Proptech Espresso

Hosted by Mark Hurst

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Episodes

151

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Learn everything you need to about Proptech from the real estate professionals, entrepreneurs, and visionaries at the forefront of this evolution. Proptech encompasses the wider digital transformation of real estate as innovators reimagine, reinvent, and rebuild the real estate industry. It considers both the technological and mentality change of the real estate industry, and its consumers to our attitudes, movements and transactions involving the built environment. Are you ready? Join the cutting edge of the Proptech movement on Proptech Espresso.

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60 recent

September 3, 2026Episode 2150 min

Eglae Recchia - Bringing Agentic Infrastructure to Real Estate

We talk with Eglae Recchia , CEO of Keyway, about how Proptech grows from building tech into AI that gives commercial real estate teams back time for judgment. We also trace her path from a childhood of constant moves to MIT's SloanSchool of Business and a career built on turning data into action for lenders, REITs, investors, and operators. • Proptech as a broad umbrella across the built environment, fintech, and AI • Why “insights” are no longer enough and how “so what” drives adoption • How moving often shaped adaptability, networking, and comfort with pivots • Philosophy and advertising as training for clear thinking and persuasion • Early career lessons from editorial work, technology shifts, and ops problem solving • Choosing MIT's Sloan School of Business to build analytical tools and a problem-solving mindset • Graduating in 2009 and using networking to break into financial services • Finding commercial real estate through Capital One strategy and portfolio questions • Keyway's evolution from investor-operator thesis to agentic infrastructure for CRE • Who Keyway serves today and how it combines public data with internal data • What comes next: enterprise agents, risk management, and fraud detection Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more, visit proptechespress.com .

August 26, 2026Episode 2043 min

Jennifer Koster - Bridging European Innovation to the US

We talk with WerkWell Innovations CEO Jennifer Koster about why European innovation often struggles to commercialize in the United States and what it takes to cross the cultural, regulatory, and sales gaps. We break down practical ways to earn US buyer trust, validate technology locally, and build an ecosystem that turns introductions into real projects. • European innovation strengths driven by R&D funding, stringent efficiency policy, and market-proven solutions • Why selling in the US differs from selling in Europe, including the “yes culture” reality and faster clarity on buyer value • The US as 50 different markets, with state-by-state rules, incentives, and priorities • Common market-entry mistakes, including assuming trade missions lead to revenue and relying on detached sales agents • Why local presence matters, including accents, perceived risk, and the need for American support in sales • How WerkWell sources and vets companies through universities, embassies, investors, and industry partners • What a “commercialization bridge” looks like, from coaching and positioning to pipeline building and delivery support • Using WerkWell development projects to pilot solutions and create US-based validation • Integrated building systems thinking, connecting design decisions to long-term operational performance • Global Resilience and Innovation event vision across ports, data centers, cities, and critical infrastructure Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more visit www.proptechespresso.com.

August 20, 2026Episode 1941 min

Jerry Vinci - Improving Senior Living Facilities For Families & Operators

We talk with senior living marketing tech entrepreneur Jerry Vinci about why senior housing is an operating business inside a real estate wrapper and why PropTech only matters when it solves a real human problem. We break down what drives occupancy, where operators lose families in the funnel, and how investors can spot risk before it shows up in the financials. • defining PropTech around human problems in real estate • why family experience often decides tool adoption • early lessons on systems over effort and relationship as product • senior living levels of care and why the asset class is misunderstood • demographic shifts pushing demand toward ages 80 to 85 • demand generation versus traditional marketing and owning the full funnel • speed to human, long nurture cycles, and attribution that ties to move-ins • virtual tours and virtual staging as trust-building tools • emerging risks from AI search, staffing churn, and referral aggregator dependence • Nordon’s independent diagnostics for senior housing underwriting • why Jerry launched the Leads To Leases podcast for unpolished operator lessons Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more, visit www.proptechespresso.com.

