Real Estate Is Your Business - a real estate technology podcast

Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack review their journey on "Real Estate Is Your Business", notable guests, what the hosts have learned, and how the industry is transforming, in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.

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

A nationwide realtor referral network... Lisa Fettner, VP of Marketing for ReferralExchange (real estate agents can submit and receive clients from across the US), joins Thomas Kutzman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: How the role and job of agent has changed in last few years The need to be hyperlocal while being able to help people everywhere Why agents needs to be the subject matter expert to help them now and several years down the line, a client's entire source for real estate Now it is all about the relationship How ReferralExchange is superior, algorythms, look at agents' experiences Look at agents who want to participate and want to be engaged, while looking at their specific areas of expertise Handling personal info of referrals Handle tracking, follow up Most important factor when referring – protecting agent reputation The concentration of agents in the market, agents in pretty much every populated zip code Why ReferralExchange operations are in San Francisco and Sacremento One big challenge these days---agents don’t call leads or referrals back Minimizing bias, racial concerns based on photos Advice to be as personalized and customized for clients as possible, keeping clients in mind Fettner's passion: Princess Project – give away prom dresses to teens who can’t afford them, promotes inner beauty, self confidence Don’t be afraid to have that conversation – it can lead to a relationship

Health and wellness at the center of the real estate industry ... Ross Guttler, Vice President - Strategic Partnerships for Delos (transforming homes, offices, schools and other indoor environments by placing health and wellness at the center of design, construction, facilities and operations decisions), joins Thomas Kutzman in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: How wellness is quite big now and where Delos comes in Approaching wellness and real estate from hard core science and medicine perspective What space is doing to our bodies Light quality and impact on standard of living How wearables will allow us to measure how space will impact our bodies, and react to what our bodies need Vetting materials Construction industries are waking up to "red list" materials Practices during construction to protect those building the pace as well At the crossroads being a real estate or a technology company Helping groups figure out things Help co-develop products and technologies "Darwin" – technology, the wellness brains for your home Physical and social environment is 70% of what affects health The best of North Carolina, and the origin of NASCAR Why space can make us better, smarter, healthier people Guttler has spent 15 years in investment, development and advisory roles across multiple product sectors. At Delos, Ross manages strategic relationships among Fortune 100 clients as well as institutional investors, owners and landlords. Having joined Delos in the early stages, he has led the growth of several business lines. In addition, Ross serves in an advisory capacity to a NY-based startup focused on developing spectral sensors for the built environment. Prior to joining Delos, Ross founded and managed the commercial division of ROI Properties, a brokerage and asset management firm that caters to distressed portfolios. He advised financial institutions, fiduciaries and receiverships on risk allocation and exit strategies for office, industrial and retail assets. Previously, he worked for the ViaWest Group, a commercial investment, development and services firm with a primary focus on value-add and opportunistic office, industrial and multi-family properties. Ross is a former board member of the Urban Land Institute and has held leadership roles in numerous other industry and non-profit organizations. He received a B.S. in Economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Restaurants as freelance work spaces… Preston Pesek, Co-founder/CEO of Spacious (transforming unused space into a city-wide network of stylish, productive workspaces where you can meet, work, and get stuff done) joins Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: How the way people think about office space has changed Spacious as a heavyweight of co-working world The goal for the user experience of product to be as frictionless as possible The ability to walk in and check in without a reservation Seamless instant connection to the community, space, WiFi, etc. Is Spacious more co-working or coffee shop? (Somewhere in between) How Spacious was conceived Doing business with restaurant tenants, that was perfect place to enter the market as a start Value prop for a restaurant space – monthly check, marketing exposure, fill space with room full of people who will be hungry when service begins Frat culture of co-working vs. higher end vibe at Spacious spaces, attracting more sophisticated/stylish members Individual workers vs. enterprise play Fantastic upgrade from a coffee shop Establishing consumer brand as B-to-C first, then B-to-B, end user is who focused on from experience perspective Creating a nighttime network for after-5pm spaces Balancing supply and demand How Spacious can spin spaces up and down quickly, ability to be responsive to changes in marketplace without big spends Being able to manage how grow footprint in a balanced way Is Spacious a tech company or a real estate company? Internal company is a tech company Being a geek around cities of architecture

