process to build additional housing. As its primary focus, Cottage delivers ADUs, enabling homeowners to earn rental income or provide greatly needed housing to their family or local community by adding an extra unit to their home. Made up of architects, builders, and technologists, Cottage leverages their expertise in every step of the design and build process to build ADUs faster, with transparent pricing from the start, while simultaneously maintaining the highest standards for customization and quality. Meanwhile, contractors on the platform get a pipeline of projects and time-saving tools, so they can focus on providing quality work and client service.

Alex Czarnecki, CEO of Cottage, wants to help homeowners and contractors build more and build better. After forging a career launching new business units for Uber around the world, Alex took on the challenge of building his own ADU, but after confronting delays through an overly complex process, he knew there had to be a better way. Since its founding in 2020, Cottage has expanded to more than 100 California cities – and growing – to help homeowners get more out of their home with an ADU.

Follow Alex on Twitter
Follow Cottage on Twitter
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn
Check out Cotta.ge

Easily one of my favorite startup founding stories. Andrew Farah, CEO and Co-founder of Density, wanted to create an API he could call to find out how many people were in line at his favorite coffee shop. Once Andrew figured this out, he quickly discovered this was something many real estate operations teams and workplace teams across the country would want. Shortly after announcing what he'd created and that he intended to build it out more, thousands signed up for a waitlist to learn more.

Density is both a software and hardware company, but as you'll hear Andrew describe, they're a reluctant hardware that's really great at software. By bringing in some of the best talent in creating physical products and leaning on his experience leading a dev shop, Andrew has created the perfect balance that is driving the success of Density today.

Whether you care about office space utilization or not, you'll be hard pressed to listen to Andrew and not be inspired by what he's building and dream up other use cases throughout this episode. Jump on in!

More about Density and AndrewDensity builds technology that helps companies understand how people use their workspaces. Its software unlocks comprehensive insights into how workspace is used through its privacy-first sensors. These insights inform workplace decisions at companies ranging from Fortune 1000 to high growth tech, including Uber, Pinterest, Shopify, Okta and other household names in financial services, e-commerce and social networking. Today, Density partners with companies that occupy more than 1.25 billion square feet across 32 countries.

Andrew is the co-founder and CEO of Density, driving the team toward its mission to help companies measure and improve their footprint on the world. Today, Density partners with companies that occupy more than 1.25 billion square feet across 32 countries. Prior to Density, Andrew spent five years as a Partner and Strategic Lead at Rounded, a product-focused software development agency. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Writing and a Master’s in Information Management, both from Syracuse University.

Follow Andrew on Twitter
Follow Density on Twitter
Follow Density on LinkedIn
Check out Density

Over the last few years there's been a few startups that have tried to focus on the first-home buyer as their market segment by courting renters through rewards programs. You can even see the evidence of this in how the making listings marketplace websites like Zillow and Realtor.com want to build relationships with renters today, who are ideally homebuyers tomorrow.

Will Dunn, Co-founder and CGO (Chief Growth Officer, though I recommended the G should be Gravy), breaks down why creating a unique rewards program for renters is a powerful tool to helping unlock homeownership. What's unique about Gravy is there is no fee up front for renters and landlords don't have to sign-up for anything nor change anything about how they collect rent.

Listen in as Will gives us all the details and more.

More about Gravy and WillGravy is a mobile app that helps renters become homebuyers.

Buying a home is a confusing and complicated process––especially if you don't have a network of friends/family who have done it––including knowing where to start.

Gravy is designed to be both the first-step toward homeownership for renters and each step following to getting the keys to a new home.

Will Dunn is the co-founder and CGO of Gravy, where he oversees the company’s marketing, customer acquisition, and B2B partner operations.

Prior to Gravy, Will was Business Manager of Resident Services at leading property management software company, Buildium. Teaming up with Buildium alumni Jimmy Lien and Jeff Dinter, the three launched Gravy in April 2022 to become the destination where all 100M+ renters in the U.S. save money to buy their first home and learn how to successfully navigate the homebuying process.

Connect with Will on LinkedIn
Check out Gravy

Marcus Moufarrige, CEO of ility, joins Tech Nest to discuss all things no-code, frameworks, and building tools for those who run complex real estate businesses. Marcus' experience in the office flex-space gives him a unique advantage in understanding the needs for a flexible platform that is able to be molded to meet the unique needs of each operator's needs. ility is that platform. Being that ility is a no-code platform, built in a way to meet a large array of use cases, it may be one of the most versatile middle-wares on the market.

More about ility and Marcusility is a no-code platform for operators to streamline their now complex business.

Connecting new and legacy digital systems, ility’s middleware gives companies like RXR, Legal & General and EQ complete control over their technology, operations and offer. ility also has a strategic partnership with Microsoft.

By using physical rights management, operators have a simple framework for digitising their property, to increase NOI, improve efficiency and decrease operating expenses.

Marcus is effectively leading property into the world of 'composability'. He's also the ex-COO of Australian property giant, ServCorp, alongside fighting with Justin Bieber (Google it!).

Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn
Check out ility

As the story goes with many products, someone got tired of dealing with the same problems, they searched the market for what they believed should be a product to solve the problem, only to discover there was not an adequate solution. So instead of allowing the problem to persist, they built the product themself. That's sort of the story here with Landlord Studio.

Today I'm joined by Co-founder, Logan Ransley. He's breaking down some of the common problems residential landlords face every day when it comes to managing their finances.

It can be simple keeping track of one rental, but when you start building your portfolio, problems multiple and this can cost an investor lots of time and money. Landlord Studio is unique in that they're not just focused on the US market. With a presence in Europe and Australia, as well as the US, Landlord Studio has focused on building a platform that can meet the investor where they're at. Equally as unique, the company has had a mobile-first mentality from the start—making Landlord Studio one of the few options available that give residential investors the accounting tools they need on the go.

More about Landlord Studio and LoganLandlord studio is designed specifically for residential landlords with between 1 and 25 rental properties. It simplifies and automates the process of collecting and reconciling rental income and expense transactions. With automated bank feeds, an intelligent receipt scanner, and expense categories that align perfectly with the IRS tax forms, Landlord Studio radically improves the quality and the timeliness of the bookkeeping process, making it infinitely easier at tax time.

In addition to providing accountancy support, Landlord Studio helps landlords maximize the ROI on their property investments with a suite of management features such as online rent collection, tenant screening, listings, document storage, reporting, and maintenance tracking. All features are available on both desktop and mobile and are easy to use, making adoption simple for anyone with a smartphone.

Logan Ransley is the Co-Founder of Landlord Studio. He is also an official member of the Forbes Real Estate Council.

Connect with Logan on LinkedIn
Follow Landlord Studio on Twitter
Check out Landlord Studio

Pat McLoughlin was the first person to agree to grab coffee with me when I moved to Chicago that was not a coworker of mine. We met up in a Foxtrot Cafe in mid 2019. It was there he shared with me what Digs was working on and what they hoped to achieve—ultimately helping more people realize their dreams of homeownership. Fast-forward to late 2020 and Digs was acquired by OJO, a well-funded and well-respected real estate tech company that hosts a vast network of agent partners and operates its own listings marketplace.

Pat walks us through the journey of his original idea, getting started, going through the acquisition process, and finally rebranding Digs into what is now known as OJO Homeowner. This episode is absolutely jam-packed with insights. Check it out.

More about Pat McLoughlin and OJOPat McLoughlin is the Product Lead for OJO Homeowner. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Digs, a fintech company that was acquired by OJO Labs in 2020. In addition to his role at OJO, Pat is a multifamily real estate investor and licensed real estate agent. He has a degree in Architecture from Miami University.

OJO acquired Digs in late 2020 to expand fintech offerings to their consumers. Digs provides homeowners with tools to help manage their biggest asset including home valuations, mortgage tracking, and an FDIC insured savings account.

Follow Pat on Twitter
Connect with Pat on LinkedIn
Follow OJO on Twitter
Check out OJO

If you've never heard of lease compliance monitoring, then you and I can join the same club. When Christine and I met at Blueprint, she shared with me what Pronto Housing was doing in the affordable housing space and I knew we had to have her on the show. Did you know there's 80 pages of paperwork when proceeding through lease compliance verification? What a nightmare! There's a good need to make affordable housing more accessible and to improve the experience—that's what Pronto Housing is working towards.

More about Pronto Housing and Christine WendellPronto makes affordable housing leasing and compliance efficient and easy - helping property owners reduce costs, and improving the renter experience.

Christine Wendell is the founder and CEO of Pronto Housing. Prior to Pronto, she worked in real estate investing and development with RXR Realty and Megalith Capital. She has a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from Kenyon College.

Connect with Christine on LinkedIn
Checkout Pronto Housing

Oh do I have a special goodie for y'all this week.

It's with great joy I got to interview Ryan Letzeiser, Co-founder and CEO at Obie. For those that don't know, I work at Obie. So of course I'm biased as to whether or not I think Obie is doing something unique and leading the industry. It's not often you get to put your own CEO in the hot seat and push on buttons. Obviously, I've got inside baseball information, but I used that to get Ryan to spill the goods.

In this interview, Ryan talks a good deal about what is and what is not embedded insurance, why this is such an important feature for proptech and fintech companies alike, and how Obie is working to bring about a much simpler insurance experience for real estate investors. Hint: simpler for investors means incredibly difficult for the tech company—but with big rewards.

