Hello world of PropTech. This is a developer-hippie from a corporation writing. I admire startups and anyone who has the desire and passion to solve complicated problems through own risk. The pace at which you guys are changing the direction, the courage you need to have to found a company and the belief you need to have in your visions is just amazing. I like working with you ’cause you tend to be quite bloody twisted minds. You believe you are one of the unicorns. And you should.
In RecoTech, we will be for instance showcasing partnerships and collaboration initiatives with small and large players including but not limited to CHAOS, Netlet, Agile Work,Realin, SkandalTech and Myschool, Trimble and Renta and Case Kaskelantie. The red line will be to discuss collaboration through cases, its opportunities and typical pitfalls we have encountered along the way.
We are doing our best to enable projects and serve smaller and larger collaborations here at NCC. I see it as one method of pushing the industry forward. In the following, I want to share six remarks I’ve noticed during the journey of trying to enable tests in our projects:
- Match the schedules. Real estate development is a marathon and I am a sprinter by heart. It takes generally two years to construct a new building and the costs need to be estimated beforehand. And the vision of a year-old company in two years might be somewhat difficult to foresee.
- One in a million. Supply has exploded. The amount of proptech investments is exploding globally and there is so much supply one gets confused. It is tricky to understand who does what, what exists and what is only at the vision stage.
- Get to the pilot. The organisational and project schedules need to match in order to get the wheels rolling. Not many are willing to be the first guinea pigs.
- The feedbackloop is a snail. The startups live in a volatile and fast-paced environment and construction projects take a lot of time.
- Lawyers do a great job in preventing us from fighting later… but they also make proceeding slower and more tricky. That might even prevent us from getting to the pilot.
- Competitors should collaborate. Not all the initiatives should be owned by one single player but rather collaboratively pushed forward. Opening data and plans between competitors would most probably push the industry forward as a whole.
I think courageous sharing and collaboration will give us more pace which is the key to push the industry forward. See ya in RecoTech to discuss these issues further!
Eelis Rytkönen, Urban developer-hippie, NCC PD