Yael (00:05)

Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Vertical Futures. My name is Yael Shemer, I'm the co-founder of Tulu. Today we have a very exciting guest — Whitney Kidd, the Senior Vice President of Innovation and Technology at Preiss. Whitney, welcome to the show.

Whitney (00:21)

Yael, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here today.

Yael (00:24)

I think you're working on some of the most forward-thinking and exciting initiatives in our industry. I know that you've literally grown up in this industry — your family owns and operates real estate. Can you share with us how you ended up in PropTech and what it looked like to grow up in this business?

Whitney (00:44)

Sure. My family owns a very small portfolio in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I've spent most of my life in this business. When I was a young child, I never imagined being in it long term. I saw so many opportunities for growth and innovation, and at the time in the apartment industry, that just wasn't happening. As a kid running around helping collect rent and write paper receipts, I was just thinking — there has to be a better way. So I went to college for something completely different, which most of us in property management do, right? I went for public health and got a master's in public health. Then I got to work with some really great companies — a company called Riverstone Residential that was acquired by Greystar — and I was on community when they were rolling out online leasing. I just remember thinking: this is it. This is the innovation. This industry can move forward. We can do things with technology that are going to propel us forward, make things easier for site teams, better for residents, and better for ownership groups. In that moment, I just saw a future, and that's what captured me for PropTech. I was not necessarily a techie growing up — I always liked tech, but I wasn't focused on it until I saw what it can do for the business and for real estate as a whole.

Yael (02:09)

Thanks so much for sharing that. I think it really shows up when we come to PropTech from diverse backgrounds — it helps us lead better teams and think about challenges differently. When we spoke last, you brought up the fact that there is a gap between the physical and digital world and we need to work on converging them. Can you explain what you're seeing as the biggest gap between AI acceleration and the actual physical infrastructure we have today?

Whitney (02:40)

For years we've been focused on software as a service, and that was very important and still is today. But now with the emergence of AI and how fast it's accelerating, we're going to start to see the physical world — our apartment communities, our physical assets — and technology come together. The gap I've noticed in the past three years at Preiss is that capital cycles for an asset are several years apart. So if you miss a capital cycle to make robust infrastructure upgrades, you're going to have a very hard time catching up. What we've been focused on for the past three years is ensuring that when a capital cycle arises — when we buy a deal or recap a deal — we are putting the best-in-class infrastructure in place. So that once technology is propelled forward, we'll be able to utilize things like robotics, like Tulu that we have at our sites, and not be behind the curve. I always say: you're not going to get a robot to operate with a brass key. We have to move toward smart home technology and really robust internet infrastructure in our communities, so that once these worlds collide — which is happening right now as we speak — you're prepared to serve your residents.

Yael (04:03)

What are some of the most significant changes you've noticed in our industry over the past five years, and where do you see us heading?

Whitney (04:09)

The largest shift on the resident side is going to be the desire for self-service. I have not seen a generation like Gen Z that wants to drive the majority of their decisions on their own. If they don't want to ever speak to a human being, they want the ability to not only rent their apartment, but move in and then self-service as they go. Things like self-guided tours and automated move-ins — historically very challenging for multifamily, but now realistic. From a property management perspective, the big change is that we're going to have to adapt to technology faster than ever. That is something a lot of firms are not ready to grasp. We had to really think through how to process the amount of change management that's headed toward us — making sure our teams have the adequate resources they need, processing changes appropriately from a corporate perspective, and documenting what's working and what's not. Those are two large shifts we're seeing, both on the resident side and from a property management perspective, that everybody is feeling today.

Yael (05:43)

I love that. To challenge the self-service point — it's August, we have move-ins all across the US in student housing and you're experiencing a somewhat chaotic period, just like everyone who operates student housing. How do you think about those moments in the year where there's high-volume move-ins and move-outs, where there's both a need for high tech and a human touch?

Whitney (06:21)

At Preiss we're always people first. It doesn't matter if robots could do everything — we are still going to have people at the forefront of our experience because there are multiple residents and staff members who want to interact with a human being. Making sure you can supplement your people with the appropriate technology is absolutely paramount. If you haven't been through a student housing turn cycle — we're taking our 40,000 beds and moving out about 60% of those residents and moving in a new set in the course of one month. If you're from conventional multifamily, take your busiest summer months and consolidate all of that — 100% of it — into one month. That's what we're dealing with. We like to joke that we break every technology out there because of the vast volumes we have during turn. But where we're looking now is: how can you find automations that give time back to the teams? We want them focused on making sure residents have the ultimate Preiss experience, not on burdensome administrative tasks. That's been a really large area we've driven into — how can we remove admin functions from our teams, empower them with AI and tools like Tulu that make it easy for residents to self-service, while making sure our teams can show up fully available for residents instead of being buried in tasks all day.