More about Obie and RyanObie is the leading insurtech, focused on providing insurance for real estate investors. By focusing on partnerships with proptech and fintech companies, Obie is the first and only company to offer instantly bindable quotes as an embedded insurance experience. Additionally Obie provides insurance via local independent insurance agents or directly to investors through its online portal—changing the shape and feel of insurance for investors by meeting them where ever they may be.

Obie was recently honored as Business Insurance Best Places to Work and one of Inc Magazines Fastest Growing Companies for 2022. Obie is a Y-Combinator and a NAR REACH accelerator alum. To date, Obie has raised $13.7 million from leading proptech investors including Battery Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, MetaProp, Second Century Ventures, and Funders Club.

Ryan is the Co-founder and CEO of Obie. As a seasoned real estate investor and technology executive with years of experience acquiring, developing, managing, real estate, Ryan saw the inefficiencies real estate investors and operators faced with insurance. After much exploration alongside his brother Aaron, he realized the insurance industry was not moving to meet the investor where they were. Obie was created to deliver a greater insurance experience that is more transparent and faster that ever before for the every day real estate investor.

Follow Ryan on Twitter
Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn
Follow Obie on Twitter
Follow Obie on LinkedIn
Check out Obie

This is a crosspost episode from the Housing News Podcast, hosted by Clayton Collins.

This week, Clayton is coming to your feed live from the Blueprint proptech and real estate conference in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. He had the opportunity to sit down in person and talk to Rick Sharga, the Executive Vice President at ATTOM, and Nate Smoyer, the Head of Marketing at Obie as well as the host of the Tech Nest Podcast.

The three of them talk about what they learned and took away from the Blueprint conference, and how the market is impacting the decisions being made by prop-tech, mortgage tech, and real estate companies.

The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate, and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Clayton Collins and produced by the HW Media team.

Check out the Housing News podcast at https://www.housingwire.com/podcast

Follow and connect with this week's guests:

Follow Housing Wire on Twitter
Follow Housing Wire on LinkedIn
Follow Clayton on Twitter
Connect with Clayton on LinkedIn
Follow ATTOM on Twitter
Follow ATTOM on LinkedIn
Follow Rich on Twitter
Connect with Rich on LinkedIn

Links and details mentioned in this episode

Proptech is finally turning a corner where the best of ideas are catching—the next few years we'll see many more ideas, but consolidation of companies impacting real estate will continue
Check out housingwireannual.com to register for the Oct 3-5 event
New interviews coming up with Reasonai, Morgan Properties, and Landlord Studio
Search Tech Nest episodes to find and listen to interviews with Lydia Winkler, Fatima Dicko, and Michael Lucarelli
Look up Poplar Homes, PURE Property Management, and Great Jones to dig in more about how venture-backed property management is a trend to watch

Connect with Nate Smoyer

Follow Nate on Twitter
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More about Marcus and HostawayMarcus Rader is co-founder and CEO of Hostaway, the leading all-in-one vacation rental management software. Originally from Finland, Marcus has lived in many countries around the world including Sweden, Poland, and The Netherlands before settling in Canada. It was this passion for travel and dedication to learning about the vacation rental ecosystem, together with the deep expertise in technology and start-ups of Marcus and his co-founders, that enabled the creation of Hostaway. In his spare time, Marcus enjoys following the latest in the venture capital markets alongside playing guitar and listening to death metal with his daughter.

Hostaway is the world's leading vacation rental software which makes it easier for property managers and hosts - whether they have 5 or 1,000 vacation rentals - to get more out of their business while spending less time on tedious manual tasks.

Hostaway's property management system and channel manager offer scalable solutions for marketing, sales, reporting, communication, and more, with an extensive Marketplace of over 100 integrated software and service partners, backed by award-winning customer support.

The company was founded in 2015 by a team of ardent technology enthusiasts. Unlike competitors, Hostaway’s platform was built in-house, making it one of the most reliable solutions on the market. This reliability has been recognized by leading online travel agencies Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com who have also chosen Hostaway as one of their elite software partners.

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More about Chuck and Poplar HomesChuck Hattemer has over 10 years of experience in professional marketing, sales, and executive roles. Since co-founding Poplar in 2014, Chuck has gone on to grow his company to over 300+ employees, with over $75M venture backing and 13,000+ doors under management across the country. In his spare time, he contributes to Forbes and other industry publications such as the SFAA Magazine.

Poplar Homes is a tech-enabled real estate service helping investors manage and monetize residential rental property across disparate locations. With remote staffing and an AI-powered platform, Poplar leases, manages, and maintains over 13,000+ doors across 19 markets in 11 states. With Poplar, property owners can confidently unlock geographical expansion to grow their portfolios like never before.

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More about Fatima and SugarFatima Dicko is the founder & CEO of Sugar, a platform that helps apartment residents feel more at home. Before Sugar, Fatima spent 5 years at P&G as a senior engineer on a product team developing products 3-10 years away from market.

Fatima came to the U.S. from Mali at a young age and grew up in New York City, receiving her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and MBA from Stanford Business School.

Fatima is a frequent mentor and volunteer for organizations such as Built By Girls, Black Girls Code and MLT. She was named as '18 Inspiring Women to Watch' by Inc and listed on the 2021 Forbes 'Next 1000' list. She has also been featured in TechCrunch, Business Insider, Crunchbase, Black Enterprise and CNBC.

Sugar allows residents to pay rent, unlock doors, socialize with neighbors and easily communicate with management - all inside a single app. By elevating the residential experience at their properties, Sugar helps managers attract new residents, increase lease renewal rates and introduce additional revenue streams.

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More about Steve and Plant PrefabSteve Glenn, CEO, founded Plant Prefab in 2016 as an offshoot of the award-winning residential design studio, LivingHomes, which he founded in 2006. Previously, Glenn worked with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) and managed the development of a $220 million program in Mozambique. He was also the founder and CEO of PeopleLink, a leading provider of enterprise community solutions; founding partner of idealab, a business incubation firm that raised and invested $1 billion in a number of successful companies; co-director of the Virtual Reality Studio at Walt Disney Imagineering; and co-founder of Clearview Software, which was sold to Apple Computer in 1988. He holds a BA with honors from Brown University, studied Urban Planning at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and was a Coro Fellow.

Plant Prefab is the first Certified B Corporation™ building technology company dedicated to sustainable design, materials, and operations. The company’s patented Plant Building System™ utilizes advanced digital modeling and fully customizable Plant Panels™ and Plant Modules™ to help architects, developers, general contractors, and individuals design and build multifamily and custom single-family homes 20 to 50 percent faster than site-based methods. The system provides better quality control, design flexibility, and time, cost, and material efficiency than traditional methods of offsite or on-site construction. Plant Prefab has two factories in California (Rialto, Ontario) and a design studio and show home in Santa Monica. With a mission to build a better world by design, Plant Prefab was the first housing prefabricator to announce a net zero goal and has achieved carbon neutrality in their operations since 2020. Plant Prefab is backed by leading investors including Amazon, Asahi Kasei, Gerdau Paris Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and others.

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More about Lydia and RentCheckMy name is Lydia Winkler and I co-founded RentCheck in 2019. RentCheck is a direct result of a personal problem I faced: when I was a law student, I had to sue my former landlord over a security deposit that was wrongly withheld. I was successful, but realized my problem could be eliminated through the use of technology, and RentCheck was born.

We’re RentCheck, a venture-backed, New Orleans, LA startup on a mission to make renting fair and transparent.

We’ve built software that serves Renters, Landlords, and Property Managers by providing an easy to use experience for documenting rental properties and by becoming the trusted third-party for security deposit administration. We are an early stage company looking to transform the $100 billion residential real estate industry.

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More about Michael and RentSpreeMichael Lucarelli is the CEO and Co-Founder of RentSpree, an award-winning rental software company. Lucarelli founded RentSpree in 2016 to reimagine how people rent homes. His mission is to pioneer a new rental process that allows all renters, landlords, and agents to interact seamlessly. Lucarelli is the recipient of Forbes 30 under 30, Los Angeles Business Journal 20 in their 20s, ASPIRE Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year, and Resident Malibu Award. Additionally, Lucarelli is an M.B.A. graduate of Pepperdine University.

Founded in 2016, RentSpree is an award-winning rental software known in all 50 states for its easy-to-use tenant screening process, renter management, partnership program and rental screening API. In just six years, RentSpree has grown its database by partnering with over 250 of the most trusted names in real estate and over one million agents, owners and renters across the country.

RentSpree helps real estate agents handle the influx in applications by providing them with professional tools to help save time, reduce liability, and grow their business with quality tenants.

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More about Datadoor and Tyler OklandDatadoor is a data analytics startup that collects robust iBuyer data in real time.

Tyler Okland is a Stanford trained physician who currently works as a Fellow in Facial Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery at Vanderbilt Hospital. He writes a newsletter called The Operator, covering technology and business strategy. Tyler co-founded Datadoor, a proptech analytics startup with Sebastian Szturo in May, 2022.

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More about Occupier and Matt GiffuneThe way organizations interact, leverage, and use real estate has changed, especially throughout COVID-19, but the way in which teams manage their real estate tasks has not.

