And With the Push of a Button from Broadway and 101st…A New World
Broadway and 101st Street, NYC
Things really have changed in the business world since we first heard the words, “Covid 19,” nearly two years ago which also seems like a lifetime ago. And for many of us it has been.
Having launched RELPI in early 2021 and its expansion into Europe and United Kingdom this week along with the extremely warm reception to both from the institutional real estate community I’m reflecting on how a business can be launched today versus the what and why.
More to the point, the tools available to procure a proper start-up enterprise are vastly different than when I joined the workforce 30+ years ago. Specifically, technological advances have not only decreased the investment capital needed to launch but have also democratized the process as well.
And these advances such as teleconferencing, video gatherings and meetups, webinars and other virtual applications aren’t particularly new to us, but many considered them to be “superfluous” to our day-to-day workflow. Now they’re considered “essential” as taxing, annoying and impersonal as they may appear to be. But think back just a couple of years ago when the same feelings were applied to meetings in conference rooms, offices and offsites.
Having spent the majority of my career in media and having launched many different products in the print, online and events realm there was only one way to do this with any excitement, effect, and elan which was to associate it with an in-person event whether at a restaurant, hotel, event space and many other assorted options.
However, these current launches including Europe and United Kingdom literally began with the push of “return” on my keyboard that is firmly in place on my desk in an apartment on Broadway and 101st Street in New York City.
This is not to say the years of devotion to the relationships I’ve developed and nurtured and to my craft are diminished by this new expediency and efficiency, but it does give one pause to think how far we’ve come in terms of confronting this world changing event. As we all can agree change is difficult and how we move through it and address it on the other side is where we can find opportunities that weren’t readily apparent at the onset.