August 10, 2026Episode 1852 min

Powering New Development Sales

We talk with Tim Ng about turning new development sales from paper-heavy routines into digital experiences that actually help buyers and sales teams move faster. Tim shares how ADHOC STUDIO led to BLACKLINE, why the SaaS pivot was hard, and what proptech can learn from the moment COVID forced the industry to change. • Defining proptech as connection, transparency, and efficiency across real estate • Growing up in condo communities and learning sales and development through family • Aiming for investment banking while building tech skills on the side • Noticing how manual new development sales stayed for decades • Starting Ad Hoc Studio with digital renderings and interactive sales gallery software • Moving sales presentations to touchscreens and iPads for a better buyer journey • Shifting from front-end visuals to back-office inventory, reservations, and allocation • Creating Blackline and moving from services to a product-led SaaS model • Balancing two companies while funding the new platform with existing cash flow • Seeing COVID accelerate virtual launches and digital real estate adoption • Naming Blackline after architectural black line floor plans • Comparing bespoke studio work with scalable software operations • Applying AI to data-driven recommendations, decision support, and hiring standards • Founder advice on team care and getting customer feedback early • Finding Tim on LinkedIn and Instagram by searching Tim Ng Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more visit www.proptechespresso.com.

July 16, 2026Episode 1730 min

Dillon Okner - Streamlining Retail & Franchise Expansion

How has studying graphic design influenced Dillon's career? What led Dillon to land his initial role working in an Apple retail store? How was Dillon able to make the jump to working in Apple's retail development group? What family ties to real estate did Dillon have? Which Microsoft product was Apple using to run its construction projects in the early days of Dillon's career? How is the build process different between an Apple retail store in a mall and one of Apple's flagship stores? Why did Dillon decide to leave Apple and head over to Tesla? How quick were the build times for Tesla's showrooms? How did the Apple Genius Bar influence Tesla's retail showrooms? What was the inspiration for SiteRise? Why did Dillon build SiteRise as a non-user license solution? How is AI being used to make the development process more efficient? What areas of retail and retail adjacent real estate are seeing growth today? Why is retail clustering taking off at the moment? Why is reporting increasingly important for SiteRise? Dillon Okner - CEO and founder of SiteRise, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss why customer led development has been the key to SiteRise's success.

July 2, 2026Episode 1651 min

Josephine Bromley - Making Profitable Decarbonization Decisions

Should we view proptech as how humans transform physical space into something much more valuable and relevant than just the physical space? Why should building owners consider looking at proptech investment across their whole tech stack, rather than focusing only on individual, siloed solutions? How did Josephine use linguistics as a launching point to get into technology localization? What inspired Josephine to work in a startup after starting her career at Google? What was attractive about the built environment compared to other industries Josephine had worked in? How did Josephine's work around sustainability lead her to join the Carbon13 incubator program? Why has accurate, portfolio-wide building energy modeling become a critical need for asset owners? How has MapMortar automated the labor-intensive building energy modeling process? Why is MapMortar looking to engage with banks and utility providers? Josephine Bromley - COO & co-founder of MapMortar, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how her Google onbcaoarding experience instilled a deep sense of personal ownership that she continues to lean on many companies.

June 4, 2026Episode 1550 min

Ryan Buckley - Providing the intelligence layer for the built world

What was Ryan's first academic love in high school? What opportunity did Ryan uncover by responding to a Craigslist advertisement? Why did Ryan decide to return to his original path after an enjoyable stint in consulting? What attribute of MIT culture appealed to Ryan and convinced him to apply to Sloan for an MBA? What part-time job did Ryan land at MIT that gave him special insight into the campus's eccentricities? How did Ryan end up founding a screen writing software business? How did Ryan pivot this failed idea into a lucrative marketplace business? What hard lesson about unit economics did Ryan learn during this period? How did Ryan connect the dots between data, B2B, and climate policy to start a new tech business? What did Ryan admire about Stripe that he applied to the permit data space with Shovels? Why is collecting and aggregating local building permit data so challenging? What insights has Shovels uncovered around permit activity and different types of climate disasters? What is the permit cloud that Shovel's is uncovering that indicates early signal about a larger infrastructure project? How is Shovels providing insight into available trade resources for intensive projects such as data centers? Ryan Buckley - CEO and co-founder of Shovels, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how his early childhood interest in roller hockey exposed him to the parking lots of seminal internet titans like Netscape and Silicon Graphics.