With an increasing demand for real time data, quick insights, and collaboration tools, the use of email and spreadsheets to get things done just doesn’t cut it. Teams need a smarter way to rapidly gather, organize, and share critical information within their real estate portfolio.

Tenants are faced with unique real estate challenges and we set out to build digital solutions that automate and streamline the management of your lease portfolio and transaction.

Occupier's lease management software connects brokers, real estate teams, and lease accounting professionals so that they can make rapid, strategic real estate decisions, and proactively adapt to the changing needs of their business.

Occupier recently completed a $10.5 million series A fundraise, co-led by Stage 2 Capital and OMERS Ventures with participation from seed stage investors, Alate Partners, MetaProp, and Second Century Ventures.

Matt Giffune has been in the commercial real estate industry for over 15 years and his experience spans many facets. Prior to co-founding Occupier, Matt was the Vice President at JLL representing tenants and landlords of office, industrial and laboratory space and then moved onto becoming the National Director of Strategic Sales at VTS.

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More about Marcela and AlfredMarcela Sapone is the co-founder and CEO of Alfred, the most advanced residential technology and management platform in the U.S., specializing in a single-stop solution to maximize asset value. Alfred’s footprint expands to over 300,000 residents in single-family and multi-family rentals, in 52 markets in the U.S. and Canada. Sapone has been named to Crain’s 40 under 40, Top 30 under 30 by Forbes and among Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, and winner of Connect CRE's Women in Real Estate Award in 2021. Her experiences living abroad and studying Urban Development in Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Beijing, and Bangalore as a young adult greatly influenced her work. Named one of Goldman Sachs’s “most intriguing entrepreneurs,” Sapone earned her B.A. & B.S. from Boston University as a full tuition Trustee Scholar and holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, where she created the Alfred business model from her Boston apartment. Prior to founding Alfred, Sapone began her career at McKinsey & Company, worked at a mid market Private Equity firm, American Securities, and at Bridgewater.

Alfred is the largest and most advanced residential management platform. Since its inception, Alfred has focused on providing a resident-first experience. With an unparalleled knowledge of what residents want and technology that boosts income and efficiency for owners and operators, Alfred provides a single stop that elevates the rental ecosystem for all involved. Named by Fast Company as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies, Alfred's AOS technology drives lower operating costs and higher returns for property owners and operators. Alfred's portfolio now extends to more than 300,000 residents in 52 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

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More about James and CatalyzeJames brings twenty-five years of entrepreneurial, technology and finance expertise to energy analytics with degrees from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, UCLA, University of Texas at Austin’s Plan II Liberal Arts Honors Program. Previously, James spent 17 years exclusively building software companies as Managing Director of Converge Venture Partners, a Boston-based seed investment fund, and its predecessor, CommonAngels, an angel group comprised of leaders in the technology community. He previously worked at Cambridge Energy Research Associates and for the US Department of Energy, at the latter managing a team of 30 senior scientists and engineers at the US National Laboratories.

Catalyze is a leading clean energy transition company specializing in commercial and industrial partnerships. By taking on the cost and risk of building, financing, owning and operating clean energy assets and infrastructure — including solar, battery energy storage, and electric vehicle charging — Catalyze makes it easy and profitable for its commercial real estate partners to reach their ESG goals and deploy clean energy solutions across national portfolios.

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More about PURE Property Management and Joe PolverariPURE Property Management is the fastest growing profitable residential property management and technology companies in the U.S. Led by a team of experienced industry professionals and seasoned technology innovators, PURE acquires residential property management companies and invests in their people and processes. By deploying technology and providing operational efficiencies, PURE creates simple and satisfying experiences for residents and investors, including institutional portfolio managers.

Joseph Polverari is co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley-based PURE Property Management, the fastest growing profitable residential property management and technology company in the U.S. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and fintech pioneer, who led corporate development and strategy at Yodlee, a financial data aggregation and analytics platform, through its IPO in 2014 and subsequent acquisition by Envestnet. Polverari is leveraging his expertise to lead an experienced team of industry insiders looking to transform the traditionally cumbersome and complex process of managing properties.

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Learn more about Dwellwell and DanDwellwell is the first and only comprehensive “check engine light” for homes. This patent-pending technology senses and alerts residential property owner-operators to irregularities in core building systems’ performance, providing early detection of issues before they lead to system failure or devolve to catastrophic faults.

Dwellwell monitors and proactively identifies issues across core property systems — including HVAC, electrical and plumbing, as well as indoor air quality — helping large-scale single-family rental (SFR) and multifamily owners streamline maintenance, generate cost savings and improve resident comfort.

A serial entrepreneur who holds more than 20 U.S. patents, Dan Simpkins brings more than two decades of startup success. He founded Hillcrest Labs, now a division of CEVA (NASDAQ: CEVA), which introduced the first SmartTV operating system to the market and developed the first motion-controller for television. He also founded SALIX Technologies, a telecom company that was acquired by Tellabs (NASDAQ: TLAB) for $300 million.

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More about Mathias and BaselaneMathias co-founded Baselane together with Thorben Scheidger and Jad Yaghi with the goal of building modern financial technology to help the 11 million individual landlords and real estate investors in the US grow their rental investment portfolios, and to make real estate investing more accessible to new investors.

While working together at Boston Consulting Group from 2012 to 2018, Mathias and Thorben saw the opportunity to build a vertical-focused financial platform for individual landlords and real estate investors - a massive segment of the US economy - who are lacking modern financial technology, forced to rely on fragmented solutions, manual processes, and limited data to manage their rental properties.
Baselane is an end-to-end banking and financial management platform for landlords and individual real estate investors. Baselane’s all-in-one financial platform integrates banking, bookkeeping, rent collection, analytics, and more, to help landlords seamlessly manage their finances and maximize returns on their property investments.

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More about Yieldeasy and Jeff GopshteinYieldeasy is a marketplace to buy & sell small apartment buildings.

Having spent 7+ years in institutional real estate investing and private equity, Jeff ventured off into the entrepreneurial world and is building Yieldeasy to help mom and pop investors acquire small balance CRE. Jeff's previous work experience also includes capital markets, development, and property management. He's bought and sold single family rentals during the pandemic which gave him the idea for this business.

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More about Roost and ChaninRoost’s free platform helps large multifamily automate the deposit intake and refund process, reduce compliance risk, and minimize disputes. It also helps renters avoid late fees and build credit history thanks to renting and financial tips, savings deals, and a simple way to turn their refundable deposits into an instant emergency fund.

Roost is a mission-driven tech company focused on improving property NOI and renter financial health. Co-founder & CEO Chanin Ballance is an experienced Founder (and multifamily real estate & PropTech investor) with three exits already behind her.

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Learn more about Estated and JoshWe offer quick and easy access to data on 150 million residential and commercial properties nationwide across the US. We've built a database which allows users to search properties across over 3,200 counties in real time. Hundreds of customers have integrated our property data into their businesses to gain deeper insights into their clients.

Estated graduated from Techstars Boulder in 2017, which led to capital partnerships with Foundry Group and Techstars Ventures.

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More about Vince and UplistingUplisting, an Airbnb Preferred Partner, is a property and channel management software built specifically for growing short-term rental businesses. Property managers can manage short-term rentals and bookings, automate tasks, message guests, take payment, and so much more, in one easy-to-use platform (that never double-books).

Vince Breslin is a co-founder of Uplisting, a property and channel management software built specifically for growing short-term rental businesses. Launched in 2017, after the co-founders met working at HouseTrip (sold to TripAdvisor) Uplisting now works with managers across the globe, helping them to increase revenue, decrease inefficiencies, create 5-star guest experiences and reliably grow.

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More about Emmanuel and JetstreamJetstream Hospitality Solutions is an all-in-one technology platform and services solution that provides a powerful way for owners, managers and developers of short-term rental properties to maximize revenues and realize opportunities in the short-term and flexible rental market. Jetstream combines best-in-class marketing expertise and distribution technology with high-quality customer support to deliver guest delight, streamline operations and reduce financial risk.

Emmanuel is a passionate French-Canadian engineer and entrepreneur who values integrity and competent execution above all. Graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2002, Emmanuel landed in the HVAC Consulting world where he specialized in sustainable and energy efficient solutions for his clients. Following a successful exit of his small HVAC consulting engineering firm, Emmanuel took a major fork in the road and joined Jetstream in 2015 in the role of COO.

Initially a small niche OTA, Jetstream quickly found itself providing connectivity and channel marketing services for an ever-expanding list of vacation rental resort management companies throughout North America and Europe. Emmanuel co-led the rapid growth of the company including a successful Series A and eventual exit to The RedAwning Group in 2018. Seizing on the financial difficulties suffered by the travel industry at the onset of COVID, Emmanuel and his business partner seized the opportunity to re-acquire Jetstream from under the parent company, and are now delivering on their bold vision for the future of hospitality.

Emmanuel is a disciple of data-driven decision making and leading by values. When not trying to build an exemplary business, Emmanuel can be found skiing, sailing or paragliding.

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More about Earnnest and RussellEarnnest is how money moves in real estate! We are a digital payments company based in Greenville, South Carolina. We are the industry leader in digital earnest money payments - free for agents, free for escrow holders - and also offer a full payment suite for all payment occasions - agent fee billing, commission disbursements, lease payments, etc.

