innovation Archives – Real Estate Is Your Business

034 – Minta Kay and Salil Gandhi of Goodwin Procter – The Law of PropTech

September 27, 2018producer Leave a Comment

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Law firm Goodwin Procter LLP launches PropTech practice to serve intersection of real estate and technology innovation…

Minta Kay (Chair of Goodwin’s Real Estate Industry group) and Salil Gandhi (partner in Goodwin’s Technology group) of Goodwin Procter LLP, join Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

In this episode:

What inspired the PropTech initiative at Goodwin Procter
The firm’s huge global real estate bench, and huge technology bench
How the firm has been getting a lot of calls, inquiries
Woke up with convergence of practices, obvious place to go
Tech – type of company, not an industry sector
Also Fintech, Blockchain, do a lot in that space as well
Real estate has been slow to adopt tech—that’s changing
Need to pay attention, a cascade coming down around them
Real estate becoming a service instead of just a hard asset
The greatest potential for opportunity
From first innovations on prop tech side on consumer listing sites, been seeing it on consumer side for awhile, bigger than a couple of entrepreneurs disrupting
Investors are investing to remain abreast of latest innovations
Keeping informed on opportunities to return investor returns, smarter buildings, manage portfolios
How people are thinking about what a building is and how it is structured, and that it is driving business decisions and entrepreneurial innovation
Why autonomous cars are important for real estate
Why re-purposing of spaces and buildings is huge
Going to raise a lot of new bureaucratic activity, permitting, zoning
Collecting more data than ever before, so sourcing deals to pricing deals, design, maintenance
From one transaction to an ongoing sharing of information
Open-mindedness on real estate and regulatory that will allow innovation to occur
Elasticity in the space is very important
The need to house fleets of vehicles is coming, a shift is needed
How smart contracts can shift advice business
From ballet, chemical engineering and art history — to law
PropTech is happening now in Asia too

030 – Ryan Baxter of PASSNYC – PropTech, Education, and Going Big

August 16, 2018producer Leave a Comment

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PropTech, education reform in New York City, and motivating innovation…

Ryan Baxter, making NYC’s built environment more educational, Founder/Chairman of PASSNYC, Real Estate Liaison for MetaProp NYC, and Co-founder of PropTech Challenge, and former Vice President of REBNY, joins Tom Kutzman in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

In this episode:

Real estate tech/prop tech
Baxter‘s unique path to prop tech, how he started in a trade association, Real Estate Board of NY
His undying love for NYC, looking for way to work around that, loved lobbying as a concept
The opportunity to make lots of impact
How the Association is older than NYC, serves more than 17,000 members across real estate professions
How Baxter started a regulatory effort on changing how ConEd treats power plants within buildings, taught him a lot about how NYC interacts with and treats tech
Aaron Block, a founder of PropNYC, knocked on door asking for help, saw them as distribution platform
How his work allows outcome beyond pursuit of wealth
Bing Co-Founder of Protech challenge, started last year grew to over 100 people from 47 companies,
Moving from personally-participated to virtually to impact many more people, to spur innovation, increase diversity, and create opportunities around the world
An augmented reality tool to overlay real time building information, helpful for engineers to know what a particular system’s flow of info in real time
A lack of agility and responsiveness in real estate is going changing
The need to understand that there are only five value propositions
A limitless opportunity for the human imagination
A $230 Trillion and growing opportunity worldwide
Developers should lean into PropTech
Why PropTech is years behind FinTech, yet broader than any other tech vertical we’ve seen
Is PropTech only one part of it, and a low hanging fruit, and limiting lens?
MetaProp
Starting with community building approach as a new fund
Why learning the language across the industry is crucial
Promoting better educational access and equity using community organizing and coalition tactics
Why the tip of PropTech spear should be public schools, and how they can design the future
Enabling schools to be specialized, motivating participation and resource provision, and working toward continual desegregation
The debate on why specialized schools have value
The Empire State Building, Jay-Z, and a great restaurant

025 – Vincent Pavanello and Robin Rivaton of “Make Real Estate Great Again – Real Estech in Europe

June 22, 2018producer Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:12 — 69.7MB) | Embed

Real estate technology disruption…

Vincent Pavanello and Robin Rivaton co-authors of the book “Make Real Estate Great Again”, focused on real estate technology disruption and is co-founders of the Real Estech community in Paris, France, join Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios in New York, powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

In this episode:

The show’s first guests from continental Europe, who are building a community in real estate tech
Bridging the gap between offerings those who want to buy goods and services
The community’s first days, three friends created website produced articles on startups
The consumers are changing and companies have to pay attention to user experience
The need to be merging pieces of a value chain and control quality, like automotive industry
Making real estate great again
Tech makes buildings fitted with people’s needs
Urbanization, more people living in more cities than before
Making a city denser to attract more people
Density leads to productivity, wealth requires different types of people with different skills put together
Next, thinking of how you move them all around efficiently
The perfect city for all social classes
The importance of creating buildings fit for real people now, while respecting history of city
Cities that exist today vs. the kind of cities that can exist 100 years from now
Considering climate change, population change, culture, economy, and when people will/would start migrating
Direct access to the sea as a factor in city creation and growth
When a city becomes toxic
A classy snack inspired by a birthday
Political influences can cause major shifts in people, Brexit as an example
Trends seeing, action to fund entrepreneurs to make changes happen, several funds currently support this
How they are building the first venture capital fund for real estate in continental Europe, with $60M
Hip areas of Paris people are moving to
The importance of a larger presence of women in real estate tech

013 – Jonathan Wasserstrum of Squarefoot – Now It’s Time for Commercial

February 16, 2018producer Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:36 — 71.0MB) | Embed

Transparent commercial brokerage with proprietary smart tools…

The real estate industry is antiquated. For most people they think of the residential real estate first, and that’s lagging enough. But technology and innovation in the commercial real estate space? That’s twenty years behind residential. An exception to this is Squarefoot, an online brokerage platform that enables companies to find commercial properties without going space to space.

Jonathan Wasserstrum, Co-Founder and CEO of Squarefoot (”a team of trusted commercial real estate experts armed with our own technology to help guide you from initial inquiry to lease signing and beyond”), joins Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

In this episode:

The state of affairs of commercial real estate today, two decades behind residential real estate, comparative sizes of residential vs. commercial
Enabling tenants to find space more easily
The problem being solved by Squarefoot is offering transparency and technology, as a listings platform,
Squarefoot’s biggest size deal ever, and the average size and company needs commercially
Playing a role in helping solve real estate problems
How Squarefoot clients can see the inventory
Squarefoot aligns better incentives between broker and client, instead of commission based on deal size, a flat fee per broker, a different comp model, so its not about steering toward biggest commission.
Most brokers aren’t still at the same brokerage after three years, and at Squarefoot the rate is better than the industry average
First efficiency, not having to prospect, how inbound people search online and wind up on the Squarefoot site
Offering further efficiency via tech and products in the space and discovery, and a proprietary app
Looking ahead to the next level: agency business representing landlords
Commission structure in commercial vs. residential similar, and how many buildings average landlord own
A lack of interest from Squarefoot in competing against CoStar — being just a channel for tenants to find space and landlords to market the spaces, not a current interest in data.
Is Wasserstrum a technology guy or real estate guy?
Ample Hills ice cream makes a special appearance
Are most companies actually tech companies?
20% of market is moving every year, but it takes 5 cycles for everyone to go through a new change of process/tech, with commercial taking even longer
The need to ask “how do I do it better”
Anything that can help increase the top line, and decrease expenses, should be a welcome thing
A lack of Houston TX accent
Houston’s lack of zoning

004 – Harley Courts of Nooklyn – Beyond Brooklyn

December 13, 2017producer Leave a Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:16 — 62.4MB) | Embed

Taking the friction out of rentals and roommates with tech…

Harley Courts, CEO at Nooklyn ( Brooklyn-based tech start-up fixing the experience of finding apartments and roommates) joins hosts Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu.

From skateboarding to real estate, data as a core asset, and why brokers are here to stay

Courts discusses the impact that the company’s atypical management and structure has contributed to its success, what he took from running a skateboard company, leadership, building a collaborative, mission driven team, how his skateboard company failing led to becoming the super of a building, then meeting numerous real estate brokers and realizing he can do that, starting Nooklyn as a blog, and having so much success that he had to hire agents. How when giving listing data away you have nothing, as it’s a core asset. How Nooklyn is giving renters control over process, plucking away at removing friction for renters, the majority of the country is still on Craigslist for rentals, and why the highly regulated nature of the real estate industry, and the fact that this is the largest purchase most people will make, means brokers will remain.

Taking on Manhattan, fixing the experience, and growing quickly

A spectrum of vegan offerings make for a dynamic snack. Court reveals how Nooklyn is growing beyond Brooklyn, and being on a mission to fix the experience for renters, and to take on a new market, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Why 200 listing number is a magic number to make progress, how Nooklyn offers an advantage for landlords, getting into shared housing on the platform, and the ability to facilitate transactions. Why with currently 250 agents Nooklyn is trying to hire 375 more agents in the next year. And how more than half the deals are split between at least two agents, who often contribute different skills sets and resources.

The skateboarding business, a police offer and a party animal, and eating vegan

Personal questions cover missing skateboarding, a broken elbow, a daughter (also) named Harley, learning the skateboarding industry in detail, seven layers of wood, difficulty in competing in the skateboarding business, a bad experience moving in with a police officer and a party animal who both stopped paying rent immediately, and how Court has personally gone through many challenges of rentals and roommates and what’s driven him to make the process better. Plus, a roommate platform built into the site, and favorite Vegan restaurants in Brooklyn.