Brent Wadas is the CEO at BotBuilt, a Y-Combinator Construction technology company based in Durham, NC that is revolutionizing building homes with robots to address the labor shortage and housing affordability crisis. Brent served in the US Army in Afghanistan after 9/11, where he fulfilled his patriotic calling. BotBuilt employs a methodology that makes homebuilding less capital intensive, creating less waste and enabling a much more sustainable building process. Brent served over 10 years in the US Army as Assistant (to the) Regional Manager. Brent is an experienced business entrepreneur with a flair for achieving goals through actions and a passion for bringing dreams into focus. (1:34) - Brent Wadas' entrepreneurial & military journey
(8:57) - What makes BotBuilt special
(13:52) - Feature: CREx - Makes it easy to get data out of Yardi, Salesforce, and more.
(15:15) - BotBuilt's factories: Durham, NC
(16:56) - Lessons from Katerra's $2 billion saga
(22:29) - Delivering a venture-scale return in Contech
(25:51) - BotBuilt's unit economics & business model
(31:49) - Contech adoption among homebuilders
(34:40) - Collaboration Superpower: William "Wild Bill" Donovan (Head of the OSS, precursor to CIA) - Wiki
 (35:54) - Brent's 'Grand Daddy's' influence: 1st Scientific sharing agreement between USA & USSR 
 


Housing Crisis | Using Robots to Build Homes Faster & Cheaper, with BotBuilt CEO Brent Wadas

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Lisa Rockefeller is the Chief Revenue Officer at Cortex Sustainability Intelligence, the decarbonization platform built for commercial real estate, where she's driving the go-to market strategy. Cortex's advanced AI helps CRE teams amplify operational effectiveness, make informed decisions about capital investments, and tactically address regulation risks. Lisa has spent over 15 years in the regulated and unregulated Climate Tech space, including at EnerNOC's, a leading provider of cloud-based energy intelligence software, and at Palmetto Solar.  (0:25) - Lisa's origin story
(1:18) - Quantifying the real estate decarbonization problem
(5:40) - Defining sustainability goals for CRE players
(10:25) - Cortex's data stack
(13:23) - Types of asset classes & building sizes working with Cortex
(20:11) - Feature: Blueprint Vegas - The Future of Real Estate Is Here. Tangent listeners get a $300 discount at BlueprintVegas.com/Tangent
(21:02) - Driving Cortex's adoption & estimating ROI
(23:33) - Has Real Estate done enough to cut carbon emissions? 
(32:04) - Collaboration Superpower: Neil deGrasse Tyson (Wiki) 

Climate Tech | Sustainability & Economic Benefits From Decarbonizing Real Estate, with Cortex CRO Lisa Rockefeller

Alon is the Founder and General Partner of RE Angels, a real estate technology angel fund solely composed of real estate experts with deep and diverse industry expertise focused on early stage startups. Alon also owns and manages several multifamily portfolios throughout the southeast (FL, NC & VA). Alon was the co-founder and managing partner of DTI Holdings, a vertically-integrated private equity real estate fund, which was established in early 2017 and successfully divested in 2021 - achieving 20% IRR. Previously, as a senior investment manager at MIO Partners, McKinsey & Company’s Investment Office. Prior to MIO Partners, Alon worked as a strategic consultant for McKinsey & Company, managing private equity client engagements. (0:32) - RE Angels & Alon's origin story
(2:27) - Is Real Estate slow to adopt tech
(4:49) - Early-stage Proptech VC criteria
(10:02) - Proptech VC challenges
(13:25) - RE Angels investment criteria
(17:49) - Feature: Housing Trust Silicon Valley
(19:00) - RE Angels Real Estate Tech framework
(25:00) - Driving behavioral change through innovation
(30:24) - Feature: Blueprint Vegas - The Future of Real Estate Is Here. Tangent listeners get a $300 discount at BlueprintVegas.com/Tangent
(31:16) - RE Angels PortCo's: Paraspot.AI (AI-powered inspections for real estate) & Waltz (Enabling foreign investors to invest in US Real Estate) 
 (39:08) - Collaboration Superpower: Warren Buffett 

