Weekly Radar #386: Finding Quietude on the Camino, AI Voice Advances, Brands & AI Slop, CoStar Revolt, Proptech Index down 8% WoW
In this Weekly Radar, we cover:
- Why GEM Walks the Camino is the perfect way to slow down and find a state of calm to ensure the priorities guiding your life and business, are the right ones. I call it finding your quietude.
- An investor revolt at CoStar is upon us.
- "AI slop" is now a ubiquitous term we're not going to escape and this is going to impact brands.
- The GEM Proptech Index decreased 8% from the previous week.
Geek Estate’s Proptech Getaway, an intimate (founders and C-suite) retreat for the brightest minds in proptech, is back for the 3rd year running…taking place in beautiful Central Oregon at Juniper Preserve April 28-30th, 2026. An exclusive gathering for GEM members. Are you coming?
New GEM Members
Latest from Geek Estate Blog:
Frank Rohde
Nathan Miller
Merrick Lackner
As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ emoji indicate exclusive GEM content. If you would like to have access to all links or attend our curated gatherings, please consider GEM membership.
Transmission Recap:
This week, Jeff Turner wrote an important essay about AI voice, perhaps the most important topic of the whole year. If you're not thinking deeply about the implications of AI voice technology advances, you're building in the past. Dig in. Before that, Jesse Wright dropped the State of the GEM 2026, our annual look at membership composition, resolutions for the coming year, and a look back on how we did over the past twelve months.
BIZ INTEL
PROPTECH INDEX WEEKLY - AS OF 1/30/2026
By: Community Relations
Consisting of 25 stocks, the GEM Proptech Index had a combined market cap of $264.498B, a decrease of 8% from the previous week.
The index posted its largest week-over-week percentage decline since inception, driven primarily by the Fed’s decision to hold interest rates steady. The previous record loss occurred on 10/10/2025, when the index fell 5.80%.
GEM MEMBER NEWS
- ATTOM Data launched a MCP Server to deliver property data directly into AI applications. — Edward Kim and Pete Yunker
- Tether RE updated its expense tracker, using AI to auto populate information from receipts. — Scott Martin
- alate announced myVentures, a new investment fund and innovation hub created to accelerate the development and adoption of best-in-class residential real estate technology across Canada. — Courtney Cooper
STARTUPS
CHANNELING QUIETUDE ON THE CAMINO
By: Drew Meyers
Building companies is hard. Heck, life is hard. Even if you're not leading a company.
We've all done it. You get caught up in the day to day, checking one thing after the next off your endless task list. Selling your next customer on your value proposition. The third reply to an industry advocate you need at your next event. Reporting a bug for your engineers. Signing a venue contract for your upcoming event. Going over monthly burn figures. Pitching the 162th investor to participate in your Seed round.
You and I both know, the end of that list is a myth. So, you grind. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month.
That's sustainable, for a while. But, you'll inevitably reach a breaking point. You'll get tired. Start making careless mistakes. Snap at your CTO. Forget your nieces' birthday. Realize two days before a conference you never booked the flight. Lose track of what is actually moving the needle after spending weeks working on the wrong things. Not talk to your parents for multiple weeks.
Or, even worse, you burn out. And if that happens, the chances of success for your company go down the toilet.
There's no magical potion to avoid reaching the breaking point. You need to slow down and find a state of calm to ensure the priorities guiding your life and business, are the right ones.
Some call it solitude. I'll call it something slightly different…
Quietude: a state of stillness, calmness, and quiet in a person or place.
Enter ❇️GEM Walks the Camino (Part II)❇️, which ❇️gave me exactly that needed quietude a year ago❇️. So much so that we're doing it again this year, taking place May 9th-16th, seven days and 100 kilometers of incredible scenery, deep conversations, amazing dinners, a supported journey, pre-booked accommodations, and life-altering memories. You'll be in the midst of "pilgrims" from all walks of life, each there for their own set of personal reasons. It should tell you something that the majority of those who trekked last year are undertaking it again in 2026.
I have no doubt this trip will be the most impactful trip of the year for me. Flights are booked, May 5th through the 18th, when I'll immediately emerge back in the thick of the grind at the Housing Innovation Summit. But, for those seven days, I'm thrilled that I won't be hammering away on the keyboard. Won't be taking meetings. Won’t be checking Inman or X. Won't be writing articles. Won't be in the weeds of pitch decks. Won't be worried about filling the next dinner table. Won't be worried about any of that, but instead focused on exploring my own thoughts, in the company of other amazing humans choosing to prioritize their own self-exploration.
If you're ready for a dose of quietude in 2026, I strongly encourage you to join us on the ❇️GEM Walks the Camino trek in May❇️. We have two or three spots left. If this all sounds amazing but you're on the fence, I HIGHLY HIGHLY encourage you to watch The Way.
When I've completely disconnected from digital life are the times in life I've felt the most free. Even of the Camino trek doesn't fit your schedule, don't forget to look up and experience the moment that you are in from time to time. You'll find it ushers in a renewed energy when you get back to the grind, focused on what truly matters. At least, it has for me.
Want to learn more? Shoot us an email at community at geekestate dot com or check the event calendar via GEM Primer for further details.
PS: International excursions are not going anywhere in GEM's programming. But it's unsure whether a third GEM Walks the Camino trek will take place. I'm thinking a different quietude journey will be in order for me in 2027.
AI
AI SLOP WILL IMPACT BRANDS
By: Nate Smoyer, Lula
"AI slop" is now a ubiquitous term we're not going to escape and this is going to impact brands.
Yesterday, a user on Facebook took to the comments to insult the design for one of our local trail races by calling it AI slop. A second person, an author, professor, and well-known podcaster, used AI slop in a discussion on branding during a live online conference.
In both instances, they described AI slop as a way to put down creatives—regardless if they know the origins or not. One was a young person, not in marketing or design at all. The other is a credential professional put on big stages for his ideas.
Why does this matter? It points to a larger topic at whole: the death of expertise (there's an entire book titled "The Death of Expertise" I highly recommend if you like boring reads—and I mean boring). Now that AI is so easily obtainable, ANYONE is an expert. And this mean everything will be more scrutinized.
Design was far out of reach for most for a very long time. Now anyone can create anything (beautiful and sloppy) in minutes. The crowd has now shifted from spectator to creator—and of course, expert.
All of your visuals will be judged. Video and static. For better or for worse, that's the reality we live in. And it won't be limited to visuals. Copy is in the same boat. And the frequent use of anything perceived as AI slop—rightfully or not, will create the association with your product, thus branding your company and product as AI slop.
Marketing is fun. 🙃
REAL ESTATE
THE REVOLT OF REVOLTS AT COSTAR
By: Drew Meyers
CoStar Group investor Daniel S. Loeb at Third Point jammed a screwdriver into the chain of Andy Florence's Homes.com bicycle (or, hurled stones as the AI image depicts), with a hostile letter to the CoStar Board outlining "an opportunity to unlock substantial shareholder value by improving governance, divesting or shutting down the [Residential Real Estate] businesses, and refocusing on the enormous earnings potential of the core business."
If CoStar decides to heed Loeb's advice by tuck tailing and running from residential, it will be beyond fascinating to see who acquires the assets/traffic. The industry will be talking for months about the prospect of a Rocket or Zillow takeover. We all know, CoStar included, throwing marketing dollars at an undifferentiated portal will bear no fruits. The only way exiting residential real estate doesn't make sense is if CoStar has a stash of brilliant product innovators lurking who have the unique insight to launch a completely different approach to capture the consumer. The approach would somehow touch curated search, if it were me with a gun to my head. Yet, if CoStar hasn't undertaken said strategy already, they aren't likely to pull it off now under heavy scrutiny. Just a hunch.