Branding For The Now
We live in a time where the product and software landscape is overwhelmingly saturated. For consumers, over-stimulation is very real – sorting through a sea of brands to find the ones that resonate, keep their promise, and continuously surprise and delight is almost a task in itself.
Read MorePropTech: Raising the Bar
Reflecting on that experience, I noticed that there were things we did as a team that can now be augmented by technology. What was previously winning awards is now likely “table stakes” made possible by some of the technology and software solutions that are out there.
Read More2019 PropTech Trend Summary
As 2019 comes to a close, it’s about that time for a slew of end-of-the-year summaries and trend reports. I quite enjoy them! So much so that I thought I’d write our own Nine Four Ventures version for the PropTech space.
Read MoreSaaS Enabled Marketplaces
The combination of SaaS and marketplace network effects creates complex activity systems expediting growth, strengthening competitive advantages and expanding addressable markets over time.
Read MoreBranch Office Furniture and the Disruption of an Antiquated Space
Branch, a digitally native office furniture solution and new Nine Four portfolio company, has entered the market to simplify the process, offering direct-to-business furniture with the guidance, flexibility, and the quality that growing companies require, all at an extremely affordable price.
Read MoreThe Entrenched Incumbents of Property Management – Yardi, RealPage, and the Future
…we do envision a world where startups build an agile software backbone that does have a differentiated cost structure and user experience that may unseat incumbent, traditional property managers themselves (the current customers of Yardi and RealPage).
Read MoreBoard of Directors
As a VC, our job is to speak to numerous companies, evaluate them, and determine which ones are best positioned for success. In the diligence process, many categories of questions come up, each with their own set of countless questions, but overall, we want to…
Read MoreProperty Management: The Gateway to Future Growth Verticals
Property management is not only a major pain point felt by millions of landlords but also offers a terrific foundational platform from which many future products can naturally grow out of.
Read MoreThe Sustainability Shift
Building a sustainable brand in today’s eco-conscious climate is something real estate companies can no longer ignore. Not only do renters and owners expect it, it’s imperative to take part in this movement as real estate stands for 40% of overall energy usage globally. Yet,…
Read MoreHospitality, Short Term Rentals, and The Value of Consistency
From the short-term rental point of view, the positions that Marriott, Hilton, and other hospitality brands are taking with regards to home-sharing, consistency, and demand, indicate that professionally managed short-term rental companies could be on to something.
Read MoreThe Importance of Data
Data is in the center of business. From tracking buying habits in the retail world to predicting fraud in the banking world, data scientists are figuring out the best ways to extract the most value for their customers and companies.
Read MoreHousing Affordability Crisis: How Startups & Local Governments Can Help
Housing supply is constrained, particularly in dense core urban areas across the US. Supply simply cannot keep up with demand.
Read MoreIntelligent Business Development: The Stay Alfred Partner Summit
Today, companies need to be creative with their business development practices…
Read MoreNine Four is Expanding!
Last week Nine Four Ventures welcomed Sophia Ghadamian to the team.
Read MoreSMB Service Provider Marketing Automation: Driving Offline to Online Commerce
Generally speaking, services-focused SMBs in flooring, painting, plumbing, roofing, etc., historically concentrated their efforts within a hyper-local geography to service their immediate local community.
Read MoreMillennials and Multifamily Sustainability
The conscious effort to make an impact and change the narrative is one in which the millennial generation, and those to follow, feel strongly about.
Read MoreTech Enabled, Vertically Integrated General Contractors
Technology can not only reduce costs but also increase revenue.
Read MoreTech: The New Amenity For Aging Properties
The introduction of new technologies provide owners and operators an added layer of amenity that once wasn’t available to them.
Read MoreThe Corporate Challenge
Since so many industries collide with the built environment, monitoring the startup landscape can be daunting. To move up the learning curve the fastest, we believe firms new to the space should partner with those that already have the knowledge and networks in PropTech.
Read MoreGo-To-Market: Find the Wedge
Nine Four Ventures not only appreciates founders taking this approach but also believes many “wedge” opportunities exist in PropTech today across verticals…
Read MoreReal Estate Technology for the Wary
Through our vertically integrated structure, as a VC and through our partners that own and operate a variety of real estate asset types, we have a precise understanding of the hardships real estate teams face…
Read MoreThe OpCo/PropCo Structure: Why Now?
A trend that Nine Four is seeing is the increased prevalence of companies raising a ‘PropCo’ to support their legacy operating business (“OpCo”).
Read MoreNetwork Effects
We believe technical expertise combined with our real estate experience and strategic real estate limited partner network can create a unique unfair competitive advantage.
Read MoreTo Have and to Hold: The Value of Customer Retention
In this post we’ll explore how Stay Alfred plans to give back to their loyal guests as well as the importance of customer retention that’s applicable to companies outside of the STR space.
Read More2019 MBA Conference: PropTech Themes Presentation
This week I had the opportunity to present some of the technology trends and companies we’re seeing for the Mortgage Banker Association in Washington DC.
