Podcast appearances and mentions of zach aarons

Jason Griffith is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Synco, a centralized messaging platform designed to streamline communication for property management teams like LeFrak and Kaled Management. Synco addresses the challenges of fragmented communication channels by providing a real-time, collaborative environment that enhances operational efficiency across office staff, on-site teams, and external vendors. Prior founding Synco, Jason co-founded SiteCompli, a compliance automation platform utilized across over 1 million residential units and 70% of Class A office properties in New York City. SiteCompli became part of Inhabit, a collective of property management software companies backed by Insight Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs.(01:35) – Jason's Journey from SiteComply to Synco(04:48) – The chaos of property management communication(07:25) – Centralization & adoption challenges(10:24) – Integration & real-world use cases(23:59) – Feature: CREtech: Join CREtech New York 2025 on Oct 21-22 for the largest Real Estate meetings program. Qualified Real Estate pros get free full event pass plus up to $800 in travel and hotel costs. See if you qualify and apply by emailing tangentcommunity@gmail.com.(24:56) – Business model & growth(27:08) – ROI & future communication trends(31:14) – Venture scale business & exit strategies(34:22) – Zach & Jason origin story(37:16) – Advise for entrepreneurs & creative marketing (39:42) – Collaboration Superpower: Bob Faith (Greystar CEO), Stewart Butterfield (Slack Co-founder) & Jeff Bezos

Julius Nyanda is the Founder and CEO of HouseKeys, unlocking housing opportunity for cities, developers, homeowners, and renters. HouseKeys is a civic tech platform that helps local governments manage affordable and mixed-income housing programs across ownership, rental, and finance. Through its Program Marketplace, Julius and his team streamline administration and expand access to community-driven housing solutions, supporting cities like Beverly Hills, Morgan Hill, and San Francisco in delivering scalable, equitable outcomes.(03:22) - Challenges in Affordable Housing Development(06:10) - Housing policy incentives for Investors(10:46) - HouseKeys Marketplace approach(13:04) - The Economics of Affordable Housing(14:10) - GovTech & VC Opportunities & Challenges(22:37) - Feature: Blueprint 2025: The Future of Real Estate - Register now (23:23) - California's New YIMBY Bills(26:29) - AI & the Future of Housing Solutions(37:07) - Collaboration Superpower: Robert F. Smith (CEO at Vista Equity Partners) & Jack Ma (Founder of Alibaba)

Mark Zurada is the COO and Co-Founder of PinPoint Analytics, an AI-powered platform transforming how public works projects are estimated and bid. PinPoint harnesses advanced algorithms and historical bid data to help contractors, municipalities, and engineering firms in the $200 Billion construction industry generate more accurate, competitive estimates with unmatched precision. At PinPoint, Mark leads daily operations, AI product development, data strategy, and go-to-market execution. He also drives sales, marketing, and customer acquisition, aligning product-market fit through deep analytics, customer interviews, and stakeholder feedback. With over a decade of experience as an entrepreneur, attorney, engineer, and consultant, Mark brings a cross-functional approach to solving complex challenges.(01:29) - AI in public construction works(02:36) - Challenges in public works bidding(6:07) - Guesswork in construction(08:17) Scaling AI solutions in local governments(13:47) - Feature | Market Stadium - Book a demo: Optimize your Multifamily & Single-family market analysis(14:58) - Scaling construction estimates in highly localized space(18:19) - Examples of bidding processes(24:17) - AI's Impact on Public Spending and Efficiency(28:20) - Feature: Blueprint 2025: The Future of Real Estate - Register now(29:06) - Collaboration Superpower: Historical Figures

Sean Miller is the Chief Revenue Officer at Lessen, leading sales and marketing to expand its tech-enabled property maintenance, repairs, turns and capital improvement services platform, with 3 million work orders completed annually. With deep expertise in real estate technology and IoT, he currently serves as Built Environment advisory board member of SIA, and previously served as CRO at Sensor Industries, CEO and Co-founder of Griot, and President of PointCentral (an Alarm.com subsidiary). He has also held leadership roles at Belkin and Generac, driving smart property and remote monitoring solutions.(01:26) - Sean Miller's Career Journey(03:50) - The Evolution of maintenance in Real Estate(09:29) - Feature | MarketStadium - Book a demo: Optimize your Multifamily & Single-family market analysis(10:40) - Lessen's revenue levers & tech investments(14:56) Labor shortages & operational efficiency(16:42) - Data-Driven Decisions: Repair vs. Replace impact on insurance(21:10) - Cost-efficiencies from Water leak detection tech & asset tagging(27:16) - Feature: Blueprint: The Future of Real Estate - Register now(29:14) - AI & automation for Maintenance(33:17) - Collaboration Superpower: Thomas Jefferson, Michael Jordan & Croesus (Wiki)

Dennis Lee is the co-founder and CEO of MarketStadium, a real estate data platform transforming how investors analyze multifamily and single-family markets. His journey began as an urban planning researcher in South Korea, where he identified key locational advantages driving gentrification in Seoul. This insight led him to explore how urban planning research could be applied to real estate investment decisions.After studying at NYU's Schack Institute of Real Estate, Dennis joined Lionstone Investments, where he helped manage a $9 billion real estate portfolio using a location-first investment strategy. Recognizing the potential to bring urban planning insights and data analytics to the broader real estate industry, he co-founded MarketStadium with a team of urban planning PhDs, tech developers, and industry experts.(02:57) – Dennis Lee's background & MarketStadium's Origin(05:11) – Market Stadium's Vision for Offerings(07:07) – Multifamily sector insights(13:19) - Feature | MarketStadium - Book a demo: Optimize your Multifamily & Single-family market analysis(17:55) – Leveraging data for Real Estate investment decisions(25:10) – Climate Risk & AI in Real Estate(28:46) - Feature | Berkadia's BeEngaged - Connect with the team: Ecosystem of founders, industry professionals, and capital providers dedicated to redefining the Commercial Real Estate space.(30:20) – Advice for founders looking to partner with institutional players(31:15) - Lessons from the Korean market(31:50) - Collaboration Superpower: Leonardo Da Vinci & Sandro Botticelli (Wiki)

