Buildings Magazine - April 2018

conferences related to real estate technology and I try to keep my name out there so people are aware that Beacon is forward-think-ing,” she notes. “All that said, there is still a lot to absorb.” Lindsay Baker agrees. Baker, who will be joining Shank on the “Adopting New CRE Tech” panel, is president of Oakland, CA-based workplace app provider Comfy. To cut through all that noise, know first what your goals are, she says: “The first step, before you start talking to every technology firm that wants to sell you something, is to decide what you want to accomplish. Figure out the problem and you can figure out the solution.” With goals in mind and recommendations in hand, you can begin the very old-school process of vetting competitors—remembering all the time that these are largely fledgling companies. “A simple question like do they have basic business insurance, and how much,” is key, she says. “It’s basic, but a young tech company may not even know that. So ensure the basics of their business.” “Ask about cybersecurity,” she continues. “Especially in smart-build-ing technology, you need to be sophisticated about your approach

“Build it and they will come” may be a solid philosophy if you’re Kevin Costner creating a movie baseball field. Not so much when it comes to commercial real estate technologies. Implementing tech solutions to address business issues—whatever those issues might be—is a difficult and highly nuanced process going far beyond mere purchase price and folding in such issues as ensuring a product is right for the needed application, vetting its performance and getting the buy-in of all stakeholders.

Sifting through the applicable choices of products and services, “isn’t easy,” says Sara Shank, managing director and head of portfolio management for Beacon Capital Partners in Boston. “There was approximately $2.5 billion of venture capital committed to real estate-related technologies last year, excluding We Work.” (Shank will be a featured speaker when the 2018 BOMA International Conference

& Expo convenes in San Antonio, June 23-26. Her session: “Adopting New CRE Tech: Real Stories from Innovative Executives.”)

That flood of capital accounts in large part for the barrage of new companies and new concepts rolling out to address the industry’s needs. But Shank’s 20-plus years in the market helps her separate the wheat from the chaff. “It’s easier to determine if something will work for us because I’ve been in acquisitions and dispositions and worked with a lot of different groups within Beacon, so I have a pretty good sense of what would be applicable and what might work.”