The IE NextGen programme is an international forum that gives young professionals from the world of real estate and the built-environment, the opportunity to make their voices heard, increase their knowledge of the city of tomorrow, and grow their professional network.
The aim of the forum is to promote debate on key current issues, facilitate interaction with the big players in the real estate world, and encourage multidisciplinary collaboration with other key sectors.
Throughout the events, we will focus on the future of the city, which must be both sustainable and ensure economic and social well-being for all.
At “Expectations Vs Reality,” part of the IE NextGen Programme, Savannah de Savary joined us to provide behind-the-scenes insights on her entrepreneurial experiences at Built-ID. She is the CEO and founding partner of Built-ID, and showcased her business while revealing the reality of navigating a career in tech ventures.
Built-ID is a social impact tech company that focuses on building sustainable places for a better future. They accelerate collaboration and beneficial relationships between decision-makers and communities, by connecting diverse groups of people.
One of Built-ID’s company mottos is resilience vs ego. According to Savannah, “success in business is about grit, determination and tenacity. You must not look down on people on your way up because one day you may become them.”
At Built-ID, Savannah maintains this mindset of respect and equality. While Savannah is a self-proclaimed example of a CEO who works more than their employees, she thinks they value work ethic over going home at 6 pm. At Built-ID, there isn’t a culture of some working hard and others hardly working at all, and they all have a work-life balance. Savannah says that “staff mental health matters” to the team.
Part of this balance means saying “no” is an important skill. Savannah reflected on having to turn down an opportunity from a Saudi Arabian prince who wanted to implement Built-ID in a new city. Savannah maintains that purpose should always come above profit, and if you can’t add value to a project, you should let it go. This, she asserts, can in turn make your company more attractive to other potential clients.
In closing, Savannah passed on her five “holy-grail” rules for success in the world of entrepreneurship:
Lee Butz is the Founder and CEO of District Technologies, an engagement platform for hybrid workplaces. As part of the IE NextGen event series, which puts the spotlight on young professionals in the real-estate and built-environment industry, Lee gave the talk entitled “Powering Any Type of Building: Connecting Amenities, Services and People.” In it, they discussed their journey to building a workplace experience platform that allows teams to “navigate the workplace and stay connected from anywhere.”
District Technologies operates with the future of work in mind, combining the physical and digital aspects of the workplace to provide better employee experiences that drive lasting company loyalty. The key to their success, Lee says, is making user experience a top priority.
Lee’s passion for entrepreneurship and space-building dates back to their master’s thesis, entitled “Understanding the DNA of Strong Entrepreneurial Hubs.” Their research inspired them to build two large tech and coworking spaces, Factory Berlin and Interchange in Camden Market (London).
With this experience of working at the intersection of cities and tech under their belt, it was a natural next step for Lee to start District Technologies. Driven by a desire to shape the future of cities to improve people’s work and life experiences, they had the perfect mindset—and just the right amount of luck—to succeed. Their advice to other entrepreneurs? “Don’t be afraid to fail. Your ability to resolve problems and get past failure is what makes you an entrepreneur, and I definitely think every failure should be turned into feedback.”
Lee believes technologies like District can tackle major challenges such as cities’ wellbeing. In fact, the app is currently being upscaled to support community needs in small towns and villages, an upgrade that could make a real difference in people’s lives.
We wish Lee and District Technologies the best!
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
LandTech may have started small, but they’re a model of success and rapid growth. In just four years, their original four became 100 people. In November 2021, at the IE NextGen program event “Tech in Real Estate: Succeed in the New Era of Property,” they told their story.
LandTech provides software solutions that streamline the development process and facilitate faster closure of deals by providing technical information on possible development locations, outlining each site’s potential. Such proactive searching of opportunities, combined with a deliberately user- friendly interface, has made LandTech the one-stop-shop for site appraisal.
