WEEKLY RADAR #419 & 420: The AI Agent Sprint, Yard Shopping, Proto-Town Field Trip
Last week's residential landscape was dominated by the Compass-CRMLS lawsuit that played into a WSJ article…and once again, I'm sick of it. On the GEM side, last week was highlighted by wonderful dinners in both Austin and Denver. I haven't been to Austin in a few years, and was pleased to see so many friendly faces plus meet a few new ones--a few photos of the Proto-Town field trip are below. Thanks again for Daniel Weddle for helping organize that. We're always interested in more field trips to factories, buildings, 3d printing, or new home builds to see technology in the wild. Have a suggestion? Send it over.
This week's highlighted topic is the AI agent spring going on between GrokBot, Instinct, Muse, and others. We dig into that below.
Without further ado, on to regular scheduled programming...
— Drew Meyers
TRANSMISSION RECAPS
Most recently, Drew Meyers explored farms and hospitality--as we become more disconnected from our past, and the physical world around us, there is a psychic need to “return to the land” that working farms are uniquely positioned to meet. Before that, Joe Dahleen argued that mortgage may be looking at factory-built housing wrong--the opportunity is larger than designing a modular or manufactured-home loan.
GEM EVENTS
We have upcoming events in Seattle, Atlanta, New York, and Dallas, with more being planned.
NEW GEM MEMBERS
ACTIVELY FUNDRAISING
- HelloPackage - $1M Expansion (summary/deck)
- Premarket - $400k Angel Round (summary/deck)
- Sisu Mortgage Ventures - $2M Seed (summary/deck)
MEMBER NEWS
- HouseCanary signed signed Arizona Regional MLS to its Google Listings Program. — Christopher Rediger
- Split Pay raised $125M with participation from MetaProp. — Aaron Block
- Padsplit passed 40,000 units. — Atticus LeBlanc
- Matt Fowler joined Phantom Power. — Bill Fowler
As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ indicate exclusive GEM content. If you would like to have access to all links or attend our curated gatherings, please consider GEM membership.
BIZ INTEL
PROPTECH INDEX WEEKLY - AS OF 10/16/2026
Consisting of 26 stocks, the GEM Proptech Index had a combined market cap of $235.659B, an increase of 1.89% from the previous week.
RESIDENTIAL
YARD SHOPPING
By: Drew Meyers
Given ❇️my interest in shoppable homes❇️, it's probably no surprise I find shoppable yards a compelling proposition. Enter landscape design platform Neighborbrite, which recently announced a partnership with Nature Hills Nursery, "America’s largest online plant nursery, connecting AI landscape design with plants you can buy and have delivered to your door."
Yards were one of the hidden asset classes I mentioned in ❇️the Lime Transmission❇️. Designing a dream yard and having everything delivered is coo. However, I can also imagine the day I see a "Shop this yard" sign on a morning walk with a QR code to purchase anything in sight. And the homeowner receives a cut of any transactions that occur.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
THE AI AGENT SPRINT: BILLIONS, BOTS, AND DARK HORSES
By: Drew Meyers
After raising a $350M Series B at a $2.5B valuation just weeks ago, Instinct raised a $1B Series C at a $10B valuation to continue "building a personal agent for everyday life." With participation by Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, Instinct has the backing of the cream of the crop of investors in the war with Muse and Grokbot.
I've been diving into Muse the last couple of weeks, creating "Iggy" as my personal AI agent. This week, given what a mess my personal inbox has been for years, I finally gave in to some of my privacy concerns and connected Iggy to my Gmail. It took about 90 minutes, but I successfully went from 13,052 unread emails to 4,527.
One of the goals I've given Iggy is reaching inbox zero; will report back once that's achieved. Iggy also helped me assess travel options for an upcoming trip to South Carolina for a friend's retirement from the Air Force (I added a GEM dinner in Atlanta to the agenda), and proactively flagged that I need security clearance to join the ceremony on a military base.
The most interesting piece of the Instinct funding announcement, to me: