The Propcast Louisa Dickins

In the fifth episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Jeevan Kalanithi, CEO at OpenSpace and Parker Mundt, Vice President of Platform at Suffolk Technologies.
 
Episode Highlights:
OpenSpace’s founding story 
How Jeevan and Parker initially met and started working together
The concept behind Suffolk Technologies and the companies they invest into
Open Space’s two products and the difference between them
How OpenSpace overcame the challenges when scaling their products
The broad challenges Parker sees startups facing with new products
How product trends change based on geographical locations
Parker’s investment predictions for 2023-24
Current macro trends and what this will mean for those ready to innovate and be tech forward
The firms involved in the Suffolk Boost Accelerator Program 
Companies that are creating innovative solutions for sustainability
What steps Open Space are taking to reduce the ‘eight waste’ on construction sites
 
Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
LMRE YouTube Interviews
PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
Sifteo
3D Robotics
Autodesk
Suffolk Boost Accelerator Program
Qflow
Carbon Titles
Shepherd Insurance
 
Shout outs:
Brittany Harris
Jade Cohen
 
Key Takeaways:
They started a company and sold it, and sure enough, they were working on a capture technology with these new 360 cameras. When I heard about it, I was like, you know, who could really use this? Building. - Jeevan

Suffolk has trialled over 180 different tech solutions. We pride ourselves in being a very forward thinking general contractor who has a deep desire to innovate within the construction space. - Parker
We’re building more and more stuff upon that. It all works because we have a simple capture product and I think we've captured something like 12 billion square feet, some big number. So it's a lot of data that allows us to make the system smarter and more useful for our customers. - Jeevan
I think today we see a lot of companies that come in and maybe are naive or maybe just a bit out of touch with what some of the tech solutions in construction in particular would charge. And that can be a showstopper immediately, because the folks that you're selling to are still very focused on price and schedule, right? Those are the two main drivers in the construction industry. - Parker
For us we're really focused on making sure that the founders feel comfortable at the valuation that they're at and not necessarily pumping it up just for the sake of having a larger valuation. - Parker
We're at an innovate or die kind of portion of the life cycle right now where folks who are tech forward and are looking to see how they can do things better, faster, cheaper, safer, you know, those folks will emerge as the industry leaders, as a general contractor. - Parker
We really prioritise reliability and speed and efficiency with our technology and we hope that allows our builder customers to do the same. - Jeevan
 
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 cand

In the fourth episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Antonia Soler, Director of Hilti Technology Office at Hilti and Vivin Hegde, GB and Founding Partner at Zacua Ventures, an early stage global VC specialised in investing in the Built Environment sector.
 
Episode Highlights:
How Antonia and Vivin both met whilst working at Hilti
The Women in Construction Tech Group that Antonia has co-founded
The events and chapters WCT are running
How Zacua Ventures started and where the idea came from
Vivin’s advice to founders looking to scale towards an exit
The evolution Vivin believes early startups need to go through in order to be successful
The challenges around digitising construction and how Antonia suggests these are addressed
The importance of understanding what it’s actually like to work in construction when trying to build a solution 
Where Antonia and Vivin expect to see investment being made in 2023
The difference in investments between early stage and late stage 
The reasons why interest in Series B is quieter in terms of investment
How construction technologies are helping with sustainability
The technologies being developed to address prefabrication and modular construction

Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
LMRE YouTube Interviews
PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
WCT
McKinsey
Fieldwire
Dusty Robotics
Built World
Trimble
Ecoworks
Carbon Title
Urban Machine
Kit Switch