At the event, LandTech Sales Manager Calum Tansley explained that property professionals can make informed decisions based on ownership, planning, environmental, value and price data. This is, he summarized, thanks to the intuitive and comprehensive presentation of what is otherwise complex information.
Calum Tansley’s story of how the idea for LandTech came about demonstrated that, like many startups, it sprung from a real-life experience. Looking for land on which to build his own house, co-founder Andrew Moist realized how complicated finding land is, and came up with an idea for the Wikipedia for land. He clearly hit on a niche with potential for growth, as four years later they’re already selling in the United States and Australia.
Four years later, LandTech hires profiles across various functions. “We look at a candidate’s characteristics, looking for curious, intelligent people with emotional intelligence who understand how the industry works,” Tinsley explained. “If you’re a software engineer, it’s different. We have some real geniuses who have developed an ideal product.”
A lot has changed during LandTech’s short life. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the office model for many companies, making retention of the culture they’ve endeavored to build more difficult, for example. In line with their own innovative business, they’re looking into repurposing their office space into a multi-use environment that will ameliorate some of the expense of being based in London.
But Andrew Tinsley has no doubt he’s in the right place. “You have to figure out what your passion is and go ahead with it. You have to take a risk,” he asserts. In LandTech’s case, that risk has paid off in spades.
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
Francisco Hernández is the CEO and Founder of Menhir, an AI-powered financial technology company. IE University recently welcomed Francisco to give a talk entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Managing Real Estate Portfolios” as part of our IE NextGen event series. The inspiring young professional gave us an inside look into the fast-paced world of financial data, and explained what inspired him to found Menhir.
Menhir uses machine learning to help banks, funds and asset managers understand their loan portfolios, predict cash flows, and design management strategies that increase internal rate of return (IRR). When Menhir started out, its service was to determine how good or bad defaulted loans were. Now, it has a brand-new business model called “neo servicing,” which involves assigning each loan to the best asset manager using a machine-learning algorithm. In Francisco’s words, Menhir is “the Tinder of asset management.”
Far from a traditional finance guru, Francisco’s background is in aerospace engineering. But as he told us, he’s been passionate about entrepreneurship and problem-solving since he was a teenager, getting his feet wet with startup ideas like a fast-food coupon app or delivering amenities to Airbnbs. Like many entrepreneurs, he had to get it wrong before he got it right.
The idea for Menhir came when Francisco had a realization: equities markets were being managed by algorithms, while real-estate distressed debts were simply being managed by people’s intuition. There was a big opportunity there: real-estate portfolios needed a digital facelift.
So how does it work? “We show our algorithm about 80 million loans, and it identifies the features that make a loan work,” Francisco explains. “We also feed the algorithm variables, such as the age of the borrower, the type of collateral, etc., and then the algorithm predicts the probability of recovery for this loan.”
Of course, Francisco didn’t create his product overnight. The biggest lesson he learned is to make mistakes. First, create a pilot of your product—without any funding. Build it out, think and rethink, raise capital, validate and then do it all over again. Oh, and: “Don’t talk to venture capitalists. Talk to clients.”
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
Matthew Glenny is the Head of London Sales at CoStar, the number-one real estate data firm in the world. We recently had the pleasure of welcoming him to give a talk entitled “The Power of Knowing: Data & Analytics”, where he discussed his real estate career journey—from working for real estate giant JLL, to joining the team at property search engine Realla, to leading sales at CoStar.
As he explained in the talk, CoStar “equips clients with the information and tools they need to succeed in every aspect of their business.” This involves empowering sector professionals by giving them smart, condensed data in order to make better decisions.
But Matthew didn’t always take this approach to real estate. He got his start in the industry working at JLL in the commercial management department. While he saw his customers switching to digital software overnight, it was difficult to implement change with significant corporate red tape in place. At a critical juncture of industry disruption, he knew it was time to make the leap and join a smaller, digital-first team.
