David Peterson David Peterson

Tech platform Airtable is taking the guesswork out of technology for real estate companies. With it, companies can create bespoke apps and tools tailored to any sector within the industry—from property management to investment to brokerage—all without hiring an IT team or knowing anything about coding. The concept has already sold many companies, like SRS and Newmark Knight Frank, and is backed by $70 million in funding.

Howie Liu, the co-founder and CEO of Airtable and an experienced tech developer, recognized that most custom software in the real estate industry has more commonalities than differences and actually often uses the same set of building blocks. “It occurred to him that if you were to create a lego-kit made up of those various parts—and got rid of all the coding—you could make it possible for anyone to create their own powerful business solutions, without needing to hire an external developer, or bring in the entire IT team,” David Peterson, growth manager at Airtable, tells GlobeSt.com. “Many CRE professionals today simply don't have the option to hire those developers and IT teams, so they are using spreadsheets in lieu of apps designed for their needs.”

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.