Yael (08:13)

I think it gives the whole organization visibility too — you can track more things when you're using AI. While we're on the topic of move-ins: in student housing, parents pay the bills but students live the experience. How do you think about that three-way dynamic between students, parents, and operators, and how does it influence your technology decisions?

Whitney (08:47)

It's a truly unique challenge because we don't have just one consumer — we have multiple consumers across very different generations. While Gen Z wants to self-service and do everything on their own without talking to a human, parents still feel very differently. They want to talk to someone, have an official tour, make sure their son or daughter is comfortable and safe. When we're evaluating tech, we have to look at ways to push the envelope for Gen Z and the Gen Alphas coming after them, while also making sure it still works for millennials, Gen Xers, and boomers. So as much as AI can automate today, we have to build in off-ramps and make sure our teams understand those off-ramps for when someone wants to interact with a human — and it doesn't need to be that you hit zero 100 times in frustration. That has to be a smooth and easy path. When we look at tech, we look at a multitude of communication channels and how people want to communicate with us. That's a very vital component of our business.

Yael (10:08)

I want to talk about some of the really innovative things you're doing at Preiss that I honestly haven't heard many others talk about. Can you tell us about Donna?

Whitney (10:44)

Sure — and let me clarify, because Donna Preiss is actually the CEO of our company and she is terrific. She is one of the only female CEOs in our space. So we named the robot after her. We purchased a humanoid robot — it's a G1 EDU model from Unitree out of Hangzhou, China. Where we got to with this is: how do we think about what's next? In property management and real estate, we tend to fall behind the curve on innovation and technology adoption. So when we formed Iris, the innovation engine of Preiss, we wanted to look at what's next — and that is my sole job. I live in the future. And robotics is not the future — it's actually already happening today in many industries. But we were the first in all of multifamily real estate to have a humanoid. That's largely due to Kirk Preiss and his ability to see the future and allow us to try things. We can't be afraid to fail. We have to be able to try things — that's how we transform the future of real estate. A little bit about Donna: she is a four-foot-two humanoid robot, so nothing too intimidating. We're in a 24-month R&D cycle. A few of the use cases we're working on: grounds maintenance and janitorial tasks, because across our industry right now we have a real shortage of maintenance personnel. Imagine taking a groundskeeper and elevating them to a maintenance tech, giving them the ability to elevate their career while we handle the more mundane tasks with robots. My personal favorite is package management — it's a challenge for everyone in every asset class and it's only going to get worse. Package lockers have done a great service, but they're just not equipped to handle the volumes we're seeing, especially in student housing. Could we apply robotics to bring packages to the door? And then the use case everybody probably imagines — a 24/7 leasing concierge robot that's available to take service requests, answer questions about the community, and assist teams when they're busy on a tour or helping a resident. We've been building our AI models for several years to equip the robot to answer questions the way a human would.

Yael (13:41)

Do you envision that integrating humanoid robots like Donna would also change the physical infrastructure of buildings — the way elevators work, how reception is designed?

Whitney (13:57)

We do, and that's actually one of our primary focuses. A lot of those items are very capital intensive to upgrade and retrofit. Our current strategy with access is mobile-first, which will allow robotics to interact with the community as well — no more key fobs, no more brass keys. One seamless experience throughout the entire building: elevators, gates, unit doors, amenity access. It seems incredibly simple, but it's a lot harder to achieve than you might think. We have worked diligently on this for multiple years. Every community we buy or recap, the infusion of capital we allocate goes toward upgrading access control and smart home units — all the things that are going to make future innovations possible when these worlds collide.

Yael (15:05)

Do you envision properties having humanoid robots in the next one to two years? What's the timeline?

Whitney (15:20)

It's completely feasible in the next two years with the way robotics are evolving — it's almost as rapid as AI right now. But if we're being realistic, I think it's more accurate to say five to seven years for the industry broadly. The early innovators will likely see this in the next year or two, and then the rest of the industry will play catch-up. And depending on asset type, it may not suit every single community. But overall, we can see some of these advantages very soon — the hardware is there, it's available, and it's ready to do these tasks. We just need more focus from our industry to make this mainstream as we go forward.

