Our first-ever community dinner last week brought together investors, operators, and technologists for a night of insightful conversation at Scarpetta.
Bringing together investors, operators, and real estate experts
One of the challenges of developing technology in a space like real estate is that it often takes many years to develop domain expertise in either technoloy or real estate, and the two industries don't have too many opportunities to exchange ideas.
Last week, we had the privilege of hosting our first-ever community dinner — and it exceeded every expectation. Set inside a private dining room at Scarpetta in New York, the evening was exactly what we'd hoped for: casual, friendly, and of course anchored by great food.
One of the biggest surprises was how open all guests were to learning from each other. From venture capital to owner-operators to technologists, we saw the cross-pollination that rarely happens outside of events like this. Together, our guests' firms manage billions of dollars in investments and tens of thousands of property units. Represented firms included:
The mix of perspectives — investors evaluating where AI creates durable value, operators thinking about day-to-day efficiency, and technologists building the tools themselves — naturally led to conversations on whether AI is actually ready to deliver results, and in what capacity.
Where is AI genuinely helpful today?
Across property types and investment strategies, the table kept returning to a few core tensions: the gap between how successful AI seems to be on LinkedIn and in popular conversation, and the day-to-day problems that operators still face.
One participant pointed out that, despite all the promises of AI, it's not as if Property Owners are hiring AI Controllers or AI CFOs just yet. In many cases, there's not even documentation or Standard Operating Procedures for AI to work off of. AI may be useful for one-offs, such as drafting an investment report, but taking on routine or repeated work requires the AI to be predictable, connected to existing systems, and documented.
For that reason, the first step may simply be for CEOs and CFOs to take stock of how existing processes are happening, and whether it makes sense to revamp those processes or "commit" to them via automation.
There was healthy skepticism alongside real excitement, which was exactly the kind of dialogue we wanted to create. Instead of pitches or panels, we had a frank conversation on how the specific nuances of Property Accounting and Property Management don't fit neatly into the cookie-cutter AI solutions that still represent the state-of-the-art.
The conclusion: AI may start to influence efficiency metrics for Property Accounting and Property Management before it starts to influence hiring.
Benchmarks (e.g., a MFH unit-to-accountant ratio) could be the first step in standardizing industry conversations around these themes.
A huge thank you
None of this comes together without the right people making it happen. We're grateful to the partners who helped us pull this off, including our investors David Talpalar and Sophia Ghadamian Kier.
And of course, to every guest who joined us: thank you for bringing your curiosity, your candor, and an open attitude.
We look forward to hosting more dinners and community events moving forward, and seeing what conversations arise. Stay tuned!
LDGR Systems is the first fully automated AI Property Accounting solution. Built for modern real estate operators. Learn more at ldgrsystems.com.
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