The Propcast

In the first episode of Season 10 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Vincent Bryant, Co-Founder and CEO of Deepki and Grigor Hadjiev, Head of Product and Development for West Europe at Allianz Real Estate.

Louisa and Vincent discuss the founding of Deepki in 2014 and how their SaaS solution data intelligence platform is helping to guide top real estate players in their net zero transition. Grigor is one of Deepki's clients and in this episode you'll hear how they're utilising the SaaS solution to leverage the data from their ESG performance against their goals into the wider business environmental strategy.

Grigor also talks about the obstacles in getting businesses to adopt and transform through digitisation and how to overcome this.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• Fabriq
• La Solive

Shout Outs:

• Emmanuel Blanchet, Co-Founder of Deepki

Key Insights From This Episode:

• I think it's so important when you're hiring and growing a business to have that clear mission and vision - especially for millennials and Gen Zs, that's what they look for, because it's so important to culture. - Louisa
• We want to harness data so we can give our customers the resources they need to create and implement a comprehensive view of their ESG strategy and to help them to transition towards net zero. - Vincent
• Practically speaking, our SaaS solution data intelligence platform helps all stakeholders make sure that everybody is aligned to reduce the CO2 impact of the assets. - Vincent
• We need to work together to make sure that the solutions are viable and useful for us to reduce the environmental footprint, whilst being profitable for the PropTech companies. - Grigor
• With multiple pressures coming from regulations, expectations from investors and expectations from the people, this is enough to accelerate and to move faster. - Grigor

About Our Guests:

Vincent Bryant:

Vincent Bryant, co-founder and CEO of Deepki. His passion for energy goes all the way back to his early professional days. Vincent began his career with an energy consulting firm, before spending eight years at ENGIE as Energy Efficiency Director. In 2014 he created Deepki with Emmanuel Blanchet, driven by their shared vision: using data to make real estate more sustainable.

Grigor Hadjiev:

Grigor Hadjiev is Allianz Real Estate's Head of Product & Development for West Europe responsible for the design and execution of large capex programs and topics including ESG and 'smart'. He also leads the Innovation & Digitalization activities, bringing data asset management into the firm's existing expertise. Prior to joining Allianz Real Estate in 2018, he was Director for French-speaking Switzerland at Drees & Sommer. He started his career as an architect and general planner before joining a strategy & finance advisory firm. An alumnus of ETH Zurich, HEC Paris and ENSAPLV, Grigor holds a master's degree in Architecture and Management. In 2017, he became a qualified member of RICS.

About Deepki:

Founded in 2014, Deepki has developed a SaaS solution that uses data intelligence to guide real estate players in their net-zero transition. The solution leverages customer data to improve assets' ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance and maximise asset value. Deepki operates in 39 countries, with 180 team members across offices in Paris, London, Berlin, Milan and Madrid. The company serves clients including AEW, Primonial REIM, Generali Real Estate, SwissLife Asset Managers and the French government, helping to make their real estate assets more sustainable at scale. In March 2022 Deepki raised €150 million in a Series C round of funding which was jointly led by Highland Europe and One Peak Partners. Other investors include Bpifrance, through their Large Venture fund, and Revaia.

About Allianz:

Allianz Real Estate is a PIMCO Company, comprising Allianz Real Estate GmbH and Allianz Real Estate of America and their subsidiaries and affiliates. It is one of the world's largest real estate investment managers, developing and executing tailored portfolio and investment strategies globally on behalf of a range of global liability driven investors, creating long-term value for clients through direct as well as indirect investments and real estate financing. The operational management of investments and assets is performed out of 17 offices in key gateway cities across 4 regions (West Europe, North & Central Europe, USA and Asia Pacific). For more information, please visit: www.allianz-realestate.com.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

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Propcast Season 10 is here! We are focusing on ESG within the built environment, and we are thrilled to be joined by some of the leading companies in the industry to speak about what their business ESG strategy is - and what they're doing to reduce their carbon footprint.

Our guests share not only professional but personal experiences and the valuable lessons they have learnt for our listeners to find out more about the evolution of the built environment.

Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode & drop a 5 Star rating on Apple or Spotify. We're thankful for everyone who has been on this journey with us this far, and everyone who will join that number this season. Your support is the reason this show exists. Sponsors

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A Podcast Company is the leading podcast production and strategic content company for brands, organisations, institutions, individuals, and entrepreneurs. Our team sets you up with the right strategy, equipment, training, guidance and content to ensure you sound amazing while speaking to your niche audience and networking with your perfect clients. Get in touch [email protected]

Summary: In the final episode of The Propcast Season 9, Louisa is joined by Kevin Danehy, Vice Chair, North America and Global Head of Corporate Development and Allison Lloyds, Global Head of Investor Relations and Capital Development at Willow.

They discuss why digital twins are getting the attention of investors, what a digital twin is, how they both got into the digital twin space, and how Willow's clients use their product. While there is an inherent reluctance to embrace change, digitisation is here and it's time for people in the real estate industry to realise that tech, a digital twin, or data can make their portfolios stronger and more sustainable.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• CBRE
• Brookfield Properties

Shout Outs:

• Joshua Ridley, CEO and Co-Founder of Willow
• Nick Moore, Executive Director at Gresham

Key Insights From This Episode:

• Working with potential investors and customers, I encourage them to look at things differently. To be more flexible and say, "How can tech, a digital twin, or data make my portfolio stronger or more sustainable?" - Allison
• We're leveraging the computing power of the cloud to digitise real world assets. - Allison
• There's no secret that the confluence of inflation, rising rates, and geopolitical unrest have had an acutely negative impact on the public market. - Allison
• Change is here, we're not going back - digitisation is here. - Allison
• There is an inherent reluctance to embrace change. - Kevin
• With a digital twin, preventive maintenance is accelerated and the utilisation of the rail increases from 85% to the very high 90%. - Kevin
• Over the last 15 years, the co-location of high rise office buildings along with high rise multi-family apartment buildings integrated with retail and hospitality or hotels, offer the opportunity for an increasingly dynamic live, work, play ecosystem that attracts people 24 hours a day, seven days a week. - Kevin
• In 1950, 28% of the world's population were living in urban areas, in 2007 it became 50/50. By 2050, despite the pandemic and migration, the UN and other research indicate that two-thirds of the world's population will be in global gateway cities. - Kevin

About Our Guests:

Kevin Danehy:

Kevin Danehy is Vice Chair, North America and Global Head of Corporate Development at Willow. As Vice Chair of North America, Kevin leads the strategic direction, growth, and management of regional operations. Throughout his career, Kevin has cultivated, established, and led relationships with clients, as well as actively participated in transactional, leadership, and change management activities.

Prior to joining Willow, Kevin served as Executive Vice President & Global Head of Corporate Development at Brookfield Properties for 9 years. In this role, he worked to accelerate revenue and asset value growth across a global portfolio and played a pivotal role in the identification, introduction, and deployment of new technology platforms. From 2019, Danehy was instrumental in the deployment of WillowTwinTM on Brookfield's premier development, One Manhattan West, a project that has since led to him joining Willow.