That’s when he started at Realla—a risk, to be sure, as he was one of the only employees at the startup. However, looking back, he feels certain it was the right decision. Empowered by possibility, Matthew was able to develop the business his way, transforming a small enterprise into the market leader in commercial property search online.
Now working at CoStar, he has been a firsthand witness to changes in the real estate industry over the past ten years. “It went from spreadsheets to high tech,” he explained. “Customer experience has become a driver to the service.” And while he feels confident that the sector will continue to change over the next ten years, he’s ready to ensure that CoStar adapts accordingly.
As for his own ability to adapt, Matthew has proven that he’s willing to get out of his comfort zone. For up-and-coming professionals, he emphasized a spirit of curiosity and adventure: “I think dramatic changes are good for your career, especially at a younger age when you’re more flexible to take risks.”
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
Tom Redmayne, North America Managing Director at WiredScore, sat down with IE School of Architecture & Design at the NextGen event “Connecting People, Buildings & Cities.” Tom told us about his professional experience and the next steps for himself and the real estate industry.
WiredScore is championing cutting-edge technology in real estate. They provide the only certifications for rating the infrastructure and technological capacity of commercial and residential buildings, ensuring buildings can meet today’s expectations and tomorrow’s demands.
Tom Redmayne initially worked at Cushman Wakefield, an established company, but left to join a small startup. Even though he believed the future was heading towards connectivity and technology, it was a risk. He now realizes he wasn’t aware of all of his career options, but would tell his younger self to dare to challenge the status quo and take risks.
While at Cushman Wakefield, he had a mentor who really changed the course of his career. His mentor believed in him and advised him on different issues during his time at the company. For Tom, “the key to working with a senior manager or mentor is to add value and solve problems.”
Tom thinks the most interesting part of working for a small business is watching it grow while being part of the project’s journey. The least enjoyable aspect would be having to comply with regulations, though it’s a necessary skill to take into any business.
Tom’s future career plans aren’t set in stone; he’s keeping an open mind of what’s on the horizon for him, “I think the jobs of the future do not exist yet.” Currently enjoying the current stage of his career at WiredScore, Tom is launching a SmartScore accreditation, which will measure technological advances within a project.
Regarding the future, Tom sees offices and tenant-landlord relationships changing. Landlords will have to prioritize an experience and provide a workplace that people want to attend. For Tom, “the future of the office space is driven by the customer experience and the world of real estate must adapt to this upcoming reality.”
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
As part of the IE NextGen programme devised as a forum for young real estate professionals to make their voices heard, IE School of Architecture & Design were joined by Shain Shapiro, CEO & Founder of Sound Diplomacy. He told us more about growing music and nighttime economies.
Sound Diplomacy is the leading global advisor on growing music and nighttime economies in cities. It has defined a new way of thinking about the value of music, and influenced over 100 cities to invest in music and culture. Shain has also co-founded the Music Cities Convention, the world’s largest event uniting the music industry with city planners, policy makers, developers and executives, as well as the Music Cities Community and Music Cities Awards.
Sound Diplomacy is based on the fact that “music is chronically undervalued in economies” and economic development and policy tend not to recognize music, meaning the nighttime economy is not regulated. However, many cities are correctly managing their nighttime economies, including Melbourne, Amsterdam and Berlin. Shain has also advised the Mayor of London on utilizing the nighttime economy.
In terms of Spain’s nighttime economy, Shain thinks it’s more focused on tourism. But there is a need for policy: “We need to think about facts, not emotions,” he asserted. And that’s where Sound Diplomacy comes in. They act as strategic advisors, with solutions based on daily data gathering and impact assessments to figure out how to improve cities on a case-by-case basis.
When analyzing a city, Shain often finds that “musicians are struggling. It’s too noisy, there are too many people in one place and issues surrounding race, class or income. Cities need a sense of place.” Shain has worked to change national planning laws and development plans to engage with these issues facing our cities.