Lior Abramovich is the Co-Founder & CEO of Blanket, a platform transforming the single-family rental market backed by RE Angels. With over a decade of experience, he's overseen $200 million in acquisitions for more than 1,000 investors. Beyond real estate, Lior is dedicated to impact-driven initiatives—he co-founded Golden, a nonprofit renovating homes for senior citizens in need, and a foundation committed to providing clean drinking water to children worldwide. A graduate of the University of Haifa with a degree in Political Science, Lior also served eight years in the Israeli Navy, holding leadership roles as Executive Officer of the Naval Academy and Chief Engineer of a Navy warship.(03:10) - Lior's & Blanket's Origin Story(06:03) - SFR Property Management Landscape(10:20) - Blanket's Business Model & Growth(17:57) - Challenges & Opportunities in SFR Property Management(24:11) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Join Pacaso's growth and become an investor of the venture-backed company at Pacaso.com/invest25:59 Challenges and Insights in Property Management(26:40) - Expanding Across Markets(32:48) - Feature: Blueprint - The Future of Real Estate 2025(35:53) - Leveraging AI in Property Management(40:40) - Blanket's Media Strategy & Industry Impact(44:08) - Collaboration Superpower - Winston Churchill & Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (Wiki)

Ben Borton is a Co-Founder of PodPlay Technologies, where he oversees go-to-market strategy and leads the Sales and Marketing teams. He also serves as Chief Strategy Officer and was the first external investor in PodPlay's parent company, PingPod Inc. Before joining PodPlay, Ben held several leadership roles in the finance and technology sectors, including as Head of Digital Fund Services at Figure Technologies, Partner at Mountaineer Partners, and Partner at MM Capital. Throughout his career, Ben has been a founder or partner in multiple investment management firms and an active technology angel investor.(01:00) - Ben Borton & Podplay Technologies(06:06) - PingPod, the autonomous sports venue(09:50) - Real Estate opportunities with Podplay(14:26) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Join Pacaso's growth and become an investor of a venture-backed company at Pacaso.com/invest(16:13) - Enhancing building & company culture with sports(18:24) - Revenue sharing model with landlords(19:40) - Podplay vs. Topgolf(25:54) - Autonomous operating model(28:28) - The rise & trends shaping third places(34:48) - Feature: Blueprint - The Future of Real Estate 2025(35:35) - Office-to-retail conversion opportunity(41:17) - Inspiration from ServiceTitan's IPO(47:16) - Collaboration Superpower: Charles Dickens (Wiki) & David Foster (ITTF)

Austin is CEO of Pacaso and co-founded the company with Spencer Rascoff (co-founder and former CEO of Zillow) to make the dream of second home ownership a reality for more people after experiencing the profound effect it had on his own life. Pacaso is Austin's second startup. In 2009, he founded dotloop in his hometown of Cincinnati, a company that created software to seamlessly manage real estate transactions. Zillow acquired dotloop in 2015, and Austin continued to run dotloop as a Zillow executive until 2018. Austin started selling real estate at the age of 18 and worked in residential and commercial real estate for a decade.(01:38) - Housing market update(05:26) - Rise of fractional investing & ownership(9:06) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Join Pacaso's growth and become an investor of a venture-backed company at Pacaso.com/invest(13:52) - Pacaso's Reg-A offering(16:16) - Pacaso vs. timeshares vs. shares of Hotel companies(21:38) - Property management & owner benefits(26:27) - Community impact & housing affordability(29:39) - Pacaso's Business Model(35:22) - Feature: Blueprint - The Future of Real Estate 2025(36:12) - Reg A investments, transparency & compliance(53:41) - Collaboration Superpower: Steve Jobs

Caren Maio is the CEO and co-founder of 100, a Proptech company tackling rental fraud for Multifamily owners and operators. A staggering 93% of operators have experienced fraud in the last 12 months, and Caren and the 100 team are on a mission to stop it. Prior to this role, she led Moved, and co-founded and led Funnel (previously Nestio), a leasing and marketing platform for Multifamily properties, where she served as CEO and President for 11 years. Under her leadership, Funnel was recognized as one of Entrepreneur Magazine's "Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America." Caren's expertise has earned her features in publications like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Forbes. Caren is also a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council and, before her entrepreneurial ventures, she held sales and marketing positions at The Wall Street Journal and Nike.(02:01) - Inman's Proptech Awards(04:52) - Caren Maio's Journey to 100(06:27) - Understanding Renter Fraud(10:44) - Tech stack & Partnership with CLEAR(14:41) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Join Pacaso's growth and become an investor of a venture-backed company at Pacaso.com/invest(17:22) - Business Model & Market Strategy(21:53) - Unexpected Proptech Alliances(22:52) - Proptech fundraising: challenges & advice for first-time founders(34:04) - Feature: Blueprint - The Future of Real Estate 2025(38:42) - Collaboration Superpower: Betty White

