SliceSpace’s Katan is Revolutionizing Commercial Real Estate Ownership
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mory Katan, A veteran JP Morgan team leader and frequent blockchain lecturer at Rowan University with over 10 years of experience in real estate — Mory is now the CEO of SliceSpace, a company seeking to revolutionize commercial real estate ownership with a platform that pays out rent on a daily basis.
Thank you so much for joining us!
What motivated you to launch your startup?
The idea dates back a few years and combines a passion for Crypto with a love of real estate.
In 2014, my elderly great aunt was forced out of her apartment in Istanbul in an effort to build a new shopping mall in its place. This is a common practice in Turkey and part of Europe, it ideally creates a new building, leaving the neighborhood restored but the residents distraught with no actual way of benefiting long term from that transaction. The story is sadly not unique and not specific only to apartments in urban settings, but also applicable to venues, hotels, restaurants, and other commercial spaces. The people in the neighborhoods with all the new construction rarely financially benefit from the projects around them that often greatly impact their lives.
This was the initial spark that ignited the drive to create a modern solution using blockchain technology. With a platform like SliceSpace, the developer would have been able to sell a portion of the building to the public freeing up cashflow to be used for construction and allowing investors to earn rental payouts from the tenants of the new building. This not only creates a market for commercial real estate, but it also creates a space for local investors taking pride in their community
What is it that excites you about what you’re building?
There are a few things that excite us about SliceSpace. First of all, we are very passionate about the tech industry and finding solutions to real world problems using cutting edge technology. We truly believe in what we’re doing and think we can make a difference. Additionally, I’m excited about the team we’ve assembled and the progress we’ve made so far. We have a great group of people who are all working hard to make the vision a reality. Finally, we are extremely excited about the potential for growth and impact. We have a strong business model and a lot of potential to scale up and make a big impact.
What has been your biggest challenge when growing your startup?
There have been a few challenges we’ve faced when growing our startup. One of the biggest has been finding the right talent to join our team. We’ve been fortunate to find some great people, but it’s been a challenge to scale up our team quickly enough to keep up with the growth of the business. Additionally, we’ve faced some challenges around fundraising and building awareness for our brand. However, we’ve been able to overcome these challenges by staying focused on our mission and working hard.
What are your future plans for your startup?
Our future plans for the startup include continuing to grow our team, expanding our product offerings, and scaling up our operations. We’re also planning to continue raising awareness for our brand and building partnerships with other businesses. Ultimately, we want to continue to grow and have a positive impact on the world.
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a Founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best advice for a startup founder will vary depending on the specific situation and industry. However, some general words of wisdom that can be useful for any startup founder include:
1. Follow your passion: starting a business can be a lot of hard work, so it’s important to be passionate about what you’re doing in order to maintain your motivation.
2. Be prepared to pivot: as your business grows and evolves, be open to making changes to your original plans.
3. Focus on your customers: always keep your customers’ needs and wants in mind, as they should be your top priority.
4. Stay lean and agile: in the early stages of a startup, it’s important to focus on being efficient and flexible.
5. Persevere: there will be challenges and setbacks along the way, but it’s important to keep moving forward and never give up on your dream.
How is SliceSpace enabling access & ownership to anyone looking to invest in commercial real estate?
Making commercial real estate ownership simple, affordable, and accessible to anyone.
For decades, commercial real estate has been limited to institutional and high-net-worth individuals. SliceSpace fractionalizes commercial real estate, enabling several individuals to own a single commercial property. This bridges the gap between traditional commercial real estate and the general public, enabling individuals to receive rent daily.
Core Features
Use Crypto or Fiat: Individuals can now deposit and withdraw in crypto or fiat, as well as a SliceSpace Debit Card — all with instant withdrawals.
Low Buy-In Price: Each equity ownership is divided into 1M Slices, making the cost of entry accessible to anyone.
Buy or Sell 24/7: Instant liquidity — the ability to buy or sell slices off of the platform at any time with none of the traditional limitations.
Class-A Properties: SliceSpace properties include large residential buildings, mixed-use commercial spaces, warehouses, and skyscrapers throughout the US.
Daily Rental Payouts: Rent is collected from the property management company and distributed to a user’s account balance daily.
Why did you pick Algorand over other layer 1s?
SliceSpace utilizes the Algorand Blockchain as a primary database for all transactional and market data. Additionally, through the use of smart contracts, the platform can distribute daily rental payouts to all Slice holders as well as fulfill secondary market trading via an Automated Market Maker (AMM).
Why Algorand? SliceSpace is a proud recipient of a research & development grant from the Algorand Foundation. The partnership with Algorand enables SliceSpace to leverage its existing technology and relationships, combined with the ever-growing Algorand developer ecosystem.
How does tokenizing real estate help society?
Tokenization, as it pertains to real estate, is the process of creating a virtual token that would represent ownership of a type of real estate asset. Non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”), can be used to tie the value of a physical asset to a token.
As tokenization is highly flexible in its usability, the token could represent ownership in real estate in many ways. The overall type of real estate that can be tokenized can vary just like traditional real estate investing; however, tokenization would allow for little third-party input over the investors. As physical assets would back the tokens, the value of the tokens would fluctuate based on the performance of the asset, similar to traditional real estate investing but with the ease of transfer conferred by the utilization of blockchain technology.
How does this all work legally?
Using this technology, along with the recent regulatory changes enabled by the JOBS act of 2018, SliceSpace can raise capital for properties via a RegulationA+ and scale secondary markets within the largest asset class in the world. Global real estate equities far exceed every single asset class combined, approximately 250x larger than the cryptocurrency market cap.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
@SliceSpace on any social media
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