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

Growing a team by utilizing a marketplace with highly vetted freelancers in a gig economy... Nathan Hirsch, Founder and CEO of FreeeUp (FreeeUp is a marketplace offering pre-vetted freelance talent) joins Thomas Kutzman for a conversation about growing a business with the right talent. MouthMedia Network studios are powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: The gig economy, and accepting the fact that entrepreneurs are not equally good at every part of their business How FreeeUp provides access to great talent all over the world to help build business FreeeUp’s original start in ecommerce, then marketing, then real estate agencies (10-15% of their current client are in Real Estate) An example of a virtual assistant What’s driving the trend of freelancing The way FreeeUp provides a lot of vetting, only takes the top 1%, and when they let them in How FreeeUp started with $2k and grew to millions - only using freelancers from their own marketplace, and running a virtual company How they didn’t look at FreeeUp company as a software business initially – looked at it as people who matched people -- but when they looked at it as software and kept improving it, the company turned a corner Why freelancing is part of the next wave of the business economy How FreeeUp has a good foothold -- pain points tough to fix, and hard to copy when fixed – looking at any competition in the business---and the vetting process is challenging to get right Freelancers have multiple clients each with their own styles, agendas Spending extra time at beginning setting best expectations will help save countless hours of clarification Solid communication, feedback to freelancers is critical when employing them The biggest error: assuming everyone’s expectations are the same Diversifying is important different people for different functions What would you do with extra hours? An important business lesson, and how Hirsch’s entrepreneurial career began with -- selling baby products out his dorm

Blockchain explanation, applications, and possibilities... Omid Malekan, author of "The Story of the Blockchain: A Beginner's Guide to the Technology Nobody Understands", blogger, and Explainer-in-Chief at Triple Smoke Stack (a publishing, consulting and educational firm that specializes in bringing the latest advancements in blockchain technology to traditional companies) joins Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: Malekan on Blockchain – technology that gives digital items physical properties Physical things can only exist in one place at one moment in time Because of crypto tokens big public blockchains epxploded in value More and more industries are looking at blockchain, including real estate There are many applications beyond crypto currency Before the Internet, restrictions of physical existence worked but blockchain reduces friction or restrictions Digital items are replicable Music is a great example of an application of blockchain that can be of value Blockchain exists on a spectrum, with varying degrees of how to apply it, and is by nature often decentralized A process to keep you honest A consensus mechanism Bitcoin is slow (only a few transaction per second) Losing a key/passowrd to access, the value is lost Real Estate doesn’t change hands without people knowing about it, likely a blockchain run by government for property in the future Using blcokchain to potentially democratize ownership and mortgages How REITs were like an early tokenization, good step in that direction While REITS are cumbersome and expensive, can take the REIT model and issue tokensi instead, a tradeable avatar A lot of creativity possible Like a co-op model, real estate distilled down to shares A home is an indivisible asset, tokenization can enable that, financing aspect – you go to one bank, one loan, future can offer breaking debt into pieces each with other people Fractional ownership, fractional debt Nomadic lifestyles enabled by fractional ownership shares in properties to live in places not regular residence, like a timeshare Creatively applied can improve on good parts, lose bad parts Airbnb a perfect example of Web 2.0 kind of business, someone builds platform, people use it, and most of value goes to owner of platform. Whether a value of Blockchain can be to mediate disputes How you can determine cryptocoin has value despite being digital Becoming The Explainer in Chief Model United Nations, learning to debate, valuable life lessons that it was a popularity contest, not all about substance, from moment you walk into the room relationships Artifical Intelligence replacing jobs

Marketplace for short form retail and pop-ups... Joy Fan, Chief Creative Officer of Storefront (@storefront - the world's leading online marketplace for renting short term retail space) joins Thomas Kutzman, Scott Pollack, and guest host Pavan Bahl in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: How Storefront "cracked the code" on short-term rentals Real estate brokers have open arms for pop ups, changed from 5 years ago How pop-ups and short-term rentals transformed from trend to strategy Perfect timing, how Storefront rode a wave for the last 6 years Demands of retail has changed Bringing digital into physical Providing pricing up front so anyone can see it and share it Servicing both landlords and tenants Why Storefront doesn't own spaces, technology makes it easy for brands to search for space Now in Canada and US, just opened Dallas and Austin, plus already in LA, NYC, SF, Chicago, Miami Looking at events and experiential, but focus on storefronts A lot of long-term leases are coming up and vacancy rates have risen a lot in major metropolitan areas Low cost at a conference Retail on the rise in US, story-sharing Making the physical experience feeling sensory like the online presence, creating addiction The international opportunity – where there is retail and where there is storefront Fan's opinion on a brand that’s getting it done The story of twins Incredible donuts