Shout outs:
Gregg Wallace 
Mauricio Tessi Weiss
Juan Nieto
Julieta Moradei
 
Key Takeaways:
And this is where the seeds of Zacua Ventures  were sewn, right? We had built a network, we'd seen how hard corporate innovation is for a lot of corporates, and we are also invested in funds. - Vivin
So a startup needs to be mindful of the exit options that they have. They shouldn't be driven by the exit itself. - Vivin
I find that founders that spend a lot of time with customers in the field and in the office come up with the best solutions. Because they are observing workflows, testing solutions on the job site and otherwise learning how their solution can best serve their customers. - Antonia
So women in construction tech, it's dedicated to creating opportunities and developing relationships for women driving innovation in the construction industry. We envision a construction industry where women are well networked, support each other, efforts to improve and advance in the space and otherwise. - Antonia
We did a survey of 80 contact focused VCs and corporate VCs a couple of weeks back. Just a little bit of the industry, I would say, and it's positive. We do see more investment happening in this space. Pretty much 70% of the VCs we spoke to said they're going to increase their investment rather than decrease in this space. - Vivin
I think everybody has a good view of how the market could look in the next 6, 12, 18 months. Even if it's not rosy, it's still more predictable than it was five months back. And therefore the deal flow should pick up slowly and the deal making should also pick up accordingly. - Vivin
 
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 a

In the third episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Gregg Wallace, Partner at Building Ventures, who invest in companies reshaping the way we design, build, operate and experience our built environment and Matt Wegworth, Vice President of Dawson Ventures at McKinstry, whose goal is to advance early-stage technologies and offerings and support innovative startups.
 
Episode Highlights:
How Gregg as part of the Hilti Group invested in Building Ventures first funding round
How they have now launched Fund 2 and the different strategic partners this will bring onboard
The growth they have seen in the market and what it means for their organisation
The synergies between Building Ventures and McKinstry and why they started working together as strategic partners
The tagline that McKinstry work by and how that benefits their clients
Why Dawson Ventures was created
The stage and ticket size that both companies invest in and trends they follow
The different areas of growth they are seeing, despite the economic situation
The importance of having a go to market plan in the construction and proptech space
Gregg and Matt’s ideas for generating more innovation and adoption within the industry
Their view on the best ways to attract new talent into construction technologies
The battle the industry has between efficiencies and innovation

Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
LMRE YouTube Interviews
PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
ALICE Technologies
ICON
A/O PropTech Report
Hilti Group
Assemble System
Autodesk
Financial Times
ENR 400
TurboTax
BuiltWorlds Conference

Shout outs:
Mayra Soto
Vivin Hegde
 
Key Takeaways:
We appreciated as Hilti the ecosystem that Building Ventures brought, so we made an investment in mid 2018, alongside a whole number of strategic investors as part of Building Ventures first fund, which launched in 2018 as $53 million and placed 16 startup portfolio companies. - Gregg
That's what we also represent as Building Ventures, looking at how do we create a fundamentally better built world? Not the transaction side of buying and selling and dividing buildings into crypto coins, but really creating a fundamentally better built world, connecting the historically disparate phases of the building lifecycle. - Gregg
What that does for us here and certainly for our clients is it brings a suite of thinking and offering to drive that desire to how do we remove the waste and climate harm out of the environment through innovation, so that it has 60 years of operation. - Matt
We believe by keeping really close to the industry, we can be very supportive. At the early seed stage, getting to know founders, making introductions, helping them think through strategically the problems. - Gregg
This is not a one-time transaction. This is the start of a five to 10 year relationship through all of its ups and downs that we want to support our portfolio company. - Gregg
So do we see a slowdown? Not at all. Are we continuing to invest in our own startups? Absolutely. - Matt


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 L

In the second episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by René Morkos, the Founder and CEO of ALICE Technologies, the world’s first construction optioneering platform and Shane Richardson, President of Lagrange, a management consulting firm providing project controls and program management services.
 