Read MoreSpace-as-a-service Cost Structures
Over the past few years, PropTech has experienced an explosion of space-as-a-service startups. These businesses are optimizing real estate assets and re-inventing how employers manage their offices, employees travel and people rent their living space.
Read MoreCo-living: The Human Perspective
At Nine Four Ventures, we are excited for this sector to take flight. There will be endless conversations about the pros and cons for both the owners/developers and renters but as I see it, the value it will provide to the diverse demographic of today’s renters will be invaluable.
Read MoreFurniture as a Service
Today’s modern workplace is shifting towards a more dynamic, fast changing and disparate environment. As a result, high growth startups need to keep up and provide the newest and best office amenities to keep employee retention high and churn low in this competitive recruiting marketplace.
Read MoreSelf Tours
The concept of self-touring (a prospective renter or home buyer tours the property on their own, without an agent) has been around for a long time, but with the help of smart locks, smart home devices, and software integrations, we are seeing the true potential of self-touring.
Read MoreThe Future of Work’s Impact on Real Estate
The Future of Work – that is, the new paradigm of interactions between workers, jobs or employment arrangements, and their physical/virtual workspaces – has significant implications for the Real Estate sector.
Read MoreWeWork IPO Will Be A Learning Experience For PropTech
WeWork is an example of a company that’s spent a ton of money on technology and acquisitions yet is still challenged daily on whether it’s actually a tech company.
Read MoreNine Four’s Preview For AIM’s 2019 Conference
This year’s AIM (Apartment Innovation and Marketing) Conference takes place on May 5-8th in Huntington Beach, CA. We are thrilled to be participating on the panel “Don’t Build It, Invest In It: The New Operator Approach to Technology”.
Read MoreConstruction Payment Automation
…the lack of formidable software tools available to contractors, subcontractors and suppliers exacerbates major manual pain points around purchase orders, invoices, receipts and liens. Today, we’re going to take a deeper dive into those downstream challenges and potential solutions.
Read MoreNine Four Ventures Pilot Program
We believe the Pilot Program provides startups, our partners, and Nine Four Ventures with incredible value.
Read MoreThe Data Advantage: Innovation for the Brokerage of Today
In a space where technology is still uncharted territory, but also celebrated, where can startups make the most impact and how will agencies benefit?
Read MoreThe WeWork Effect: Stay Alfred’s Relatable Future
We believe that Stay Alfred, and other short term operators, have a similar opportunity as WeWork and that master leasing units is just the beginning.
Read MoreConstruction Loan Draw Management
The construction industry is massive. It’s one of the largest sectors of the global economy representing $5 trillion in payments annually, with the US construction industry representing a $1T market.
Read MoreBaby Steps: CRE’s Energy Efficient Future
To achieve the goal of reducing the globe’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero percent by 2050, we need the vast majority of commercial property owners to become more energy efficient with a focus on renewable energy sources.
Read MoreShort-Term Rentals: Curated For a New Generation
Nine Four Ventures is very mindful of the disruptive shift that is taking place within the short-term rental space.
Read MoreFrom Definition to Valuation, “PropTech” is Messy
PropTech refers to products and services that impact the built world and the people, processes, and ecosystems that interact with it.
Read MoreExpansion as a Service
Today, it can be argued that it is easier to start a software company than ever before, as infrastructure (ie AWS, APIs, micro-services, open source, etc) needed to start a software company is more readily available and cost effective than ever.
Read MoreCRETech Product Adoption Best Practices
Nine Four Ventures’ partnership with the Laramar Group is on the right path to tackle the biggest impediment to growth in CREtech: adoption.
Read MoreNine Four Partners: A Value-Add Platform
We are building a program that will unify, educate and promote growth through the sharing of information we feel is valuable to real estate practitioners
Read MoreUnder Pressure: Are Real Estate Commissions at Risk? What Does the Future of Residential Real Estate Look Like?
The traditional real estate operating model is also undergoing some evolution.
Read MoreNine Four Ventures: A Value Creation Firm
It is our vertically-integrated approach combined with our trusted LP base that enables us to provide creative, flexible investment solutions and always keep the best interests of portfolio company founders at heart.
Read MoreUnderwriting Software: One Size Does Not Fit All
Underwriting software needs to be flexible in order to achieve mass adoption. Prior to joining Nine Four Ventures, I spent 8+ years in multifamily and commercial real estate acquisitions, where I underwrote nearly $10B in transactions.
Read MoreVertical Proof
Our tech forward commercial partner, the Laramar Group, believes that proptech is a fundamental component of its current and future operations.
Read MoreReal Estate-as-a-Sales Channel
Taking advantage of your real estate as a sales channel requires knowledge, understanding, and the right startup pipeline.
Read MoreNine Four Ventures 2019 Outlook
Nine Four Ventures continues to be excited for the future of real estate tech.