Russell Smith serves as Earnnest's Chief Revenue Officer, leading all marketing, sales, and customer success efforts for the digital payments leader. Prior to joining Earnnest, Russell held multiple go-to-market roles at HouseCanary, RealScout, and Trulia. He was named as a 2020 HousingWire Rising Star and is a NAR REACH Mentor. Russell lives in Napa, California with his wife and son.

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More about Snappt and DanielSnappt, a PropTech company offering fraud detection for property managers, today announced it has secured $100 million in Series A funding, led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners. The company's Series A funding continues the momentum of rapid growth Snappt saw in 2021, including apartment unit and revenue growth of +700%. The new investment will be used to accelerate product development, increase sales and marketing efforts and expand market reach.

Daniel Berlind is a real estate executive and the CEO of Snappt. Dan co-founded Snappt after running his own property management company and noticing a significant, industry-wide financial issue in the multi-family rental industry. Previously, Daniel was a professional baseball player for the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins.

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More about Auditmate and AshleighWith a combined total of 117 years of experience in the property management industry, Ashleigh's team realized that property managers were always getting the short end of the stick when it came to elevator/escalator contracts. Ashleigh founded Auditmate as a way to ensure that property managers are actually receiving the services that they are paying for and are able to save tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

Ashleigh Wilson is a San Francisco-based Entrepreneur, raised by a used car salesman and an elevator guy.

Tapping into her roots, Ashleigh opened and sold multiple small businesses by the age of twenty until ultimately landing in the elevator business. She excelled in the industry and was leading global research projects and being mentored by the CEO of one of the leading elevator companies.

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More about Pacaso and Austin AllisonPacaso is a technology-enabled marketplace that modernizes real estate co-ownership to make owning a second home possible and enjoyable for more people. Pacaso curates luxury listings with premium amenities and high-end contemporary interior design, offers ⅛ to ½ ownership with integrated financing, and, after purchase, professionally manages the home and supports seamless resale. Co-founded by Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff in 2020, Pacaso is the fastest company to reach Unicorn status and now operates in more than 30 top second home destinations around the world. Pacaso has been certified as a Great Place to Work and is recognized as one of Glassdoor's 2022 Best Places to Work.

Austin co-founded Pacaso to make the dream of second home ownership a reality for more people after experiencing the profound effect it had on his own life. In 2009, he founded dotloop in his hometown of Cincinnati, a company that created software to seamlessly manage real estate transactions. Zillow acquired dotloop in 2015, and Austin continued to run dotloop as a Zillow executive until 2018.

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More about Landsearch.com and Michael:Land represents a massive opportunity with over 1.3 billion private acres in the U.S. across distinct uses. However, an ecosystem around it hasn't been fostered–from education and discovery to finance and improvement.

Our initial focus is creating the best marketplace experience with a long-term goal of being the face of land and making land more accessible for all.

Michael has over 15 years of marketing and technical experience. He cofounded a digital marketing agency that grew to a 20 person team and has consulted with major brands on digital strategy.

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Email Michael at michael@landsearch.com.

More about Doorsey and JordanDoorsey is on a mission to innovate the home-buying offer process, offering buyers, sellers, and their agents an offer platform that drives efficiency, transparency as well as confidence. Through Doorsey, buyers, sellers, and agents are able to view all aspects of the offer process in real-time, under pre-accepted terms — enabling all prospective buyers to know exactly where they stand and what it will take to win. Sellers set a minimum price to protect their bottom line, and buyers are able to make offers with confidence, thanks to next-level listings inclusive of virtual tours, neutral third-party inspection reports, disclosures, & more than 100 up-to-date, accurate photos. Each listing also has a community forum, where agents, building professionals, and sellers can come together with prospective buyers to share expertise & answer questions on properties, repairs, upgrades, and the neighborhoods.

Jordan Allen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Doorsey, the online platform set to improve the home buying offer process. Prior to Doorsey, Allen was the CEO & Founder of the short-term rental company, Stay Alfred. A real estate and army veteran, Allen knows how to foster, lead, and grow PropTech's companies at scale.

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See what it's like to watch a Doorsey transaction in action.

More about Enertiv and Connell McGill

Enertiv is an operational intelligence platform that delivers transparency from the boardroom to the boiler room, enabling commercial real estate portfolios to do more with less, decarbonize operations, and ultimately increase asset value.

Connell McGill co-founded Enertiv in 2011. Connell majored in Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy at Babson College. After Babson, he worked Momentum Bay Consulting as an energy analyst for green building projects, and then the New England Consulting Group as a Project Manager.

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More about Ian Wong and Opendoor

Ian Wong is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Opendoor, where he is responsible for the development of product and technology. Ian is building a team of engineers, data scientists, product managers and designers to modernize the real estate industry. He was previously pursuing his PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford when he left to join Square as their first data scientist.

Opendoor is a leading digital platform for residential real estate. With a mission to empower everyone with the freedom to move, Opendoor has reinvented one of life’s most important transactions with a new, radically simple way to buy and sell a home through an on-demand, digital experience.

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More about Reggora and Brian Zitin:
Reggora’s appraisal management platform for mortgage lenders and appraisal vendors delivers unprecedented efficiency and agility across the entire residential appraisal process. Through smart automations, configurable workflows, and LOS and POS integrations, Reggora unites systems and stakeholders to help lenders and appraisers increase capacity and deliver high quality appraisals. The platform combines advanced payment processing, algorithmic appraisal ordering, detailed and customized reporting, and finally, a modern user experience, helping to allocate orders efficiently, reduce human error, and prepare the industry for the future of valuation.

Brian Zitin is the co-founder and CEO of Reggora, a venture-backed startup that provides software to speed up the appraisal process for mortgage lenders and real estate appraisers. Prior to Reggora, Brian co-founded a real estate brokerage, which was based on a proprietary algorithm that helped efficiently target and sell investment properties in the Greater Boston area. This experience exposed Brian to the inefficiencies in the modern appraisal process, which led to the start of Reggora. Brian has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 as well as a HousingWire Tech Trendsetter.

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More about David and PowerPay

PowerPay is a digital lending platform for the home improvement industry. Our fully automated technology offers near-instant approvals on loans up to $100,000, helping homeowners translate expensive home improvement projects into low monthly fees that can be paid over time.

Unlike other digital lending platforms, PowerPay is a fully independent company that is committed to delivering loans with no extra fees or added costs in order to offer the lowest monthly payment possible to our customers. After all, the more affordable the loan, the bigger the possibilities for your home.

David has over 25 years of successful business experience and ownership of multiple lines of service. David has extensive experience working in the home services space - consumer financing for home improvements, comprehensive digital marketing, and web design.

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More About Spark and Simeon Garratt
Spark is an esteemed real estate software company, leading the New Development industry in digital sales, marketing, and management solutions. Working with developers, project marketing firms and new development-oriented brokerages in over 80 cities globally, has positioned Spark as the fastest growing technology platform in the industry and a leader within their respective vertical.

As a company they combine several areas of expertise to radically rethink existing systems. Beyond having a regionally agnostic technology, the way Spark structures and offers visibility to data sets them apart in the industry. This is a fundamental aspect of the platform itself and the first time in this industry that developers can use one system to make key decisions

As co-founder of Spark, Simeon has been responsible for landing some of Spark’s top real estate clients in North America. Years of living abroad in Asia and building his experience in the real estate industry fueled his ultimate vision — to transform and streamline how new development is managed and sold. With an extensive background in selling and marketing property, Simeon has been involved in the sales of over 1,000 homes internationally which helped bring Spark into more than 80 cities worldwide. Recently, Garratt has been nominated to President of the BC Real Estate Tech Association, where he looks forward to sharing his expertise and institutional knowledge of the fast-changing industry.

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More About Northspyre and William Sankey

Northspyre is the only intelligence software on the market purpose-built by a real estate developer for real estate developers managing ground-up developments, fitouts and major renovations across asset classes (multifamily, office, retail, hospitality, mixed use, etc.).

Northspyre leverages automation, data analytics and artificial intelligence to address age-old challenges faced by real estate project delivery teams like difficult and unpredictable project outcomes due to reactive, gut-driven decision-making and bottlenecks from administrative burden. Instead, Northspyre empowers project leads with proactive insights, dynamic forecasts, and early warnings so that they can focus on making data-driven, strategic decisions.

William Sankey, Jr. is the Co-founder/CEO of Northspyre, a real estate technology startup bringing automation, data analytics and proactive intelligence to CRE project delivery. Formally educated at Yale University (architecture) and Harvard University (urban planning and real estate development), William has always had an interest in the way we build our cities, whether it was through design or transformational technologies.

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About Airsset and Michael

Airsset is a data and analytics platform built on top of IoT devices which collect indoor air quality data. We turn data into information and our industry partners turn that into building improvements.

Michael has been in the building industry his entire life, from consulting to software proptech start-ups. His passion for air quality began when his father (who spent much of his life as a drywaller), began to lose lung capacity due to drywall dust build up in his lungs. The big bodacious problem of bad indoor air all around us is what drives the Airsset team to build tools for the entire building industry.