Dan Wenhold is an early stage investor in built world technology and Partner at Fifth Wall, where he co-leads the Real Estate Technology Investment team. Dan has led investments in innovative CRE tech companies like Fractional, Cottage and Neighbor.com. Prior to joining Fifth Wall, Dan was the first employee and Director of Retail at The Black Tux and a growth equity investor at Battery Ventures. (01:46) - Dan's Journey to Fifth Wall(03:19) - Evaluating PropTech Startups(05:26) - The Role of AI & Interoperability in PropTech(07:19) - Challenges and Opportunities in PropTech Investment(17:31) - Feature: Pacaso - Luxury vacation home ownership, elevated. Be part of Pacaso's growth as an early shareholder at Pacaso.com/invest(20:15) - Impact of Trump & Republican Administration on Proptech(30:00) - Spotlight on Neighbor.com & Self Storage(33:55) - Spotlight on Cottage(37:19) - Collaboration Superpower: Michael Jordan (Wiki) & Ion Țiriac (Wiki)

Connie Lee is the Founder of Reffie, a centralized leasing platform designed to help Multifamily operators streamline their leasing processes and lease units faster. Reffie helps automate the 'boring', so real estate operators can focus on closing more renters. Before launching Reffie, she served as Strategy & Operations at Mosaic.tech and also managed Finance and Business Operations at ZipRecruiter. Connie is also a Real Estate investor in Los Angeles and an angel investor in various startups.(02:40) - Connie's entrepreneurial journey to Founding Reffie(05:49) - Challenges in Multifamily Leasing(07:24) - Leveraging AI in Real Estate(15:11) - Feature | Berkadia's BeEngaged - Learn more: Ecosystem of founders, industry professionals, and capital providers dedicated to redefining the Commercial Real Estate space.(16:47) - Reffie's Business Model(28:50) - State of the Housing Market(33:52) - Feature | CREtech NY Conference & Expo - Sign Up: Tangent listeners get a 20% discount using code PARTNERTANGENT20 at checkout.(35:24) - Rental Trends & Amenities(39:07) - Collaboration Superpower: Taylor Swift

Remen Okoruwa is a former strategy consultant and product manager, and now Co-founder and CEO at Propexo. His company helps property owners, operators, and proptech companies deliver better resident experiences through the power of data. Propexo provides tools for connecting property management software with other technology in a streamlined way. Propexo is a customer-centric organization that focuses on data strategies that delight residents, improve NOI, and make Multifamily real estate a better place for everyone.(2:06) - Remen's & Propexo's origin story(4:47) - Building the Plaid for Proptech(8:32) - State of Propexo today(12:02) - Propexo's model & ROI in Multifamily(16:04) - Serving diverse use cases & customer base(17:22) - Feature | Berkadia's BeEngaged - Learn more: Ecosystem of founders, industry professionals, and capital providers dedicated to redefining the commercial real estate space.(18:59) - How Proptech VC looks at integratability(24:26) - Building a collaborative & customer-centric product road map(26:54) - RealPage v. US Justice Department(29:27) - Feature | CREtech NY Conference & Expo - Sign Up: Tangent listeners get a 20% discount using code PARTNERTANGENT20 at checkout.(33:42) - Collaboration Superpower: Cyrus the Great (Wiki)

Bryce Nyberg is the VP, Corporate Development at Berkadia and the Head of BeEngaged. Bryce focuses on advancing innovation in our industry through BeEngaged, partnerships, investments, and acquisitions. His influence in and out of Berkadia, business acumen, and effective program leadership skills lead to remarkable outcomes for the organizations he works with. Startups that have gone through BeEngaged include Esusu, Propexo, Rabbet, Market Stadium, Symmetre, Reffie and Embue.(2:00) - What is Berkadia's BeEngaged(6:58) - What startups are ideal candidates for the program(11:13) - Real Estate no longer a tech laggard?(14:56) - Feature | Berkadia's BeEngaged - Learn more: Ecosystem of founders, industry professionals, and capital providers dedicated to redefining the commercial real estate space.(16:33) - Berkadia's BeEngaged's case studies(21:12) - Feature | CREtech NY Conference & Expo - Learn more: Tangent listeners get a 20% discount using code PARTNERTANGENT20 at checkout.(22:45) - Role of collaboration & integration in the Proptech ecosystem(28:16) - Collaboration Superpower: Warren Buffett (Chairperson of Berkshire Hathaway)

Michael Rudin joined Rudin in 2008 and, together with his sister Samantha, represents the fourth generation to work at the family business founded in 1925. Michael focuses on new developments, capital markets, commercial leasing, sustainability and technology. He also helps lead the family's alternative investing business, Rudin Ventures, where they've invested in companies like Bilt, Jones, VTS and Nantum OS. Rudin Management oversees the daily operations of 32 properties in New York City. The portfolio is comprised of 17 residential buildings totaling 4.7 million square feet and 14 commercial office buildings totaling approximately 9 million square feet.(1:19) - Amenities for today's workforce(9:50) - Feature: Blueprint Vegas 2024(10:50) - Making buildings profitable(14:19) - 3 Times Square case study(18:42) - CRE leasing & financing(22:34) - CRE Ops & risk mitigation(29:50) - Proptech's dirty little secret(37:45) - Lessons from Latch / Door.com(42:43) - Bilt Rewards: Fintech's hottest Proptech(47:20) - Collaboration Superpower: Michael's cousin Carlton

