Time for a quick intro to who I am, what I do and why I am here.
My name is Doug, and in essence, I work in public relations at CEW Communications – an agency that sits right in the middle of some of the most exciting companies around. We specialise in helping early-stage startups grow through press coverage, social media support, network building, website copy, owned content on blogs and so on. There is more to it than that, but that would be a piece in itself. It does, however, explain a little as to why I am here writing this – and why doing so is a struggle. I spend my time blowing the trumpet of others, people doing good, people creating amazing things and people striving to give people the best of the world around them – not writing about me… so this is somewhat new to me.
Over the last five or so years, I have had the pleasure to work alongside some of the most interesting PropTech startups around and learn about the property industry – both commercial and residential.
My first Property client was working through launch and later messaging with the team at Rentr – Adam, Mark and Vik – three property stalwarts who’s company created PropCo – the platform that agencies have used for many years. With Rentr, they created a mobile-first platform that allowed private landlords to run things on the go, not trying to take away from the agencies, but offering technology to those that chose not to go full service. Through helping push ideas like “The History Of PropTech” – an article written for RICS Online originally – I gained a great understanding of the traditional and the new. I also started to gain an understanding of how for the most part, the technology we are seeing arrive in the space is here to help make your lives easier, not replace you. There will be a time when all of our roles are taken over by the machines. But not for a while; for now, we can sleep easy.
Since then I have worked with people across the board in PropTech – from true property applications to a series of clients that are very much property technology like Smart-Home solutions and gadget providers. These are clients that provide solutions for everyday commercial users and managing agents, firms and landlords alike. I am not going to use this space to simply push my clients, and will always be open and honest when I am talking about them. But, for reference, here are the property related companies we work with at the time of writing;
Den is a London-based startup building the next generation of light switches and plug sockets. With Den, you can continue to flick switches on and off manually, just like you would an ordinary switch, but it also allows you to wirelessly control your switches, via a remote or smartphone app.
The video on the site is awesome, well worth having a look – seeing a normal switch flick back and forth is strangely mesmerising.
GuestReady is a globally leading short-term rental management company, which provides professional services to property investors, homeowners and Airbnb hosts in the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.
Klevio builds smart technology that will change the way people control access to offices, homes, and apartment buildings. Klevio enables users to open doors via an app on their mobile phone, meaning they can let people in when they’re not at home as well as distribute digital keys to let others let themselves in via the app on their own phone making it ideal for managers of multiple properties – getting rid of so many issues of key management for example.
Over the coming months, in this here space (kindly provided by Rebecca – thanks to a convenient meeting at ARMA this year) – I have been given a platform to pen my thoughts on PropTech, some of the companies I have seen from the tech circles I work in and why they might be of interest to you, and potentially ask as many questions of you as you do of me. I am not the big old expert, I am the Industrial Designer come PR chap that is fascinated by this property world that has led us all to be here – reading Flat Living Magazine. This time though, I am writing and not reading. Do feel free to connect on Twitter or LinkedIn and chat there too.
Other interests include Football (Spurs fan, sorry) – tech (strangely enough), music, tv and film, cycling and trying not to be the hipster I most certainly seem to have become.
