Tech Nest: The Proptech Podcast Nate Smoyer

This week's engaging interview is with Stephen "Capz" Capezza, President of Side. Stephen shares his journey in real estate and provides a deep dive into Side's unique brokerage-as-a-service model. Side is a true pioneer in the real estate brokerage space as the only brokerage-as-a-service platform. The success of this platform can be seen based on the industry recognition many of their agents have achieved, including lists from Real Trends.
Stephen shares his experience and what he's witnessed throughout his decade-plus tenure, leading real estate technology teams, the trends that have come and gone, and what's needed now for brokers to be successful. Tune in for an enlightening conversation about the future of real estate for agents and brokerages.
More about Stephen and SideSide is the pioneer and the industry’s only real estate brokerage-as-a-service platform that empowers the very best agents, teams and indie brokers to create and grow their own companies — without the time, cost or risk of operating a brokerage. Unlike consumer-facing brokerage brands, Side works behind the scenes to provide our partners with time-saving technology and premier support services. This way, they’re free to focus on what matters most: serving their clients and communities.
Agents partner with Side to help them create a company and act as that company’s brokerage of record and back-office support. The companies that make up Side’s network are locally owned and operated boutiques that are empowered with the full resources of a national brokerage.
Stephen 'Capz' Capezza is President of Side. He has significant industry experience, and a deep understanding of the specific needs of the top-producing agents and teams Side partners with. 
Capz has decades of experience managing high-impact sales and customer success teams. Before Side, Capz was at Zillow Group, where he served as senior vice president of business operations. In this role, he oversaw Zillow Premier Agent, which connects consumers searching for homes on Zillow with real estate professionals. Zillow Premier Agent serves over 150,000 agents nationally and generates over $1.2B in revenue. Capezza joined Zillow in 2015 following the company’s acquisition of Trulia, where he spent two years leading Trulia’s San Francisco sales and operations teams.
Connect with Stephen on LinkedInFollow Side on TwitterCheck out Side

In this conversation, I talk with Ned Murphy, the General Manager at Level M, about the state of the multifamily industry and the role of smart buildings. 
We discuss the impact of new construction on the market, the competitive dynamics and concessions in the industry, and the challenges of hardware and software integration. Ned shares more about Level M as a next-generation platform, aimed at helping existing properties adopt smart technology. 
One blocker to adopting smart building technology has been around measuring the ROI of both software and hardware. Ned digs into some of the misconceptions here and highlights the importance of tailoring value propositions differently, to different stakeholders, in order to achieve adoption. 
Smart building technology is evolving fast, and its becoming more clear the benefits extend beyond resident experience or management convenience. Listen in to hear more about the evolution of multifamily smart buildings.
More about Ned and Level MLevel M is the next-generation smart apartment and property automation platform for multifamily. With revolutionary hardware and premium user experiences, Level M uniquely delivers smart access control, property automation, and building intelligence solutions that are cost-effective, dependable, and future-proof.
Ned was the Co-founder of Dwelo helping guide the company for six yers before being acquired by Level Home Inc. He leads the companies multifamily business. 
Connect with Ned on LinkedInFollow Level M on LinkedInCheck out Level M

In this episode of Tech Nest, we have a returning guest, David Sullivan, on the show. David was previously CEO of a company called Till, which was acquired by Best Egg. David's been working to bring flexible rent solutions to the renters market, and through the acquisition by Best Egg, is now better positioned to do so. 
We get into the challenges of disrupting the property management industry and the complexity of embedding point solutions, such as flex rent, in multifamily. The effects of the pandemic on the rental market and the shift towards renter-centric solutions has changed some things for all parties involved, some of those changes for the better. 
This discussion isn't just about flex rent options, however. We get into a handful of topics such as the importance of building trust and durability in the industry as a point solution provider, the benefits of SOC 2 compliance, and some of the trends moving the proptech industry forward when we talk about property management and tenant-centric solutions. There's a little bit for everyone in this one. Listen in to what David's got to say.
More about David and Best EggBest Egg Flexible Rent gives renters control of when they pay their rent by splitting rent into 2, 3, or 4 payments during the month while ensuring rent is paid in full and on time to the property. 
David is the Managing Director of Best Egg Flexible Rent.  Prior, David was the COO of the American Home, a rental housing REIT, and has spent time investing in Fintech startups at Route 66 Ventures. 
Connect with David on LinkedInFollow David on TwitterFollow Best Egg on TwitterCheck out Flexible Rent through Best Egg