Salman Ahmad is the CEO and Co-founder of a16z-backed Mosaic, a construction technology company that builds software that makes homebuilding more scalable and efficient. Mosaic was founded in 2017 by Salman and Sep Kamvar, whom were two computer scientists working together at MIT and Stanford developing machine learning algorithms applied in the real world. Together, they developed a bold vision for the home building industry: construction as code. Mosaic uses their software themselves to manage construction on behalf of homebuilders, enabling them to build more homes. Salman has 20 technical publications and patents in the areas of software systems, programming languages, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and sensor hardware. He also worked with Microsoft developing virtualized datacenter solutions.  (3:33) - Mosaic's & Salman's origin story(8:35) - Feature: Blueprint Vegas 2024 - Tangent listeners get a $300 discount at BlueprintVegas.com/Tangent(9:30) - Housing construction pain points(12:40) - Construction productivity issues(15:12) - Mosaic's business model (23:26) - Aligning Contech with VC timelines & incentives(30:37) - Mosaic's biggest challenges(35:26) - Macro & micro factors of construction labor shortage (43:19) - Collaboration Superpower: Christopher Alexander (Co-author of A Pattern Language)

Eoin Matthews is the Co-founder at Point, a home equity investment company making home equity wealth accessible to homeowners without creating a monthly debt obligation. Homeowners get upfront funds from Point in return for a portion of your home's future appreciation. Point recently announced an oversubscribed $141M securitization, which marked it's second rated securitization and third overall, with its collaboration with Atalaya Capital Management. Eoin previously served as the VP of Business Development at Rakuten and has an extensive background in education.(2:20) - Point's & Eoin's origin story(5:43) - Potential HEI benefits for investors(9:20) - Point's securitizations strategy(11:42) - Capital stack evolution(14:17) - M&A activity in Housing tech companies(17:00) - Feature: Blueprint Vegas 2024(17:54) - State of the Housing Market(24:07) - Affordability of owning vs. renting a home(29:47) - Underwriting Proptech in the current rate environment(32:28) - Collaboration Superpower: Steve Wozniak (Apple Co-founder)

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)

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

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

Raunaq Singh is the founder & CEO of Roam, the platform for purchasing a home with an assumable, low-rate mortgage included. Prior to founding Roam, Raunaq spent a decade in various product and operations roles across Uber, Opendoor and Culdesac. He received a Bachelor's degree in Political Economy from NYU and currently resides in New York City.(2:26) - Lessons from Opendoor & Uber(5:01) - Roam origin story (7:36) - Feature: Housing Trust Silicon Valley (8:48) - Assumable mortgage mechanics(14:55) - Roam's Business Model(16:38) - Benefits for mortgage lenders(18:58) - Roam's homebuyers & sellers(21:10) - Impact of interest rates on the business(22:10) - Roam's New Closing Guarantee(27:54) - Housing market in 2024(31:59) - Collaboration Superpower: FHA, VA, Zillow, Redfin

Ryan Frazier is the Co-founder and CEO at Arrived Homes, the Real Estate tech company that Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff invested in to make the wealth building potential of owning rental homes & vacation rentals more accessible. Ryan and the Arrived team believe they can do that by simplifying the process, and lowering the cost to get started. With Arrived anyone can buy shares in income producing rental properties starting at just $100. Arrived takes care of all the real estate operations so that investors can sit back and collect net rental income and their share of the home's appreciation. (2:42) - Arrived Homes origin story(7:49) - Arrived's end-to-end platform(9:14) - Investor returns with Arrived vs. REITs(14:44) - Seattle's Proptech Ecosystem(16:30) - Feature: Housing Trust Silicon Valley (site) (17:41) - Investing in single family homes vs. Residential funds(21:48) - Arrived's real estate investor community(24:35) - Proptech's strategy to competing with Institutional SFR(30:06) - Build-to-rent opportunity(33:57) - Housing market predictions for 2024(39:42) - Collaboration Superpower: Christina Tosi (Founder at Milk Bar - Wikipedia)

Bryan McLaren is the Chairman & CEO at Zoned Properties, providing regulated Cannabis Real Estate and knowledge since 2014. Cannabis is now legal across 37 US states, and NYC's recent roll-out has put the industry under scrutiny. In this episode, Edward Cohen & Zach Aarons explore the opportunities for Commercial Real Estate investors and retail owners within the Cannabis sector. (0:42) - State of Cannabis Real Estate (6:07) - Retail opportunities & challenges(12:03) - Home prices & cannabis legalization (14:44) - Estimating market demand(17:26) - NYC Recreational cannabis roll-out

Zach is a proptech veteran and OG. As one of the Co-founders of the most prolific early-stage proptech investment firm, MetaProp, and as an individual investor, he's seen some things go down. In this episode, we discuss what's changed over the course of Zach's career within proptech, and discuss where things are headed next. There's more to this than just before and after the pandemic, but that's obviously a big component to how things have evolved. Download to hear more about what Zach has to say.More about Zach and MetaPropMetaProp is the world's leading venture capital firm focused on the PropTech industry. Founded in 2015, MetaProp's investment team has invested in over 150 technology companies across the real estate value chain. The firm manages funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors that represent a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of 20+ billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market.Zach has been working at the intersection of real estate and venture capital for the past decade. He's funded over 60 startups in the space as an individual as well as 100 startups (and counting) through MetaProp's venture capital funds. In addition to early-stage investing, he's worked on large scale mixed-use development projects in cities like Boston and Los Angeles with Millennium Partners. He's also co-author of PropTech 101 (https://proptech101.com) published by Advantage Media.  Connect with Zach on LinkedIn Follow Zach on Twitter Follow MetaProp on Twitter Check out MetaProp