May 14, 2026Episode 1444 min

Etrit Demaj - Scaling The Smart Building Operating System

How has proptech evolved over time from solutions about the business of real estate to the automation and digitization of the physical buildings themselves? What lessons did Etrit take away from the hardships of his family re-establishing their lives in the US? How did entrepreneurship in Kosovo differ from what he experienced after moving to Michigan and integrating with the Albanian community? What learnings about the value of the product you are selling got instilled in Etrit when he was young? What lessons did Etrit take away from his experience in door to door selling laundry services? How did working at Chase during college open Etrit's eyes to how to successfully navigate the professional environment? What insights did Etrit take away from listening to an employee interaction with Jamie Diamond? Why is Etrit always trying to learn faster to do the right thing? Where did the initial interest in real estate originate? Why is customer service such a differentiation for KODE? What does having the GSA as a KODE customer mean to Etrit? Etrit Demaj - co-founder of KODE Labs, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss immigrating to the US and the debt of gratitude he has for the opportunities presented to him because of this.

April 23, 2026Episode 1355 min

David Stifter - AI-Powered Invoice Coding for Real Estate AP

Should proptech be defined as a real estate specific problem to which a technology solution is applied to? Why can new real estate applications not ignore the workstream they are a part of and the ecosystem they must work nicely within? How is it possible for companies to balance encouraging innovation but not concurrently creating shadow IT departments? Why is the build vs buy decision front and center again for CTOs and other innovation leaders in proptech? Why was it a blessing in disguise for David to start off his professional career as a custody fund accountant? What led David to start a business operations group? Why is bottoms up technology adoption much easier than top down mandates? What led Dave to uncover the opportunity in real estate AP coding? What percent of general ledger transactions originate in AP? Who are the different purchasers of PredictAP? What new insights has the deployment of PredictAP within customers surfaced? In the fast changing world of AI, how do companies differentiate between solutions that demo well and give the appearance of solving a problem versus well architected and researched solutions that truly solve the fundamental business problem? David Stifter - Founder and CEO of PredictAP, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how we worked at the first social network in college just prior to the early 2000s dot-bomb crash.

April 2, 2026Episode 121 hr 3 min

Tyler Pullen - Pathways for Scaling Innovative Construction

What has lead to the increase in 'better' companies succeeding in the proptech space? How did an early interest in climate change lead to a journey within the built environment? What did Tyler discover about real estate development that caused him to focus his attention on this space? How did the USC undergraduate experience prove challenging for a first in his family college student from the suburbs of New Jersey? Why did Tyler not end up finishing his PhD at UC Berkeley? How have many of the most vulnerable members of society ended up with housing in areas of cities with the greatest exposure to climate change risk? What was the premise behind establishing UC Berkeley's Terner Center? Why did Terner Labs decide to spin out of UC Berkeley's Terner Center? Why is there so much friction between housing innovation companies and affordable housing developers? What problems having engineering focused housing innovation companies encountered when trying to bring solutions to market? How have CA state legislatures engaged Terner Labs to understand the levers the state may be able to effect in order to reduce housing costs and increase housing production speed? Tyler Pullen - Head of Building Innovation at Terner Labs, joins Proptech Espresso to answer these questions and discuss how his unique professional background enables him to act as a translator amongst the different parties looking to advance industrialized construction.