Yael (16:05)

I want to go back to challenges everyone in multifamily and student housing knows — retention and leasing. In student housing there's a built-in churn. How do you think about renewals, lease-up phases, and brand loyalty? Can there even be brand loyalty for students?

Whitney (16:40)

It's a bit more challenging in student housing because our tenure with residents is at maximum three to four years — sometimes five or six if they stay for grad school. But those years are incredibly vital for our business. And we all know: retaining a resident is far less expensive than acquiring a new one. So we're hyper focused on resident experience and how we build brand loyalty. Is it possible? Yes. I think it takes a portfolio with a variety of asset classes. If you look at companies like Greystar and Asset Living, there's a real opportunity for brands to carry over if you have geographic density in certain markets. That's definitely something that can be done at scale with multiple asset types. We also track renewal rates — the industry typically targets around 40% renewals in student housing. We try to achieve above that, and we did this year, which was incredibly exciting. We also track resident sentiment through an AI tool. Multifamily as an industry knows less about our customer than most other industries — and they live with us. There's a real opportunity with AI to better understand your customer and be proactive in your renewal approach. It doesn't feel like we're spamming everybody. It feels like: "Hey, Yael, I know you live in apartment 101, you've had a great experience. I noticed your ceiling fan was out last week — has that been resolved? We also have an opportunity for you to renew." That's something our industry historically has not done, but it's now possible with several AI tools.

Yael (19:04)

I want to ask you about Raleigh — I grew up there and I'm amazed by how fast it's growing. Preiss is leading a lot of development there. How do you push innovation in markets that are less urban, less experiential than New York?

Whitney (19:48)

What's really lovely about markets like Raleigh and Charlotte is that tech really evolves with everyone. Even if you live in Mooresville, North Carolina — a small town outside Charlotte where I was born and raised — tech is for everyone now. People are seeing and experiencing ChatGPT and different tools all on their own. The ability to be innovative is much more removed from geographic density than it ever has been before. People have the same expectations whether they're living in Mooresville or New York City. And we actually have some advantages in these markets — more space, more ability to look at existing structures and make upgrades. When you're looking at high rises and large buildings in cities, it turns a lot more capital and can be very disruptive to your resident base. A garden-style community in Raleigh is much more suitable for an upgrade. Technology breaches all areas of the world today, and people are expecting that no matter where they live.

Yael (21:43)

I want to ask about your day-to-day in innovation. How do you discern between something that's just trendy versus something that will have a lasting impact on revenue and cost savings?

Whitney (22:07)

Honestly, I can't give you an exact answer because my day changes every single day. But here's how I approach it. I spend about 25% of my year at external conferences — and not only industry conferences, but outside-industry conferences too. We need to be looking at what works in other industries and how we can apply that to our space. I also spend a significant portion of my time at our communities — I was just at several for move-in and move-out. I like to see what technology is actually moving the mark versus just a nice-to-have. I get into the weeds, talk to the teams, understand what's broken and what's going to make their day better. And then a significant portion of my time is strategic — looking at opportunities that could propel Preiss and Iris forward, and how we make sure the innovations we're trying are risky, but not risky enough to jeopardize the business. We are trying things that are brand new, that people have never done before. We have to build the roadmap for what that looks like and ensure we're safeguarding our communities, our residents, and our staff members along the way.

Yael (23:59)

I'm assuming you also need to be the first one to say — I don't think it's going to work. I'm changing my thesis.

Whitney (24:12)

Absolutely. My favorite quote from one of my mentors, Steve Wen from RealPage: it is perfectly fine to fail — you just need to fail quickly. Fail fast. I say that often. In real estate, we have this fear of failure because we're managing and owning multi-million dollar assets. But failure is a part of every business that has ever existed. I see failure as a gift because then we learn and we evolve and we do that quickly and move on to the things that are going to be successful.

Yael (24:43)

For property managers and owners who are just getting started — what's one piece of advice you can give them?

