Weekly Transmission

A collection of 99 posts

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Weekly Transmission

Build the Ecosystem, Not Just the Loan (Transmission #359)

WRITTEN BY: Joe Dahleen Mortgage may be looking at factory-built housing through the wrong lens. This is not simply another loan product. It could become an entirely new homeownership and origination ecosystem. Freddie Mac will now purchase eligible mortgages on manufactured homes that have been moved from another property,

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Grandma's House – But Make It Scalable (Transmission #358)

WRITTEN BY: Jonathan Wasserstrum [Adapted from an Unwritten Capital article.] Senior housing occupancy just hit 89.5%. Five straight years of occupancy increases according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). And the silver tsunami that we read about in the news is only getting bigger.

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Blandfill (Transmission #357 Part I)

Brands are meant to be distinct. Marketing is meant to feel like it came from someone. AI works in the opposite direction, outputting a collected voice of everything into something soulless and familiar.

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The Privacy War Comes Home (Transmission #355)

With AI infiltrating every corner of life, privacy is quickly becoming a new vector of competition. The question isn't whether privacy in the home matters. It's who figures out how to deliver it without breaking the convenience consumers have come to expect.

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Pricing is Never Easy (Transmission #354 Part I)

Pierre Calzadilla explains the pricing models for selling products to residential agents and brokers. Learned from 20 years of being a sales leader.

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Losing Yourself at the Exit (Transmission #353)

For five years, my entire identity and self-worth was tied to my travel startups: Oh Hey World (2012-2013) and Horizon (2014-2017). Entrepreneurship can feel a lot like Cast Away. Everything falls on you, and nothing else matters. I worked day and night. Friends, family gatherings (including funerals)

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Real Estate Skunk Works in the AI Era (Transmission #352)

WRITTEN BY: SETH SIEGLER Back in 2017, I wrote a piece about skunk works departments and why the real estate industry desperately needed them. At the time, I'd already spent more than a decade building startups while watching large real estate companies sit on their hands as smaller

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Buen Camino to the Closing Table (Transmission #351)

For centuries, pilgrims have shouldered their packs to walk the Camino de Santiago, a network of ancient trails leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. They walk for transformation, penance, or the simple human need to find home. In the modern United States, there is a parallel

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The Inspiration Story of GEM (Transmission #350)

I’m frequently asked: Where did the inspiration to create GEM come from? 350 Transmissions in, it’s finally time to answer that question. When Geek Estate Mastermind launched in 2017, I was coming off a bootstrapped travel journey that definitely didn’t end in roses. I was fried. Deep

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Residential Real Estate Feels Stuck (Transmission #348)

I speak to founders across the country, working on all aspects of real estate. I’ll say what we’re all thinking. After twenty years in the trenches, I’m at an all-time low in terms of excitement for the residential real estate industry. Everyone I’ve shared that

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Why the Relationships You Invest in Matter More Than the One You Just Cashed Out Of (Transmission #347)

WRITTEN BY: BEN WRIGHT Seeing the Friend’s Net Worth article stopped me mid-scroll. In the interview where Trevor Noah told Simon Sinek about being asked "what's your dream?" – Noah's answer wasn't about fame or money. It was this: "I

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Autonomy’s Next Frontier Is the Physical World (Transmission #346)

Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, wants to roboticize the physical world. Not optimize it. Not digitize parts of it. Replace human labor across it. After eight years building in stealth, Atoms has emerged with a mission to transform industries through robotics and AI. The vision is immense. Atoms Food: Infrastructure

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Proptech Pressure Test: Oro (Transmission #343, Part II)

I’ve had a long standing belief that employers can unleash innovation in the housing sector: A change is coming and housing assistance/perks offers the largest untapped upside for employers to differentiate in a global war for talent. Since housing is not a core competency of corporations, tech startups

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Proptech Pressure Test: Sekra (Transmission #343, Part I)