This is the type of conversation I should have had on the show a long time ago. Industry veteran, brand-builder, and all-around great guy, Brian Boero joins the show today. Brian is Co-founder at the branding and strategy agency, 1000WATT. They focus exclusively on working with brands in the real estate vertical including brokerages, lenders, and technology companies.
One of the first topics I was eager to get Brian to dig into was on the importance of brand and storytelling within the real estate industry. You'll hear insights shared aimed at the broker / agent, but also applicable advice for proptech companies. One theme Brian points out is the tendency of companies to talk about features instead of benefits and why that's detrimental to do so.
Of course, we couldn't avoid the evolving topic of real estate commissions. The topic affects more than just agents, but any business that is built around transaction volume and that could be impacted by new rules coming to the industry. Don't delay, download and listen.
More about Brian and 1000WATT1000WATT is real estate's branding and strategy agency. Founded in , our clients range from brokerage, proptech, mortgage, title, home builders and everything in between.
Brian has been in real estate media, marketing and technology since 1997. Before Co-Founding 1000WATT, Brian served as President of Inman, real estate’s leading trade media company, and as CEO of VREO, where he created e-signature and document management software for tablet PCs. Brian has led dozens of companies through complex brand and marketing challenges and leads the 1000WATT team daily.
Follow Brian on TwitterConnect with Brian on LinkedInCheck out 1000WATTIt's not too late to snag your ticket to 1000WATT's Brand and Marketing Summit. More info here: https://1000watt.net/events/summit/ 

This week's interview features Vincent Hodder, Co-founder and CEO of Local Logic. Local Logic is a location intelligence platform that focuses on digitizing the built world and providing predictive analytics for addresses in the US and Canada. They have a massive data set of 100 billion unique data points, which allows them to understand and quantify cities at a hyperlocal level.
You'll hear us discuss the need for data-driven insights to help consumers, agents, and investors (all in their own, unique ways) make better decisions in real estate. Local Logic provides innovative data solutions for the real estate industry, helping consumers and agents make informed decisions based on location-specific insights. 
Real estate is a hyper-local game. Dig in on how better access to data and enhanced tools can make a difference for consumers, agents, and investors. 

More about Vincent-Charles and Local LogicLocal Logic is a location intelligence platform that digitizes the built world for consumers, investors, developers, and governments – delivering unrivaled clarity and actionable insights capable of creating more sustainable, equitable cities. With more than 100 billion unique data points – the largest unique location data set in the U.S. and Canada – the platform creates a digital twin of cities, quantifying the built world and offering predictive, precise analytics to inform the present and future of over 250 million individual addresses.
Vincent-Charles started his journey as a young boy, aspiring to be a real estate developer. While in school, he recognized a significant issue in the industry, particularly in urban planning. The lack of actionable data on how the built environment impacts the supply and demand of real estate led to investments being based solely on a “gut check.” Seeing the ramifications this had on community developments, he seized this opportunity and co-founded Local Logic with his fellow classmate, Gabriel Damant Sirois. Local Logic is now empowering customers to achieve their real estate goals by providing them with high-quality, unique, and actionable insights to understand how the built world impacts the risk and return of their real estate decisions of all scales and at all levels of sophistication.
Follow Vincent-Charles on TwitterConnect with Vincent Charles on LinkedInFollow Local Logic on TwitterCheck out Local Logic

This week's guest is Everett Lynn, Founder and CEO of Amenify, a plug and play platform for amenity services in the multifamily space. We  discuss Amenify's recent growth trajectory (hint: they've been on fire!). 
Everett shares his insights on different types of fundraising and the challenges of disruption in the real estate industry—a topic that is frequently discussed, but Everett offers some unique takes for founders. You'll hear Everett emphasize the importance of finding a balance between value and efficiency in proptech solutions and the need for understanding the ecosystem in which these solutions operate. We also get into various aspects of proptech and the challenges faced by companies in the industry such as the difficulties of scaling in-person services, and the efficiencies (and difficulties) of a three-sided marketplace. 
We cover a lot of ground in this episode. Download and listen in!
More about Everett and AmenifyAmenify powers lifestyle services for 1.3+ million homes across 500+ cities, with tracked, trained, and compliant Service Pros. Amenify drives retention and ancillary income for multifamily operators while helping the local community with trust and efficiency gains. Their integrated Service Pros include teams for cleaning, handyman, restaurant delivery, grocery delivery, and more, each with real-time support. The company has raised $20 million to date to invest in technology for the three stakeholders of their technology platform, including: Multifamily Operators, Service Providers, and Residents.
Connect with Everett on LinkedInCheck out Amenify