Two startups sharing their company visions on providing a better rental experience... Benjamin Pleat, CEO/Founder of Doorbell Communities (supercharging apartment living through curated event experiences) and Ashrit Kamireddi, CEO/Co-Founder, and Scott Bierbryer, COO/Co-Founder, of VeryApt (a trusted apartment review community for people who want to make sure their next apartment really feels like home) joins Thomas Kutzman on location at The Future of Real Estate Summit in Miami,FL. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: Conferences as a great opportunity to discover new ideas/innovators Doorbell Communities Looking at the experience side of things, not changing real estate, don’t redesign spaces, how the use of space is a platform for community creation Leverage existing spaces from lobbies to community spaces Creating meaningful experiences to cerate sticky communities Work in best in class providers including local businesses, good to support local businesses and get them in building Skepticism that neighbors don’t want to interact in a place like NYC, content gets them out The business model, and expense structure The value of software and analytics Offering experiences from psychic mediums, pastrami tastings, coding classes, and more. Currently in Boston and downtown Wooster Challenges are in the real estate finance world, recurring fee treated as different kind of expense, and Class A vs. Class B Avoiding technical debt, and how software augments experience without inhibiting, and enables community building and personal interaction Affordable housing, offering the same experience or hurdle distribution and acceptance by community VeryApt A data-driven concierge rental platform that makes finding the perfect apartment effortless Having very accurate data and content, making the ecosystem transparent Not just scraping listings, accurate [ricing/inventory, data from tenants talking about experiences in apartment Unique IP on recommendation engine, able to highlight buildings Concierge replaces much of the value of traditional agent Owning listings, not just scraping and taking data feed Trying to instill same culture and processing several markets Building out the brand, opportunities tangential to what they’re doing now ,rental insurance, figuring out moving Taking infrastructure and help solving problems beyond the immediate rental part

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

Why influential real estate companies offer an invite-only moving app from Updater to clients, delivering huge value during a stressful time... Chris Avery, VP of Real Estate for Updater (Updater's moving app is the smartest and safest way to reserve a moving company, connect TV and internet, update accounts, forward mail, transfer utilities, etc.), joins Thomas Kutzman and guest host Marc Raco in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: How Updater is solving a logistical problem Relocation tech Buyers, sellers, renters, branded experience through real estate partners, brands, multi family companies, realtors Automate all moving and related tasks that are all part of a painful experience Forwarding mail, subscriptions, and utilities Fostering partnerships, teams of industry experts Doing new things vs. creating new experiences How Updater is paid for, and it doesn’t affect the consumer (free), and the broker or property management company pays for it, as an invite-only platform How the app catalogues everything that moves and event the condition of property Testing new ways to keep consumers engaged in platform even post move Providing moving offers with discounts, helpful info etc., coupons Giving the consumer a complete view of a market, not recommending specific purchases, created competition on the platform including ratings and scores Last year nearly 20% of all household moves were processed though Updater A lot of A/B testing and measuring consumer behavior How Updater works to get brokers on board Setting an expectation with the consumer that this is what they should expect of brokers, a kind of seal of approval Incredible donuts that are an Updater favorite How the process works for an agent, and how Updater only works with real estate brokerages that work with one of the tech partners they integrate with Agents/brokers as independent contractors, brokerages don’t require people to use it, running behind the scenes so agent can just decline it Once an agent signs up they don’t have to do anything Updater is seamless for the agent, easy deployment, training, and engagement process The ability to stay connected, keeping consumers engaged, bringing value, platform stays open for this reason When Updater decided to IPO on ASX, as the smallest tech company to IPO there, and ultimately one of the most successful to do so Building community with brokers, looking beyond being a mere mechanism to their success Early moving memories, playing The Oregon Trail on early computers, and Seattle  