Every city is governed by policies that we can’t see. Nighttime economies have this structure too, and Shain is working to improve these policies. “Cities that measure, analyze and produce policy around music will bring affordability, diversity, health and well-being to cities.”
Shain believes that Sound Diplomacy challenges the status quo, concluding: “No one does what we do!”
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
Jack Sallabank, founder of Future Places Studio, joined us at the IE NextGen program for a discussion entitled: “Understanding a Place’s Past, Present and Potential.” Jack talked about his entrepreneurial journey and his company’s innovative and holistic approach to real estate project design.
Future Places Studio is a London-based research and strategy studio that works with the built environment sector. They help companies embark on new projects from a strategic research perspective, examining macro and micro elements and using that insight to create better places.
Jack Sallabank’s first contact with real estate was unplanned. When the public company he was working for became a private commercial business, he realized they would need a new building. Jack was in charge of overseeing the design and construction of a 60,000-square-foot innovation hub. Far from creating a typical office building, he and his colleagues collaborated with architects, project managers, letting agents and developers to create an innovative model, an incubator that would allow companies to come together in a different way.
Jack had identified a need. He realized that the model they designed was based on the way offices should function: fluidly and organically. Jack began to explore how real estate can contribute to societal problems by being more innovative, dynamic and inclusive. This inspired him to create his own research and strategy studio.
He now runs Future Places Studio, a company that designs projects focused on communities, well-being and purpose. Their research-driven work helps companies and organizations incorporate both macro factors (e.g. what their work will look like in five years) and micro factors (e.g. what that will look like in a specific part of Madrid) to set a vision for a place.
Clients of Future Places Studio range from startups that advocate for child literacy to educational campuses, the London Cancer Hub, and government-based organizations that tackle societal problems. Jack’s goal has always been to create a business that is relevant to society as a whole, not just to the property industry.
LandTech may have started small, but they’re a model of success and rapid growth. In just four years, their original four became 100 people. In November 2021, at the IE NextGen program event “Tech in Real Estate: Succeed in the New Era of Property,” they told their story.
LandTech provides software solutions that streamline the development process and facilitate faster closure of deals by providing technical information on possible development locations, outlining each site’s potential. Such proactive searching of opportunities, combined with a deliberately user- friendly interface, has made LandTech the one-stop-shop for site appraisal.
At the event, LandTech Sales Manager Calum Tansley explained that property professionals can make informed decisions based on ownership, planning, environmental, value and price data. This is, he summarized, thanks to the intuitive and comprehensive presentation of what is otherwise complex information.
Calum Tansley’s story of how the idea for LandTech came about demonstrated that, like many startups, it sprung from a real-life experience. Looking for land on which to build his own house, co-founder Andrew Moist realized how complicated finding land is, and came up with an idea for the Wikipedia for land. He clearly hit on a niche with potential for growth, as four years later they’re already selling in the United States and Australia.
Four years later, LandTech hires profiles across various functions. “We look at a candidate’s characteristics, looking for curious, intelligent people with emotional intelligence who understand how the industry works,” Tinsley explained. “If you’re a software engineer, it’s different. We have some real geniuses who have developed an ideal product.”
A lot has changed during LandTech’s short life. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the office model for many companies, making retention of the culture they’ve endeavored to build more difficult, for example. In line with their own innovative business, they’re looking into repurposing their office space into a multi-use environment that will ameliorate some of the expense of being based in London.
But Andrew Tinsley has no doubt he’s in the right place. “You have to figure out what your passion is and go ahead with it. You have to take a risk,” he asserts. In LandTech’s case, that risk has paid off in spades.
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
At “Expectations Vs Reality,” part of the IE NextGen Programme, Savannah de Savary joined us to provide behind-the-scenes insights on her entrepreneurial experiences at Built-ID. She is the CEO and founding partner of Built-ID, and showcased her business while revealing the reality of navigating a career in tech ventures.