Read MoreScooters as a Service
Nine Four Ventures believes scooters and micromobility solutions are going to be meaningful part of our everyday lives
Read MoreArtificial Intelligence: The Human Advantage
The advancement of machine learning is undeniably valuable as we look at technologies being conceptualized within the RE space. Whether it be for residential, multifamily, or commercial, the growth potential it creates is something we at Nine Four feel strongly about.
Read MoreCREtech New York Takeaways
This week I had the opportunity to speak at the CREtech conference in NY, and I think the experience I had at the event is representative of where the PropTech space stands at the moment: lots of momentum, lots of excitement, and a lot of unknowns.
Read MoreModular Homes
Modular home builders benefit from many cost savings and pass along some of those to prospective buyers. Manual labor is traditionally the biggest expense associated with every construction project.
Read MoreThe Incumbent Advantage
As we are in the early innings of real estate technology adoption, we are seeing new tech-enabled platforms enter the space. Many of these platforms are challenging the traditional incumbents in the space, ranging from service providers to hardware to property management systems.
Read MoreTravel Apartments and Multifamily: Less Risk, More Reward
Stay Alfred, a Nine Four Ventures portfolio company, is building something I would categorize as game-changing with respect to multifamily.
Read MoreSmart Locks: Open The Door to Advancement
The Benefits of Controlled Access and Smart Locks
Read MoreResidential Market Exposure: How Can Startups Mitigate the Risk?
Owning a home is the American Dream. It represents a path to financial freedom and is typically the largest single asset an individual owns.
Read MoreHigh Speed Internet: Never Fast Enough
In the “amenities arm race” of the multifamily industry, one often overlooked amenity is providing reliable, fast internet to residents. Internet needs to work immediately when a resident moves in to their new home.
Read MoreMultifamily Marketing: The Missing Links
Marketing professionals in today’s multifamily space can all agree that standing out is a full-time job. Understanding where processes can be more streamlined may potentially answer some fundamental questions when building technology around this category.
Read MoreSpace-as-a-Service: Multifamily Edition
“Space-as-a-service” is a term that generally refers to an asset-light business model that allows a consumer or business to rent space that suits their needs rather than going through a more traditional capital and time-consuming buy, build, and own process.
Read MoreDemocratizing Retail Investor Access to Investment Real Estate
If retail investors do not have the necessary capital on hand to buy rental income properties, how do we solve this problem?
Read MoreWeekly Reads
A collection of articles from around the web curated by the Nine Four Ventures team
Read MoreSmart Locks and Controlled Access – The Keys to Opening New Services
Controlled access and smart locks will ease the friction of implementing new technologies and services in multifamily buildings.
Read MoreThe Scooter Effect
Given the implications that mobility has for real estate, we believe that real estate owners and operators should pay close attention to how mobility networks can impact the demand for properties
Read MoreFor the Vanity of it All: Tech Trends for Multifamily Marketing
When trying to set yourself apart from the competition, first impression is everything.
Read MoreWhat to do with all those Packages?
Five main solutions to this problem, all with their own pro’s and con’s.
Read MoreThe Connected Building and Smart Apartment: Where do Landlords Start?
By now, most multifamily owners have been pitched, or seen, just about every connected device that can go inside and outside apartments and buildings. There’s a long list of hardware and software to choose from, all with varying price points, promises, and integrations. The question…
Read MoreWe Are Nine Four Ventures
With 30 years of industry experience, Nine Four Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in innovative #proptech companies across the globe.
Read MoreSmart Lighting: Is it Worth it?
On the surface, smart lighting seems like a relatively simple and easy way to “smarten” your communities. Just screw in a smart light bulb or add a smart outlet! However, this is a category where there is more than one route to take, all with different pros and cons.
Read MoreCapturing Resident Spend in Multifamily
For a building owner to capture spend I believe they need to own a platform that their residents access those products and services through
Read More9 Suggestions For RE Tech Startups
I’ve sat in on a lot of meetings between industry players and startups targeting the residential real estate space. Something that surprises me is the frequency with which I hear the same pieces of feedback and “things you should understand” from industry professionals.
Read MoreAgent Competition and Efficiency
Predictive analytics is a sliver of a broker or agent’s technology stack, but it’s a very meaningful one. Winning business is the first step to success, followed by delighting a client to the point where they’ll refer you and drive more business.
Read MoreSmart Apartments: The Future of Multifamily
Today, smart home technology may be viewed as a “wow factor” that differentiates one apartment community from another. Tomorrow, smart home technology will be a requirement…
Read MoreWhat Threatens the Real Estate Agent Profession?
t seems like there are a few camps of thinking when it comes to how technology is going to impact the residential real estate agent. One end of the spectrum is the camp believes that real estate agents will always be around and the things agents do aren’t going to change much.
Read MoreWe are Nine Four Ventures
Nine Four Ventures, a vertically integrated venture capital firm that invests in technology companies impacting real estate and its stakeholders across and between each phase of an asset’s lifecycle.
Read More