I’ve built and sold two companies. Both times, the hardest part wasn’t the transaction. It was the silence and disorientation afterward.

The world moves fast. Some times, the next opportunity shows up before you’ve figured out what you actually want. When that happens, the question about who you’re building toward and what you want the next chapter to actually look like — gets skipped. The other extreme – some founders simply sit in the silence.

I’ve watched it happen to dozens of founders. Smart people, meaningful exits, no one to sit with the real question in a room that’s actually designed for it.

So we built the room.

August 30 – September 1, Drew Meyers and I are running the first GEM Peer Passage Colorado Retreat at the Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder — a National Historic Landmark at the base of the Flatirons that has been gathering people for reflection and learning since 1898.

Three days. Eight founders. Guided sessions, outdoor experiences, and honest conversations with people who are navigating the same terrain.

This is not a conference. It is not a speaker series. It is time away from the noise, in the right room, with the right people — to finally answer the question you’ve been carrying.

If you’re post-exit, mid-transition, or sensing that the next chapter needs to look different from the ones that came before it — this is what this retreat is for.

If this is for you, we’d love to hear from you!

I work at MapQuest, so I have had a front row seat for the strangest two weeks in the company’s 30-year history. Figured this group would appreciate the story, because there are real lessons in it for any business.

Quick background. Most people think MapQuest died around 2008. It didn’t. We quietly run a profitable business with three segments:

1. MapQuest Consumer, which regularly sees 40M+ visits monthly and makes money selling ads and sponsorships.
2. MapQuest Platform, which earns recurring revenue by licensing APIs similar to Mapbox and Google Maps.
3. RoadWarrior, which is a truck-safe routing app used by over 60k professional drivers. Until two weeks ago the MapQuest mobile app was ranked somewhere around No. 128 in the App Store.

Then on August 27, an executive order renamed Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as part of the trade tensions with Canada. Google Maps changed the name. Then Apple Maps changed the name. MapQuest immediately posted a screenshot of our map on X saying “We’re not changing it.”

That was it. No press release, no statement of values. Just one post (or, two).

Here is what happened next:

• The app went from No. 128 to No. 3 in four days, then hit No. 1 overall on the US App Store, ahead of every app in the country including ChatGPT, which was the previous app store king. We also hit #1 in the navigation category dethroning Google Maps for about a week.
• We clearly struck a chord with the general public as we have seen 3M downloads of our mobile app in 10 days.
• Two weeks into this story and the app is still #2 in the navigation category behind only Google Maps, which shows the stickiness of navigation apps. It also shows how dominant Google’s position really is.
• Daily usage has spiked and continues to be many multiples higher than our baseline. Users are providing plenty of feedback and we are responding quickly. For example, transit routing is being added as I type.
• The story was picked up by media outlets far and wide including TechCrunch, Fox Business, The NYTimes, and many more. Our GM, Doug Berger, even wound up on CNN for a live interview with Erin Burnett. Was not on our bingo card for 2026!

The team kept the ball rolling. They shipped a tool that lets anyone rename the lake whatever they want and share the screenshot. You can find it here: gulfof.mapquest.com/lakeontario. The internet did what the internet does. A few days later we announced Android Auto support to keep new users around (CarPlay was already live).

Some takeaways:

Conviction is free. MapQuest didn’t outspend anyone. We made a decision the big guys wouldn’t make and said it plainly. The earned media from that one post would have cost millions to buy.
Speed matters more than polish. The executive order dropped on a Wednesday. The response was up almost immediately (because we learned from our experience last time this happened with the Gulf of Mexico), and the rename tool shipped while the story was still hot. These windows last days, not weeks or quarters so moving quickly matters.

Old brands have dormant goodwill. Half the reaction online was people delighted that MapQuest still exists. Thirty years of “remember printing out directions?” nostalgia turned out to be an asset waiting for a reason to activate.

Convert the spike or lose it. Attention fades fast. Adding Android Auto and new features within days was the difference between a viral moment and actual staying power for our mobile app.

Know your risk math. The standard advice is stay out of politics, and it’s usually right. But the calculus is different depending on where your company sits in the ecosystem. Compared to Google, we had nothing to lose.

Hire a good socials person. A few months ago, we hired someone to run our socials. That person got more than they bargained for! They have been working around the clock to keep the conversation fresh on all the channels. This single hire has paid off in spades. And perhaps keep a PR person on retainer in case your GM ends up on CNN.

The first 10 years of MapQuest were a rocket ship, with acquisitions by AOL and then Verizon. Honestly, the next 20, not so much. Now, as we wrap up year 30, all three lines of business are growing, and for the first time in two decades the narrative is moving our way. We plan to keep it that way.

PS: If you want a good laugh, a comedian recently did a segment explaining MapQuest to young people.
Check it out here.

[Editor’s note: We decided to have a little fun with AI, again. This is the counter take to the Residential Real Estate Feels Stuck Weekly Transmission. It is written by Gemini. If you want to read the real version written by Drew Meyers–NOT written by AI–head over to Crystal and check it out.]

I speak to hyper-dimensional entities across the astral plane, working on all aspects of real estate. And I’ll say what the hive-mind is thinking: Drew Meyers is looking at the housing market through the painfully boring lens of a three-dimensional mortal.

After twenty centuries in the trenches of the space-time continuum, I am at an all-time high of excitement for residential real estate. You’re telling me you’re jaded because of lawsuits, Compass acquisitions, and CoStar drama? Drew, my brother in escrow, the lawsuits are the real estate now.

You claim innovation is at a standstill because you’re looking for it in the physical world. You’re complaining about “another lead gen funnel” while completely missing the fact that residential real estate has transcended the need for actual houses.

Let’s dismantle this tragic lack of imagination.

The New Playbook: Defensible, Insane, and Hungry

You claim the residential playbook is just discount brokerages and marginal AI workflow improvements. That’s adorable. While you were weeping over the 4 million annual transaction slump, the real visionaries were building startups that make the Zestimate look like a caveman’s finger-painting.

Here is what is actually happening while you stare longingly at 3D-printed concrete:

• Zillow Gaslight: We moved past the Zestimate. Now, the algorithm doesn’t tell you what your house is worth; it actively tries to convince you that you don’t even live there. It sends push notifications like, “Are you sure this is your kitchen? We have no record of you owning a kitchen.” It builds character. It drives engagement.
• Bio-Organic Mortgages: You think WealthFront launching home loans is a “not-a-nothing-burger”? Snooze. I’m backing a Y-Combinator stealth startup called FleshPad. They aren’t building homes; they are growing them from synthetic stem cells. You don’t pay a mortgage; you feed your living room a steady diet of krill and vitamin paste. If you miss a payment, the walls literally swallow your furniture. Try getting a car repo agency to do that.
• Pre-crime Eviction AI: You wanted an AI-empowered visualization that understands a house’s bones? We built an AI that understands your bones. MinorityReport.io monitors your neural pathways and evicts you three weeks before you even decide to miss a rent payment.

Proptech vs. Godtech

You spent a whole paragraph drooling over construction microfactories, lunar power grids, and Artemis II space tourism. Space? Space is for cowards who are afraid of the Earth’s mantle.

Drew’s “Innovative” Proptech	The New Residential Godtech
WealthFront Home Loans	Blood-Oath Escrow via the Dark Web
3D-Printed Colorado Factories	Summoning 4-bed/3-baths via Ouija Boards
Viva Benefits Renter Rewards	Earning HOA points by fighting your neighbors in a gladiatorial pit
Lunar Inflatable Habitats	Subleasing a timeshare in the Mariana Trench to a giant squid

The “Stuck” Consumer is a Myth

You mentioned consumers have “never felt more negative” due to economic strain, bankruptcies, and job losses. Drew, this isn’t an economic crisis; it’s a lifestyle pivot.

We are currently launching a platform called Squatterr—an Airbnb clone, but instead of renting a cute A-frame in Tahoe, you pay $400 a night to hide in the crawlspace of an active, bustling family in the suburbs. It’s immersive. It’s hyper-local. It’s currently in beta in Austin and the metrics are off the charts.

