UrbanTech Insights | August 22
How to Impress VCs with Your Market Size Slide
Dreamit UrbanTech Managing Director Andrew Ackerman gives his advice to founders in Propmodo about how to create a market size slide that will impress potential investors. Too often, founders present a top-down market size estimate that includes irrelevant pieces of the market and does not include any numbers related to product pricing. Investors have such low expectations from this slide that they often gloss over it during meetings and figure out the estimate themselves.
Ackerman provides a framework for giving a more accurate Total Addressable Market estimate, and he provides tips on where to place that slide in the presentation, how to incorporate pricing, how to avoid selling yourself short with your expected market penetration, and more.
What We're Reading
On Cities and Urban Tech Trends
- A new video shows the success of Barcelona's urban planning efforts around a more pedestrian-friendly city. More than 500 new superblocks are planned for the city.
- The NYT editorial board writes about the potential benefits of introducing electric scooters in NYC.
- Sidewalk Labs has faced some hurdles in their plan to create a smart district in the city of Toronto after the Canadian government raised questions about how Google will handle the personal data of citizens. Sidewalk also released sketches of what their planned smart neighborhood in Toronto might look like.
- Why hospitals are getting into the real estate business.
- Newark is offering $1B in tax breaks to land the new Amazon headquarters.
- How cities and their suburbs are affected by tech booms.
- Metro area job growth in NYC is being slowed by housing costs. Downtown Brooklyn is one area that's bucking this trend with a building boom.
- In Los Angeles, a white hot real estate market is resulting in mass evictions as developers buy up properties, renovate, and re-market them with much higher rents.
- Electric scooters can unlock a world of benefits for cities, but city officials must create better plans for integrating the new mobility solution.
- Universities, chasing the startup economy, are reshaping urban real estate and giving blighted areas a new life.
On Real Estate
- Rents are surging, and startups like TheGuarantors are stepping in to pay security deposits for cash-strapped consumers.
- Are real estate agents still relevant in the age of tech? Home buyers can find homes on their own, and a number of startups are attempting to disrupt the remaining parts of a broker's business.
- Here's an inside view of how the head of innovation at a large mortgage bank scales tech projects within the organization.
- Zillow acquired Mortgage Lenders of America to allow consumers to get mortgages through the platform.
- Across America, mall owners are converting empty retail stores into shared office spaces. Coworking at retail properties is expected to grow at a rate of 25% through 2023.
- Another trend in rural areas: the rise of Dollar General stores. There are now more Dollar General stores than McDonalds, and new Dollar Generals are opening at a rate of 3 per day.
- How mall owner and developer Taubman Centers is thinking about the future of retail. "The basis of our plan was everything but the department stores," states the Chief Operating Officer.
- Real estate investors are betting on high-end health and wellness clubs in cities that are a cross between Canyon Ranch and Soho House.
On Construction Technology
- The NYT explores how drones are being used on construction sites and in real estate, with some stunning visuals.
- Industrialized construction is the convergence of manufacturing and construction. These methods require less labor, enable offsite construction and onsite assembly, help deliver against accelerated project schedules, are of equivalent or higher quality, and reduce waste—all while keeping construction costs more predictable. Read about the trend and learn why it's not being adopted as fast as one might expect.
- Developers are building the first 5G-ready community in the Dallas suburbs with wireless micro-cells, fiber internet and Wi-Fi in common areas. This "connected community" will be easily equipped for autonomous vehicles and advanced healthcare.
- A new startup from MIT Media Lab is entering into the crowded job site documentation space. Workers must mount a camera to their hardhat, and cloud software uses machine learning to create a Google Street View-style view of the work site.
- Augmented reality technology enabled a concrete company to catch flaws in design and address those flaws before installation.
- Skanska is launching a proprietary system to enable office managers to run their parking, reception, heating, and meeting rooms on one mobile app.
Built World Fundraising News
- Sensat raised $4.5M to use AI to find patterns and inefficiencies on job sites.
- WeWork raised another $1B from Softbank.
- RentLogic raised $2.4M to grade buildings for renters and landlords.
- Skyline AI raised $18M in Series A funding. The startup uses machine learning to churn through real estate data on multifamily buildings to find good investment opportunities.
- Indus.ai has raised $3.7M in seed financing from UP2398. The startup uses AI to create a “digital twin,” or virtual representation, of jobsite activity throughout construction project lifecycles.
- RiseOS raised $25M to become the traffic control center for self driving cars.
- Swivel raised $4.75M from First Round Capital. The startup enables companies to find workspaces and pay on flexible terms.
- Blueprint Power raised $3.5M from Congruent Ventures. The startup helps building owners sell power back to the grid. Read why Fifth Wall co-invested.
- Construction startup Matrak raises $765k in seed funding for their workflow management software.
Upcoming Events
Disrupt CRE San Francisco | September 13 | Register for this event with panels on the state of CRE Tech, how buildings are using CRE tech products, and more. Register
AI and Truth | September 18 | Part one of an event series at New Lab exploring technology, humanity and the future with Manoush Zomorodi. The Radicant brings together experts across disciplines to discuss pressing issues we face collectively as a species related to emerging technology. More
Ascent Conference | New York | October 3 The NYC tech community converges to network and learn with over 70 roundtable discussions, 50+ keynotes, and networking with entrepreneurs and VCs. Ascent is offering everyone in the Dreamit Ventures network a 50% discount on any pass with code "DREAMIT50."
CRE Tech Chicago | October 18 | Michael Beckerman and the team at CREtech are heading to Chicago with proptech industry leaders. More
BuiltWorlds Hackathon | Chicago | October 19-21 | Developers, makers, and built industry experts gather to hack solutions to burning built world problems. More
BuiltTech Week | Atlanta | October 22-24 | This conference brings together hundreds of AEC and technology startups, innovative corporate professionals, and investors to explore the latest in the built environment. More
CRE Tech Virtual Demo Day | November 6 at 12 PM ET | Watch as some of the most innovative startups in commercial real estate pitch their products. More
Built Worlds Venture West Conference in Palo Alto | November 8 | This full-day event brings together the world's leading startups and investors focused on the built environment. More
NHHC OpTech | November 14-16 | This is one of the premier events for what's on the horizon for the multifamily sector and property operations and technology. More
Open Jobs
- Sensat is looking to hire a full stack developer and a data specialist.
- HeadOut is hiring for business, engineering, design, and marketing roles.
- Raxar is hiring an Account Executive and a Customer Success Manager.
- Cherre is looking for a Senior Full Stack Engineer, a Senior Backend Engineer, and an Engineering Manager.
- SiteAware is looking to hire an Enterprise Field Sales Manager.