Retail and its effect on real estate... Rebecca Fitts, Principal Consultant for The Wild West of Retail (a consultancy focusing on non-traditional retail real estate strategies, brick and mortar customer experience and omni-channel solutions in the physical space) joins Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: Is ecommerce causing retauil apolcolypse, or revolution? The many changes going on in retail, surplus of retail real estate, need to find way out of that Figure out way that retailers can handle taking on overhead Digitally native brands opening up physical stores, customers want to have a touch/feel experience with brands How a physical store can help reduce amount of returns How there are no "pure plays" anymore Why physical retailers have harder time moving to ecommerce than ecommerce moving physical Westfield's World  Trade Center Oculus mall, public/private partnership, commuter hub Downtown redeveloping itself post-9/11 in NYC, a great comeback Mixed use of property, the way cities are growing The changing relationship between tenants and landlord, the difficulty of physical spaces taking long term leases An interest in commuter hubs for brands The need for experiences to be dynamic and changing, and are some physical stores too static to adapt? Retail trying to think in a new and different way Advancements in technology allowing you to reconfigure the store more frequently and easily Virtual reality, augmented reality, and smart mirrors allowing great things to be done in the store to expand experiences How Fitts is outgoing and enjoying being in a field that bounces around and changes The kinds of neighborhoods that are attractive to retailers, being loyal to local merchants Some of Fitts' favorite jewelry designers    

Real estate agent + client collaboration platform... Naman Desai, Co-Founder at Quo (which simplifies real estate agent + client collaboration via a platform and mobile app) joins Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: A customer engagement tool that empowered brokers, allowing them to work closer with clients, increasing efficiency How the app allows agents and clients to search and share listings together in one place, as a neat and organized way to keep track of properties they view, with the ability to take notes and store photos, better streamlining the process to make better decisions more quickly Allowing the app to maintain a place as preferred place to engage and track real estate opportunities and clients How Quo gives brokers an app to put in their clients’ hands, positioning the broker as more tech-forward How Quo can help speed up process of scheduling a viewing, with automation, and reduces time lag More feedback opportunities for the client, providing a good data and analytics resource Building out algorithms to suggest properties actively Obvious use case in New York City, but why in Cleveland? Looking to integrate CSS, zero lag time Is the tool more vertical vs. suburban? Markets with a lot of buyer and seller activity How Quo started as a concierge service for renters looking for new apartments How the co-founders realized a lot of people had a similar knack for helping people in the real estate space to help with real estate process; and, as the company grew and looked to scale, it started doing focus groups and one was people helping with what worked for them -- and the biggest was when they had a friend that helped them Agents wanted the communication platform, not the concierge service Pivoting to the communication tool Data in which people said what they wanted and so Quo followed it Not so stuck on idea that they wouldn’t listen, letting customers guide where they go Getting consensus on a change in company direction, and how the co-founders were married to solving a problem -- not on the way to solve it The importance of continuing focus groups The pushback from brokers -- overcoming friction in getting clients to download the app A must-have feature was a team collaboration piece Being comfortable with changes in business, such as pivoting in his previous business ClassPass Real estate as learned behavior vs. in the blood, etc? Taking risk in business and startups How finding one’s passion brings the opportunity to make more than anywhere else by doing what one thinks is right Fear of missing out

Developing community with residential and office properties and gathering data by providing technology-enabled amenities for tenants... Francesca Loftus, CEO of hOM (technology-enabled amenity provider that partners with residential and office properties to develop community by providing on-site fitness programming and unique events for tenants) joins Thomas Kutzman and Scott Pollack in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser. Presented by Prevu. In this episode: How Loftus became focused on amenities The company’s focus on amenities, especially in commercial buildings The cash outlay to adjust floors is a big step, so offering programming or events in a vacant space or available accessible spaces is a useful alternative The genesis of the idea, two of her cofounders are in fitness and real estate, her background in theater management, Some success because of the proximity of buildings to fitness studios Selling to amenities managers Most managers have tried other things, trying to be on trend with other buildings, then contact them to execute, cant do it themselves Despite offering a wide range, fitness is most requested and engaging, yoga leads that interest The hOM programs are unique and catch people’s attention Mini golf, bouncy houses, partnerships to execute and deliver in diversity Building community gives an edge for landlords Figuring out a model to provide benefits to fitness instructors, finding it was actually cost effective, Why Loftus was forced to be smarter how running business Utility players with the ability to get anecdotal data on the building, valuable team members but tough to find Looking at people with their whole selves i.e. developers and yoga teacher Listening for grit and experience (28 full time employees and 50 part time) Loftus is from Canada, ended up in New York, from a competitive girls prep school, full college ride in mathematics, wanted to go to NY for theater, ended up managing a theater at 17 years old, having a public facing “beard”, doing a lot of programming work Being curious about everything, having a dual role as performer and manager The kind of culture in the hOM office with meditation and breath-work, the company’s C3P0, rituals in the office Putting a voice to the tenants of buildings, creating incentive to communicate with them and close a gap of communication