Built-ID is a social impact tech company that focuses on building sustainable places for a better future. They accelerate collaboration and beneficial relationships between decision-makers and communities, by connecting diverse groups of people.
One of Built-ID’s company mottos is resilience vs ego. According to Savannah, “success in business is about grit, determination and tenacity. You must not look down on people on your way up because one day you may become them.”
At Built-ID, Savannah maintains this mindset of respect and equality. While Savannah is a self-proclaimed example of a CEO who works more than their employees, she thinks they value work ethic over going home at 6 pm. At Built-ID, there isn’t a culture of some working hard and others hardly working at all, and they all have a work-life balance. Savannah says that “staff mental health matters” to the team.
Part of this balance means saying “no” is an important skill. Savannah reflected on having to turn down an opportunity from a Saudi Arabian prince who wanted to implement Built-ID in a new city. Savannah maintains that purpose should always come above profit, and if you can’t add value to a project, you should let it go. This, she asserts, can in turn make your company more attractive to other potential clients.
In closing, Savannah passed on her five “holy-grail” rules for success in the world of entrepreneurship:
Matthew Glenny is the Head of London Sales at CoStar, the number-one real estate data firm in the world. We recently had the pleasure of welcoming him to give a talk entitled “The Power of Knowing: Data & Analytics”, where he discussed his real estate career journey—from working for real estate giant JLL, to joining the team at property search engine Realla, to leading sales at CoStar.
As he explained in the talk, CoStar “equips clients with the information and tools they need to succeed in every aspect of their business.” This involves empowering sector professionals by giving them smart, condensed data in order to make better decisions.
But Matthew didn’t always take this approach to real estate. He got his start in the industry working at JLL in the commercial management department. While he saw his customers switching to digital software overnight, it was difficult to implement change with significant corporate red tape in place. At a critical juncture of industry disruption, he knew it was time to make the leap and join a smaller, digital-first team.
That’s when he started at Realla—a risk, to be sure, as he was one of the only employees at the startup. However, looking back, he feels certain it was the right decision. Empowered by possibility, Matthew was able to develop the business his way, transforming a small enterprise into the market leader in commercial property search online.
Now working at CoStar, he has been a firsthand witness to changes in the real estate industry over the past ten years. “It went from spreadsheets to high tech,” he explained. “Customer experience has become a driver to the service.” And while he feels confident that the sector will continue to change over the next ten years, he’s ready to ensure that CoStar adapts accordingly.
As for his own ability to adapt, Matthew has proven that he’s willing to get out of his comfort zone. For up-and-coming professionals, he emphasized a spirit of curiosity and adventure: “I think dramatic changes are good for your career, especially at a younger age when you’re more flexible to take risks.”
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
At “Expectations Vs Reality,” part of the IE NextGen Programme, Savannah de Savary joined us to provide behind-the-scenes insights on her entrepreneurial experiences at Built-ID. She is the CEO and founding partner of Built-ID, and showcased her business while revealing the reality of navigating a career in tech ventures.
Built-ID is a social impact tech company that focuses on building sustainable places for a better future. They accelerate collaboration and beneficial relationships between decision-makers and communities, by connecting diverse groups of people.
One of Built-ID’s company mottos is resilience vs ego. According to Savannah, “success in business is about grit, determination and tenacity. You must not look down on people on your way up because one day you may become them.”
At Built-ID, Savannah maintains this mindset of respect and equality. While Savannah is a self-proclaimed example of a CEO who works more than their employees, she thinks they value work ethic over going home at 6 pm. At Built-ID, there isn’t a culture of some working hard and others hardly working at all, and they all have a work-life balance. Savannah says that “staff mental health matters” to the team.
Part of this balance means saying “no” is an important skill. Savannah reflected on having to turn down an opportunity from a Saudi Arabian prince who wanted to implement Built-ID in a new city. Savannah maintains that purpose should always come above profit, and if you can’t add value to a project, you should let it go. This, she asserts, can in turn make your company more attractive to other potential clients.