Allison Lloyds:

Allison Lloyds is Global Head of Investor Relations and Capital Development. In this role, Allison leads Willow's external capital activities and is the company's primary point of contact for both internal and external investors.

Allison was an integral part of Willow's most recent capital raise. She began her career in real estate at CBRE, where she specialised in strategic planning and operational performance improvement for multinational corporate clients.

About Willow:

Willow is the "digital twin" for the built world. Through their software and professional services, Willow creates a digital replica of a built asset, that collects and aggregates data into a "twin". Through this approach, Willow enables the owners and operators of major portfolios and infrastructure to make smarter, more proactive, and data-led decisions. By providing data-driven insights, Willow empowers users to manage with greater efficiency, drive operational improvements at scale and provide their occupants with an enhanced and more connected experience. Willow is a global technology company with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Toronto, London, Amersfoort and Manila.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[02:45] Kevin: How did you get into real estate and how did you move into your position?

• I have been in the real estate business for over 35 years, I spent the first half of my career at CBRE as an advisor and for about a decade, I was with Brookfield.
• Part of my responsibility at Brookfield was to search for the new emerging business practices and approaches that would have a positive impact on the real estate industry and Willow was one of the most interesting.
• After a significant amount of time with Willow and the corresponding endorsement from the Brookfield team, I joined Willow to help the adoption of digitisation of physical assets.

[06:20] Allison: How did you go about transitioning to Willow and why did you make the transition?

• I worked at CBRE in New York and London in the global corporate services division and after a decade I pivoted to organisational psychology and went back and got my PhD.
• As my kids got older and the pandemic came, things shifted and I found myself wanting to re-enter the real estate space.
• I reconnected with Kevin and I was always interested in tech and curious about that space.

[10:15] Kevin: Can you give us an example of when Willow's product has been used? You were involved in the Super Bowl, can you talk us through how that would have worked and what value would have added there?

• SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles where the Super Bowl is held is a beneficiary of having a full digital twin. The digital twin integrates all the different technology systems that exist.
• A digital twin is an integration hub for technology.
• The benefit is it allows for the end user to have more data available as well as analytics using science and using artificial intelligence to be able to make predictions.
• Some of our projects in the US are Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and One Manhattan West. In London, one of our buildings is 22 Bishopsgate.

[14:45] Allison: Can you talk us through Willow's fundraising narrative to date and then what you have planned for the future?

• We have been really thoughtful about how we have raised capital to date, we don't have a traditional story.
• We use capital raised to invest in the business. We have a big focus on attracting and retaining top talent.
• There's no secret that the confluence of inflation, rising rates, and geopolitical unrest have had an acutely negative impact on public market and because of this we see VCs scrutinising perspective companies like Willow to a greater degree.

[22:35] Kevin: What is next for Willow?

• We're in the process of digitising Brookfield's office building portfolio in New York City.
• Across our categories, rail both in terms of railroad systems, computers, systems, and mining companies there is a large area for growth.
• The big opportunity for us right now is to increase our deployment across portfolios.

[28:30] The 'LMRE' part, Louisa asks the guests to talk about;

L – Touch on the main lessons you have learnt throughout your career.

Kevin: It's incredibly valuable to have a mentor. The harder I've worked, the luckier I've been.

M - Please give a mention to anyone / product / service.

Allison: Kevin Danehy and Josh Ridley

R – What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in PropTech?

Kevin : The physical part of real estate has always been what has thrilled me and gives me a great sense of fulfilment.

E - What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

Allison: PropTech is a space in which we just see so much potential and it's about how we can make the future better for generations that come after us.

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Summary: In the penultimate episode of season 9 of the Propcast, Louisa is joined by Nobu Iguchi, Managing Partner at Agya Ventures, and Fatima Dicko, Founder & CEO at Sugar.

In this episode, they discuss their journeys into the real estate innovation space and how, over the years, they've come to realise how important the concept of "community" has become.

We hear from Fatima about the mission, product and value of Sugar in the real estate industry, while Nobu explains how Agya Ventures helps businesses expand into Japan. The key takeaway from this episode is that innovation happens as a result of people taking risks.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• Sidewalk Labs

Shout Outs:

• Kunal Lunawat, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Agya Ventures
• Aaron Farr, Analyst at Agya Ventures
• Elian Haddock, Analyst at Agya Ventures

Key Insights From This Episode:

• The largest expense for building managers and owners is apartment turnover. - Fatima
• Gen Z will represent over 40% of the workforce by 2024. Most of them will be renters versus home buyers. - Fatima
• Community is a universal need. - Nobu
• If we continue building a product that customers love, continue listening to the product feedback, and continue solving this large and growing problem then we can build a company that is not only relevant right now, but sustainable over the long run. - Fatima
• Real estate has both a local component to it and a global component to it. - Nobu
• Innovation happens as a result of people taking risks. - Fatima
• Real estate is the largest global asset class with a 1% technology utilisation rate. - Fatima

About Our Guests:

Nobu Iguchi, Managing Partners at Agya Ventures

Nobu Iguchi is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Agya Ventures. Before Agya Ventures, Nobu worked at Bridgewater Associates, as a senior investment professional on the micro equities team. Nobu started his career at McKinsey & Company, where he was based out of the Tokyo office, and worked on projects across the United States, Thailand and Germany. Nobu holds a BS in Chemistry from Yale College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Agya VenturesAgya Ventures is a technology-focused real estate fund investing in exceptional entrepreneurs and early-stage companies.

Fatima Dicko, Founder & CEO at Sugar

Fatima Dicko is the Founder & CEO of Sugar, a resident experience platform that helps property managers build stronger communities. Before Sugar, Fatima spent 5 years at P&G as a senior engineer on a product innovation team. While at P&G, she received several patents and was 1 of 127 nominated technologists awarded the annual 'Most Transformative Product Innovation' award.Fatima came to the U.S. from Mali at a young age and grew up in New York City, receiving her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and MBA from Stanford Business School. She was named as '18 Inspiring Women to Watch' by Inc Magazine, listed on the 2021 Forbes 'Next 1000' list and has been featured in major publications such as TechCrunch, Business Insider, Crunchbase, Black Enterprise and CNBC.

Sugar

Sugar is a modern resident engagement platform that turns apartment buildings into vibrant communities. Sugar allows residents to pay rent, unlock doors and earn rewards for engaging with their community. By elevating the residential experience at their properties, Sugar helps managers attract new residents, increase lease renewal rates and introduce additional revenue streams. Sugar's vision is to turn strangers into neighbours and neighbours into friends.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market-leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[02:20] Fatima: Can you share your journey to this space?

• My background is in chemical engineering.
• I started thinking about communities when I was at Stanford Business School, how do they form, what strengthens communities and what keeps communities alive?
• When I moved to LA, I lived in an apartment building with hundreds of people and I started an experiment where we put a QR code in the elevator, from there we started looking at traditional property management platforms and found residents weren't very happy with them.
• The name Sugar came from the cup of sugar from your neighbour.

[04:20] Nobu: Can you tell us about your journey to the VC space?

