Whitewater rafting on the Upper Gauley River in West Virginia is dangerous. And fun. And scary uncomfortable. The experience reminds me in every way of a healthy software development project. To get down the river you need a guide, someone who has been down a dozen rivers a hundred times before and will not panic…
read moreZac Ruiz, CEO & Founder of Salt.io, recently provided insights for Metro-Manhattan.com regarding CRE data efficiency and the future of the commercial real estate market. When I started Salt, the tagline on my website was “Databases are where Data goes to die.” Build on the story in the previous question; what usually happens next? The…
read moreCommercialCafĂ© recently interviewed Salt.io’s Zac Ruiz in order to get a better understanding of big data CRE. While many topics are covered, the primary theme revolves around big data CRE. We have a long way to go for commercial real estate to fully capitalize on the data that is available. “Artificial Intelligence algorithms are powered…
read moreCapital, like water, tends to flow around obstacles. Try to dam its movement at one point, and slowly but remorselessly it will find its way around.” This quote came from an article in The Economist a few years ago discussing the effects of increased standards, incentives, and regulations designed to help prevent the type of collapse asset…
read moreSomewhere there is a CEO walking through the halls of his office and noticing TV screens hanging on the walls. All of them are turned off except two: one displaying CNN with a stock ticker scrolling across the bottom and the other a soccer game on ESPN with a few employees huddled around watching a…
read moreWhen I was younger I worked at McDonald’s on the sandwich assembly station (and occasionally the drive-thru). I always knew whether the cheeseburger I was passing down the line was prepared correctly or not. Everybody knows what a McDonald’s cheeseburger is supposed to look like and I was responsible for making like a thousand of…
read moreEarly in my career, I enjoyed creating technology for technology’s sake; the act of coding something is fun. It didn’t matter what I was coding or who I was coding for. There are undeniable artistry and craftsmanship in the things engineers do. Crack open your iPhone; what you see is art to someone. If you…
read moreI want what I want. For lunch this week I want homemade blue corn masa tortillas filled with Moroccan tagine style lamb and fresh white bean salad with onions, garlic scapes and oregano from my local CSA farm share. I crave the tender cinnamony lamb alongside the zing of the vinegar in a crisp salad…
read moreI still get a little uncomfortable when people ask about my big new startup idea. I feel like they expect to hear something sexy like “the Uber for dog walking” or “the Tinder for over 50 singles” or “the Airbnb for extreme campsites.” When I tell them I want to re-imagine how small and medium…
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