The New Generation of Real Estate Tech Venture Capital, with RE Angels GP & Founder Alon Gorbonos

Christelle Rohaut is the Founder and CEO of Codi (backed by a16z), where she's building the walk-to-work revolution. Codi offers turnkey, private office spaces with the most flexible terms on the market. In a matter of days, any company can find a space for their team, with full and part-time options, outsourced office management, and flexible leases. Codi has also created a Relief Fund to help businesses impacted by WeWork's struggles. Christelle is an Urban Planner who aspires to achieve positive social and natural impacts for happier livelihoods. She seeks to innovatively rethink urban systems to help cities be a happier place for all. (2:11) - State of Office market
(13:58) - Feature: Housing Trust Silicon Valley
(15:10) - What's wrong with traditional Coworking
(21:43) - Types of buildings partnering with Codi
(23:56) - Codi's WeWon't marketing campaign
(29:34) - Collaboration Superpower: Brian Chesky (Airbnb CEO & Co-founder) & Conchita Martinez (Spanish tennis champion & coach) 

Future of Office | Coworking is Dead, Long Live Coworking: The New Flex Office Generation, with a16z-backed Codi CEO Christelle Rohaut

Robert McDonald is the Managing Partner at Cherry Lawn Capital, on a mission to provide businesses with the real estate capital necessary to scale and the operational capital needed for a successful next venture round. Robert joins Edward, Jeff and Zach to also discuss lessons and takeaways from the previous Proptech boom cycle, and how should founders and investors think about structuring, financing and scaling tech-enabled and data-driven Real Estate business in the post-ZIRP era.
 
(1:19) - State of Proptech VC
(9:56) - Proptech finance incentives 
(14:24) - Feature: Housing Trust Silicon Valley
(15:36) - Cherry Lawn Capital's & Robert McDonald's origin story
(20:04) - Cherry Lawn solution
(31:38) - 'The Great Transition' for Proptech valuations
(36:01) - Collaboration Superpower: David F. Swensen's wiki & Paul Annacone's wiki 

A New Way to Finance Tech-Enabled Real Estate Co's & Lessons from the Proptech Boom Cycle, with Cherry Lawn Capital Managing Partner Robert McDonald

Matt Ellis is the CEO of Measurabl, the world’s most widely adopted ESG solution for real estate. Customers use Measurabl to measure, manage, report, and act on ESG data on more than 15 billion square feet of commercial real estate across 92 countries. Measurabl empowers customers to optimize ESG performance, assess exposure to physical climate risk, drive decarbonization, and secure sustainable finance opportunities. Matt is responsible for overall company operations, product vision and investor relations. Before founding Measurabl, Matt spent 5 years with CBRE, where he led CBRE’s Sustainability Practice Group. In this Climate Tech episode, Jeffrey Berman and Edward Cohen are joined by guest co-host Nina Mesalles, Climate Tech investor at Decarbonization Partners, a BlackRock and Temasek JV investing in next generation innovative decarbonization businesses. (3:40) - What is Real Estate supposed to measure in ESG
(6:37) - Use cases across the Real Estate cycle
(10:12) - Feature: Housing Trust Silicon Valley
(11:24) - Players driving ESG impact
(14:33) - Impact on market behavior
(17:49) - Defining success in Real Estate Sustainability
(22:02) - Building usage impact on efficiency & certifications
(24:45) - Measurabl's Real Estate Sustainability data stack
(27:19) - Levers for Real Estate investors & operators to improve sustainability
(29:45) - Challenges to adopting energy optimization solutions
(35:20) - Climate change impact on coastal Real Estate
(37:42) - Where will Measurabl be in 5-10 years?
(40:05) - Cities & countries leading Real Estate Sustainability
(43:05) - Collaboration Superpower: Taylor Swift 

Housing Crisis | Using Robots to Build Homes Faster & Cheaper, with BotBuilt CEO Brent Wadas

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