The first “PropTech Den” event was held at Google Campus recently, offering delegates the chance to listen to some of the hottest and latest ideas in PropTech from around the country. These ideas would be analysed and assessed by the chosen panel of judges who could also offer the possibility of investment too, this certainly helped make things more interesting.
The judging panel combines extensive knowledge and industry expertise with many years experience in the fields of both property and technology. Many of the judges are involved in projects similar to those that are pitching and have experienced the hours of hard work and the behind the scenes process.
The judges:
Christopher Walkey (Founder of Estate Agent Networking)
Chris Walkey, the man responsible for this event and founder of Estate Agent Networking, an online community hub for estate agents, where top industry professionals share news / blog content daily.
Rajeev Nayyar (Founder of Fixflo)
Rajeev, a former property lawyer in New Zealand and England. Due to the pain Rajeev suffered as a tenant with property repair management, he came up with the innovative solution named Fixflo, an online repair reporting system for rented properties.
Alex Evans (Director of Estate Apps)
Alex got started in the property industry over 10 years ago mainly because technology seemed so far behind the rest of the world. Starting off providing residential search apps for Estate Agents but now, offering a range of digital creative services from Website Design to SEO, the business is going from strength-to-strength with a focus on great customer service.
Jerry Lyons (Director Property PR Expert)
Jerry Lyons went from a multi award winning journalist to Managing Director of Property PR Expert. Jerry setup Property PR Expert because he felt there was a strong demand and desire among independent Estate Agents to improve their local image. Property PR is a public relations company that set out to improve agents recognition.
Nat Daniels (CEO of Angels Media, publishers of EAT)
Nat Daniels, the founder of Angels Group in 2001, which consists of Angels Media, ValPal and Estate Agent Today (EAT). Nat saw potential avenues he could pursue in online property publications as well as the opportunity to provide marketing solutions to property and finance issues.
Glyn Trott (Director of LetMC)
Glyn is the Managing director of LetMC, a cloud-based residential lettings platform (now, with full estate agency support too) for over 500 letting and estate agents in UK and Ireland. Glyn was (and still is), a letting agent and realised that he needed software to support him, but how did he go about getting this software? He hired a team of crack developers to help build his own software...from his garage!
Trevor Youens (Qube Global)
Trevor has extensive and varied experience of the sales and lettings industry. His career began as a Mortgage Advisor in 1987 at The Chancellors Group before progressing through operational roles at one of the country’s leading independent estate agencies – Romans.
Mitesh Patel (CEO of Engage PropTech)
Mitesh is passionate about using technology to help deliver the business plans and aspirations of Engage clients. He is adamant that technology has to add value to justify an investment.
The evening’s pitches were:
Veritii by Richard Williams
Veritii is an Interactive 3D Property Sales tool. They help increase off-plan sales and reduce home-buyer friction by allowing the consumer to view, furnish, budget and buy their home off-plan in 3D, in real-time.
Chimni by Nigel Walley
Chimni provides a new way for householders to take control of, and manage, their home's 'digital' life. Incorporated within the passport-type solution, are a suite of tools and services that put the householder at the centre of this domestic data-ecosystem, and lets them control the flow of data in, out and around their home.
D-lighted by Ajay Jagota
D-lighted offers a simple alternative to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) currently operating in the private rented sector. It’s a unique ‘Deposit Replacement’ Insurance product aimed at helping letting agents, landlords and tenants enabling deposit-free renting.
ShowWorx by Anna Downes
A new innovation in video marketing for the property sector. ShowWorx creates solutions that enable Estate Agents to quickly, easily and cost-effectively create high quality video marketing contents from their desk.
Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening at Campus London with some impressive pitches and innovative technology on show. The PropTech scene is gaining significant traction in the industry and it was refreshing to hear about some of the forthcoming ventures. If this PropTech Den event was anything to go by, the next one will be bigger and better as the range of start-ups continue to broaden.
A big thank you goes out to Chris Walkey at Estate Agent Networking for organising such a wonderful and unique event.