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About Nick and ZegoNick Latz, Chief Revenue Officer, leads Zego (Powered by PayLease) Go-to-Market organization and is focused on market strategy, marketing engagement, and sales execution. Prior to Zego, Nick worked as a Director of Value Creation at Vista Consulting Group, the consulting and operating arm of Vista Equity Partners.

Zego is a property technology company that frees management companies and community associations to go above and beyond for residents through resident experience management solutions (think rent and utility payments, resident communication, maintenance requests, and more).

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About Zain Jaffer and Blue Field Capital

Blue Field Capital has a $1B+ real estate portfolio with investments including land, apartments, warehouses, hotels, office and senior care facilities.

An entrepreneur and investor in promising PropTech start-ups, Zainali “Zain” Jaffer is a private investor looking for projects and approaches this budding industry with one foot planted in his tech-industry experience and the other firmly grounded in his commercial real estate acumen.

Zain is also the host of the podcast PropTechVC, where he interviews the innovators, disruptors, and mavericks of the real estate industry, bringing listeners the latest conversations, trends and opportunities in the market. During the show, Jaffer delights in discussions that explore the many applications for technological breakthroughs that are transforming the market in real time. New guests are featured on a regular basis, and new episodes are posted almost every day, along with available video that can be found on the podcast’s home website, PropTechVC.com.

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About Peter Lewis and Wharton Equity PartnersPeter C. Lewis is the President and Founder of Wharton Equity Partners, a prominent real estate developer and investor with over thirty years of experience in multifamily, mixed-use and, most recently, industrial sectors.

Wharton Equity Partners is a NYC-based real estate owner, operator and developer with an increasingly active venture capital arm - Wharton Equity Ventures - which has been an important investor in several pioneering companies that have achieved valuations in excess of $1 billion.

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About Brad Wright and ChunkerBrad is the CEO of Chunker, a marketplace for short-term, on-demand warehouse space. As CEO Brad is responsible for overseeing the vision and operations of Chunker along with driving sales and company growth.

Chunker is a marketplace for listing and procuring short-term warehouse space. Simply put: it’s the Airbnb for warehouse space. Spaces range anywhere from 500 to 200,000+ SF in 41 states and 155 cities across the U.S.

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About Nate:Nate Smoyer is Director of Marketing for Avail, a platform for DIY landlords and their renters. He helped take the company from seed stage through series A, and to exit in just under 18 months. Proptech is a passion and he’s mildly obsessed with the industry. Outside of work, he’s running through the Black Hills of South Dakota seeking adventure. When not running, you’ll find him on the highway riding his Indian Chief Vintage, at the skatepark riding BMX—all before resting by the fire with a glass of bourbon and good book.
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Tech Nest on LinkedIn
Tech Nest on Twitter

About Clayton & HW Media:Clayton Collins is the founder and CEO of HW Media. He leads HW Media’s corporate strategy and content roadmap, while building a world-class team of business media professionals. He is also managing partner of Riomar Capital, an entrepreneurial investment firm that acquired HousingWire in 2016. Prior to founding Riomar Capital, Collins worked at RBC Capital Markets in the mergers and acquisitions group and served as vice president of national sales and marketing at Citibank.

HW Media provides mortgage, real estate and fintech professionals the news, knowledge and community they need to support decision making and business growth. Aligned with our mission to Move Markets Forward, we publish daily news and content through each of our core publishing brands including HousingWire, RealTrends, Reverse Mortgage Daily and FinLedger. HW Media is based in Dallas, TX with team members across the country.

HW Media reaches over 1 million monthly users, and our daily newsletters and membership programs reach over 100,000 subscribers.

Clayton & HW Media Links:

Clayton on LinkedIn
Clayton on Twitter
FinLedger on Twitter
FinLedger Newsletters
HW Media website

Personalized homebuyer education to reduce acquisition costs and boost loan profits.

Email Dan: dan@homebuyer.ai
Connect with Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangreenhomebuyer
Follow Homebuyer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/homebuyerai
Check out Homebuyer: https://homebuyer.ai

Reonomy is the leading provider of Property Intelligence. We recently launch Reonomy Research to provide in-depth historical analysis and uncover trends during this period of uncertainty.

Email Rich: Reonomy@n6a.com
Connect with Rich on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsarkis
Follow Rich on Twitter: https://twitter.com/richsarkis
Follow Reonomy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reonomy
Check out Reonomy: https://www.reonomy.com

Metechi is a bank centered syndicated marketplace providing lenders instant access to commercial real estate loans originated by banks. Annelise Osborne is Head of Strategy at Metechi, a fintech making capital markets more efficient. Previously, she was COO of Propellr, a broker dealer focused on upgrading finance through blockchain technology and digital asset, as well as SVP at Moody’s Investor Service, leading ratings teams within structured finance. Annelise is active in numerous industry organizations, company boards and as an educator and mentor. Annelise has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from The College of William & Mary.

Email Annelise at: annelise@metechi.com
Connect with Annelise on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annelise-osborne-7611176
Follow Annelise on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneliseOsborne
Check out Metechi: https://www.metechi.com

Propersum in an online marketplace for vacation rental home buyers to analyze properties with reliable financials from local property management companies. This collective participation from local experts in management drives purchase confidence for property buyers, accelerates sales for real estate agents, and generates new rental inventory for property managers.

Email Wes: wes@propersum.com
Connect with Wes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wes-walker
Follow Propersum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/propersum
Check out Propersum: https://www.propersum.com

Kleard provides smart technology to the real estate industry and our latest feature-set called Kleard Now allows properties for sale to be Self Toured.

Email Jonathan: jonathan@kleard.com
Connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-martis-kleard-ceo-b6183810
Checkout Kleard: https://www.kleard.com

CREXi is the commercial real estate industry's fastest-growing marketplace, data, and technology platform.

Connect with Matt on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-cors-423a15b
Follow CREXi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CREXinc
Visit CREXi online: https://www.crexi.com

Doorkee is a peer-to-peer apartment rental platform where Landlords, Departing Tenants, and Apartment Seekers work together.

Landlords pre-lease units, saving money on vacancy, broker fees, and marketing costs. Departing Tenants earn a rent refund of ~$1,000 by giving early notice and providing apartment tours.

Apartment Seekers find their perfect home months sooner than ever, searching, touring, applying and closing on an all-in-one platform - without every paying a broker fee.

Email John at: john@doorkee.com
Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjamesfagan
Visit Doorkee online: https://doorkee.com

Rob Chesnut is the Chief Ethics Officer of Airbnb, Inc., a role he took on in late 2019 after almost four years as Airbnb’s General Counsel. Rob is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia. He worked for 14 years with the U.S. Justice Department, where he prosecuted bank robberies, kidnappings, murder, and espionage cases, including the prosecution of CIA employee Aldrich Ames. He joined eBay in 1999 as its third lawyer, where he led eBay’s North America legal team and later founded the Internet’s first ecommerce person to person Trust and Safety operation. Rob subsequently spent nearly 6 years as the General Counsel and first attorney at digital education leader Chegg, where he helped take the company public in 2013. He joined Airbnb in 2016, where he grew the legal team from 30 to over 150 legal professionals in 20 offices around the world. His team led initiatives to promote home sharing and address regulatory issues with local governments and landlords around the world. Rob developed a popular interactive employee program, Integrity Belongs Here, to help drive ethics throughout the culture at the company. His book “Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution” is set for publication by St Martin’s Press in the spring of 2020. Rob works with companies to help them develop strategies to drive integrity into their culture. He lives in San Francisco, CA, and can be reached at www.intentionalintegrity.com

Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robchesnut
Visit the Intentional Integrity website: https://www.intentionalintegrity.com

Hannah Gorlick is the CEO and Co-Founder of Doorside, a software company providing custom marketplace apps for the real estate vertical. Dooride's platform solutions empower real estate brokerages with recruiting and virtual team-building; property managers with on-demand tours; and service-based businesses with a marketplace engine.

Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahgorlick
Follow Doorside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/getdoorside
Visit Doorside Online: https://www.getdoorside.com

New York-based next generation real estate technology and brokerage firm NestApple (www.nestapple.com) is offering home buyers the opportunity to earn a 2% rebate check of the sale price.

NestApple founders, Georges and Nicole Fishman Benoliel are long-time real estate investors in New York City. After going through the lengthy and costly process several times, they grew increasingly uneasy about the outdated system. While most segments of the economy have evolved due to innovation, real estate still operates in an antiquated manner which dates back from the 1980s. While websites like Streeteasy or Trulia make it easier than ever to search for homes and find comps, nothing has changed in the way people buy and sell real estate.

In an increasingly transparent market, there is less value in what traditional brokers offer. “The market has never been so transparent”, says Georges Benoliel, “all the information is available online, two clicks are all it takes to know what your neighbor paid for his apartment or whether he took a mortgage”. “The role of realtors needs to evolve and adapt” adds Nicole. While searching for ways to bypass the system, Georges and Nicole stumbled upon the concept of commission rebates which are legal in 40 States according to the Department of Justice and have in fact been publicly encouraged by New York’s Attorney General.

Real estate fees are too high

Real estate fees in the U.S. and New York especially are considerably higher than in Europe and represent 5 to 6% of the sale price. This percentage is then split evenly between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent (2.5% to 3% for each), if not, seller’s agent receives the entire commission. NestApple is listening to the market. While some brokers sometimes give small discounts, a vast majority of them will not decrease their commission structure. NestApple pays back 2% to the buyer at closing which averages $22,000.