• My co-founder and I were at college together but we went on very different paths.
• In 2019, I had an idea about raising capital from real estate developers and other entities with an interest in real estate and investing the capital in promising real estate technology startups.
• We left our previous jobs and started Agya Ventures. Our LPs are real estate developers, construction companies and other entities that are interested in real estate and construction innovation.

[05:40] Nobu: What do you call "early stage" and how much capital do you look to put in?

• Seed is our sweet spot but we invest pre-seed.
• $500,000 to $1 million.

[07:40] Fatima: Can you talk a bit more about how you can strengthen community resident spaces and how did you go about your raise with Nobu?

• Building Community in Residential Spaces:
• • The largest expense for building managers and owners is apartment turnover.
  • Gen Z, who will represent over 40% of the workforce by 2024, most of them will be renters versus home buyers.
  • Community is not a nice to have or luxury, it's a necessity.
• Raising with Nobu:
• • Nobu understood the vision and the importance of community from the early days.
  • When we dove into the nuances of the actual opportunity and what things are going to look like moving forward, they continued to resonate.

[09:30] Fatima: Where is Sugar based?

• We are alive in properties in different regions across the country, our largest presence is in LA but we live in properties in Florida, North Carolina and New York.
• What makes an ideal Sugar property and profile - 30 or more units and we have seen a lot of engagement in senior living properties so our ideas about demographics are changing.
• Community resonates with people of different ages and geographic regions.

[12:40] Nobu: What change have you seen pre and post-COVID? Have you been investing at the same rate? How many more investments are you looking to secure by the end of this year?

• What changes have you seen pre- and post-COVID?
• • The need for community has been direr and has been more pronounced with COVID.
  • Some people were working remotely before COVID and now hybrid work is an integral part of how employers are thinking about their workforce.
  • Our fund started investing post-COVID and one of the things that emerged with COVID were a lot of amazing startup ideas.
• Have you been investing at the same rate?
• • 2021 was a booming year for VC and many startups emerged.
  • There has been a change since then because of inflations.
  • Some of the best companies come out of these uncertain times.

[16:20] Nobu: Do you think valuations will go slightly down or be more slightly realistic?

• We are already seeing late-stage correction that's in response to a public market correction and we're seeing mid-stage valuation correction in response to the late-stage correction.

[16:50] Fatima: How have the last nine months been since securing your investor?

• Over the last year, we've invested heavily in the product which has led to greater efficiency within sales and marketing.
• If we continue building a product that customers love, continue listening to the product feedback, and continue solving this large and growing problem then we can build a company that is not only relevant right now, but sustainable over the long run.

[19:15] Nobu: You help businesses expand out to Japan, how do you go about it?

• We invest in US-based technology companies and one of the things we do bring to the table for founders is an expansion to Japan.
• We also work with companies that are not necessarily portfolio.

[22:20] The 'LMRE' part, Louisa asks the guests to talk about;

L – Touch on the main lessons you have learnt throughout your career.

Nobu: There is a risk in not taking a risk.

M - Please give a mention to anyone / product / service.

Nobu: Kunal, Aaron, Elian, my wife, Megan and my daughter, Ruth.

R – What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in PropTech?

Fatima: It's a very relationship-driven industry.

E - What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

Fatima: There's so much opportunity in this space.

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Summary: Louisa is joined by Mark Furness, Founder & CEO of essensys and Kally Kang-Kersey, Chief People Officer at essensys for the 8th episode of season 9 of The Propcast. During the course of the episode, they discuss what it means to digitally enable buildings and office spaces. Mark shares his journey from founding essensys back in 2006 to listing it on the stock exchange in 2019. Kally speaks about what people are looking for when joining a business in the post-pandemic world and how to build a successful business in a market that is constantly shifting. The discussion evolves into an overview of the major trends in the market and predictions for the future. 2019, 2020 and beyond have been a huge catalyst in terms of the change in real estate; post pandemic, people want purpose in their work and they want to be connected to the business that they're working in.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Key Insights From This Episode:

• Digitalisation and frictionless building experience are right at the heart of the real estate industry, as well as sustainability. - Mark
• Post pandemic, people want purpose in their work and they want to be connected to the business that they're working in. - Kally
• 2019, 2020 and beyond have been a huge catalyst in terms of the change in real estate. - Mark
• The operation of real estate has not had huge adoption because the acceleration of digital-first type solutions and digital enablement has only really happened in the last few years. - Mark
• We've got to create a growth mindset in our employees. - Kally

About Our Guests:

Mark Furness, Founder & CEO of essensys

Mark Furness is the CEO of essensys, the world's largest provider of mission-critical software and services to the flexible workspace industry. He has over 15 years of experience in building global SaaS and IT organisations. With a focus on automation and self-service, he founded essensys in 2006 to change the way space providers deliver services and meet occupier requirements in the flexible office sector. Mark is passionate about innovation, customer success and company culture. He is a determined leader and a visionary, guiding essensys to a public listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in May of 2019.

Kally Kang-Kersey, Chief People Officer at essensys

Kally Kang-Kersey is a true commercial business HR leader with over 25 years' experience driving inspirational approaches to enable organisational change and human capital management at international and globally scaled technology-led businesses. She was most recently VP, Talent & Organisational Development at Zebra Technologies, a $4bn revenue global technology business, where she led their global talent function, and previously served as HR leader for EMEA. Prior to Zebra Technologies, she held various senior HR and leadership roles at Xerox, American Express and Yellow Pages Sales Ltd (BT).

In this newly created role of Chief People Officer, Kally joins essensys' Executive and Operating Board, and will lead on all HR and human capital matters across the group, including talent development, culture, employee engagement, inclusion and diversity.

essensys

essensys is a leading global technology company for commercial real estate. Our platform is designed to solve the problems faced by today's modern landlords and flex workspace providers, providing the intelligent digital backbone that enables the real-time provisioning of digital services through intelligent network automation.

essensys delivers a simple, secure and scalable solution that helps our customers to create digitally enabled buildings and spaces portfolio-wide, to deliver seamless experiences, and realise smart building and ESG ambitions. We simplify network management, reduce operational complexity, provide enterprise-grade security, deliver on-demand digital services and access the data and insights to drive success.

Founded in 2006, and AIM-listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2019, essensys is active in the UK, Europe, North America and APAC.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[03:05] Mark: Talk us through founding essensys in 2006 and give us some information about the product.

• essensys is the word 'essential systems' chopped up and I started it in 2006 because I wasn't sure many people would consider employing me at that time or in the future.
• The world of technology especially IT and Service Delivery as well as the technology around network services was hugely complicated.
• The genesis of the business was could we automate and make self-service, the management to control IT and infrastructure in an enterprise?

[08:10] Mark: Can you give an example of someone who might be your customer?

• Think about the world's largest real estate brands and companies, whether it is flex, industrious or big asset owners.
• We have a global private network and then we have technologies that we control - imagine walking into a building, you can get your phone out and you can tap your phone and not only will it connect you to the network, but it will also open the door as well as book the space and charge you, all in less than half a second.

[11:30] Kally: What have you seen post-pandemic in terms of what people are looking for when joining a business?

• People want purpose and they want to be connected to the business they're working in.
• Communication and how we engage are more imperative than how many days we are working.
• Aligning your culture to the actions you want to see.

