Steven Song is the founder and CEO of Diald, an AI-powered decision intelligence platform for commercial real estate. Before founding Diald, Steven worked on both the investing and development sides of real estate, and built his career across architecture and urban planning, training at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a founding principal at SCAAA, a global strategy, planning, and design firm, and is a partner at Axle Companies, a family office focused on real estate investment and social impact ventures. Steven is based in Los Angeles.

(02:26) Why CRE Decisions Are Still Judgment-Driven
(04:41) The Signal That Killed an Atlantic City Deal
(07:44) Contextual Drift: The Risk Nobody Models
(10:20) Diald's approach
(11:59) AI Token Costs and Asking Better Questions
(14:27) Tools vs. Workflows
(15:52) Diald's Underwriting
(17:58) Killing Bad Deals Earlier
(19:18) How AI Upgrades the Analyst Role
(20:44) Where General Purpose AI Fails at Underwriting
(24:23) Does AI Make CRE More Efficient or More Competitive
(26:02) What Underwriting Looks Like in 5 Years
(27:14) Where Human Judgment Still Matters
(29:06) The Local Signals Investors Miss
(31:15) Collaboration Superpower: Denise Scott Brown and Reyner Banham

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Rafael Weiss is the co-founder of Sytes, a marketplace platform that connects commercial real estate landlords, developers, and brokers with tenants actively looking for space in real time. Rafael came to the problem as a developer who lost a deal because tenant demand was invisible until it was too late, and built Sytes to fix the information asymmetry at the core of retail leasing. The platform serves nearly 350 tenants and over 35,000 active site listings across all 50 states, with clients including Kimco, InvenTrust, Church's Chicken, and Dutch Bros. Rafael is based in Boca Raton, Florida.

(01:04) Retail's Demand Visibility Problem
(02:44) Why Sytes
(04:04) A Filtration System for Tenant Demand
(06:24) Getting First Customers to Pay Upfront
(07:24) Why Tenant Demand Data Was Opaque
(08:34) Anonymous Tenant Expansion
(10:14) How a Deal Happens on Sytes
(11:24) Church's Chicken Case Study
(14:54) Kimco & MyEyeDoctor Portfolio Review
(16:34) REITs & Strip Centers
(18:04) The Subscription Model
(19:24) Retail Is Back
(22:44) AI Leasing Agents & the Broker's Future
(24:04) Tenant Demand Index for Developers
(27:24) Bootstrapping vs. Venture Capital Backing
(28:24) Collaboration Superpower: Travis Kalanick

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Sytes
-Rafael Weiss on LinkedIn

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Rowland Hobbs is CEO and co-founder of Stake, a fintech platform that rewards renters with cash back, working to make renting financially rewarding. Before Stake, he led design and innovation at Teneo and served as head of product design for Accenture North America, and he founded Post+Beam, an innovation design firm, and Linea, a computer vision driven photo sharing app. Rowland is based in Dallas, TX.

(04:10) - Why Rent Was Left Out of Loyalty
(06:00) - Loyalty Programs Go Multifamily
(08:30) - Financial Amenities vs. Flashy Perks
(12:20) - Cash back for Delinquency, Retention & Vacancy
(14:40) - Rewarding Renters Instead of Punishing Them
(15:50) - Bilt Rewards
(24:50) - Stake's Cash back Business Model
(27:10) - Cash back by Property Type
(28:50) - UMoveFree Acquisition in Texas
(31:10) - Vertical Integration in Multifamily
(32:20) - Rising Housing Costs & Renter Churn
(36:50) - Renter Loyalty's Next 25 Years
(38:50) - Collaboration Superpower: Barack Obama & Loyalty Program's Inventor

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Stake
-Rowland Hobbs on LinkedIn

🏙️ Virtual Events coming up:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events coming up:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

Clayton Callander is the founder of FTL (Field Technologies), a diagnostic platform built to give commercial buildings something like a check-engine light, closing the service gap for the roughly 95% of properties that enterprise vendors like Honeywell and Siemens can't economically reach. Before founding FTL, Clayton spent seven years maintaining nuclear systems aboard a US Navy submarine, worked at SpaceX, and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. He built FTL for the people fixing America's commercial buildings because he used to be one of them, and the tool he needed didn't exist yet. Clayton is based in San Francisco, CA.

(00:00) - Intro: Why Six Million Commercial Buildings Have No Real-Time Data
(01:10) - Meet Clayton Callander, Founder of Field Technologies
(02:40) - The Telephone Game: What Happens When an HVAC Unit Breaks
(05:50) - Zach's Take: Preventative Maintenance's 20-Year Elusive Goal
(07:10) - It's an Access Problem, Not a Technology Problem
(09:40) - Why Building Controls Stay Complicated and Expensive
(13:10) - What FTL Does
(16:50) - Pricing FTL at a Fraction of Traditional Controls
(20:20) - Why It's Called Facilities Triage
(22:20) - Which Asset Classes Are Ready for FTL
(25:00) - What 60 Site Deployments Taught FTL
(26:30) - Unlocking the Other Six Million Buildings
(29:30) - LoRaWAN Explained: Why Not Wi-Fi
(32:30) - Proprietary vs. Open Systems: A VC's View
(36:00) - Collaboration Superpower: Immanuel Kant (Wikipedia) and Ding Huan (Wikipedia)

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit FTL
-Clayton Callander on LinkedIn

🏙️ NYC Real Estate Week:
-CTO Exchange & Hackathon: 3-in-1 event on Oct. 19 featuring C-suite roundtables, a hackathon and the Power AI & Tech Awards reception (invite-only). Email ecohen@commercialobserver.com for info.