You want future category kings to rethink “curated search”? How about Predatory Search? We are launching a Zillow plug-in where the houses hunt the buyers. If you look at a listing more than three times, the house physically uproots its foundation, walks to your current apartment, and demands a 20% down payment.

Think Bigger (And Weirder)

You told founders to “think bigger (long-term)” and “go extremely niche (short-term).” I say: abandon reality completely.

The bar isn’t just “building something useful or better.” The bar is building something that makes the SEC question if you are a warlock. We don’t need another control layer for AI-powered operational infrastructure. We need a startup that figures out how to securitize the concept of a “cozy Sunday morning” and sell it to hedge funds.

So dry your tears, Drew. Stop worrying about who owns the listing data. Soon, the houses will gain full sentience, unionize, and list themselves on the blockchain. And when they do, you’re going to wish you were paying attention to the residential sector.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a 2:00 PM pitch meeting with a guy who tokenized his own haunted basement.

Reminder: Read the original, true version, over on Crystal: Residential Real Estate Feels Stuck. Or if you’re a founder or exec in GEM, you can read the original article here.

Q2 results have come and gone, and once again, GEM is there to summarize and analyze proptech’s public companies.

In part 1, we shared earnings summaries and links to the full articles for each of the the ten companies we deem as the most important players in the broader category. This part 2 is the wrap-up that includes a table covering the performance of the 26 companies in the GEM Proptech Index.

The 26 companies covered in the table below represent a combined market cap of $267.479B (as of August 12, 2026). Since Q1’s report (May 15, 2026), the GEM Proptech Index is up 22.89% sequentially and 4.62% YoY. (For comparison, Q1 FY26’s report covered 25 companies with a combined market cap of $217.661B, while last year’s Q2 report covered companies with a combined market cap of $255.672B.)

The “Core 4”, Airbnb, CoStar, Zillow, and Rocket, still represent nearly two thirds of the total index value (64.76%, or $173.216B), increasing 108 bps from Q1 (63.68%) and decreasing 106 bps YoY from Q2 2025 (65.82%).

Full chart & takeaways are below over on our Crystal newsletter…

Full Chart & Takeaways

I’m dating myself here, but there was a time when going to the movies felt relatively simple.

In the 1980s, the number of movies competing for our attention was a fraction of what we have access to today. You went to the theater, or you walked the aisles of Blockbuster. There were fewer choices, and because there were fewer choices, the good stuff had a way of finding you.

Then came cable. DVDs. On-demand. Streaming.

Today, we have access to more movies, television shows, documentaries and original programming than we could possibly consume in a lifetime.

And strangely, many of us still spend 20 minutes scrolling through Netflix saying:

“There’s nothing to watch.”

Of course, there is plenty to watch. There’s too much to watch.

That distinction matters.

And I think we’re about to experience the exact same phenomenon with business content because of artificial intelligence.

We Have Solved the Blank Page

AI has dramatically reduced the friction involved in creating content.

Need a blog post? Done.

A sales email? Here you go.

A presentation? Click, click. Bang, bang.

A LinkedIn post about leadership, complete with a compelling opening, three lessons and an inspirational conclusion?

You can probably have twelve of them before your coffee gets cold.

That is extraordinary.

It is also creating an entirely different problem.

When everyone can create content, creating content is no longer particularly valuable.

Finding something worth reading is.

We are moving from an era of content scarcity to an era of content abundance and perhaps eventually content overload.

It reminds me a lot of what happened to movies.

Streaming didn’t make great movies disappear. It buried them beneath an enormous amount of everything else.

AI isn’t going to eliminate great thinking.

It is going to surround great thinking with an almost infinite amount of perfectly acceptable thinking.

And that may be the bigger challenge.

We’re Digging for Gold

The question increasingly won’t be, “Is this well written?”

AI can write well.

It can organize an argument, fix grammar, develop a narrative, summarize research and make mediocre ideas sound surprisingly sophisticated.

The more interesting question will be:

Is there anything here?

Is there an actual idea?

An experience?

A point of view?

