Yaakov Zar is the founder and CEO of Lev, a software platform built to modernize the workflow of commercial real estate professionals. Yaakov started Lev after experiencing firsthand how broken the CRE financing process was, watching a $4 million loan take six months to close. What began as a tech-enabled brokerage has evolved into a purpose-built agentic workflow platform helping lenders, brokers, and investors manage deals, ingest unstructured data, and move faster. Yaakov is based in New York City.

(02:26) Bottom Up vs Top Down
(04:31) Slack Origin Tangent
(05:59) MetaProp Skills Library
(09:43) What Is Defensible AI
(11:12) MCP & Rapid Change
(12:41) Pilots Everywhere & Demo Fatigue
(17:34) Same Workflow, Turbocharged
(19:34) Real Estate's Move 37 Moment
(22:04) Why Winning Is Hard to Define
(26:07) Lev Agentic Workflows
(29:14) Leapfrogging Past Salesforce
(31:43) Data Quality Pushback
(33:49) Ingesting Email Into CRM
(35:54) Selling Software to CRE
(39:06) Overhyped AI and Security Risks
(42:50) Collaboration Superpower: Steve Jobs

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Lev
-Yaakov on LinkedIn

-MetaProp Labs Skills Library

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

🏙️ Events coming up:

-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-Data Centers Development & Infrastructure Forum: in NYC on 10/6
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-All upcoming events

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.