Whitney (25:04)

I understand there's an array of firms — from small family-owned portfolios like I grew up with to large nationwide organizations. But here's what I encourage across the board: tech is evolving at such a rapid rate that you need to have an expert in house, whether that's a consultant you partner with or someone you hire internally. And it doesn't have to be someone from within our industry — there are a lot of great innovation and tech professionals from other sectors you can bring in. That is my number one recommendation. I have had the pleasure of seeing a lot of organizations and how they're structured and resourced, and I can tell you that tech is an area that is not resourced well in most of them. That's not to their fault — we're real estate operators, not technology companies. But technology is converging and accelerating at such a rate that you need to have at least someone dedicated to innovation and technology who is not just answering IT support tickets. That's important too, but you need someone focused on the future — on how you move your organization forward with technology at the forefront of your strategy.

Yael (26:23)

Whitney, before our last question — how would you describe your leadership style? What does it look like to work with you day to day?

Whitney (26:32)

I'm a collaborative and dynamic leader. It's very important to hear your teams and hear their opinions, but you also have to be the driving force in moving the business forward. As a leader, you have a lot of advantages, but also a lot of challenging things to work through. For me, it's always going back to your teams, hearing what they're saying, hearing what your customers — our residents — are saying, and then putting that into action with your teams and helping them see the vision forward. I've always strived to be collaborative. There are some days where you can't be — there are hard facts and hard business decisions. But overall, I try to ensure that everybody on our team feels included and feels like they have a voice at the table, because they're there for a reason. We don't just hire them to sit in a chair — we hire them because they have something to bring to the table. I absolutely adore my team. Helping them elevate while we all elevate together is how we all win.

Yael (27:49)

100% agree. At Tulu, I always tell people who are applying — it's a game and you can't just sit on the sideline. You've got to play and practice and show up every day. It really helps you see who is in it to make an impact. What do you think is the biggest challenge our industry is facing, and what's the biggest opportunity that keeps you excited?

Whitney (28:42)

So many challenges. We're obviously facing headwinds with interest rates right now, so deal activity is a little slower than we'd like. I'm hoping once we hit Q4 we'll start to see those come down and deal activity pick back up. And specific to technology — it's the change management I mentioned earlier. Most firms are not equipped enough from a personnel or tech perspective to handle the amount of change management that's coming toward us. It's going to be an absolute roller coaster over the next five years with where AI is headed. This has to be a focus at your firm. We all saw the dot-com era — we saw businesses like Sears and others that were very late to change and didn't survive the evolution of technology. That is going to happen in multifamily and real estate as well. We've got to be ready for the change management, not fearful of it. And what I'm most excited about — my why has always been: how do we make this easier for our community teams? I came from a leasing agent on up. Outside of first responders and our military, I think it's one of the hardest jobs out there. If you've never been a property manager, it's really hard to explain what you go through day to day, and how sensitive people are to their home. Tempers arise and our teams face a lot. So my why in technology is: how do we make it easier? I am so excited because I finally see where technology can take away a good 50 to 60% of the mundane tasks we've had our teams doing — with AI. Once we get to robotics, once that's fully applied, we might reach 75%. And then we can turn those amazing professionals into the best resident-facing concierge, the best maintenance technicians and supervisors. I'm not a techie here to replace people. I'm a techie here to supplement people. There is so much bright future ahead of us.

Yael (31:41)

That's not just inspiring — it also gives me a tremendous amount of hope. I have so much respect for people in multifamily and student housing. It's like a hospital — you're essential. It's where people live their lives. It's awesome to hear that you're thinking about it and that you guys are devoting resources and brainpower to fuel that future forward.

Whitney (32:25)

Absolutely. And for anybody that needs assistance, we're always here as a helping hand. We're doing a lot of this innovation for the industry. It benefits Preiss, obviously, but our mission with Iris is to help the whole industry move forward. I'm so excited for our future, and I know a lot of other people in this industry are as well. I think we have very bright times ahead with everything that's coming down the pipeline.

Yael (32:51)

Where can people follow you and learn more about what you're building?

Whitney (32:56)

LinkedIn is always a great way — that's actually how Yael and I connected. You can also reach us at preiss.com to see our entire team. And our innovation engine has its own website: irisinnovates.com. We're also on all the social channels, so catch us there. We'd love to connect — digitally or in person at a conference.

Yael (33:29)

Terrific. We'll make sure to include all the links in the description. Whitney Kidd, thank you so much for spending your afternoon with us. It's been an absolute pleasure, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.

Whitney (33:40)

Thank you so much, really appreciate you and the time today.