RCKRBX is the first real estate SaaS platform that puts the voice of the renter at the Multifamily developer's and investor's fingertips, including across key investment, development, marketing, leasing, and management decision points. The platform delivers actionable intelligence around the preferences, priorities, attitudes, and viewpoints that drive renter decision-making combined with predictive analytics to understand how these factors will impact asset performance and value over time, to what extent and why. Michael and James are applying their lessons from Political campaigning to the Real Estate world in a unique way.(1:13) - State of Multifamily(8:43) - Return to work impact on Multifamily(11:45) - What Multifamily can learn from political campaigns(16:44) - Demand side insights: What renters are looking for(25:00) - Canvassing renter insights to power investment decisions(32:23) - What Multifamily developers are missing(40:42) - What moves the rent needle beyond typical amenities(45:07) - Collaboration Superpower: Henry Ford

Spencer Rascoff co-founded and ran Zillow for a decade as its CEO. Spencer is also the co-founder at Pacaso and, through his startup studio and VC firm, 75 & Sunny, is an active angel investor in more than 100 companies and is incubating several more. Rascoff is a NYT's best selling author based in LA who focuses on Proptech, the future of work and the creator economy. Spencer is Visiting Professor at Harvard University where he teaches the StudioLab on Creativity and Entrepreneurship as well.(0:34) - From Zillow, AirBnB & WeWork to Proptech 2.0: What's next(3:20) - Mission-oriented founders(4:53) - Niche & simple vs. full stack solutions(7:00) - Too much capital: bug or feature(7:45) - Housing innovation & democratizing access(9:27) - LA Tech ecosystem: media, entertainment, defense & creator economy(11:56) - Discomfort Zone: Elon Musk

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

Amir R. Korangy is an Iranian-American publisher and film producer, who founded the business magazine, The Real Deal, about real estate and finance news. He also produced the PBS documentary, "Building Stories", about architect Costas Kondylis. Amir Korangy is also an adjunct associate professor of media and real estate at New York University where in the fall of 2018 he will be teaching a course titled the Korangy sessions where graduate students will have an opportunity to court questions as to the reality of real estate in the city and the country, complementing to their theoretical framework.

Timothy Swanson is the President & CEO of Inherent L3C, a Chicago-based low profit LLC focused on enabling and empowering long term affordable homeownership and generational wealth creation through modular housing development, workforce platform and a smart home marketplace for future homeowners.

Stefan Schwab is the CEO of Enlighted (acquired by Siemens), a Proptech provider of IoT solutions at the intersection of people, space, and work. Enlighted combines cognitive environmental IoT sensors and lighting controls that connect to intelligent workplace experience apps, offering a singular, scalable, interoperable solution to address a spectrum of building, space, and productivity needs. Customers include AT&T, WWE and the UK's NHS.

This is a Tangent Special episode. Discomfort Zone: the art of stepping out of your comfort zone to pivot in business and in life, and the science of changing your mind when you are faced with new facts and acquire new experiences.(0:25) - Zach Aarons (GP & Co-founder at MetaProp)(3:03) - Nick Romito (CEO & Founder at VTS)(3:47) - Kevin Ortner (CEO at Renters Warehouse and President at Appreciate)(5:09) - Steve Eisman (The Big Short investor)(6:14) - Noah Isaacs (Co-founder at Bowery Valuations)(7:34) - Imran Noorani (CSO at Peak Power)Connect with Tangent:

Daniel Dorfman is the Co-founder at Roots, an Atlanta-based company aiming to help 1 million people create wealth through residential real estate investing and their innovative ''Rent it like you own it'' program.

Mike Sroka, CEO and Co-founder of Dealpath, a leading cloud-based software platform for commercial real estate investment and development teams, including Blackstone, Nuveen, Oxford Properties and L+M. Mike currently also contributes to Forbes' Real Estate Council, and previously worked as a PM at Zynga. Edward & Jeff are joined by friend of Tangent Zach Aarons (GP & Co-founder at MetaProp).(1:35) - Future of Cities: San Francisco(5:07) - Signature Bank's and regional banks' impact on commercial real estate(12:34) - Tangent Glossary: NY's Local Law 97's site(13:52) - Bright side of CRE: Industrial, Logistics & Manufacturing in Latin America & emerging markets(16:46) - Dealpath's and Mike's origin entrepreneurial story(20:09) - Feature - KODA: Minimalist luxury living in a spaciously sustainable house(21:07) - Dealpath's value propositions(26:16) - Dealpath's 'killer' product(28:21) - Proptech adoption & displacing legacy real estate systems(33:27) - The Impact & Opportunities of Generative AI in Real Estate (MetaProp's White Paper)(40:27) - Discomfort Zone: Stanley Druckenmiller's inflation predictionLearn more:

This week, Realcomm Live welcomes our guests Travis Connors, Co-Founder and General Partner of Building Ventures, and Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and General Partner at MetaProp, who share their insights on the status of PropTech investing. From the impact of high interest rates to a shifting market, we explore the venture capital landscape and what's ahead. 

Sukesh Shekar is the CEO & Founder at Altgage, the Google search of mortgages, bringing simply affordable mortgages to home buyers. . Sukesh believes in the American dream of homeownership. However, mortgages are more unaffordable than ever and most mortgage processes lack transparency. Altgage makes home buying more affordable with smart mortgages that build wealth over time.

Tangent Tank - Solving the Housing Crisis, a Tangent original series.

Hosts Edward and Jeffrey are joined by MetaProp Co-founder & GP Zach Aarons, and special guest Brad Hargreaves, Founder and Chairman at Common and contributor to Thesis Driven, to discuss Silicon Valley Bank's and Signature Bank's unraveling and it's potential implications on Proptech, commercial real estate and VC investing.(2:05) - SVB's fallout timeline(7:13) - Advise for Proptech founders & teams banking with SVB(11:27) - Impact to investor sentiment(13:42) - Feature: HAC - Housing Assistance Council, helping build homes & communities across rural America (learn more)(14:50) - How can companies handle SVB's covenants(19:10) - Fed's options & their impact on commercial real estate(23:30) - Bank runs in the era of social media(25:55) - Buying low-yield bonds and 4 cap CRE buyers(28:50) - Brad's experience at Common choosing between Triple Point & SVB(33:50) - Opportunities ahead(36:53) - How can Proptech deliver innovation & adoption growing forwardLearn more:

Investors have to juggle the interests of their limited partners, their portfolio companies, and their firm in order to succeed.

Jonathan Wasserstrum, CEO and Co-Founder at SquareFoot and lead of a syndicate and a rolling fund talks about running a rolling fund, how it is different from a regular VC or a syndicate and also what difference does it make for the founder which entity invests in them. We also discussed Jonathan's own fundraising experience and where he believes the PropTech industry is headed. Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-wasserstrum-8a77533/ SquareFoot: https://www.squarefoot.com/ Link to Jonathan's rolling fund: https://angel.co/v/back/jonathan-wasserstrum Jonathan's syndicate: https://angel.co/jonathan-wasserstrum/syndicate Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and Partner at MetaProp.vc talks about PropTech on Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Zach-Aarons/

Zach Aarons & Aaron Block are the Co-Founders of MetaProp VC, the most active early-stage real estate and PropTech investor globally with 125+ investments under their portfolio. On this episode, Chris talks with Aaron and Zach about their journey to becoming partners, the NYC venture capital world, the emergence of PropTech as an investable asset class, their processes for investing in companies, what early-stage founders do well when raising capital, and much more. Enjoy! Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers & Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com (02:44) - Zach’s Background  (09:52) - Why do you say you weren’t capable of building and scaling a tech company? (13:21) - Aaron’s Background (16:48) - What ultimately led you to raise capital and start a fund? (18:08) - How large was the first fund? What are some things looking back that you didn’t expect? (20:48) - Did Zak Schwarzman have a VC background or institutional money experience? (24:23) - How large was your second fund? (24:28) - How much is being invested in PropTech globally? (25:02) - How many deals do you see per year vs. how many you ultimately invest in? (25:52) - Which things within deals jump out to you that immediately cause you to say 'no'? (29:50) - What are good founders doing well while they’re raising money? (34:17) - Do you require founders to have a co-founder? (36:10) - Do you care if the founder has a real estate background? (39:42) - What would a founder say is the value given to you from MetaProp post-funding? (41:56) -  How often do you communicate with the founders you work with? (46:59) - What's the difference between leading a round vs. just participating in a round? (50:12) - What does a typical project look like for your consulting and advisory side of the business? (51:27) - Is there a certain asset type that is getting more investment than others? (54:02) - What kind of technology is around single-family and multi-family? (55:35) - Is PropTech aiding in the effort to get people back into the office or the WFH situation? (56:33) - Do you think the idea of COVID Cleaning & thermal scanning could be seen as short-sighted? (59:55) - Do you have a crazy 5-10 year prediction? (1:00:49) - Do you have a crazy investment that got away? (1:03:29) - Do you have a morning routine? (1:04:03) - If you owned a billboard on a major highway and could put whatever you wanted on there, what would it say? (1:04:48) - How can people reach you? Email Zach: zaarons@metaprop.vc Book: PropTech101 The FORT with Chris Powers is produced by Straight Up Podcasts

Zain Jaffer, currently Partner at Blue Field Capital and previously the Co-Founder and CEO at Vungle that was acquired for $780 in 2019. In this episode Zain talks about how he managed to move from the UK to the US and who should try doing the same. We also talked about the major mistakes that he had made during the fundraising process and his major accomplishments. Blue Field Capital: http://www.bluefieldfunds.com/ The Proptech VC podcast by Zain: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DBlKyYaVcuNv8uFq4LCfJ?si=_Jbm0oT1SWWMGaRYQ5pikw Episode on Proptech by Fundraising Radio: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/Zach-Aarons/

Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and Partner at MetaProp.vc explains what is going on in the proptech field and how it reacted to the COVID-19 hit. We also discuss how founders in this field should make sales, when is it appropriate to hire salesman/saleswoman and how to become a better salesman/saleswoman yourself. Awesome resources below! MetaProp: https://www.metaprop.org/ 101 Proptech written by Aaron: https://www.proptech101.com/ Get better in sales by becoming a volunteer at a a political campaign: https://action.dccc.org/page/s/volunteer

