Paul Martino (@ahpah) is a successful serial entrepreneur (Tribe, Aggregate Knowledge), angel investor (Zynga, TubeMogul, uDemy) and venture investor. As Founder and Managing Partner of Bullpen Capital, he has invested in FanDuel, Namely, Ipsy, SpotHero, Classy, Airmap, and dozens more. Paul has invested in startups on both the east and west coasts, primarily focusing on startups at the Seed to Series A stage.

Urbantech News

• Is it time to end single family zoning? Eric Jaffe from Sidewalk Labs lays out the arguments for and against this proposal.
• The city of NY is considering paths to regulate the "ghost kitchens" that prepare food for delivery services like GrubHub without operating brick & mortar storefronts.
• Columbus, Ohio is launching 2 self-driving shuttles that will serve marginalized communities in the city. 
• Sidewalk Labs proposed a 35-story mass timber skyscraper as part of the company's Toronto project, which could serve as a model for a cheaper and more climate-friendly building process. 
• Investors are pouring money into build-to-rent homes as interest rates remain low and demand in the rental market remains high.

Exterior rendering of office and residential levels of Proto-Model X, Sidewalk Labs’ prototypical timber building.

Real Estate Tech News

• The founder of Divvy Homes writes about the root causes of home ownership stagnation and how Divvy and other startups are solving this problem by allowing people to build equity in homes over time.
• CoStar is buying RentPath for $588M to expand its commercial real estate business into apartment rentals.
• REBNY is suing the state of New York over its new rule that bans brokers from collecting fees for apartment rentals. This potential ban could affect the business models of some startups and give StreetEasy a monopoly on the rental market.
• Watch L.D. Salmanson, founder of Cherre, talk about disrupting the real estate data industry and Cherre's recent $16 million fundraising round.
• Startups like Bowery Valuation are using AI to appraise properties and speed up transaction times, according to the WSJ.
• TRD surveyed residential brokers to understand the key apps that real estate brokers are using on a daily basis.

Construction Tech News

• ABC's Mike Bellaman talks about trends in adoption of construction tech products and what his company is looking for.
• How StruxHub created a software for streamlining materials delivery to construction sites.
• The ConTech Crew podcast interviewed Stuart Maggs from Scaled Robotics, which just raised a seed round for its robot that provides point maps of construction sites.
• 5G technology will enable new advances in machine connectivity on job sites, eliminating the latency factor that makes it difficult to operate machines with speed and precision. 

Fundraising Events

• HouseCanary, which provides home valuations to institutional clients, raised $65M in funding from Morpheus Ventures and others.
• Landing, which gives members a network of fully furnished apartments for long-term leasing, raised $30M in funding from Greycroft and Maveron.
• Houwzer raised $9.5M for its tech enabled brokerage which charges sellers a flat fee of $5k instead of the traditional 6% fee.
• Kitopi, which helps restaurants set up "ghost kitchens," raised $60M in funding.
• Neighbor.com raised $10M in Series A funding to allow people to rent out storage spaces, allowing users to make up to $15k for renting out extra space in their homes.

Future Proptech | May 14 | London | The biggest event in Europe to focus exclusively on technology within the real estate sector. RSVP

CREtech Austin | April 22-23 | Michael Beckerman and his team at CREtech are bringing together leading VCs, landlords, developers, service providers, and others for their upcoming event in Austin. RSVP

BuiltWorlds Summit | May 6-8 | Chicago | Leaders in construction and built world technology will be discussing modular building, site safety, building a culture of innovation, building a construction tech roadmap, and more. RSVP

AEC Next Conference | June 3-5 | Chicago | AEC Next is a project-centric and solutions-oriented conference with presentations by industry professionals. RSVP

Shadow Summit 2020 | September 22-23 | Atlanta | Shadow Summit brings together the most technologically advanced commercial real estate companies, architects, engineers, and contractors to share their lessons on how to innovate in AEC + CRE. RSVP

DM @charleslacalle to have your event featured in the newsletter

Scale Your Startup. Gain Customers. Raise Capital.

We're looking for real estate tech and construction tech startups with revenue or early traction to join our Spring 2020 Urbantech program, kicking off on March 16. The program is designed for pre-Series A startups that are actively selling to customers, and applicants must have demonstrable traction, pilots, or other evidence of early product-market fit to join. Built for founders who are busy operating their companies, over 50% of the program is remote participation, giving founders the flexibility they need to maintain focus while completing the 14-week, growth-focused program. Learn More