Marketing Darwinism had the Opportunity to Meet Up with Jeremy McCarty, Co-Founder and CEO of Valligent Technologies.

Marketing Darwinism: Jeremy, the Real Estate Technology/PropTech space is, simply put, “on fire” as of the last few years.  Can you comment on this and on Valligent’s place in the mix?

Jeremy: Indeed, Real Estate as a sector and RE Tech specifically are buoyant and exciting.  It is important to remember that residential real estate is the largest “industry” in the country. US homes in aggregate are worth upwards of $35 Trillion collectively and this year almost 7 Million houses will be bought and sold.  The application of technology to this space is key to its future and we’re fortunate at Valligent Technologies to be at the heart of this.  While our valuation an appraisal business has been healthy for years, we saw huge potential in virtual appraisals and low-touch valuations and skated to where that puck was going.  We now have the most innovative virtual appraisal offering in the industry and the regulatory environment has made massive scale possible in this space.  All in all, we don’t feel like we have a ring-side seat; instead we feel like we are on the field playing the game!

Marketing Darwinism: Tell us more about the changes you see in the space?

Jeremy: There are so many changes, manifesting daily.  Some of these changes are “disruptive” and others are just natural extensions or evolutions of what existed.  On the former side, take the notion of house appraisals.  House appraisals are very much about the verification of valuation.  In the home buying process- still a lengthy procedure—the valuation of the house is the centerpiece.  From what loan you get all the way to the cost of insurance, the valuation pops up a dozen times at least in the process.  Now imagine being able to get an accurate valuation with technology, in less than an hour.  No long waits for appraisers and white-knuckling the results.  No costly and repetitive services to be subjected to.  Now, imagine further.  Of the circa 7M houses that will sell this year, 40% of so are eligible for waivers on the standard appraisal.  Enter virtual appraisals.  Such speed and scale are a sea-change in what is otherwise a slow moving industry.

Marketing Darwinism: We see a lot of VC, PE, SPAC, and other investment dollars going into this space.  Is there a bubble here?

Jeremy: As in all spaces, this one will have winners and losers.  There is a certain amount of rhetoric and exaggeration in the space, especially with regard to “dressing up” old business models with new “language.”  We see technology buzzwords abounding but when it comes down to it, many companies still rely on analog and traditional methods to transact.  We understood this and have partnered with leading technology players like Quantarium and have developed cutting-edge tech capacity of our own.  So, yes, there are bubble aspects but in reality we are just beginning to see this industry transformed by the combination of technology, regulatory change, innovation in business process, and highly capable and educated consumers.

Marketing Darwinism: Tell us about your Marketing work?  After all, we do care a LOT about Marketing!

Jeremy: Marketing is key to Valligent’s success.  We are big believers in participating in the industry community and in doing our part to promote the industry as a whole. We have been pleased to receive multiple awards in the space and that notoriety has helped create a flywheel of engagement, advocacy, referral, and growth.  Marketing is and will always be core to our company and we feel very strongly that we back up our messaging with a product and solution platform nonpareil.

Marketing Darwinism: Any parting thoughts?

Jeremy: We continue to be excited about Valligent’s growth in the new world of Real Estate and about the space in general.  We believe that top talent will be drawn to RE Tech and that the addition of smart, driven, and innovative people will help the industry mature into a fully tech-enabled and dynamic part of the economy.  It’s already the biggest part of the economy but we want it to be seen as cutting edge.

Marketing Darwinism chatted with Pepper’s CEO Pulak Sinha on progress since last time we spoke.

Marketing Darwinism:  Pulak, how has progress been since connecting six months ago?

Pulak:  I appreciate the question around progress since in fact that is the key determinant of a company’s success.  We’ve made enormous progress on a variety of fronts, most significantly around customers, product, and team.  We’ve expanded and deepened our customer connection; over $5B runs on the Pepper platform today- doubling in 6 months.  Produce-wise we’ve introduced a variety of new modules and connectors and have launched a low-code orchestrator for our customers.  And we’ve expanded our team, with two solid executives joining over the last quarter.  Miles to go still of course but real velocity in the right direction.

Marketing Darwinism: Remind us again about your “raison d’etre” and your core target market

Pulak:  We built Pepper from the ground up to offer simplicity, ease, success, and ROI to Asset Management and Portfolio Management teams.  That Asset Manager with a new fund or one that is seeking optimization of data to improve outcomes in a current fund, the portfolio manager who wants to harness data- across investment and asset classes- to drive customer value, the data-drenched Asset Manager who is looking to at once increase returns while simultaneously complying with the varied regulatory frameworks in the industries and geographies that government his/her investments—these are the people for whom we’ve built Pepper.  We believe we are the leading data platform for ROI optimization in the space.

Marketing Darwinism: As an entrepreneur, how did you land on this space and why does it continue to animate you?

Pulak:  Great question.  The numbers are striking.  Asset Managers have been given $120 trillion to manage on behalf of clients.  Such staggering numbers can overwhelm.  Of this, over $15 trillion is invested in alternatives.  Making sense of all these investments, optimizing current portfolios, and analyzing the benefits of new investments in a data-driven fashion – these are all areas we support.  I got into the space because when I was deep in the industry, I needed a “Pepper.”  Such stories to me are the essence of the journey we are on.  We’ve been successful so far but are humbled by the possibilities ahead.

Marketing Darwinism: Recent articles have emphasized the connections between great Chief Information Officers, Asset Managers, and Chief Investment Officers.  Can you comment on that?

Pulak:  Every time one of the articles comes out, it is great for us.  We’ve built an enterprise-class platform that would align all of these roles- a SaaS platform with low time to value, cloud-native and extensible apps, integrations, and ease of use—we believe that we are a crucial piece in the alignment of Asset Management ROI and technology.

Marketing Darwinism: What is your customer success strategy?

Pulak:  This relates back to our mission. Helping customers harness the power of data is never a one-off, point-in-time “task” but is instead a process.  While our platform is very easy to deploy, we make sure to connect with our customers regularly to ensure that they are prospering and getting what they need.  There’s nothing better than seeing them succeed but also getting their feedback and rolling it into the product.