Email Georges at: info@nestapple.com
Connect with Georges on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georges-benoliel-01b324/
Follow NestApple on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nestappleRE
Check out NestApple online: http://www.nestapple.com

DigiBuild is a construction management and business intelligence software utilizing blockchain technology to provide solutions to the construction industry. Their CEO, Robert Salvador, is an accomplished entrepreneur in the real estate and construction industry with experience as a contractor, technologist, and consultant.

Email Robert at: rob@digibuild.com
Connect with Robert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-salvador-7a72aa91
Check out DigiBuild at: https://digibuild.com

I like adventures. I'm currently building Till, whose mission is to develop personalized financial experiences for renters to transform the way they pay and stay in the home; GooD, a housing fund; and a family with my wife and three kids. Previously, I was the COO of The American Home, one of the first SFR funds which we sold to Silverbay.

Connect with David on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsullivantill
Follow David on Twitter - https://twitter.com/goodfundz
Check out Till - https://hellotill.com

Obie provides a free insurance and portfolio management platform for small to medium size residential and commercial investment portfolios.

Email Aaron - aaron@obiecre.com
Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/letzeiser
Follow Aaron on Twitter - https://twitter.com/letzeiser
Follow Obie on Twitter - https://twitter.com/JoinObie
Check out Obie - https://www.JoinObie.com

Curbio allows homeowners to flip their own homes with our turnkey pre-sale renovations. Curbio's turnkey solution eliminates the stress, hassles, and upfront costs of renovations.

Connect with Rikki on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rikkithompsonrogers
Follow Rikki on Twitter - https://twitter.com/msrikkirogers
Follow Curbio on Twitter - https://twitter.com/CurbioHQ
Visit Curbio's Website - https://www.curbio.com

Bio:Drew began his career in real estate at Tungsten Partners, a real estate private equity firm, where he sourced, evaluated, structured, and facilitated real estate investments. Assessing risk and analyzing the financial and strategic viability of investment opportunities, Drew helped source, scrutinize, appraise, and model the risk, potential value, and strategic viability for real estate investments in markets including New York City, Miami, San Francisco, Marfa, Madrid, and Venice, amounting to over $1 billion in assets. He also assisted in the management and support of Tungsten’s high net worth clients. Prior to LEX, Drew co-owned, developed, and sold an apparel consumer brand after working on Capitol Hill.

Company Overview:
LEX is the first and only commercial real estate securities marketplace available to accredited and non-accredited investors.

On LEX’s platform, everyday Americans can buy and sell shares of individual commercial properties, giving users the flexibility to create customized and diversified real estate portfolios. In addition, the groundbreaking marketplace will allow property owners to easily unlock equity while retaining operational control of their properties. LEX is democratizing the commercial real estate asset class and redefining real estate investing.

Visit LEX - https://www.lex-markets.com
Follow LEX on Twitter - https://twitter.com/LEX_Markets
Follow Drew on Twitter - https://twitter.com/SterrettDrew
Connected with Drew on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-sterrett

Compound’s technology connects investors from diverse backgrounds and geographies — who have historically not had access to high-quality urban residential real estate — and allows them to pool their capital to buy apartments in high-growth cities. Compound is a venture-backed real estate marketplace and qualified opportunity zone business based in New York City. Compound is led by Janine Yorio (previously head of real estate at Standard Hotels) and Jesse Stein (previously COO of ETRE Financial). Visit www.getcompound.com.

Email Janine - janine@getcompound.com
Connect with Janine on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janineyorio
Follow Janine on Twitter - https://twitter.com/JanineYorio
Follow Compound on Twitter - https://twitter.com/getcompound
Visit Compound - https://getcompound.com

Clear Capital, a real estate technology solutions platform, employs machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide detailed analytics-based, automated valuation models (both residential and commercial) and appraisal information to help lenders and mortgage originators make more informed decisions. Clear Capital was founded in 2001 and is the largest privately held valuation solutions company in the U.S.

Check out Clear Capital - https://www.clearcapital.com
Follow Clear Capital on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ClearCapital
Connect with Kenon Chen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenon-chen-72201b4

Learn more about MetaProp: https://www.metaprop.org
Follow MetaProp on Twitter: https://twitter.com/metapropnyc
Connect with Zach on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachaarons/
Follow Zach on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZacharyAarons

Rising Realty Partners is a full-service real estate platform specializing in creating and adding value to world-class commercial and industrial properties.

Rising Realty Partners Website: https://risingrp.com
Follow Rising RP on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RisingRP
Follow Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisRising
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherrising

IdealEstate is a nationwide network that helps real estate professionals build their online brand, promote their services and connect with new opportunities.

Brody's Email - brodysaunders@idealestate.co
IdealEstate.co
IdealEstate on LinkedIn
IdealEstate on Twitter

Avail is the only online rental platform built specifically for do-it-yourself landlords. Our full-cycle platform offers landlords an affordable way to list their rental properties, screen tenants, customize and sign digital leases, collect rent, manage maintenance, and more.

Connect with Laurence Jankelow, and learn more about Avail!

Avail's Website: https://www.avail.co
Avail on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/helloavail
Avail on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/helloavail
Laurence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurence-jankelow-6a693343
Laurence on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jankelow

Co-living is a rapidly expanding market that is catching the attention of service providers, global. In this interview, I talk with the founder and CEO of TheHouseMonk, Ajay Kumar, about a recent report his company compiled detailing the global co-living market.

We get into details such as which country has the most renters living in co-living, which is most profitable, and where some of the biggest opportunities are.

TheHouseMonk is a platform designed for tenants to improve their living experience, so of course we talk about what they offer and the uniqueness of their service in that they're present in nine different countries. Listen in.

Download the Global Co-living Report

Ajay's Email: Aj@thehousemonk.com
Ajay on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajay-kumar-09896867
Ajay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/babablahblah_
TheHouseMonk on LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/TheHouseMonk
TheHouseMonk's Website: https://www.thehousemonk.com

Our mission is to stop climate change. Period.

It is now significantly profitable for businesses to prioritize reducing carbon emissions — and with Efficiency Production, we have both the means and the motivation to be a catalyst for change.

Brenden's Email - info@carbonlighthouse.com
Brenden's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendenmillstein
Company's Twitter - https://twitter.com/climate_solved
Company's LinkedIn - https://www.carbonlighthouse.com

What is dashCMA: dashCMA is a modern pricing tool for the modern real estate agent. dashCMA allows the agent to support and illustrate their pricing strategy in minutes, not hours. With 1 search, dashCMA shows the perspective of 25+ searches from leading competitors. Simply put, dashCMA equips the agent with a modern pricing perspective that their competition isn’t showing helping them win more listings, win more accepted offers but more importantly, win their client’s trust.

What was the “need” that inspired development: As an agent myself, I was frustrated with the current pricing tools and CMA tools available. I was frustrated with the timely process of creating and updating them and even more frustrated with the process of presenting what felt like a behemoth of unstructured details in a 60+ page presentation. Instead of flipping from page 4 to 9 to 23 to 44 and losing my client’s attention along the way, I wanted to be able to focus on 1 page that encompassed the multiple perspectives needed for effective pricing. Understanding these pain points firsthand combined with my 15+ year experience building pricing models for Fortune 500 clients was the right balance and motivation needed to get started.

Website: https://dashcma.com
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18609623
Email Karen at: karen@dashcma.com

Nate is the director of marketing at Avail and host of the Tech Nest Podcast: The Real Estate and Tech Show. He's worked with other PropTech companies, helping them implement growth strategies through paid media. In a previous life, Nate was a real estate agent for Keller Williams Realty's number one team, the Ben Kinney Team. Prior to going all in on real estate, he cut his teeth in sales and marketing working in the software and digital publishing industry for 6 years.

Email Nate: nate@avail.co
Website: https://TechNest.io, https://realteampanda.com, https://avail.co
Twitter: https://twitter.com/natesmoyer
Facebook: https://facebook.com/natesmoyer
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/natesmoyer
Instagram: https://instagram.com/natesmoyer

Rethinking Real Estate website - rethinking.re
Dror Poleg on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/drorpoleg
Dror Poleg on Twitter - twitter.com/drorpoleg

Co-founder, Jordan Levy, previously built and sold Flowroute with Sean Hsieh.

Concreit is a micro-investing platform for commercial real estate that keeps your money flexible. We aim to create a stable and predictable return for investors by accessing private real estate investments & lending opportunities that are not publicly traded.

Check out Concreit's website - concreit.com
Concreit on Twitter - twitter.com/ConcreitApp
Sean Hsieh on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/seanhsieh
Sean Hsieh on Twitter - twitter.com/envisean
Email Sean Hsieh at - sean@concreit.com

Thomas is Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Prevu, a customer-focused digital home buying platform delivering industry-leading efficiency and savings. Frustrated over the lack of control and transparency he experienced throughout the home buying process, he launched Prevu in 2017 with his good friend, Chase Marsh, to establish a smarter way to transact. Before Prevu, Thomas spent 12 years working at highly established asset management firms in both the US and Europe, where he gained valuable experience investing in technology companies. He has been an active real estate investor for over a decade. Thomas holds a BS in Finance & Accounting from the Stern School of Business at NYU.

