Buying a home nowadays looks very different from how previous generations used to buy their houses. Most people probably start their search online and get pre-approved online. They might even view the home and close online. The Covid-19 pandemic has aided the real estate industry’s adoption of technology. Here are six ways technology has impacted real estate and how it might help shape it in the future. 1. Data Figuring out how much a home is worth can be hard. …

Invigorated by Airbnb’s success, more investors are entering the short-term rental market. Ohio-based asset management company ReAlpha plans to spend as much as $1.5 billion to buy short-term rentals, Bloomberg News reported. The amount is enough to purchase about 5,000 homes, Giri Devanur, the company’s CEO, told the outlet. Over the past decade, a herd of entrepreneurs joined the short-term vacation rental sector. As the industry matures, large-scale investors are joining the pool, hoping to get their slice of the …

People around the world know what the traditional terms B.C. and A.D. are. A.D. comes from the Latin phrase “anno domini,” meaning, “in the year of our Lord.” B.C. stands for “Before Christ.” However, B.C. and A.D. can now take on different meanings for corporations: “before the coronavirus” (the virus that causes COVID-19) and “after drug discovery.” What a change just a few weeks can make. Before the crisis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading at an all-time high, and …

The Importance Of Asking ‘Who’ Questions A couple of years ago, I wrote a book called Nothing to Nasdaq. The main thesis was a framework Dr. Art Langer and I developed at Columbia University. Based on this framework, we had come up with a seven-character initialism of SNSNSFTP (strategy, negotiations, sales, networking, finance, technology and people). The initial thinking was if you put the right people at the center of all activities, a great product or company will emerge. Dr. Langer …

All of us want to achieve peak performance in both our personal and professional lives. We want to have more time to enjoy pursuits that bring us joy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has two definitions for the word “productivity:” 1. The quality or state of being productive. 2. The rate per unit or area per unit volume at which biomass consumable as food by other organisms is made by producers. No one wants the measurement of biomass consumable as food as their ideal …

Have you ever seen the television shows Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul or Boston Legal? As an executive, you have a bunch of lawyer friends, and you know that you can call one of them for your legal challenges or opportunities. It could be a merger and acquisition deal or a financing agreement with a bank or financial institution. Either way, you know who to call. These lawyers, naturally, are not a cheap or small investment, and no one would ever think …

We have been hearing for months that AI will kill millions of jobs — that technology will take over all aspects of the travel industry and so on. Let’s take this onslaught of information and clinically dissect it to get a clearer view of how the travel industry will be affected. We can broadly define the core aspects of the travel industry in three main categories: preparation, buying and the actual experience itself. 1. Preparation Assume you want to go …

Nana korobi ya oki This statement is particularly true for tech startups. Historically, some of the most successful startups show that you have to keep trying until you find the proverbial “product-market fit.” What does this mean? Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz) defines the term as follows: “Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” In order to find a good product-market fit, a startup has to fail multiple times. …

I’ve found that senior business executives, entrepreneurs and employees climbing the ladder all have a common goal, and it isn’t success, power or fame. On a very basic level, what drives everyone is a desire to create happy and memorable experiences, both for yourself and for the people around you. Take Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, for example. He has said publicly that he takes six weeks of vacation per year, often spending that time outdoors, where he says he does his …

One of the questions most executives ask themselves in regard to their employees and their organizations is: “How do we achieve peak performance on a continuous basis?” Attaining peak performance is almost always about understanding one’s physiology and gaining a better control of emotions, thus enabling smarter decision making. Every success, failure, or opportunity seized or missed is the result of a decision that someone made or failed to make. In neuroscience terms, all decisions are initially driven by feelings, …