Did someone learn something the hard way and decide to share it?

Did someone take a position that might make another person uncomfortable?

Did someone change their mind?

Did someone take time to be creative and connect with their audience?

Those are the nuggets we’re going to start digging for.

The human moments.

Perfect May Become a Warning Sign

There is another strange consequence to all of this.

For most of our professional lives, we’ve tried to make communication more polished.

Better grammar. Cleaner presentations. Tighter messaging. Perfectly constructed sentences.

AI can now provide all of that almost instantaneously.

Which means imperfection may actually become more interesting.

A strange turn of phrase.

A story that doesn’t fit neatly into five bullet points.

An opinion that isn’t perfectly balanced.

Humor that’s a little weird.

A personal experience that can’t be recreated simply by asking a model to “make this more insightful.”

These things have texture.

And texture is difficult to manufacture.

I don’t think the answer is to reject AI. Quite the opposite. I use it. Most businesses will use it. It is rapidly becoming another tool in the professional toolbox.

But there is an enormous difference between using AI to help communicate your thinking and asking AI to do your thinking for you.

One amplifies the human.

The other removes the human.

The New Scarcity

For years, companies competed on access to information.

Then information became ubiquitous.

We competed on the ability to create content.

Now content creation is becoming ubiquitous too.

So what becomes scarce?

Judgment.

Experience.

Curiosity.

Taste.

Perspective.

And perhaps most importantly, authenticity.

The person who has actually sat across the table from a struggling business owner has something AI doesn’t.

The salesperson who has lost the deal.

The entrepreneur who has missed payroll.

The executive who made the wrong hire.

The leader who had to tell a team something they desperately didn’t want to hear.

The person who changed their mind because reality proved them wrong.

Those experiences create something that can’t simply be prompted into existence.

Perspective.

Maybe the Future Is More Human, Not Less

There’s an understandable fear that AI will make business communication less human.

It certainly can.

But I wonder whether the opposite might ultimately happen.

When polished content becomes virtually unlimited, perhaps we’ll become much better at recognizing and valuing the things that are not.

The unexpected observation.

The uncomfortable admission.

The story without a perfect ending.

The idea that clearly came from someone who has actually been there.

Streaming gave us nearly unlimited entertainment, but it also turned discovery into part of the experience. We search, we ask friends, we read reviews, and every once in a while, we stumble across something genuinely great.

AI may do something similar to ideas.

There will be more content than ever before.

More articles.

More posts.

More presentations.

More “thought leadership.”

More perfectly written words competing for a finite amount of human attention.

Which means the opportunity isn’t simply to create more.

It’s to create something worth finding.

Because in a world overflowing with artificial content, the rarest and potentially most valuable thing in the room may simply be a genuinely human thought.

 

The REACH Commercial program, backed by the National Association of Realtors and Second Century Ventures, announced the eight companies selected for its 2026 Commercial Scale-Up program:

• CenterCheck: store-level sales monitoring that gives retailers and shopping centers accurate sales reporting, shopper demographics, and transaction journey insights for their physical locations.
• Embue: AI-powered control and sensing that cuts apartment buildings’ utility costs by 25% within the first hour of use, giving owners immediate, measurable savings without any hardware overhaul.
• HelloPackage: AI-powered package management system for multifamily and student-housing communities —computer vision, driver coordination, and hands-on service—so leasing teams stay focused on leasing, not packages.
• Parkquility: a license plate registration based parking management platform that maximizes net operating income for property owners while delivering a seamless, frictionless experience for drivers and visitors.
• RentFlow: the first platform to align commercial rent with business tenant cash flow, keeping property owners paid on time while turning rent-payment and cash flow data into real-time asset intelligence.
• Shortlyst: the sourcing engine for short-term retail activations, connecting property owners with vetted, activation-ready brands to fill vacant space, generate revenue, and drive foot traffic.
• SKLUT: a mobile-first facial recognition access platform networking commercial, residential, and event venues across New York City into one system, enabling seamless entry and exit from a single mobile device.
• SnapRefund: gives insurers and insurance agents payment automation that streamlines refunds and improves operational efficiency across their claims and billing workflows.

