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A lack of effective communication between key stakeholders in the PropTech world led Zach to co-found MetaProp: an early stage accelerator, investment and advisory platform. We’ve been lucky to work with MetaProp over the past two years and were delighted to sit down with Zach to get his insights.
I had been investing in the space that we now call “PropTech” since 2010 and had noticed that there was not enough communication going on between the key stakeholders in the space: entrepreneurs, technologists, real estate professionals, and venture capitalists. My partners Aaron Block and Clelia Peters also had similar experiences—bemoaning the lack of information flow between these groups, so we decided to start MetaProp in order to fix it. Our first platform was the accelerator—but since then the company has grown to become a robust investment and advisory platform, with multiple venture capital funds, accelerator programs, and advisory clients.
Typically, in our space, the ideal startup candidate has the following components: a strong founder with startup scaling experience, a great technologist, and someone with significant domain expertise in the real estate business.
We focus on distribution and growth within the real estate sector. We do it really well, and we don’t focus on much else. That means we are constantly training founders on how to pitch their products to real estate professionals, and then we are helping them attain meetings with those professionals so that they can close deals. It sounds simple but that training comes from many years of collective experience on how to sell into the real estate industry, as well as many years of networking to foster the relationships that count.
We are currently invested in over 40 companies across our two venture funds. We plan to fund approximately one company per month for the next year.
MetaProp had a thesis going back to 2015 that title insurance was an old, sleepy industry that was poised to get disrupted by technology. I was evangelical about it and spoke to everyone I knew. I was desperately looking for a company to fund. Finally, my friend Nick Chirls from Notation Capital introduced me to Patrick Burns. I met with Patrick and we started riffing on ideas for what ultimately became Spruce. We clicked instantly. We shopped the concept around to a lot of different people in the venture capital space who deferred to the opinions of incumbent title people and passed on the opportunity. We stayed the course and now I think we are onto something…
There are days when I get a call from a founder who tells me that they just closed a deal with a significant customer that I helped them get. For me, that is an amazing dopamine rush.
I’m currently reading The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West by Malcolm Nance.
I drink vast amounts of Kombucha tea and coffee every single day.
I stopped believing in coincidences awhile ago, but when you really get into this city, it’s amazing how many people you can run into.
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