Investor Mindset by Konfidis: Recent Episodes
Konfidis Podcast
Welcome to Investor Mindset presented by Konfidis, where we talk about everything real estate investing.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Key's Co-founder and CEO Rob Richards. Rob covers why innovation is needed in residential real estate, how investors can profit from better real estate investment decisions, plus more.
In this episode we cover:
- How Rob got started in the real estate industry
- The evolving market and investor dynamics, along with the challenging environment for aspiring home buyers that will negatively impact the communities we live in
- The case for innovative new models
- How Key is helping address the need with the world’s first all-digital, on-demand co-ownership platform
- Aspiring homeowner's feedback on Key's ownership program
- How investors can benefit while also helping to shape stronger communities
About Rob Richards:
Rob is a high-tech operations veteran with over 25 years of senior management experience in IT, telecom, aerospace, and enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS). As Chief Operating Officer of one of the first SaaS companies, Rob helped pioneer the software subscription model and managed the company through its NASDAQ IPO. Since then, he has acted as an early advisor and interim CEO for several start-ups, managing private placements and growth activity.
Rob is co-founder and General Partner at Plaza Ventures, an early-growth stage VC with a portfolio spanning proptech, intelligent transportation, IoT, marketplaces, ad tech, and enterprise SaaS. Rob sits on the boards of several companies and is passionate about the impact of technology on economic and social advancement.
While operating Plaza Ventures within Plazacorp, Rob developed the vision for Key: applying digital innovation to the condo ownership journey in order to get millions of millennials stuck renting for much of their adult lives onto the property ladder sooner, building wealth while being able to live in the city. Rob is a high-tech operations veteran with over 25 years of senior management experience in IT, telecom, aerospace, and enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS). As Chief Operating Officer of one of the first SaaS companies, Rob helped pioneer the software subscription model and managed the company through its NASDAQ IPO. Since then, he has acted as an early advisor and interim CEO for several start-ups, managing private placements and growth activity. Rob is co-founder and General Partner at Plaza Ventures, an early-growth stage VC with a portfolio spanning proptech, intelligent transportation, IoT, marketplaces, ad tech, and enterprise SaaS. Rob sits on the boards of several companies and is passionate about the impact of technology on economic and social advancement. While operating Plaza Ventures within Plazacorp, Rob developed the vision for Key: applying digital innovation to the condo ownership journey in order to get millions of millennials stuck renting for much of their adult lives onto the property ladder sooner, building wealth while being able to live in the city.
In this episode of Konfidis’ Investor Mindset, we are joined by our special guest Michael Beckette, President of M3 Ventures. In this episode, Michael will share his journey along with observations and overall thoughts on the real estate market.
Following a successful career in the real estate industry, Michael founded The Mortgage Alliance Company in 1998 and since then he and his partners have seen the Mac/Mph Group, grow to become one of Canada’s premiere brokerage networks and the country’s first national mortgage brokerage with more than 2000 mortgage professionals and over ten billion dollars in mortgage volume annually. Michael is one of the founding members of the M3 Group, Canada’s largest non-bank originator and undisputed leader in mortgage brokerage.
Michael has been instrumental in delivering innovative technology tools, and enhancing the brands ability to evolve Mortgage Alliance’s operating model across all platforms to better support brokers and the customers they serve.
A proven innovator, Michael knows sales, how to build sales and management teams and believes that a clear vision, committed people, resources, measurable goals, and an unwavering focus on benefiting the customer are the cornerstones of any successful organization. In December 2018, Michael was appointed President of M3 Group’s new division M3 Ventures with a focus on expanding M3 brokers’ reach in the mortgage ecosystem and building and securing traditional and non-traditional partnerships. The M3 Group is the #1 non-bank originator with more than 6,000 brokers and $44+ billion in annual loan volumes. Its subsidiaries includes Multi-Prêts Hypothèques, Mortgage Alliance, Invis, Mortgage Intelligence, Verico, M3 Tech, M3 Ventures, M3 MortgageBOSS 5.0 and SimplInsur/SimplAssur.
Michael is a past Chairman of the industry association and one of the driving forces behind creation of the Accredited Mortgage Professional designation as well as a member of the Canadian Mortgage Hall of Fame.
In 2011 the Canadian Mortgage Hall of Fame inducted Michael for his achievements and contributions to the overall success of the Canadian mortgage industry.