In closing, Savannah passed on her five “holy-grail” rules for success in the world of entrepreneurship:
Lee Butz is the Founder and CEO of District Technologies, an engagement platform for hybrid workplaces. As part of the IE NextGen event series, which puts the spotlight on young professionals in the real-estate and built-environment industry, Lee gave the talk entitled “Powering Any Type of Building: Connecting Amenities, Services and People.” In it, they discussed their journey to building a workplace experience platform that allows teams to “navigate the workplace and stay connected from anywhere.”
District Technologies operates with the future of work in mind, combining the physical and digital aspects of the workplace to provide better employee experiences that drive lasting company loyalty. The key to their success, Lee says, is making user experience a top priority.
Lee’s passion for entrepreneurship and space-building dates back to their master’s thesis, entitled “Understanding the DNA of Strong Entrepreneurial Hubs.” Their research inspired them to build two large tech and coworking spaces, Factory Berlin and Interchange in Camden Market (London).
With this experience of working at the intersection of cities and tech under their belt, it was a natural next step for Lee to start District Technologies. Driven by a desire to shape the future of cities to improve people’s work and life experiences, they had the perfect mindset—and just the right amount of luck—to succeed. Their advice to other entrepreneurs? “Don’t be afraid to fail. Your ability to resolve problems and get past failure is what makes you an entrepreneur, and I definitely think every failure should be turned into feedback.”
Lee believes technologies like District can tackle major challenges such as cities’ wellbeing. In fact, the app is currently being upscaled to support community needs in small towns and villages, an upgrade that could make a real difference in people’s lives.
We wish Lee and District Technologies the best!
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
As part of the IE NextGen programme devised as a forum for young real estate professionals to make their voices heard, IE School of Architecture & Design were joined by Shain Shapiro, CEO & Founder of Sound Diplomacy. He told us more about growing music and nighttime economies.
Sound Diplomacy is the leading global advisor on growing music and nighttime economies in cities. It has defined a new way of thinking about the value of music, and influenced over 100 cities to invest in music and culture. Shain has also co-founded the Music Cities Convention, the world’s largest event uniting the music industry with city planners, policy makers, developers and executives, as well as the Music Cities Community and Music Cities Awards.
Sound Diplomacy is based on the fact that “music is chronically undervalued in economies” and economic development and policy tend not to recognize music, meaning the nighttime economy is not regulated. However, many cities are correctly managing their nighttime economies, including Melbourne, Amsterdam and Berlin. Shain has also advised the Mayor of London on utilizing the nighttime economy.
In terms of Spain’s nighttime economy, Shain thinks it’s more focused on tourism. But there is a need for policy: “We need to think about facts, not emotions,” he asserted. And that’s where Sound Diplomacy comes in. They act as strategic advisors, with solutions based on daily data gathering and impact assessments to figure out how to improve cities on a case-by-case basis.
When analyzing a city, Shain often finds that “musicians are struggling. It’s too noisy, there are too many people in one place and issues surrounding race, class or income. Cities need a sense of place.” Shain has worked to change national planning laws and development plans to engage with these issues facing our cities.
Every city is governed by policies that we can’t see. Nighttime economies have this structure too, and Shain is working to improve these policies. “Cities that measure, analyze and produce policy around music will bring affordability, diversity, health and well-being to cities.”
Shain believes that Sound Diplomacy challenges the status quo, concluding: “No one does what we do!”
This event was part of a broader series of talks with young real-estate and built-environment professionals, the IE NextGen program. To learn more about the initiative, visit the official webpage.
IE School of Architecture and Design Next Gen Programme promotes the exchange of ideas across borders, aiming to build bridges and promote excellence between young talent from different countries with an aim of inspiring the next generation of young professionals