[16:20] Mark: In 2019, essensys IPO'd and raised a significant amount of capital, what has changed in the business since then?

• We bootstrapped to 2019 but we had to set our stall out for the future and the ambition of the business.
• It was an evolution in the real estate sector that drove that thinking.

[18:50] Mark: What are the major trends you've seen?

• I think the trends are the same, but I think they are accelerating.
• Since 2006, flex was already moving in the direction I thought it would go in.
• Finally sustainability. Do we do this as a tick box exercise? Do we do it because we're forced to? Is it part of the responsibility of real estate as such a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions?

[21:15] Kally: How do you build for success in such a rapidly changing market?

• We're evolving fast so companies can get wrapped up in the transactional but we're trying to transform.
• We launched our first sales academy from a structured methodology but also evolving and getting people to understand the impact we make.
• Everybody should be able to have a connection and passion for the company.

[24:45] Mark: What's next for essensys and what are your future predictions for the market?

• For essensys, we are looking for where we can work with those big global real estate providers and those at-scale flex providers to help them with their growth, with their digital transformation and to make their operations more efficient.
• Real estate is going back to the era of let & forget because buildings are becoming more autonomous.
• The main lesson I have learned is to be yourself, have authenticity in every part of what we do. I want people to challenge me and be passionate about what we are doing. The importance of a work-life balance.

[28:20] Kally: What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

• Excitement through empowerment. If you are high energy, you've got curiosity, and you want to solve problems. It's a great culture. And, even when you fail, it's still a great culture.

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Summary: In collaboration with our community partners PropTech Denmark, our Regional Manager for the Nordics, Sanna Walfridsson recorded a live podcast at the PropTech Symposium: Real Impact joined by the Nordic industry leaders Rikke Lykke, Group CEO for Deas Group, Filippa Dracke von Euler, Head of Digital Service Development at Newsec, and partner at Stronghold Invest, and finally Rasmus Juul-Nyholm, Founder of Cobblestone A/S and Home.Earth.During this episode, they deep dive into some of the hottest topics discussed in real estate today, ESG, Sustainability, Investment and Talent and most importantly how we move from buzz words to actions. Companies Mentioned:

• Deas Group
• Deepki
• Plentific
• Cobblestone
• Home.Earth
• Stronghold Invest
• Newsec
• Wework
• LMRE
• PropTech Denmark
• Axeleo Capital
• Regus
• Amazon

Shout Outs: Antony Slumbers, Founder antonyslumbers.com Daniel Kraft, Partner at Stronghold Invest, co-founder Nordic Proptech Initiative Magnus Svantegård, Partner Stronghold Invest Nadim Stub, Group Vice President | Digital Ventures & Partnerships, DEAS Group. Key Insights From This Episode: The real estate and Proptech world are 10 years behind banks and the financial industry, so we have a lot to do. - FilippaDon't focus on talent as we know it, look at other industries, we need other perspectives to move the industry forward. – FilippaIn order to make change, we have to engage everyone. All employees, not just the C level people. You can set the vision at C level, but you need to let the employees decide the process. - RikkeThe evolution of real estate that we have seen over the past 10 years has gone more and more towards the digital world. - RikkeThe biggest office space today, it is not in the office, it's at home. - RikkeThings are changing now because of a pressure. Things are changing now as a reaction to ESG demands, and reaction to the taxonomy and the whole financial instrument that is being implemented. It is still a reactionary movement - RasmusWho will start the more proactive approach and work towards the opportunities? - Rasmus

Summary: In the 7th episode of the 9th season of The Propcast, Louisa is joined by the Co-Founders of Smart Building Bootcamp Matthew Marson and Michael Grant to chat about the secret to becoming a "Smart Building Expert".

Matthew and Michael describe what is offered by Smart Building Bootcamp and how they equip their customers with the skills they need to become Smart Building Experts. By cutting through the jargon and enabling people to see through the smoke and mirrors, Smart Building Bootcamp simplifies smart technology.

They discuss the wide range of businesses that sign up for their courses - from real estate firms to investment banks - and why it's so important to walk these clients through the fundamental components of smart building technology. After all, digitising a building can't happen overnight, it's a journey that requires a certain level of understanding.

Later in the episode, they touch on what skills they are looking for in the hiring process before they wrap things up with their expectations of the smart building industry.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• WSP
• Accenture
• AirRated

Shout Outs:

• Olga Turner Baker, Co-Founder and Managing Director Co-Founder and Managing Director Ekkist
• Charlotte Laing, Head of Marketing at Metrikus and Co-founder at Smart Building Bootcamp
• Brad Koerner, VP Product & Innovation MgtVP Product & Innovation Mgt at LUXTECH LED Modules

Key Insights From This Episode:

• Before you invest in digitising your estate, you need to educate yourself. - Michael
• Digitising your building can't happen overnight, it's a journey. - Matthew
• Hiring managers should think of their teams as a patchwork that is tied together with all those different experiences, rather than looking for a herd of unicorns, cause you won't find them. - Michael
• If we're going to stop the world from warming up, if we're going to reduce energy costs and we're going to improve indoor air quality, you need to make buildings smarter. - Michael
• People want their buildings to be smart and they want their buildings to react immediately. - Michael
• Customers are looking for different services, some want indoor air quality, some want energy and water monitoring and some want occupancy and capacity monitoring. - Matthew
• Since COVID, I have seen the 3 Cs; compliance, coerce and collaboration. First, it was making sure the air quality was suitable, then it was how can we get people back into the office and finally it has been about collaboration. - Matthew
• To get people back to the office, the obvious answer is to deploy the right smart building technology in order to prove and adapt to all the things that are going on. - Matthew

About Our Guests:

Matthew Marson, Co-Founder of Smart Building BootcampMatthew Marson is the Global Technology Sector Director at a large consultancy firm and the co-founder of the recently launched Smart Building Bootcamp.

Having founded WSP's Smart Places practice and grown Accenture's offering in this field, Matthew now leads a €100m business across a range of asset types and geographies.

Marson was named as the Royal Academy of Engineering's Young Engineer of the Year 2022 and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Young Visionary 2016 for his work in creating The World's Most Connected Building. He now sits on the Institution's Strategy Committee.

As a recognised thought leader, Matthew is a keynote speaker at international industry events related to emerging technology, net-zero design and places at the building and city scales. He was an author in the Encyclopaedia of Sustainable Technologies and a published writer in a variety of journals, earning a doctorate in Smart Buildings.

He has recently launched Smart Building Bootcamp in an effort to share his knowledge and bring smart technology leaders together, to educate the real estate industry on how they can benefit from smart buildings.

Michael Grant, COO & Co-Founder at Metrikus and Co-Founder at Smart Building Bootcamp

Michael Grant is the co-founder and COO of Metrikus, and co-founder of recently launched Smart Building Bootcamp. Michael is an operations, strategy and management professional with over 20 years in the technology sector. Specialising in technology, software, IoT, ESG and cloud, Michael has over 10 years' experience working at Senior Management and C-Level and has dealt with large teams to deliver solutions with exceptional service – clients include those from banking, commercial real estate and IT sectors.

