Start-ups and investors have more in common than they think.
Day 2 at the 2023 Housing Innovation Summit was a bit different than the other days. Attendees were given the opportunity to take the Innovation in Action Tours or get inspired by start-up presentations at Pitchfest.
At the closing of the day, however, everyone gathered to listen to our “Investing in Innovation” Keynote, KP Reddy, Founder and CEO of Shadow Ventures, a seed-stage technology investment firm. The presentation and announcement of Pitchfest winners was also broadcasted live on LinkedIn.
KP provided a unique perspective—he’s both an investor and a serial entrepreneur and has both sought and provided funding. KP started his keynote with a baseline of challenges in the market (everything from infrastructure needs, housing and labor shortages to thinning margins).
And how can we combat these challenges?
Innovation.
The built environment is at the cusp of a technological revolution, where exponential growth is anticipated along the technology S-curve. And innovation will create abundance where there was once scarcity.
KP went beyond just exploring how innovation will help drive our industry and provided some key advice for both start-up + investors looking for partners in innovation. Most notably, ask the good (hard) questions, like:
- Is your potential partner able to adopt? Who is in charge of the roll out and what is their process?
- Ask them about the last three startups of your size that they’ve done business with.
- Inquire about the framework they used internally to roll out said technology. How did it go? And what did they learn from it?
And to go even deeper, KP illustrated how to find the perfect fit with a report card and assessment that can provide a comprehensive evaluation of a company’s strengths and weaknesses and provide a roadmap for improvement:
KP’s keynote was fresh, invigorating, inspirational and the perfect segue into the Pitchfest awards announcement.
Congratulations to the winners in ESG, Tech + Data and Design + Build:
- FwdSlash - connecting services + shelter for the housing insecure
- On3 – knowledge transfer + AI-based e-learning
- Soil Connect - marketplace for soil sourcing, tracking + compliance
And to the People’s Choice Award recipient:
- Urban Machine - robotics for wood reclamation + reuse
Our panelists of judges screened each idea in terms of its uniqueness, its potential to impact the industry, scalability + feasibility, and their impressions of the team behind it. Congratulations to everyone who participated, sent in an idea, and presented.
What’s Next
Learn more about becoming a member at the Housing Innovation Alliance and about our next Housing Innovation Summit, coming to Denver, April 2024. Visit our event’s page to stay engaged and reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you.