See Thesis Driven Live at Blueprint

Thesis Driven dives deep into emerging themes and real estate operating models. Our usual weekly letter will be published on Thursday; today we’re sharing our upcoming program at the Blueprint real estate conference in September.

If you like Thesis Driven on Substack, you’re going to love it in person.

We’re bringing Thesis Driven’s insights to the Blueprint real estate technology conference in Las Vegas this September, hosting discussions on three of our most popular topics. Thesis Driven subscribers receive a $400 discount on conference passes which can be accessed after the subscriber paywall below.

First, a bit about Blueprint: if you’re working at the intersection of real estate and technology, it’s one show you absolutely must attend. Blueprint is special among real estate conferences in that it brings together a blend of attendees from the technology world (VCs, entrepreneurs) as well as real estate developers, institutional owners, and LPs. I’ve also known Blueprint organizer Jay Weintraub for about 15 years—back when I was an indie game developer (no joke) and he ran LeadsCon—and he consistently puts on great shows.

Thesis Driven will be hosting a series of panel discussions at Blueprint during the opening afternoon (Monday, September 11th) of the conference. Here is a bit about each:

Discussion I: OpCo-PropCo Models

Panelists:

• Jon Slavet, CEO, Sentral
• Allison Sedrish, Managing Director, Barclays & Head of PropTech Coverage
• Ryan Freedman, General Partner, Alpaca VC
• Moderated by Brad Hargreaves

More entrepreneurs and investors are looking to "OpCo-PropCo" models to finance and support innovation in the built world. This panel brings together real estate innovation experts from both sides of the table to explore the OpCo-PropCo structure by discussing typical models, fundraising, examples of the structure in action, and potential pitfalls.

Thesis Driven has written about OpCo-PropCo models a lot, including:

OpCo-PropCo Models and the Firms That Fund Them

At Thesis Driven, we focus on identifying and analyzing emerging themes in real estate. Often, those themes are championed by asset-light operating companies (OpCos) investing dollars to build the technology or channel that makes the real estate thesis work. In some cases, those OpCos choose to participate in the real estate itself, often by creating a real estate investment vehicle (a PropCo). Over the past few years, these OpCo-PropCo strategies have gained popularity, but their backers are much less well-known than traditional VCs. In this letter, I’ll outline the types of investment firms doing OpCo-PropCo deals and some of the quirks of each.

Thesis Driven

Discussion II: Data-Driven Real Estate Investing

Panelists:

• Stacey Moseley, Director of Research, Brandywine Realty Trust
• Bryan Copley, Founder & CEO, CityBldr
• Drew Conway, Managing Director & Head of Data Science, Two Sigma Real Estate
• Moderated by Brad Hargreaves

A new generation of software tools are helping real estate investors deploy capital faster and smarter by using data at scale. In this panel, we'll hear from those closest to these new tools about how they're being deployed to inform real estate investment decisions and what the future of these tools may bring.

Read our prior letter on data-driven real estate investing:

Unlocking Atoms with Bits

Thesis Driven is a newsletter series that dives deep into emerging themes and real estate operating models by featuring a handful of GPs executing on each theme. The deep dives will give an investor enough context to understand the trend as well as opportunities for personal introductions to relevant GPs actively executing on opportunities. This week’s letter is focused on the software companies attempting to make real estate investing more scalable.

Thesis Driven

Discussion III: Institutional Investors’ Take on PropTech

Panelists:

• Lauren Alpeyrie, Director of Innovation, PGIM Real Estate
• Michael Yang, Managing Partner, OMERS Ventures
• Moderated by Brad Hargreaves

In this conversation, institutional real estate investors will share their views on emerging technology and its impact on real estate. Specifically, we’ll dive into how these investors evaluate new platforms as well as specific trends and technologies they’re watching.

Thesis Driven subscribers receive $400 off conference passes using the link below.