The commercial real estate technology industry is rapidly growing. We asked some of Real Estate Forum's 2021 CRE Tech Influencers how to break into the budding market.

Real estate technology is a small and tightly knit community, so Josh Herrenkohl of FTI Consulting Inc. says that getting involved and networking is the first step to starting a tech career. Next, follow the money. "Many of the emerging innovations are funded by early- stage venture capital, which is the seed garden of future blockbuster technologies in the industry. There are several VCs that focus exclusively on real estate and many more that dabble," says Herrenkohl.

When analyzing companies, Gary Brandeis, president of Vertalo, says that young professionals should look for a few common traits. First, the most successful CRE tech firms, in his opinion, began as a traditional real estate firm and innovate internal products to support the core business. "These internal tools became a business of their own and were successful before being spun out," says Brandeis.