In 2020, Michael was the Mortgage Awards of Excellence, Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient.
In this episode we cover:
- Michael’s journey and how he got started in the real estate industry
- Starting Mortgage Alliance Company and expanding brokerage market share
- Thoughts on demand and supply in the real estate market and where it’s headed
- From a VC perspective, where are companies putting their time and energy, and what problems are they trying to solve
- Helping and supporting startups and the younger generation in solving customer pain points
- Switching the balance of power from institutions to the consumer’s hands
- Sentiments on policy changes that could impact homeowners and investors
- Leaving a positive impact, contributing, and making things better
David Garrard, Chief Data Scientist at Konfidis joins us today to discuss how data can answer your key questions when thinking about residential real estate investing and help you make better investment decisions.
David has over 20 years of experience in technology leadership and senior engineering positions covering a broad range of technical disciplines including capability in analytics, data engineering, visualization, reporting, e-commerce, content management, and business process automation.
Most recently David served as the Chief Technology Officer of Last Call Analytics (LCA) - providing visualization, workflow, analytics, and forecasting to the Beverage Alcohol and Cannabis industries. He was responsible for a multi-disciplined team of talented technology professionals; and personally focused on systems architecture, data analytics modelling, forecasting, dev-ops, and performance. LCA was successfully acquired by Ample Organics, a leading provider of Cannabis technology in Canada.
In his many roles, he has led diverse engineering teams responsible for the full stack and full lifecycle of software products including large-scale datasets, machine learning, natural language processing, error correction, user experiences, mobile apps, APIs, distributing computing, infrastructure, security, and operations.
His experience has crossed industries from Consumer Packaged Goods, Finance, Energy, Loyalty, Healthcare, and Marketing.
In this episode we cover:
- Sources and data applications in the real estate industry
- Predicting rental rates for various real estate asset types
- Challenges in real estate data quality and how it’s normalized
- Using data to identify where you should buy your next investment property
- Leveraging data and trends to find discounts and premiums in the marketplace
Matthew Trinneer joins us in this episode to discuss the role of technology and innovation in advancing the residential real estate investing.
Matthew Trinneer is the Chief Technology Officer of Konfidis Inc with accountability for technology systems and data integration.
After joining TheRedPin as CTO in 2017, instrumental in building the technology and system architecture used by Konfidis today, Matthew continued in his technology leadership role through the company’s evolution into Konfidis’ renewed focus to SFR.
For over 20 years, Matthew has built and scaled technology startups. With experience in a variety of domains including real estate, real-time media, and education, Matthew brings a broad background and successful engineering track record to the Konfidis team.
Previous to TheRedPin, Matthew was CTO at ClassMessenger, a communication tool for the education system.
In This Episode We Cover:
- The changing landscape of real estate technology
- Eliminating pain points using technology and innovation
- Data at the core of proptech
- Proptech benefits for the first-time homebuyer
- The future of proptech specifically in residential real estate investing
Welcome to The Investor Mindset presented by Konfidis, where we talk about everything real estate investing.
Today’s guest is Shael Soberano, Chief Investment Officer at Konfidis Inc.
Shael is also a Principal of the Sharno Group of Companies, including as a Partner of Sharno Group Inc., a privately owned independent principal investment firm, and as Principal of Sharno Capital Corporation, a registered Exempt Market Dealer and PM with the OSC.
Previously, Shael was Vice President, Senior Analyst at Vision Capital, a leading Canadian Hedge Fund manager focused on publicly traded real estate-related securities. Shael first joined Vision Capital as an Analyst in 2009, shortly after its inception, became Vice President, Senior Analyst in 2014, and was registered as an Advising Representative with the Ontario Securities Commission in 2017. With a wide range of roles spanning both business development and investment management, Shael’s contributions were integral in growing Vision Capital’s assets under management and contributed to its award-winning risk-adjusted performance over his tenure. At Vision Capital, Shael was responsible for hands-on analysis and diligence of the U.S. Single-Family REIT sector from its infancy.
In This Episode We Cover:
- Formation of Single-Family Rental (SFR) Opportunity in the US
- Professionalizing SFR investments using technology
- Similar SFR Opportunities in Canada, specifically Ontario
- Supply constraints in Single-Family Rental homes
- Novel risk and return profile in real estate investing
- Challenges for tenants in today’s residential real estate landscape