Sekra, started by Habitas founder Oliver Ripley and Uber/Cloud Kitchens founder Travis Kalanick, has raised $12.5 million from Fifth Wall, 8VC, Moinian Group, and Harvey Spevak. The pitch is simple—and ambitious: The future of home is Human. Community. Culture. Longevity. Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace describes Sekra

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Empathy Just Got Cheaper. That’s A Problem. (Transmission #342)

WRITTEN BY: JEFF TURNER Empathy just got cheaper. And not a little cheaper, a lot cheaper. Cost-effective even. And that is most certainly a problem. Of course, that’s not how VentureBeat framed it when it reported on Friday that everything in voice AI just changed. The author, Carl

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State of the GEM 2026 (Transmission #341)

WRITTEN BY: JESSE WRIGHT This article was written for GEM members, and has been modified slightly for a broader audience. As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ emoji indicate exclusive GEM content. If you would like to have access to all links, please consider GEM membership. GEM remains a highly intentional

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Certainty as a Service Part II (Transmission #340)

WRITTEN BY: GREG FISCHER The first wave of certainty in residential real estate was easy to spot. It showed up as cash offers, fixed timelines, and simple promises. Sell your home today. Close in two weeks. Remove contingencies. Reduce friction. iBuyers packaged these outcomes into a single product and proved

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Looking Back on 2025: Swings that Generated Contact, and Whiffed (Transmission #339)

I'm not sure how to reflect on 2025, other than to say we've seen this before: lawsuits, discount brokerage plays, rough fundraising waters, M&A, and AI upheaval. David Bluhm's 2025 "more of the same" prediction was spot on. Here’s

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Looking Forward to 2026: AI Madness Reigns Supreme (Transmission #338)

In 2023, fundamentals mattered again. Profits ruled. Bad unit economics didn’t. 2024 was chaotic—capital pulled back while experimentation ran hot. 2025 was the year AI stopped being optional. Now it’s 2026. The machines didn’t just rise—they moved in. This isn’t adoption. It’s saturation.

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GEM Ventures, a Proptech Operative-Investor Collective (Transmission #337)

For years, I’ve been asked by members, ”When are you going to raise a fund?” The question has come up countless times since GEM was born in 2017. Members want to invest in companies within our ecosystem, and founders are always looking for aligned capital. If we could pool

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Smarter Permits, More Homes: How We Use AI in the Field (Transmission #336)

WRITTEN BY: MAOR GREENBERG The U.S. housing shortage isn’t just a market problem; it’s a math problem. Demand for new homes climbs while supply lags, pushing the dream of homeownership out of reach for millions of Americans.  Take California, the nation’s largest housing market. Despite its

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Finding the One Relationship That Changes Everything (Transmission #334)

Every successful journey has a story of an instrumental connection or insight that changed the trajectory. One relationship can—and does—change everything for a founder. Meeting the person who opens the door to a meeting with your first customer. The one who worked with your future CMO a decade

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Proptech Highlight: Foyer (Transmission #332)

It’s no secret—the real challenge to attaining homeownership isn’t the monthly payment. It’s the down payment. Countless would-be buyers could easily cover a mortgage, especially with rates where they have been the past decade. But when you ask if they’ve got $50,000 or

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Attention is the Bottleneck that Breaks AI (Transmission #331)

Every company’s marketing plan is predictable these days, something to the tune of Company X is going to use AI to... * Send more personalized messages. * Email more prospective home buyers. * Text more builders. * Send more LinkedIn mails. * Answer more customer questions. * Send more postcards. You get the point. All

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Hotwiring My Brain: How AI Took Me From No Code to a Native App (Transmission #330 Part II)

WRITTEN BY: JERED DENNIS [Adapted from From Zero Code to Swipe Home: How AI Rewired My Brain] Before May 5, 2025, I knew my computer basics—processors, storage, and screens—but I couldn’t tell you how they talked to each other. Writing code? Architecting a full-blown application? These