CRETech NYC seemingly doubled in size with over 2,000 attendees this year as the proptech conference wrapped up this Thursday. My top five takeaways for startups and investors gleaned from various panels and conversations:

1.  While fundraising from VCs and other institutional investors has slowed a bit due to macro headwinds especially at later financing stages, activity at earlier stages (pre-seed, seed) is still strong. As one panelist said, "Calm seas make for poor sailors." Startups emerging from the more difficult environment will be that much stronger for it. 

2.  RE customers are even more laser-focused on how technology can improve their NOI. If it doesn't move the needle, in this environment it's even harder for startups to gain traction both in obtaining new users and raising funds.

3.  Sustainability remains a hot area this year for startups looking to raise.

4.  With continuing demand and competition in the job market, companies are taking a closer look at automation and robotics to get the job done and solve for the lack of qualified talent available. 

5.  Broader tech innovation themes such as use of AI art engines (Dall-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion), open APIs, tokenization and the metaverse are all finding champions and relevance in #proptech.

See you in November at MIPIM Propel.