‘Tis the season for gratitude and giving and we are truly grateful for the support and collaboration from all of you in our Built Environment Innovation Community. We are pleased to share with you recent news from our portfolio companies that are making an impact not only in a global sense but also in their own communities. We are still in the early days of the digital transformation of the Built Environment. The momentum is undeniable and we couldn’t be more excited about what we see coming in the new year. As always, if you come across a remarkable company in our domain please let us know and if we can be helpful to you at any time do not hesitate to reach out.
The Built Environment Innovation Team
Jesse Devitte | Travis Connors | Matt Rightmire | Allen Preger | Chris Randles | Tom Wyman
Feature Highlights:
Kathy Hunnan – Dandelion CEO & Co-Founder sat down with the Borealis Team to share her entrepreneurial journey and discuss Dandelion’s plan to radically reinvent the residential heating in cooling market at scale and end our dependency on fossil fuels. See the interview here.
Smartvid.io was featured prominently on the main stage in front of 12,000 attendees at the annual Autodesk University conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago as a key partner in Autodesk’s Construction Tech focus. The company debuted a new video highlighting the capabilities of VINNIE (their construction AI engine). See the video here.
Portfolio News:
Smartvid.io: 6 Paths to the Automated Construction Site [ASME.org]
Dandelion: The 19 hottest New York City startups to watch [Business Insider]
Measurable: Local business leaders, graduates talk sustainability at panel event [Daily Aztec]
Books We Are Reading
Notable Quote:
“Within less than two generations, urban growth in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will be so explosive that, by 2050, two out of every three people on the planet will be living in an urban area. That means 2.4 billion more people will need buildings in which to live, work, and be educated, as well as infrastructure through which to move, and landscapes in which to find refuge.”
Notable Quote:
“In sum, no matter the domain, the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were unusually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what it was they wanted. They not only had determination, they had direction. It was this combination of passion and perserverance that made high achievers special. In a word, they had grit.”
Events we are attending
- DesignX 2018 Pitch Night | Cambridge, MA | November 29
- McKinsey Innovation In Infrastructure Roundtable | New York, NY | November 30
- CRE // TECH – NEW YORK | New York, NY | December 7
- Urban Tech Meetup: The Future of Green Infrastructure | New York, NY | December 11
- Boston Area Sustainability Group: Sustainability 2018 | Cambridge, MA | January 9, 2018
Articles we are reading
- Building blocks at Blokable may change industry [The Columbian]
- Another round: How con-tech companies are winning over investors and contractors [Construction Dive]
- Study Ranks Boston as Most Likely Beneficiary of Smart City Technology [Wireless Week]
- Jesse Devitte (MD Borealis Ventures) explains his thoughts on the Future of Construction [Future of Construction]
- Report: Smart cities services market to reach $94.2B by 2026 [Smart Cities Dive]
- The Big Benefits of Smart Cities [The Wall Street Journal]