Smart Building Bootcamp

Smart Building Bootcamp makes smart simple. The smart building industry is overwhelmingly complicated. There are hundreds of vendors all saying the same thing while at the same time all claiming they do smart 'differently'. We exist to equip you with the skills you need to interpret technical jargon.

With our online on-demand courses, you'll be a smart building expert in no time.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[02:00] Matthew: Can you elaborate on your career journey?

• I trained as an architect and engineer and started off working at a bank.
• I then went on to Accenture in the sustainability team where we were looking for ways in which we could reduce energy consumption for our clients.
• After that, I went to WSP to set up their smart places practice.

[03:35] Matthew: How did you meet Michael?

• A chance meeting at an industry event.

[04:20] Michael: Can you talk us through your career journey?

• I am a sparky (electrician) by trade, I then went into engineering and then IT.
• I was never in real estate until I got brought into the previous company and then I did a buyout with Metrikus Ltd, 3 years ago.
• AirRated sprung out of Metrikus and is now run as a separate business.

[07:55] Matthew: Can you talk us through Smart Building Bootcamp's key modules?

• There are 15 modules and we have arranged them into three tracks of five.
• Track 1: Trends
• Track 2: Physical
• Track 3: Digital

[09:40] Matthew: Give us an example of some jargon which you teach.

• Different types of databases.
• What's a server?
• How different systems come together.

[11:10] Michael: Who are the main people taking this course?

• Quite a wide mix, people from real estate, investment bankers, heads of operations, surveyors, heads of workplaces or heads of facilitates.

[16:45] Matthew: Coming out of COVID what are your customers looking for and what are they wanting from your product?

• It depends on the customer and what they want.
• Before COVID, 95% of our customers were tenants/occupiers and now it is almost 50/50. We have more landlords than we have ever worked with before.
• Some customers want indoor air quality, some want energy and water monitoring and some want occupancy and capacity monitoring.
• Michael: The 3 Cs: compliance, coerce and collaboration.

[22:00] Matthew: What skills do you look for when hiring people, and where do you see the talent coming from?

• Having a good combination of software, some built environment experience, good problem solvers and technically minded.
• I'm looking for more to do with curiosity and interest and the right attitude.

[24:45] Michael: What skills do you look for when hiring people, and where do you see the talent coming from?

• We only have 1 hire that came from the real estate industry (building management systems).
• It is really difficult to find people.
• I don't think people need to come from the real estate industry as long as they are smart and they understand what it is you are trying to do.

[28:45] Why are you both passionate about making buildings smart?

• Matthew: Growing up, I wanted to be an architect and I was inspired by throwing away ornamentation and antiquity and using the technologies of the time. Now I see this as a new architecture kind that will fundamentally change how we manage our space.
• Michael: I didn't come from this space, I came from a place where state of the art and cutting edge were everything you wanted but with the real estate industry, it's like going back in time.
• Michael: If we're going to stop the world from warming up, if we're going to reduce energy costs and if we're going to improve indoor air quality, you need to make buildings smarter.

[33:20] What are the major trends you've seen and do you have any expectations in the smart building industry?

• Matthew: We are seeing a rationalisation in the number of companies that offer sensors and we will see an upsurge in more master systems integrators.
• Matthew: On the professional services side, we will probably run out of opportunities to do use-case playbooks and the customers will become much more sophisticated in setting the agenda of what they want to do around intelligent procurement decisions.
• Michael: A lot of drivers are if the government's going to give me a huge tax rebate or pay for 50% of me digitising my building and help make it more efficient then I'm going to do it.

[40:40] The 'LMRE' part, Louisa asks the guests to talk about;

L – Touch on the main lessons you have learnt throughout your career.

Matthew: When you're designing a system, know the difference between cool and creepy.

Michael: You need to deliver what you say you're going to deliver in this space.

M - Please give a mention to anyone / product / service.

Matthew: Brad Koerner, Presentation at Integrated Systems Europe

Michael: Charlotte Laing

R – What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in PropTech?

Matthew: Creation of a new architecture 2.0 and the difference it will make to the built environment.

Michael: Feedback from customers that say we've genuinely helped them.

E - What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

Michael: Smart Building Bootcamps

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Summary: Louisa is joined by Jeff Allen, President of CubiCasa and Nikki Rinkus, Field Staff Appraiser at Clario Appraisal Network for the 6th episode of season 9 of The Propcast. The discussion kicks off with a description of CubiCasa's product, what it provides, and how it speeds up floorplan and appraisal processes. Louisa, Jeff, and Nikki chat about the trend of tech adoption and digitization in the industry and how CubiCasa has a strong foothold in 142 different countries. Jeff explains how their company differentiates itself from competitors and describes the PropTech scene in Finland. One of the main takeaways in this episode is that technology isn't eliminating any jobs, it's creating more efficiencies.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• JRL Property Group
• CBRE
• Apprao
• bowery

Shout Outs:

• Jarmo Lumpus, Director Global Business Development at CubiCasa

Key Insights From This Episode:

• You can go completely digital, I walk into an appraisal inspection with just my phone, no pad of paper, just the phone and it does everything. - Nikki
• Technology isn't eliminating any jobs, it's creating more efficiencies. - Jeff
• Appraisers are naturally a sceptical bunch, we want to check and double-check everything so we are slow to adopt new technology. - Nikki
• PropTech touches something universal and is important to everybody in the world. - Jeff

About Our Guests:

Jeff Allen, President of CubiCasa

Jeff Allen serves as President of CubiCasa where he leads the company's overall strategy to digitize property data collection and unlock actionable data insights for homeowners and mortgage professionals alike. In addition, Jeff serves as Executive Vice President, Innovation Labs for Clear Capital, the real estate valuation technology company that acquired CubiCasa in 2021. In this capacity, Jeff spearheads Clear Capital's in-house innovation hub, which focuses on the research, testing, and development of new products and solutions. Jeff has held a wide range of leadership roles throughout his career, including Vice President of Operations at CoreLogic, Chief Operating Officer at Rels, Director of Research Services at 10k Researching and Marketing, as well as Research Manager at Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS®.

About CubiCasa

CubiCasa is a PropTech company focused on providing value for real estate professionals through the digitization of properties. Headquartered in Oulu, Finland, CubiCasa is the global market leader in mobile indoor scanning and is known for its fast and easy-to-use floor plan app on the App Store and Google Play Store. CubiCasa's technology is used in 144 different countries and has helped create over 1 million floor plans to date. CubiCasa provides technology for the real estate, appraisal, and mortgage industries and is on a mission to digitise real estate.

Nikki Rinkus:

Nikki Rinkus has been appraising real estate in the Chicagoland market for 30 years and also holds her sales broker license. Over those 30 years, she has experienced unprecedented technological shifts in both arenas and has always been an early adapter. Some of her most interesting side jobs over the years include international courier and DJ.

About Clario Appraisal Network

Clario Appraisal Network is a full-service residential real estate appraisal firm. Composed of highly-experienced appraisers, we provide the highest quality services across the nation. We specialise in real estate valuations for the mortgage lending and financial services industries.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[03:20] Jeff: Can you talk us through your journey to the PropTech space in CubiCasa?

• I've been involved in either real estate or mortgage appraisal, for my entire career.
• Before I came to CubiCasa, I was running the R&D Innovation Lab at Clear Capital.
• We were trying to find something that would enable anyone to collect accurate property data and floor plan measurements without any training and we found CubiCasa and made the acquisition.
• It's something that enables anybody with a smartphone to do a five-minute walk-through scan of a property, and then receive back accurate and detailed floor plans.

[05:25] Nikki: How did you meet Jeff?

• I had a long road to Clario, but about six years ago, I started working there and they are a subsidiary of Clear Capital and Jeff recruited me for one of his pilot programs.
• Before CubiCasa we had an app that allowed us to walk through a property to get data points and someone at Clear Capital sent back information.
• CubiCasa saves a lot of time for the appraiser so we could focus more on the valuation part and less on the data entry part.

[06:45] Jeff: Can you go into a bit more detail about CubiCasa's product?

• The product works on a smartphone, a user can download the app and use it without training.
• You just walk through the property room by room, pointing your smartphone down, where the walls meet the floor then the data that's collected and captured is processed through our computer vision and proprietary.
• Ultimately then it is reviewed by a human to make sure that we produce an accurate end floorplan result and then delivered back to the user.
• Floor plan in a lot of different versions and property data as well, bed and bath counts and square footage.

[08:40] Nikki: How long would it usually take to do something like that without CubiCasa?

• It varies between ranch style or cottage style houses at one level, rectangular properties, complex properties and multi-story properties.
• Overall it can cut it by ¾ of the time and accuracy is much better.

[11:15] Jeff: CubiCasa is in over 142 countries, what trends have you seen in terms of tech adoption and are there any countries you are looking to launch in?

• What's cool about CubiCasa is that the technology scales to different use cases and many different geographies.
• It's really a general-purpose technology that fits a lot of different use cases so it has organically grown.

[14:00] Jeff: The debate that is going on is that tech is taking away people's jobs but CubiCasa helps people do their job as well as create new ones, would you say so?

• Technology isn't eliminating any jobs, it's creating more efficiencies.
• A lot of people spend a lot of time drawing floor plans and it is easy to get it wrong when doing it by hand.

[15:00] Nikki: What are you seeing in terms of people being hesitant to adopt new methods?

• With a lot of appraisers, there's a level of trust involved and appraisers are slow to come to it.
• What I would say to appraisers is; "Do you want to go back to the cut and paste era of appraisals?"

[17:55] Jeff: How does CubiCasa differentiate itself from its competitors in an ever-growing market?

• The major things that set us apart are ease of capture, and getting the data and information.
• The most common way to get floor plans for people is either to hand draw or a virtual tour and you're going to be scanning the house with special hardware, it's going to take you an hour and you're going to need specialised training. It's not scalable or democratising.
• With our product, all you need is a smartphone and you are doing a 5-minute scan with no training.

[21:15] Jeff: Could you tell the audience more about the Finland technology ecosystem?

• Before finding CubiCasa, I didn't know there was a PropTech scene in Finland.
• There is a huge pipeline of talent and great technical talent coming out of the universities.
• The Finnish PropTech scene is growing pretty significantly.

[22:40] The 'LMRE' part, Louisa asks the guests to talk about;

L – Touch on the main lessons you have learnt throughout your career.

Nikki: Just be adaptable.

Jeff: Be nice to people and good things will happen,

M - Please give a mention to anyone / product / service.

Nikki: CubiCasa

Jeff: Nikki for testing out crazy stuff for us.

R – What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in PropTech?

Nikki: Just being able to use the technology in the appraisal space and see how it's made the process more reliable and streamlined.

Jeff: PropTech touches something universal and important to everybody in the world.

E - What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

Nikki: To see the appraisal forms go from the static format that we've had for the last 19 years to a more logic-based cloud environment.

Jeff: AI and computer vision are already making an impact, but it's just getting started.

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Summary: Louisa is joined by Jessica Beck, Co-Founder and COO of Alfred and Marcela Sapone, CEO and Co-Founder of Alfred for the 5th episode of season 9. During this episode, they discuss how building management platforms are changing the way we live. Taking a deeper dive into how Alfred came about and in which city it all began, they also touch on what the product is, what trends they are seeing, and why Alfred acquired a property management company. They wrap up this riveting chat by talking about their journey as female founders and what is next for Alfred. The value bomb from this episode is, "Once you build an asset, you need someone to manage that asset."

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• The Peloton
• Brookfield Properties
• Hines
• Related
• RXR
• Jamestown
• Greystar

Shout Outs:

• John Fagan, Co-founder & CEO at doorkee

Key Insights From This Episode:

• The people who were able to make it all work had one thing in common: they got really comfortable with asking for help as well as comfortable with the idea of a team backing them up. - Marcela
• ​Once you build an asset, you need someone to manage that asset. - Marcela
• Real estate has been very resistant towards tech enablement. - Marcela
• My advice to founders would be; it does take time but if you build a relationship and you go building by building, one building to ten buildings, you not only build a great relationship, but you actually get to build a great product and you get to learn and work with your customers to bring something to market. - Jessica
• We learned that in this space, there's so much fragmentation; there's fragmentation on the technology side, on the services side and on the operator side. - Jessica

About Our Guests:

Jessica Beck, Co-Founder and COO at Alfred

Jessica Beck is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Alfred. Beck leads Alfred's day-to-day operations and under her direction, Alfred has grown to be a leader in hospitality, successfully rolling out a national resident experience and building management platform with hundreds of thousands of units managed.

In an effort to expand Alfred's footprint, Beck has negotiated and developed partnerships with some of the country's largest real estate developers, expanding Alfred to 44 major cities across the country.

Along with Alfred's Co-Founder, Marcela Sapone, Beck supports founders who want to live more consciously through WHITESPACE Ventures, a seed investment firm focused on design-led tech for better business.

From SXSW to the Sante Fe Institute's Annual Business Network & Board of Trustees Symposium, Jess speaks regularly on entrepreneurship and building scalable solutions in the sharing economy. Beck holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in economics from Williams College, where she was captain of the women's rugby team and graduated cum laude.

Marcela Sapone, Co-Founder and CEO of Alfred

Marcela Sapone is the CEO and Co-Founder of Alfred. Sapone launched Alfred with a mission to make help a universal utility in every home. Since 2014, under Sapone's leadership, Alfred has expanded to serve more than 135,000 residents in 44 cities across the United States and Canada, and has been named as Fast Company's Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

As one of the first leaders in the sharing economy to advocate for fair compensation of service workers, Sapone adopted the company-wide policy of hiring all Alfred staff as W2 employees. Sapone has worked with the U.S. Department of Labor and the White House under the administration of President Barack Obama, as well as The Brookings Institute and The Aspen Institute's Economic Opportunities and Financial Security Program, to advance these efforts of economic security for the future of employment. Along with Alfred's Co-Founder, Jess Beck, Sapone supports founders who want to live more consciously through WHITESPACE Ventures, a seed investment firm focused on design-led tech for better business.

Named one of Goldman Sachs's "most intriguing entrepreneurs," Sapone writes and speaks frequently on principled leadership, human-centered technology, and her commitment to being a steward of good jobs and meaningful change. Her writing has appeared in Forbes, Quartz, and Recode, among other highly reputable publications. She has been included in Fast Company's Most Creative People list, featured as the face of Consumer Tech in Forbes 30 Under 30, and was also a winner of Connect Media's Women in Real Estate Award in 2021. Sapone serves on the Norwalk Zoning Commission, where she supports initiatives and creates opportunities for urban development and growth. Sapone earned her BA from Boston University and holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

Alfred

Operating at the intersection of real estate and technology, Alfred is the leading resident experience building management platform that is changing the way we live. Founded in 2014 by Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck, Alfred's mission is clear: to create an industry shift in real estate, transforming renters into residents and apartment properties into neighbourhoods. Named by Fast Company as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World, Alfred has been recognized as a leader in the on-demand and in-home economy, investing in the local ecosystems and neighbourhood businesses that give meaning to our communities. Alfred to date operates in over 135,000 residential units in 44 markets across the U.S. and Canada through strategic partnerships with international real-estate operators, such as Brookfield, Hines, Related, RXR, Greystar and Jamestown. To learn more, visit www.helloalfred.com.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[02:10] Marcela: How did Alfred come about and how did you meet?

• I went to Harvard Business School and ended up sitting next to Jessica, we were both working 90-100 hour weeks.
• Our objective, both as individuals and personally, was to figure out if it would be possible to start our own adventure, build our own business and to find a co-founder.
• Our question was, "How can we enable women to stay in the workforce longer?"
• Our solution was, "Could we create a business that would put groceries in your fridge, dry-cleaning your closet, packages on your counter and have everything you ever needed at the tap of the button. And could that be included in our rent?"

[05:40] Jessica: In which city did this all begin?

• We were one of the few consumer companies that originated in Boston as we were still students.
• We opened our next market in New York.
• We have scaled to Canada and now we are in 52 cities.

[07:25] Marcela: Can you tell us more about the product?

• We focus on the largest category and asset class in the world, which is housing and we are making it digital.
• We take technology and we take a resident first, very consumer perspective and we are disrupting the way that traditional property management happens in multifamily and single family build-to-rent communities.
• At your fingertips is an application that allows you to buy services, to pay your rent, to book amenities, to book the Peloton, to book the workspace, to complain about something going wrong in your apartment and to request your packages to be delivered to your front door.

[10:05] Jessica: How did you go about bringing on your first massive client?

• Our approach in working with the industry and gaining our first customers was really one of partnering.
• Our first big customer was Related Rentals.
• My advice to founders would be; it does take time but if you build a relationship and you go building by building one building to ten buildings, you not only build a great relationship, but you actually get to build a great product and you get to learn and work with your customers to bring something to market.
• We always took a partnership oriented, consultative approach.

[12:05] Marcela: What are the major trends you have seen between Boston or New York in terms of what a resident is looking for.

• In Boston and New York, one of our biggest categories in the service marketplace in terms of time-saving service, was dry cleaning. But in San Francisco, you have absolutely no dry cleaning, and in Texas pet care was our largest category.
• In the last three to five years while we've been building the business, there's been a tremendous amount of change in the industry.

[15:10] Jessica: What was the reasoning behind acquiring a property management company?

• One of the things that we learned along the journey is if you really want to change how people live and you want to do it past the front door of their home, you need to be much more connected than you would guess.
• We realised in order to really deliver the product, we had to become much more integrated into building operations to create an end to end user experience and to deliver on top of that platform, you need to have a consolidation.
• We learned that in this space, there's so much fragmentation.

[21:15] Jessica: How long on average does a resident stay in an apartment?

• The average in the US, for annual churn in a property is about 45 - 50% a year and as a consumer business that means there is a lot of opportunity.
• What we've found is when you put a community in a building and residents start to participate and their lifestyle starts to get automated they end up staying longer.
• In properties where we've been operating for some time, we've increased the renewal rates for our partners by 5-10%.

[24:25] Marcela: Any advice you can give to other female founders?

• We try to ignore the fact that we're female founders, we would never do female only panels or raise and go out and say, "Female led companies raising X amount."
• Focus on the business and the fundamentals of the business.
• Have an extreme level of patience and a level of acceptance.
• Jessica: Being a founder is hard so find a good support system.

[27:55] Marcela/Jessica: How do you support your growing team as well as retain employees?

• All of us on the planet are at a point where we're taking a big step back to evaluate our choices.
• There's been a reshuffling of where people are putting their energy and the careers they want to be in.
• One thing that is extremely clear is that connecting back to your mission and having an incredibly clear set of values as well as being as radically transparent.
• Being empathetic and personal with each member of your team and understanding their goals.

[31:40] Marcela: What is next for Alfred?

• Slowly and steadily continually leading the category forward to become the leading brand in residential real estate as well as work with our stakeholders to move the industry forward.
• Continuing to add value to all of our customers

[34:15] The 'LMRE' part, Louisa asks the guests to talk about;

L – Touch on the main lessons you have learnt throughout your career.

Marcela: First things first and one line to do lists.

Jessica: When you're a founder, you're kind of the captain of a ship and you see calm seas and stormy seas but you are always in both.

M - Please give a mention to anyone / product / service.

Marcela: John Fagan, Co-founder & CEO at doorkee.

Jessica: Our whole team.

R – What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in PropTech?

Marcela: We're taking things from a piece of paper and turning them into something that you can engage with and interact with.

Jessica: Echo what Marcela said.

E - What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

Marcela: Getting through 2022 and 2023 and being able to reflect back and be proud of making it through a pretty challenging market with lots of ups and downs and twists.

Jessica: Keep pushing the envelope in the industry.

[36:05] Jessica: Are there any plans to come to Europe?

• 100% Yes

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Summary: On the 4th episode of season 9, Louisa is joined by Timothy Cocaro, CEO and Founder of canibuild and Simon Curtis, Chief Operating Officer at G.J. Gardner Homes. They discuss the story behind canibuild and how its product is revolutionising compliance, design and sales in the construction world. Simon shares how G.J. Gardner Homes is using canibuild's product. They chat about what major trends can be seen in the ConTech industry and what is upcoming for canibuild. The key insight in this episode is that in ConTech, the one thing you don't want to do is to lose the human touch by detaching from your customer. Instead, you need to bring the customer along on the journey.

Resources:

• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews

Companies Mentioned:

• Procore
• OpenSpace
• Bridgit
• Trimble
• HazardCo
• Open Data Australia
• Digital Twinning

Shout Outs:

• Shuvajeet Nag, Co-Founder of canibuild
• Deepankur Malhotra, Co-Founder of canibuild
• Stella Cocaro, Co-Founder of canibuild

Key Insights From This Episode:

• With ConTech, the one thing you don't want to do is detach from your customer. - Simon
• Clients are reaching a point where they're seeing construction similar to buying something on Amazon. They want answers quickly and they want transparency. - Timothy
• Customers have a huge thirst for knowledge. - Simon

Keywords:

Construction, ConTech, technology, built environment

About Our Guests:

Timothy Cocaro, CEO/Founder of canibuild

Timothy Cocaro possesses the unlikely mix of being both a builder by trade and a holder of a computer science degree.

Timothy's tenure as Founder and CEO of Australia's leading Granny Flat company, provided the necessary insight to see and, more importantly, understand the pain points of the construction industry.

This led Timothy to put his degree in computer science to use by creating a modern solution, that genuinely aligns with the needs of the construction industry.

In 2019, Timothy hung up his hard hat when he became Founder and CEO of canibuild, a world-first, hypergrowth Prop Tech that is transforming the construction landscape.

canibuild was developed to be the solution to the many root problems in the construction industry with its AI engine allowing home, pool, granny flat & other builders to instantly check site feasibility, site costs, generate site plans & produce quotes with just a click.

canibuild has gained unprecedented traction across the construction industry since its inception, with thousands of searches on the platform every day. canibuild has re-energised the industry by providing its subscribers the ability to be hyper-efficient at a time when the market is booming.

canibuild

canibuild allows builders to replace the need for physical site visits, drafting, surveying, estimating and instead optimising this complex series of high friction steps into an instant point of transaction. canibuild clients can now go from seeing a project site virtually with a client to contract instantly. This not only allows builders to be more efficient but also covers a much wider area geographically which is a game-changer in an industry that is so fragmented.

Simon Curtis, Chief Operating Officer at G.J. Gardner Homes

Simon Curtis is the Chief Operating Officer of G.J. Gardner Homes NSW/ACT and WA and is responsible for the brand's operation in these states. Leading a Head Office team, Simon's primary responsibilities are:

• To advise and support franchise partners within all areas of their business
• To work with the State Marketing Manager on State and Local Area marketing activities
• To drive franchise growth of GJ Gardner Homes in NSW/ACT and WA
• To provide training to the group in all areas of their business
• To ensure the group continues to have the support, tools and resources necessary for growth

With more than 20 years of experience at some of Australia's largest property companies under his belt, Simon has proven that he is a strong leader and clear communicator who possesses the ability to motivate, mentor and inspire others.

Simon holds a Bachelor of Business from the University of Queensland and a Master of Project Management from the University of Southern Queensland.

G.J Gardner Homes

G.J. Gardner Homes is a custom home building company. They have built over 36,000 quality, customised homes over the past 37 years and continue to grow on the back of a single premise - ensuring every customer would refer them to their closest friend. Throughout the building of a new home, they are dedicated to the highest standard of workmanship. Each of their qualified builders and preferred subcontractors have been selected for their individual standards of expertise and their commitment to excellence.

From humble beginnings in 1983 in Queensland as an independent building firm owned by Greg Gardner, G.J. Gardner Homes quickly grew to 8 regional offices, building as many as 1,000 custom homes a year. G.J. Gardner Homes quickly established a reputation for building great value, quality homes. Due to popular demand, Greg decided to franchise the business and almost immediately became one of Queensland's largest privately owned building companies. Fast forward to today, G.J. Gardner Homes has become a household name throughout Australia, New Zealand and the USA. With over 120 franchisees operating throughout the world, supported by multiple global offices, G.J. Gardner Homes continues to build a reputation for reliability and for being a company our customers can trust.

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast 'The Propcast' where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Timestamps:

[02:45] Timothy: Can you talk us through your journey to founding canibuild?

• I have a background in computer science and in the .com crash, I moved over to construction where I spent a few years developing a construction company that focused in the granny flat industry.
• During my boots on the ground experience, I tried to see how technology can better improve construction and one aspect is how construction is sold.
• We have been developing our application for 6 years and we went to market 2 years ago.

[05:45] Timothy: Can you elaborate a bit more about your product?

• Client facing sales application tool for construction companies that condenses all the steps involved in construction into a single transaction.
• It does all the compliance and visually shows how that build looks on that block of land, it also takes into account factors such as contours so all parties can visually see what's happening.

[08:25] Simon: Can you talk us through your role when it comes down to innovation technology and how you came across Tim's business, canibuild?

• We're a residential builder, building mainly for mum and dads, but more importantly, we're a franchised business.
• canibuild technology came to us from one of our salespeople - a client walked into the office and had a print out of an outcome of what this tech does and in a short space of time, we adopted the technology.

[11:15] Timothy: How much time does this save?

• You have to imagine that a sales consultant needs to answer quite a few questions that might presumably look easy.
• The back and forth process might take weeks but canibuild collapses all of those down to potentially the same day.

[13:45] Simon: This product must allow you to retain buyers and not let them go to competitors, can you elaborate?

• The one thing you don't want to do is detach from your customer but rather demonstrate knowledge.
• This allows us to show the customer in real time and keep the conversation going without detaching.

[16:15] Simon: How have you gone about upskilling your 80-90 consultants?

• We brought this technology in early in 2020, nicely coinciding with the lockdowns so we trained all of our team remotely and in one session.
• Our house designs are preloaded onto the software.
• We had a sales conference at some point, which Tim presented.

[17:35] Simon: Have you seen an increase in sales or customers?

• The market over the last 18 months has been incredibly buoyant so it is difficult to judge.
• We can have a look at how the performance is and we can have a look at the uptake. We can also see if it is utilising the software or not.
• The feedback from the new hands consultants has been overwhelmingly positive.

[18:50] Simon: When did you start looking at your innovation strategy? Was it pre- or post-COVID?

• The brand has always operated off its own software and in 2019 there was a redesign of the software to move to a cloud based system and that encompasses all aspects that we need to run these businesses.
• We use 2 external pieces of technology, canibuild and HazardCo.

[20:25] Timothy: What is next for the growth and development of your product?

• Continue expanding on the features of the system to be able to better help our clients.
• We are releasing a 3D component as well as doing site costs automatically.
• There are marketplace opportunities like bushfire reports and engineer reports and even architectural reports, particularly in the pool industry.
• We are expanding our footprint in the United States.

[22:00] Both: Are there any major trends which you can pick out across construction and what are you forecasting for the next couple of years?

• Timothy: Builders have started to adopt technology in ways that they haven't, prior to COVID.
• Simon: Customers have a thirst for knowledge, so when they are walking through a display home for the first time, they know a lot about us.
• Simon: We need to bring customers along for the journey, especially in construction.

[27:00] The 'LMRE' part, Louisa asks the guests to talk about;

L – Touch on the main lessons you have learnt throughout your career.

Timothy: Start early, get your hands dirty and build a business that doesn't scale, you can worry about the scaling later.

Simon: Self-belief and never stop learning.

M - Please give a mention to anyone / product / service.

Timothy: All our current clients.

Simon: Tim and his team.

R – What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in PropTech?

Timothy: Nothing more rewarding than seeing a mum, dad and their family move into their home.

E - What are you excited about in the future of PropTech?

Timothy: Stay positive and keep pushing forward.

Simon: All the things I don't know about tech.

Sponsors

Launch Your Own Podcast

Kopus.com is the leading podcast production and strategic content company for brands, organisations, institutions, individuals, and entrepreneurs. Our team sets you up with the right strategy, equipment, training, and guidance and content to ensure you sound amazing while speaking to your niche audience and networking with your perfect clients. Get in touch [email protected]