Since releasing Horizon for iOS in March, we’ve been working on a few improvements. Last night, we finally pressed publish on Version 1.5 — which includes two main changes: a redesigned interface to browse cities and countries and an in-app messaging system. If you have an iPhone or iPad,…

I saw Blockfeed this morning, a hyper local news app in NYC. See Fred Wilson’s Been There Done That post — aggregating hyper local news has been tried (Outside.in & Everyblock among others), but that doesn’t mean Blockfeed’s latest attempt will fail. We all know everyone cares (to some…

If you are a founder in the real estate vertical, trying to figure out where this industry is headed over the next decade — I highly suggest you read this analysis of WeChat by Connie Chan on a16z. WeChat is of course a messaging app…

This isn’t really news anymore (I meant to finish this post earlier this week), but wanted to call attention to the fact that Zillow Mortgage Marketplace recorded over $10M in revenue this past quarter (see press release here). I’ve long thought mortgages was the massive sleeper component of…

  The first time I met Blake and Caroline from Giveback Homes was last summer in San Francisco immediately prior to departing for Start-Up Chile. 12 months later, in the same city, at the same conference (Inman), I had the chance to hang out with Caroline…

There are some proponents for the entire industry ceasing syndication entirely (specifically to Zillow). The thinking is generally “with no listings, Zillow would become irrelevant and lose all their traffic, all that traffic would frequent agent/broker websites, and the result would be cheaper leads/clients”. So, what would happen if…

As a result of the ongoing discussion about Broker Public Portal (most recent thread here), I did a little bit of digging to figure out whether there have been other “agent/broker led” portal initiatives that have successfully competed against market leaders in other countries. I found this article…

Any young founders out there, pre seed funding and pre accelerator? Apply for a YC Fellowship: YC Fellows will receive a $12,000 grant and advice from the YC community for 8 weeks (from mid-September to mid-November) to go from an idea to a startup. Fellows need…

I would bet every founder reading this blog knows about AirBnB. If you don’t, you’ve been living under a rock. Some of you have raised funds. Others haven’t. Fundraising is not easy. Don’t let anyone tell you differently, despite what you hear in the tech…

Zillow is acquiring DotLoop. Fires are burning in real estate social media. Let’s get this out of the way. There are tons of brokers and agents who dislike Zillow. Call them what you want. They’re here. I’m a regular critic of the company when they (regularly) make…