The Nexus Podcast

Latest Episodes:

🎧 #110: The evolution of the access control system with Lee Odess Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

“In 1973, the value proposition was to keep bad people out. If no one has been shot in your building, it's working. That still remains, but the industry is evolving from that core principle."
—Lee Odess

My Highlights

The history of access control systems (3:26)
Components to access control systems (7:42)
The Six Phase Changes Shaping Access Control (24:23)
The verticalization of occupant experience transforming the access control system (30:49)
Business models in the access control of tomorrow (37:59)
Carveouts (44:15)

You can find Lee on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #109: Demystifying wireless technology for CRE Jul 14, 2022

Show notes

“One perspective is I don't see wires anymore. Still, in the backend, there are lots of wires and there are lots of different wireless connectivity and frequencies and technologies that support building systems.
So the term wireless can refer to a number of technologies. And I think that's where people will get confused in terms of, what is wireless? Cellular vs. WiFi vs. LoRaWAN or other protocols being used to transmit data wirelessly."
—Greg Jones

My Highlights

Montgomery Tech’s background (4:05)
General trends in wireless technology today (10:43)
Celular (12:41)
DAS (16:04)
Wifi (28:27)
CBRS (35:36)
5G (42:29)
LoRaWan (46:59)
How to make decisions in this environment (49:31)
Carveouts (55:00)

You can find Greg on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #108: Mid-2022 M&A Roundup with J³ Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

“The environment that we've been in for many years and that we are currently in and heading into is very relevant for what's going on in the space, beyond the fact that smart buildings is highly fragmented and there is natural momentum towards M&A and rolling up a lot of these point solutions or single players from just an industry perspective."
—Jeanne Casey

My Highlights

The general environment that we're existing in (4:10)
M&A trends in smart buildings (20:25)
Measurabl x Hatch Data (27:14)
Arcadia x Urjanet (50:28)
The Independent Data Layer and aggregation providers (1:05:20)
Carveouts (1:18:01)

You can find Joe and Jeanne on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #107: Balancing Embodied and Operational Carbon Emissions Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

“As we draw down the operational carbon side of things, our embodied carbon piece of the pie is going to be closer to 50% of overall carbon emissions from the building sector."
—Carmel Pratt

My Highlights

Bright Power (6:18)
How to think about what percentage of a building owner's carbon footprint is operational vs embodied (8:58)
How to balance embodied carbon and operational carbon (20:14)
Key takeaways and ways the industry needs to change (29:34)
Carveouts (46:45)

You can find Carmel on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #106: A day in the life of a digitized, decarbonized building Jun 23, 2022

Show notes

"I like the buildings industry because it's a physical manifestation of our values. A building that is truly net zero, set up to have composting, electric vehicle charging, bike racks that really protect your bike, is a physical manifestation of how much you value your employees. There's nothing better than taking the concept of bettering the environment and putting it into something real that you can touch."
-Kat West

My Highlights

How Kat and Drew got into sustainability (12:22)
Day in the life of a digitized and decarbonized building (17:14)
Transit (25:24)
Food (33:41)
Waste (37:45)
Space (42:55)
How the size of a room impacts equity and inclusion (53:19)
Carveouts (1:06:23)

You can find Drew and Kat on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #105: What the small buildings market has been missing with Tanya Barham Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

“The reason why less than 10% of the commercial building market actually use building automation can be summarized by just one factor. I could show you 20 images of every building control software or fault diagnostic software out there and it's exactly the same story.
Whether it's a small IOT or big medicine, it's a product designed by college-educated building engineering who really think that there's somebody in a button-down Oxford in an air conditioned office doing nothing but driving those controls."
—Tanya Barham

My Highlights

Defining community choice aggregators, virtual power plants, and DERMS (18:14)
Transitioning from PECI to CEL (32:06)
What small buildings need (41:32)
The procurement process made simple (1:03:06)

You can find Tanya on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #104: New York City's unique RTEM program Jun 09, 2022

Show notes

"Why would you get something that tracks consumption but doesn't include fault detection and diagnostics? Something that doesn't also include predictive analytics and performance optimization?"
—Ryan Baxter

My Highlights

Why NYC real estate is so unique (8:49)
Top 5 NYC PropTech startup pitfalls (13:57)
NYSERDA's Real Time Energy Management Program (RTEM) (32:26)
RTEM's Hackathon (58:04)
Carveouts (1:04:20)

You can find Ryan on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #103: Nuveen's top technology priorities Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

“In the landscape of proptech there is such a lack of data and lack of access to our own data and our potential ability to make better investment and operational decisions."
—Jeanne Casey

My Highlights

About Nuveen and your role (6:52)
An outsider’s perspective on the insides of real estate (13:03)
The state of smart buildings and smart buildings venture capital (25:41)
Thoughts on “head of innovation” roles (41:42)
Carveouts (57:56)

You can find Jeanne on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #102: Unpacking 2022's major themes with Newcomb & Boyd May 26, 2022

Show notes

“One of the things that COVID showed us is that so many people's buildings are not responsive to occupancy. So no matter how well you designed the building with efficient devices, not responding to occupancy is like leaving something on and walking away from it. It's basic sustainability of provide what's needed and don’t waste resources."
—Donny Walker

My Highlights

Defining Low Voltage (2:53)
Newcomb & Boyd's background (7:55)
IBcon and the integration of smart building and sustainability (16:55)
Specifying the converged network (26:25)
Specifying the Independent Data Layer (40:45)
Carveouts (54:27)

You can find Paul and Donny on LinkedIn.
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🎧 #101: Virtual Engineering with Hank May 19, 2022

Show notes

"Virtual engineering is an inevitability. It's not a, 'there may be a breakup of this vertically integrated stack, this monolithic stack that everybody owns.' It will happen."
—Zach Denning