Prevu's website - prevu.com
Prevu on Twitter - twitter.com/prevurealestate
Thomas Kutzman on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/thomaskutzman
Thomas Kutzman on Twitter - twitter.com/thomaskutzman
Email Thomas at thomas@prevu.com

Examining the ways that technology and innovation are changing our built environment.

Franco's LinkedIn
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https://www.propmodo.com
franco@propmodo.com

Real estate is one of the oldest and highest performing asset classes - known for producing long-term wealth over generations. However, more people are choosing to rent now than at any point in the last 50 years, either for affordability or freedom to move. While individuals can achieve greater flexibility through renting, they also miss out on the benefits of wealth creation that can come from owning real estate, and, therefore end up under invested in real estate compared to peers who purchase homes. Every year spent without holding real estate investments, real estate can become more expensive and further out of reach as property values rise.

We believe people should have the freedom to move around to pursue new opportunities in their life while still having access to the wealth creation long-term home ownership can provide.

https://arrivedhomes.com
https://twitter.com/ArrivedHomes
https://twitter.com/RyFraz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryfraz/
Ryan@arrivedhomes.com

After years working as an attorney and on Wall Street, Drew founded Scout based on the principle that finding the right advisors for the largest financial transaction of a lifetime shouldn't be difficult.

Taking a performance-driven approach, Scout makes it easy to find the right agent for any purchase or sale, saving time and money, and bringing transparency to the real estate services sector.

Mention TechNest for up to $2,500 cash-back at close, when using Scout to find the right agent for your purchase or sale.

trustscout.com
Scout Twitter
Drew's LinkedIn
Email Drew at d@trustscout.com

Structurely nurtures, engages and qualifies your leads so you can spend more time closing and less time chasing.

Using indistinguishable from human artificial intelligence, Structurely has two-way texting conversations with leads about their purchase timeline, preferences, agent and financing status, and more.

And now, with Script Customization you can build your own Inside Sales Agent to say what you want, when you want and how you want, to every single lead.

Find Structrely at https://structurely.com/
Structurely on Twitter
Nate's LinkedIn
Nate's Twitter
Email Nate at nate@structurely.com

Alex founded Door when his mom sold her house with a traditional real estate agent, paid 6% commission, and did not even get a thank you note. Door.com is has the technology and expert agents you need to sell your home in the new digital world of real estate. Best of all? You only pay a flat fee, anywhere in the country, when your home sells.

Door Twitter
Alex on LinkedIn
Email Alex at adoubet@door.com

Natalia Karayaneva is the CEO of Propy, a Silicon Valley proptech company revolutionizing home purchasing via blockchain. She is an award-winning real estate developer, software engineer, and a serial entrepreneur with extensive knowledge in international real estate and crypto-economics. Natalia is a frequent panelist and speaker at blockchain and proptech events globally. She is an advisor to Arrington XRP Capital and a contributor to Forbes. Natalia has a degree in Computer Engineering from Russia and a degree in Sustainable Urban Development from the University of Oxford.

Propy is revolutionizing home purchasing globally by deploying smart contracts on the blockchain. Our disruptive solution helps buyers find a dream home, sellers find the best buyer, the agents and the title company to do the paperwork online. All of them participate in a seamless online process.

Learn more about Propy, and connect with Natalia!

Product Explainer Video
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Learn more about Renters Warehouse, and connect with Noel!

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Learn more about HappyCo, and connect with Jindou!

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Blake Miller is the Founder of Homebase.ai a resident experience and connected building solution for the multi-family housing industry. Blake is also the host of The Future of Living Podcast. Prior to Homebase Blake was a Partner at Think Big, a startup incubator in Kansas City, MO. At Think Big, Blake led the incubator program investing in and advising early stage startups. In 2012, Blake led the Kansas City Smart City Initiative, a public private partnership led by Cisco, deploying smart city technologies in Downtown Kansas City, MO, creating one of the worlds largest smart cities and winning a 2017 Edison Award for innovation.

Blake has been recognized as a Next Gen Leader by the Kansas City Business Journal, top 20 in their 20's by Ingram Magazine, and a top young entrepreneur to watch by under30ceo.

Blake speaks nationally and serves as a board member, advisor and mentor to a number of startups.

Learn more about Homebase.ai and connect with Blake!

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Blake's Email

Learn more about Breather, and connect with Packy!

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James Barrett is cofounder and CEO of Tenant Turner - a software company that finds, pre-qualifies, and schedules quality tenants so landlords and property managers can focus on more important things! James became an accidental landlord in 2009 and later acquired a second rental property in 2013. Though he’s always enjoyed interacting with tenants, he despised the inefficiencies of turning the properties. So he joined forces with his two best friends and fellow landlords to solve the problems they encountered managing their own residential rental properties. Now Tenant Turner is used by landlords and property managers nationwide and was recently named “Best Leasing Solution” by DoorGrowClub.

Learn more about Tenant Turner, and connect with James!

Company Website
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James' Email

Connect with James, and learn more about Rabbu!

Rabbu.com
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James' Email

Connect with Jeanna, and learn more about Rent Assured!

BeRentAssured.com
Rent Assured's Twitter
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Jeanna's Email

Let's connect!

LinkedIn
Instagram
Twitter
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nate@realteampanda.com
nate@avail.co

"We help everyday investors build wealth like the 1%."

Connect with Craig, and learn more about DiversyFund!

DiversyFund.com
DiversyFund's Twitter
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Our founders both sought to improve wellbeing for people and the world we live in, but from diverse perspectives: green architecture and brain fitness. These unique paths converged thanks to a shared love of technology, sustainability, and travel. Operto was born from a desire to make life better for property managers, who are the busiest people we’ve ever met.

Originally called Slickspaces, our first goal was to reduce the environmental impact and energy consumption of short-term vacation rentals. Like many problems, it was simple in theory but challenging to solve. Convincing guests to turn off lights and thermostats was impossible, so we turned to technology - using smart locks to automate the process.

These early days of managing guest access revealed a much greater need. Property managers were spending countless hours getting guests in and out of their properties. They had almost no visibility into the status of their units and no centralized system from which to operate. While smart home technology was becoming increasingly common, nothing brought solutions together to create a truly cooperative ecosystem.

That seed brought us to where we are today: the world’s leading operating system for property managers across the full spectrum of guest accommodations.

Michael's LinkedIn
Operto Website

Connect with Erina & Anna-Lea, and learn more about Remarkably!

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Anna-Lea's LinkedIn

InvestReal is a data-driven real estate marketplace connecting investors with developers in Qualified Opportunity Zone projects, supported by artificial intelligence. Our platform allows accredited investors to evaluate listed QOZ projects with standardized and transparent metrics, and invest at the project level with the developer partner to mitigate the inefficiency of blind pool funds and crowdfunding models. Additionally, our proprietary machine learning algorithms consolidate and process expansive data sets into digestible market health indices in a comprehensive dashboard display. The user-friendly interface includes: our exclusive InvestReal OZ Score, predictive analytics, an interactive map, and the capability to custom-rank OZs based on selected factors.

Connect with Stefan, and learn more about InvestReal!

Company Website
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Connect with Janine, and learn more about Compound!

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I am COO of property management platform Guesty, with nearly 20 years of experience in global operations, overseeing teams including Customer Experience, Finance, Legal, HR, Customer Success and Data & Analytics.
Guesty’s property management platform provides property managers and management companies with an end-to-end solution to simplify the complex operational needs of short-term rentals. With Guesty, users can manage listings from multiple online travel agencies including Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda and TripAdvisor, and utilize the company’s guest-centric tools including: Unified Inbox, Automation Tools, 24/7 Guest Communication Services, Payment Processing and more. Prior to Guesty, I was COO of Fiverr where I grew the company from 40 employees to over 400 in my six year tenure.

Connect with Vered, and learn more about Guesty!

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LinkedIn

We are a CRM platform for realtors. Our goal is to help Agents and Brokers keep in better contact with their leads by Transaction Management, Tasks & Calendaring, Drip Campaigns, Auto-Responders, Email Tracking & Marketing, Lead Importing & Document Management and Much More. We are constantly working to improve our system and implement our customer's feedback on how we can do better. We do offer a 30 day free trial as well!

Connect with David, and learn more about LionDesk!

Company Website
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LinkedIn

We do AI-powered tenant screening and offer financial products for tenants and landlords alike to secure rentals. This quarter, we'd be announcing our Rent Guarantee for the US.

Connect with Maraz, and learn more about Naborly!

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LinkedIn
Email

World's only unified rental marketplace allowing consumers to live anywhere, in any type of property, for any length of time, all through Leasera. Tenants and property owners alike now enjoy incredible loyalty and benefits like never before.

Connect with Barret, and learn more about Leasera!

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Email

ReferralExchange, the nation’s top real estate referral and lead-gen management company, is dedicated to creating great real estate experiences between real estate professionals and customers. Founded in 2005, ReferralExchange has built an invite-only network of over 25,000 top-performing Realtors. In 2018, the network created over 250,000 agent-to-consumer matches.

Connect with Lisa, and learn more about ReferralExchange!

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Email

Obligo is a fintech company that rids both renters and landlords from the burden of security deposits.

Connect with Omri, and learn more about Obligo!

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LinkedIn

Avail is the only online rental platform built specifically for do-it-yourself landlords. Our full-cycle platform offers landlords an affordable way to list their rental properties, screen tenants, customize and sign digital leases, collect rent, manage maintenance, and more.

Connect with Ryan, and learn more about Avail!

Company Website
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Personal Twitter
LinkedIn

Connect with Tore, and learn more about CrowdStreet!

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Nima is a Principal at Thomvest Ventures, leading the firm's investment activity in the real estate technology vertical.

Connect with Nima and learn more about Thomvest Ventures!
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William is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tridster, and a partner at 1/0 Capital. Prior to starting Tridster, William was part of the founding team that launched Better Mortgage, one of the fastest growing mortgage companies in the US.

Connect with William, and learn more about Tridster!

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Alissa is a real estate tech industry vet with over 15 years’ experience, including 3 acquisitions, at some of the fastest growing tech companies in the space. With roots in residential real estate and a passion for driving growth through strategic partnerships, Alissa has helped create and execute enterprise deals with the nation's largest brokers and franchise brands at companies like: RealtyGenerator, Market Leader, Trulia and Zillow Group.

Alissa currently serves as VP, Growth at Buyside leading sales and marketing initiatives for the rapidly expanding startup. Buyside now powers the top ranked brokerage firms in the country helping them leverage their data to capture seller leads, win listings and close more transactions in house.

Alissa was also recognized as one of Inman News' 2017 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders.

Connect with Alissa and learn more about Buyside!

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Company Website
Company Twitter

Andrew is Co-Founder and President of RealScout, a startup tackling residential real estate’s core problem: matching homebuyers and homes. LinkedIn revolutionized hiring by bringing job-seekers (demand), employers (supply) and recruiters (brokers) to one place - and providing transparency. RealScout strives to unlock the same revolutionary dynamic to a market that’s twice the size of recruiting.

Connect with Andrew, and learn more about RealScout!

Personal LinkedIn
Company Twitter
Company Website

Check out the teaser video for RealScout's latest video project at secretresourcewar.com.

Notarize is the first platform to empower thousands of people each day to sign and notarize documents online. From adopting a child to buying a home, Notarize builds trusted products and services that support life's most important moments. Pat built the first platform in the country that allowed people to legally sign and notarize documents online, which helped a homeowner in Illinois make history in 2017. As covered by the Wall Street Journal, Notarize completed the first remote mortgage closing in the country with an Illinois resident, a Texas title company, a Michigan lender and a Virginia notary. This monumental event laid the groundwork for mortgages to be delivered into the secondary market instantaneously—a process that had previously taken a median of 29 days. Pat's vision? Now, Notarize customers touch more than 31% of real estate transactions. Pat’s vision? To empower anyone to walk into a home they love and buy it online the same day.

Connect with Pat and learn more about Notarize!
Notarize Website
Notarize Twitter
Personal Twitter

Connect with Sam and learn more about Reonomy!

https://www.reonomy.com
https://twitter.com/reonomy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samviskovich

Connect with Juan and learn more about Real Closers!

jg@realclosers.com
http://realclosers.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-gabriel-molina-4b029356

Get on the VIP Insider's list of future updates https://tinyletter.com/technest
Learn more about TET '19 http://bit.ly/TET19EVENT
Learn more about Industry Syndicate http://industrysyndicate.com
Lear more about Real Team Panda https://realteampanda.com/

You can always reach Nate Smoyer at nate@realteampanda.com. Learn more about his agency at realteampanda.com.

Connect with Noel and Learn more about Renters Warehouse

noelc@renterswarehouse.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/noelchristopher
https://twitter.com/chicagonoel
https://twitter.com/prolandlord
https://renterswarehouse.com

Connect with Alan and learn more about CityVest

alan@Cityvest.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-donenfeld
https://twitter.com/RECrowdInvest
https://twitter.com/RECrowdInvest
https://www.cityvest.com

Alan is the founder of www.CityVest.com CityVest is an online investment marketplace of institutional real estate private equity funds. Our investors receive access to these institutional funds with minimum investments of $25,000 to $100,000, while the underlying fund may have a minimum subscription of $1 million. Simply put, we provide the simplest and best real estate investment process for individual investors to gain access to the best real estate investment funds. The CityVest.com website provides investors the ability to browse real estate investments, conduct due diligence on the properties, and review investment documentation. The on-line closing process is simple and safe. By pooling investments of as little as $25,000 with other investors, individuals can now gain access to high return institutional private equity funds. CityVest targets providing investors with relatively safe real estate investments with targeted IRRs of 12% to 18% IRR.

Connect with Dan and learn more about eVest Technology

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-summers-0a96b332
https://twitter.com/eVestTech
https://www.evesttech.com

eVest Technology is currently raising $2 million in Series A funding. Learn more about their Series A stock offering here: https://blog.evesttech.com/evest-technology-is-knee-deep-in-its-first-series-a-offering/

Connect with Roberto and learn more about Gabbi.ai

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertoamoreno
https://twitter.com/robertoamoreno
https://twitter.com/gabbi_ai
https://www.gabbi.ai

Gabbi.Ai is an AI-based communication platform (AI Assistant) that helps real estate agents build better relationships with their customers, thereby increasing their opportunities to double or triple their revenue potential each year. Founded by Roberto & Elisse Moreno, Gabbi was created out of a passion for the real estate industry, including years of hands on training and advice they provided to thousands of real estate agents to succeed and do better.

Connect with Ryan and learn more about his team, Team Title Guy

RyanJOrr@me.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanjorr
www.twitter.com/yourtitleguy
www.twitter.com/yourtitleguy
http://www.teamtitleguy.com

Connect with Zach and learn more about Rentgrata

zach@rentgrata.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachsloan
https://www.rentgrata.com/

Selected as a Wharton MBA Program Top Disruptor in 2018.

Connect with Heather and learn more about MortgageLead.com

heather@mortgagelead.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/baumanheather
https://mortgagelead.com

Connect with Heath and learn more about Stessa:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathsilverman
https://twitter.com/heaths
https://twitter.com/stessahq
http://www.stessa.com

Connect with Yale and learn more about Rentlogic

yale.fox@rentlogic.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yalefox
https://www.twitter.com/yalefox
https://www.twitter.com/rentlogic
https://www.rentlogic.com

Rentlogic is a tech-powered standards organization that grades apartment buildings from A to F based on health and safety standards, similar to how Cities grade restaurants.

Connect with Jason and learn more about The Agent Marketer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/realestatecio
http://www.theagentmarketer.com

Connect with Tyler and learn more about his company The Cauble Group

tyler@thecaublegroup.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylercauble
https://twitter.com/thecaublegroup
https://twitter.com/thecaublegroup
https://www.tylercauble.com

Follow their journey on Instagram: @Commercial_in_Nashville & @ArchitectureNashville

Connect with James and learn more about Offer To Close

jgreen@offertoclose.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgreen
https://www.twitter.com/jamestylergreen
https://www.twitter.com/offertoclose
https://www.offertoclose.com

Check out Offer To Close's YouTube channel for special tips and suggestions!

Connect with Daniel and Matthew and learn more about Listing Village

Daniel@ListingVillage.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-schroeder-8878229b

matt@listingvillage.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-young-562b3846

https://twitter.com/listingvillage
https://ListingVillage.com

Listing Village exists to serve Realtors and help them serve their homebuyers.

Don't ever miss an episode, subscribe using your preferred podcast app.

And make sure you get on the Insiders Email List for special announcements coming up!

Cheers!

Nate Smoyer
CEO
Real Team Panda

Learn more about Overthink Group at http://OverthinkGroup.com
- Get the full teardown of what Opendoor is doing at http://OverthinkGroup.com/opendoor
Check out Opendoor at http://Opendoor.com

Connect with Tom: tomgustafson@atlas1031.com
Learn more about Atlas 1031 at: http://atlas1031.com

Rooftstock with Zach Evanish

https://www.roofstock.com

https://twitter.com/roofstock

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zevanish

https://www.linkedin.com/company/roofstock

ZeeHaus with Christopher Garrett

https://zeehaus.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskgarrett

https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeehaus-inc

FelixHomes with Tyler Forte

https://howdyfelix.com

https://twitter.com/realfelixhomes

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerforte

https://www.linkedin.com/company/felixhomes

realquantum with Mark Davis

https://www.realquantum.com

https://twitter.com/realquantumapp

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmarkdavis

https://www.linkedin.com/company/realquantum

RentHoop with Paul Burke

http://renthoop.org

https://twitter.com/Renthoop

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pburke24

https://www.linkedin.com/company/renthoop

Onerent with Chuck Hattemer

http://onerent.co

https://twitter.com/OneRentCo

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleshattemer

https://www.linkedin.com/company/onerent

It's a long story and I tend to be long winded, but I try to boil everything down.

The road to creating the Tech Nest podcast was probably not the most direct, but it was it is.

In this bonus episode, I share what I created the Tech Nest podcast and what I hope to accomplish with the show.

Hope you enjoy!

Tech Nest is the podcast where we discover all the latest in real estate and tech by interviewing the innovators and leaders from companies who are challenging the way we buy, sell, and invest in real estate.