The Propcast Series 1 Episode 3   Title: Real Estate Economy, VC Expansion and Trends with Aaron Block and Zander Geronimos Summary: We talk to Aaron Block and Zander Geronimos about real estate economy, VC expansion and trends.   About our hosts: Louisa Dickins Louisa started her career in property working at a well-known estate agency in London. Realising her people skills, she moved over to Lloyd May to pursue a career in recruitment. She now is a Director at LMRE, who are a specialist recruitment firm driven by PropTech and recruitment professionals, and Louisa oversees their 5 core areas. Louisa co-founded LMRE and provides a constructive recruitment platform to the new disruptors in real estate. Louisa is also on the board of Directors at UK PropTech Association (UKPA). About LMRE LMRE believe there is a better way to recruit. LMRE focus on a more comprehensive, client led focus delivering exceptional talent to the right place at the right time. They are passionate about the industry and passionate about people's careers. LMRE spend time with each client to become and an extension of the business, and their transparency and core values help them grow with the sector. LMRE simplify recruitment and innovate with our clients and evolve the people driven, PropTech community. About our guests Aaron Block https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronnblock/ Aaron is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of MetaProp, a New York-based venture capital firm focused on the real estate technology (“PropTech”) industry. Founded in 2015, MetaProp's investment team has invested in 100+ technology companies across the real estate value chain. The firm manages multiple investment funds for both financial and strategic real estate investors representing a pilot- and test-ready sandbox of 15+ billion square feet across every real estate asset type and global market. Aaron served as Chairman of Chicago-based BayRu, LLC, the US-Russia ecommerce shopping and shipping specialist and eBay.com's exclusive drop shipping partner for Russia/CIS consumers. Prior to BayRu, Aaron was a commercial real estate executive with Cushman & Wakefield and oversaw more than 270 professionals as leader of the Chicago region. Aaronreceived numerous honors and awards during his real estate career including Top Producer, Most Creative Deal, Agency of the Year and Most Promising Brokerage Professional. Aaron has a BA from the University of Illinois, an MBA from DePaul University. He is co-author of PropTech 101 (proptech101.com) published by Advantage Media. He has also been featured in dozens of international publications and media including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Chicago Tribune, Crain's, CBS Radio, The Moscow Times, RIA Novosti, RBK, Vedomosti, and Kommersant. Zander Geronimos https://www.linkedin.com/in/zander-geronimos-60055b41/ As the Head of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development for MetaProp, Zander leads relationships and communications with key players across the real estate value chain and acts as a conduit between strategic real estate firms and the emerging PropTech community. Prior to joining MetaProp, Zander was a Senior Solutions Engineer covering the North American region for VTS, where he spent four years working across business development, strategic data analysis, marketing, and solutions engineering. His efforts supported the growth of VTS from a start-up to a market leader, as the company became the #1 technology platform in leasing and asset management with over 12 billion square feet of commercial real estate space on the platform. His breadth of experience allowed him to work with sales, marketing, data, product engineering, and design. Before that, Zander started his career as a Real Estate Research Analyst for a Hedge Fund in Stamford Connecticut. He adds immense value to the MetaProp platform given his experience as a PropTech operator and his work with the strategic real estate community. Zander holds a B.S. from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia with focuses on Real Estate and Marketing. He is also the founder of the University of Virginia Alumni in Real Estate which boasts over 200 members internationally. He's a regular guest lecturer at the University on real estate technology topics.   Resources LMRE website www.lmre.co.uk Metaprop website https://www.metaprop.org/ Aaron Block and Zach Aarons book - PropTech 101 buy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/PropTech-101-Turning-Through-Innovation/dp/1642250600 Contact details for Aaron and Zander: info@metaprop.vc zgeronimos@metaprop.vc   Value Bombs and Tweetables: - “We have a mission. And our mission is to be a part of creating the connective tissue between these stakeholder groups" – Aaron Block, Metaprop - "The key to success is people. This is a people business" – Aaron Block, Metaprop - "Important advice I give is to identify who would be your mentors and advisors, and grow that network from your onset to always look out and always stay in touch" – Zander Geronimos, Metaprop - "I would encourage others who work at these projects start-ups to reach across every group and try to gain exposure and a perspective" Zander Geronimos, Metaprop -“The senior space across the entire spectrum of subtypes is really hungry for technology driven solutions today, and we're excited to invest in them." Aaron Block, Metaprop   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Sponsors You're listening to a podcast produced by A PODCAST COMPANY. This show was made by Podcast Syndicator where we help you go from start to grow to make money with your podcast. Let us help you share your message and your voice with the world. Reach out now. Jason@apodcastcompany.com to find out more. Thank you for listening and do come back to hear more shows like this. 1) Hey, don't miss out on a free webinar! Learn about how to launch a profitable podcast in just 60 days! http://www.apodcastcompany.com/sales-page1586718105525 2) Take your podcast from idea to execution in just 6 weeks! https://www.apodcastmasterclass.com/podcast-launchpad 3) Join our Exclusive Facebook group to Make Money Podcasting: https://www.facebook.com/groups/PodcastPeople/

Zach Aarons, co-founder and General Partner of MetaProp ($40M+ invested in 90+ real estate technology companies) joins Stephen Quinonez, co-founder and CTO of LocateAI, to discuss how retail and commercial real estate will change after COVID-19. Topics covered include: how to adjust strategy accordingly (hint: don't overreact) is now the time to adopt new technology? the evolution of experiential retail the future of shopping malls the trend towards urbanization ------ LocateAI is a leader in retail real estate analytics and created the industry's first AI-powered retail real estate brokerage. Our data science team uses 180,000 variables to build predictive analytics and market strategy maps for our clients, who rely on this objective data to make optimal real estate expansion decisions. LocateAI provides this data at no cost to retailers – learn more at https://www.locate.ai.

In this episode of The Real Market podcast, Chris Rising talks to Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and General Partner of MetaProp, about venture capital, proptech, and where the world's heading.

Let's start with the facts. MetaProp is the most active, early-stage proptech VC firm in the game. Zach Aarons, Co-Founder of MetaProp came on the show to break down how MetaProp has maintained their deal flow, what they look for when making investments and more. Zach is no stranger to real estate. He literally grew up around the business. But his pursuit to understanding the game and digging in to see what the future opportunities are is second to none. If you're a startup founder in proptech and you only have time for one Tech Nest episode to listen to, this one is it.

Today, I am delighted to share a conversation I had with Zach Aarons, Co-Founder and Partner of the $40m MetaProp PropTech venture capital fund. I want you to stick with me right through to the end of this one, as Zach shares some absolute pearls of wisdom and imparts some gifts as to how you […] The post Series 6 Property Heavyweights – Zach Aarons, Co-Founder & Partner MetaProp appeared first on The Property Voice.

Get updates about the Change Order podcast eepurl.com/gfT0aT In this episode, I chat with Zach Aarons, co-founder and partner at the NYC-based venture capital firm, Metaprop. With $40 million dollars under management and over 90 companies in their portfolio, Metaprop is the world’s premier early-stage VC focusing on real estate tech, aka proptech. And Zach has established himself as one of the leading authorities on how technology has and will continue to affect how we build, buy, sell, use, and operate our built environments. Our conversation touches on how technology is impacting the real estate world; how traditional real estate operators are trying to make tech an integral part of their businesses; the similarities and differences between a proptech startup and a normal tech startup; and how all of this might impact where and how we live in the future. For more information about Zach and Metaprop, visit https://www.metaprop.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetaPropNYC https://twitter.com/ZacharyAarons Insta: https://www.instagram.com/metapropnyc/ For comments, suggestions, etc. email me, David Friedlander, at david at hothouse dot co.

On this episode the better word boys talk to Zach Aarons, angel investor, real estate tech leader, futurist and sound healing practitioner, discussing the future of green cities.

Zach Aarons is a co-founder and partner at Metaprop, an early-stage venture firm and accelerator focused on real estate related technology. Zach has been working at the intersection of real estate and venture capital for the past decade, and he's the most active early-stage PropTech investor in the United States, having funded over 60 startups in the space as an individual as well as 40 startups (and counting) through MetaProp NYC's venture capital funds. In addition to early-stage investing, Zach is a project manager at Millennium Partners, and has worked on large-scale mixed-use development projects with experience in real estate development, commercial asset management, property marketing, and commercial leasing. In this episode, we discuss how Zach started in the NYC tech community, his time as an angel investor before Metaprop, and what it took to get Metaprop off the ground with his two partners. We also dive into Proptech investing, building a sector-specific firm, and their unique model that brings together startups, real-estate executives, and large real-estate companies across the U.S. and Europe.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see the future of the real estate industry? In Real Estate tech there are plenty of places to look. Today we speak to Zach Aarons, one of the most influential players in the PropTech world. Zach co-founded MetaProp, a leading accelerator and VC fund, that has backed over 60 real estate tech startups. These companies have collectively raised over $2 billion, and employ over 1,500 people around the world. In this episode we deconstruct Zach’s unique path to the RE Tech space. We will discover why would one leave a promising career as an investment banker to start a walking tour company? And how did that lead to metaProp? You will be surprised to learn his predictions for the most disruptive technologies and opportunities in the multifamily space. Learn why passing his “magic bean test” is the first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur. It all helps explain why Metprop is an innovative platform in the PropTech market. As a result of this episode, you'll learn about building a successful accelerator program from the ground up, and some counter-intuitive advice for those trying to break into the industry. This episode is jam packed with useful content for anyone interested in the future of the real estate tech. Hope you enjoy! In this show, we discuss: How Zach went from Investment Banking to becoming an NYC tour guide and what he learned from being an entrepreneur? Why going back to business school can have huge benefits How to build a start-up accelerator from scratch, it’s functionality, and the tactics used to get companies on board without having a successful track record? What areas are going to experience the most transformation due to technological innovation? Why the he believes that the one-year lease will go the way of the Dodo How the access and transparency to information has impacted the rental market? Where do the best ideas come from? Real estate people who then link up with tech expertise or tech expertise who try to solve something in real estate? What is the “magic bean test”? For more information visit www.behindthebricks.com

Dislocation is a podcast dedicated to innovation in real estate — exploring technology's impact on the way in which assets are planned, designed, financed, built, marketed, and operated. Joining us this week is Julien Smith, the Co-founder and CEO of Breather, a company that operates a network of furnished spaces that companies can access on demand — to use for a meeting, an offsite, or as a temporary office. Breather raised about $150 million so far, from investors such as Zach Aarons, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, Temasek (Singapore), and Caisee de Depot which is one of the largest pension funds in Canada. Some of the topics covered include: - How do you build a real estate company for the 21st Century? - What does it mean for office space to be responsive to customer's needs? - How big is the opportunity for Space as a Service? - How will WeWork, Convene, The Office Group, Industrious, and Breather fit into the new office landscape - Lessons from Salesforce early SaaS efforts for Space as a Service Companies - Changes in consumer, investor, and landlord interest in flexible space ___ Dror Poleg is the founder of NYC's Rethinking.RE, where he advises institutional real estate investors on innovation and investment in emerging technologies. His insights have been featured in reports and events by KPMG, Urban Land Institute, JLL, PERE, NYU, Savills, Estates Gazette, and EPRA. Read more here: www.rethinking.re/dror-poleg/ David Friedlander is the founder of Hothouse.co, a marketing communications, public relations, and trend consultancy with a narrow focus on the future of real estate. Hothouse work has been featured in the New York Times, Wired, Dwell, CNN, and many other outlets. Read more here: hothouse.co/about/

This week, Zach Aarons of MetaProp NYC and Millennium Partners joins us on the podcast. MetaProp NYC is an accelerator that brings together the brightest minds in real estate and technology to help quickly build promising young real estate companies. Check out our entire archive of interviews at venturestudio.org or on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, TuneIn and Google Play. Remember to subscribe on iTunes and follow us on twitter @venturestudio to stay up to date. In today's episode, Zach discusses all things real estate tech - from nitty gritty pain points in each sub sector to history, macro trends, insights into the future of real estate tech.