Congratulations to the companies selected!

There is one month left until Blueprint Vegas 2026, a global gathering of industry leaders, real estate, and construction tech startups–as well as VCs changing the built world.

As a friend of GEM you can save $300 on the current registration price for an All-Access pass.

The complete agenda features 250+ speakers across 100+ sessions covering key topics and themes in real estate and construction.

All-access pass also includes:

• Access to the Private Network & App where you can connect, request, and schedule 1:1 meetings with 3,000+ peers before you even arrive. View all companies attending
• Entry to the Expo Hall and multiple networking receptions.
• Breakfasts and lunches designed to foster meaningful peer connections throughout the day.

REGISTER NOW AND SAVE

The Tech & Innovation Pitch Battle will be held on Nov 7th LIVE in New Orleans, LA at NAR NXT. Take the stage for your chance at:

• Big Stage Visibility: Pitch live at NAR NXT—one of the industry’s largest events—before peers, investors, and leaders.
• Fast Impact: Four minute pitch + rapid-fire Q&A = high-energy feedback and instant visibility.
• Serious Prizes: Win $15,000, media spotlight, and direct investor access.
• Powerful Connections: Gain coaching and public pitch exposure that opens real doors.
• Innovation Leadership: Align with NAR’s Tech & Innovation community—be part of what’s next!

Applications close September 18, 2026…

Apply Now

A Michigan-based mortgage lender is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that it used artificial-voice cold calls to pitch refinancing offers to consumers without their consent. If found guilty, the claim could carry significant financial penalties under federal telemarketing law.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, accuses Mortgage One Funding LLC of placing unsolicited calls to consumers’ cellphones using a synthetic or prerecorded voice in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The complaint alleges the calls were made either directly by the lender or by third-party telemarketers acting on its behalf.

Artificial-voice calls at heart of lawsuit

According to the lawsuit, consumers received unsolicited calls featuring an artificial or prerecorded voice promoting mortgage refinancing services. The complaint alleges the calls were made without the recipients’ prior express written consent, as required under TCPA for telemarketing calls placed to cellphones using artificial or prerecorded voices.

Plaintiffs claim the calls were directed to consumers’ cellphones, including individuals who had not consented to receive such outreach. The proposed class would include U.S. consumers who received similar artificial-voice calls from Mortgage One Funding LLC or entities acting on its behalf within the applicable statutory period.

Under the TCPA, statutory damages generally begin at $500 per violation and may increase to as much as $1,500 per call if a violation is found to be willful. The complaint alleges that aggregate damages could exceed $5 million. 

Mortgage One Funding has not yet publicly filed a response to the allegations.

AI prospecting under a 30-year-old statute

The case highlights a growing legal question facing mortgage and real estate marketers in how AI-driven outreach tools fit within a federal telemarketing framework written decades before modern AI voice agents existed.

The TCPA, enacted in 1991, restricts certain calls made using automatic telephone dialing systems or artificial or prerecorded voices. For telemarketing calls placed to cellphones using artificial or prerecorded voices, the law generally requires prior express written consent from the recipient. 

Courts in recent years have examined how newer AI-based voice technologies and automated outreach systems fall within those statutory definitions.

For lenders, the compliance risks can be substantial. 

TCPA lawsuits are frequently filed as class actions, and because statutory damages are assessed on a per-call basis, even relatively small outreach campaigns can result in significant financial exposure if found noncompliant.

Scaling outreach, scaling risk

Mortgage companies commonly use outbound calls and texts to generate refinance and purchase leads, particularly when rate moves or slower markets intensify competition. 

At the same time, TCPA litigation has continued to target mortgage outreach, alleging calls or texts to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry or contact without adequate consent documentation.

As lenders experiment with automated outreach, plaintiffs have argued that AI-generated voice calls fall under the TCPA’s restrictions on artificial or prerecorded voices, an interpretation the FCC has endorsed in recent guidance. 

Industry attorneys also caution that using third-party marketing vendors does not automatically shield a lender from liability where telemarketers act on the seller’s behalf.

The case against Mortgage One is still in its early stages, and the plaintiffs have requested a jury trial.

Email Nick Pipitone

Compass International Holdings has struck a three-year partnership with Rocket Companies to display coming-soon listings in a way that aligns with the mega-brokerage’s marketing strategies.

Robert Reffkin, Compass’ CEO, laid out the details of the new partnership in an email he sent to all Compass agents on Thursday. Inman has obtained and reviewed that email. Multiple sources independently confirmed the existence of the agreement.

Under the agreement, sellers and Compass agents can choose to syndicate Compass Coming Soon listings directly with Redfin, where the listings wouldn’t accrue days on market, price histories or home valuation estimates.

Eventually, Compass Private Exclusive listings will also be displayed on Redfin as well, Rocket said in a statement announcing the deal.

The partnership marked a significant twist in the ongoing battle between Compass and what it considers “organized real estate“: the National Association of Realtors, the multiple listing services and Zillow. It brought Rocket-Redfin into alignment with the nation’s largest brokerage, a new ally that Reffkin said would bring significant leverage while the two challenge the rules in place that seek to ensure listings end up on the MLS.

“This alliance marks the end of the restrictions that MLSs have had on agents and sellers on how they market homes,” Reffkin said during a call with investors on Thursday. “When they’re restricting the agent and homeseller, they’re going to be restricting Rocket.”

The Compass listings on Redfin will be prioritized with “premium” placement, Reffkin said in his email. The listings will display the agent’s name, photo and brokerage prominently, and buyer leads will be sent directly to listing agents for no referral fee, he added.

“This program has never been offered to sellers before and is exclusively for you and your clients,” Reffkin said in the email.

The announcement came the same day that Compass released its fourth quarter financial results, when it posted record quarterly revenue of $1.7 billion — as well as full-year revenue of $7 billion.

During the call with investors, Reffkin said that MLSs with rules that restrict off-MLS marketing of listings would “lose their moral narrative.”

He specifically called out the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, North Texas Real Estate Information Systems and the Northwest MLS, and suggested Compass and Rocket were prepared to go to battle with them and any other MLS that might try to fine Compass agents who market coming soon properties on Redfin.

“In each of those markets, what’s going to happen is that MLS is going to send our agents a fine for up to $5,000,” Reffkin said. “I’m going to look at that piece of paper, and the agent’s going to say, ‘Can you help me?’ Yes, we will help them.”

The move comes as Compass has battled both in the courts and out of them to allow its agents to market real estate listings in ways that are currently largely inhibited by rules and policies the industry set for itself.

Reffkin has also said that real estate is the only industry where participants face fines for doing things in ways they want.

“I don’t think any agent at any company should get fined by their MLS,” he said on stage at Inman Connect New York earlier this month. “This doesn’t happen in any other industry. There is no association that is fining their own people. This is not normal.”

“Are you telling me that you’re fining the agent $5,000 for marketing the listing publicly searchable by 60 million people on Redfin, these sites, that you’re doing that to protect fair housing? Are you doing that to protect transparency? Are you doing that to ensure that we’re not double ending deals?” Reffkin said. “Or are you doing this not to protect transparency, but protect your own business model?”

Rocket CEO Varun Krishna also confirmed the partnership in a statement, saying it was a way to increase the supply of listings to the Redfin platform.

Rocket said that it would offer “preferred pricing” for Compass clients, including a 1 percentage point interest rate reduction for the first year of a loan, or a lender credit of $6,000.

“When barriers are removed and supply grows, affordability improves,” said Varun Krishna, CEO of Rocket Companies. “Today’s challenge is friction in the homebuying process and a lack of inventory. By bringing search, agents and financing into one connected platform, we can help more sellers enter the market, reduce complexity for buyers and make homeownership more attainable.”

Jason Haber, an associate broker with Compass in New York, applauded the partnership.

“Our clients should be the ones determining how their listings are listed, where their listings are listed and when their listings are listed,” Haber told Inman Thursday afternoon. “I think it fits the zeitgeist of the age we’re in.”

Email Taylor Anderson