Episode Highlights:
The founding story behind ALICE Technologies and the problems it was designed to solve
The difference between the two products, ‘Alice Pre-Construction’ and ‘Alice Manage’ and their capabilities
How Rene and Shane met and how they started working together
How to use data to make better informed decisions
The hesitancies the construction industry have around technology
The issues they face and potential missed opportunities if they are brought in part way through a project, rather than the beginning
Early innovators in the space and their impact on implementation and integration
The biggest changes they have seen within the industry and what they predict over the next 20 years
The importance of finding the right tool when trying to digitalise data to increase productivity
Where they believe the skill gaps currently are in construction tech
ALICE’s sustainability pledge
 
Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
LMRE YouTube Interviews
PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
Bechtel
Katerra
Canadian Nuclear Labs
Skanska
Stanford University
 
Key Takeaways:
What resources do you need to build to perform those tasks? That's the kind of information you give the system, and then the system generates 6 million different ways of building the project for you. - Rene
I noticed that was one of the things that wasn't being leveraged; how can we use this data to make better informed decisions? -Shane
A lot of times you're already 20 plus percent complete with a project, and there's a certain point where you can always minimise risk, minimise costs on a project, but as you progress on a project, the further you progress, you lose out on that opportunity. - Shane
What's happening in construction today is what happened to manufacturing in the seventies and eighties. It's really becoming digitised. It's becoming integrated across the supply chain. - Rene
I think that's one of the reasons why construction projects were plagued with delays, for decades and decades. It's because how do we fix that problem of being able to translate accurate data in its schedule, maintain it, and so ALICE takes care of that.  - Shane
The way that I perceive it is that one of the major skill gaps is that construction is getting converted into algorithmic terms. And so that's something that's relatively new.  - Rene
McKinsey article: over the last 20 years the industry as a whole has only only increased 1% in productivity. And the construction spending is about 13% of the world's GDP. And so you think about that, it's over 1.3 trillion in opportunity to try to leverage. - Shane
 
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 a

In the first episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Ibrahim Imam, and Sander Van de Rijdt, joint Co-Founders and Group CEO’s of PlanRadar.
PlanRadar is a digital platform for construction documentation, task management and communication. It is currently used in over 65 markets and has 120,000 construction professionals as users.
Ibrahim and Sander met at University and prior to PlanRadar founded other technology businesses together.
 
Episode Highlights:
Why they launched PlanRadar and the industry issues they were trying to solve
Why they believe the construction industry is so under digitalised 
What helped them to achieve such rapid growth
The decision making process behind why they move into certain regions
How word of mouth is one of their most powerful business drivers
How customer feedback dictates the development of the product
Misunderstandings that can arise from conventional paper and pen usage
Overcoming people’s hesitations with new technology
Their aim to make the construction industry more ESG compliant
The need for diversification within the industry to continue to drive growth and innovation
Their future aspirations for PlanRadar
 
Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
LMRE YouTube Interviews
PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
 
Shout Outs:
Constantin Kock
Domagoj Dolinsek
Clemens Hammerl
 
Key Takeaways:
We decided to get on that mission to try to improve the lives of all the people out there on the construction sites and in the real estate projects. - Sander
We have around 20,000 customers, which is a lot. But when you realise that there are around 2.5 million potential customers just in Europe, then it's nothing. - Sander
But what PlanRadar has figured out throughout the last few years is to make the customisation level that every organisation requires,  to really meet their own processes. - Ibrahim
We hired last quarter, I think 134 new people. We plan to hire this quarter, 82 new people. So we're still growing. - Sander
PlanRadar is a tool that everybody can now download from the App store or the Play store and just instantly use it and start adding value to their corporations. - Ibrahim
The main lesson is if you want to build a successful company, it's all about the people that you hire. Because a good team can deliver good results. Simple as that. - Ibrahim


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.
 
Sponsors
Launch Your Own Podcast
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 hello@apodcastcompany.com

We had an incredible response to the last season where we focused on ESG within Proptech. We wanted to follow up with something equally as exciting and we’re happy to announce a brand new focus for this season of the Propcast. 
This season we’ll be taking a deep dive into the exciting vertical of ConTech. Our host Louisa Dickens will be speaking with some brilliant leaders in the ConTech space over the next 10 episodes, sharing their industry insights on the trends in the market and their predictions for the future of Construction Technology. 
Make sure to subscribe to the Propcast and leave us a 5* rating for this season - you’ll not want to miss it! 

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.