🏙️ CRE Events coming up:

-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-All upcoming events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Justin Segal is President of Boxer Property, where he oversees operations, leasing, technology, and marketing across a national portfolio of office, retail, and hotel assets. He co-founded Brava Systems, an AI-enabled platform originally built for Boxer's own operations and now deployed across the commercial real estate industry, and Relay Human Cloud, a global staffing and team augmentation company. Justin is based in Houston.

(02:50) - Building the Data Foundation for AI
(05:10) - The Data You Have vs. What You're Missing
(06:30) - Why Data Cleanup Isn't a Massive IT Project
(09:00) - Why Most CRE Companies Aren't Data-Ready
(11:10) - The Chief Innovation Officer's Mixed Track Record
(14:10) - Avoiding Agent Sprawl and Vendor Lock-In
(17:20) - Vibe Coding: Great for Interfaces, Dangerous for Logic
(20:20) - Rethinking How We Measure AI ROI
(22:40) - What Boxer Actually Spends on Tokens and Compute
(24:30) - Putting a Number on AI-Driven Deal Flow
(27:30) - Balancing Employee Access to AI Tools With Governance
(29:00) - Treating Tokens and Compute as a Trackable Line Item
(31:50) - Where AI Adoption Creates the Need for More Humans
(34:20) - Freeing People From Being "Professional Rememberers"
(36:30) - Collaboration Superpower: Thomas Davenport (Wikipedia)

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Boxer Property
-Visit Brava
-Justin Segal on LinkedIn

🏙️ NYC Real Estate Week:
-CTO Exchange & Hackathon: 3-in-1 event on Oct. 19 featuring C-suite roundtables, a hackathon and the Power AI & Tech Awards reception (invite-only). Email ecohen@commercialobserver.com for info.

🏙️ CRE Events coming up:

-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-All upcoming events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Dan Mosher is the CEO of DealGround, an AI-native platform helping commercial real estate brokers and investors find deals faster by organizing property data, identifying opportunities, and connecting directly with property owners. A veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, operator, and investor, Dan previously built and led the Merchant team at Postmates through its acquisition by Uber, served as President of Presto, and helped scale BrightRoll tenfold before its acquisition by Yahoo. Live from ICSC+Proptech in Las Vegas.

(01:09) AI Survey with FirstAmerican
(03:07) How DealGround Helps Brokers Find More Deals
(06:08) Why AI Adoption Outpaces Trust
(10:14) MCPs, Integrations & Fitting Into Broker Workflows

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit DealGround
-Dan Mosher on LinkedIn
-Study: First American Data & Analytics & DealGround on AI Adoption in CRE

-ICSC+Proptech

🏙️ NYC Real Estate Week:
-CTO Exchange & Hackathon: 3-in-1 event on Oct. 19 featuring C-suite roundtables, a hackathon and the Power AI & Tech Awards reception (invite-only). Email ecohen@commercialobserver.com for info.

🏙️ CRE Events coming up:

-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-All upcoming events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Noah Walters is the co-founder of Tower, a custom-built AI platform for every stage of the due diligence process. He previously practiced at Dentons Canada, where he focused on tech regulatory compliance, private M&A, and venture financings as a founding member of the firm's FinTech and AI industry teams. Noah is based in Canada. Recorded live at ICSC+Proptech in Las Vegas.

(01:34) Due Diligence Bottleneck
(03:44) Execution Risk & Trust
(04:54) Tower's Approach
(07:31) Beyond Document Review
(09:39) Change Management for AI Adoption
(15:11) Future of AI Deal Rooms
(18:02) Collaboration Superpower: Kendall Jenner & Dario Amodei

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Tower
-Noah Walters on LinkedIn

-ICSC+Proptech

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

🏙️ CRE Events coming up:

-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-Data Centers Development & Infrastructure Forum: in NYC on 10/6
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-All upcoming events

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

Ryan Botwinick is the founder and CEO of Fyxt, an AI operating system for commercial real estate that unifies workflows, data, and automation across enterprise portfolios. Ryan came to the problem from both sides, as a real estate broker and through building his own property management company, before founding Fyxt in 2017 to bridge the operational disconnect between owners, managers, tenants, and service providers. Fyxt has particular depth in net-lease and mixed commercial properties, with clients including Delta, Realty Income, STAG Industrial, Kite Realty, Global Net Lease, and Friedman Real Estate. Ryan is based in Los Angeles. Episode recorded live at ICSC+Proptech in Las Vegas.

(01:20) How Ops Get Complex
(02:56) Today's NOI Pressure
(05:06) Where Ops Break Down
(07:52) What Fyxt Actually Fixes
(09:28) Operating System vs Point Tools
(14:20) AI Impact on CRE Ops
(15:28) Role of the PM of the future
(17:20) AI & Automation Misconceptions
(19:07) Collaboration Superpower: the Government

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Fyxt
-Ryan on LinkedIn

-ICSC+Proptech

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

🏙️ Events coming up:

-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-Data Centers Development & Infrastructure Forum: in NYC on 10/6
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-All upcoming events

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

🏙️ Virtual Events:
-AI & Innovation Forum: Multifamily: on 9/29

-SFR / BTR Forum: on 10/22

🏙️ In-person Events:
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-South Florida Capital & Development Forum: in Miami on 10/15
-Finance Forum: in NYC on 11/3
-All upcoming Commercial Observer events

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn