Pros
- the new "Digital Lab" is basically a startup inside the company. You get the benefits of a startup (charting your own destiny, building a cool product) without the drawbacks (you get long-term investors vs. bs VCs, you have a guaranteed client base so we're profitable on day 1, you don't have to deal with random accounting/legal issues because you can use the inhouse RXR team). I worked in and around VC- and corporate-backed startups before; most corporate-backed startups suck, but good ones are way better than VC-backed... and this one is a good one
- the talent here is incredible. I interviewed at a few real estate innovation teams and most of them had no real tech experience and couldn't have gotten a job in any venture-backed firm. Almost everyone here has startup experience, and a lot of people have industry experience in similar industries as well (e.g., architecture, hotel)
- culture is amazing. People are super smart but it's NOT cutthroat (as I sort of expected NYC real estate to be)
- the CEO of RXR (Scott Rechler) is also the CEO of the Lab, so you get to know a really inspirational leader (he knows everyone in the Lab)
Cons
- it's definitely hard disrupting an old industry. It helps that RXR is guaranteed to buy the product if it's good, though. And if we can prove value in the RXR portfolio, I feel good about proving it outside of RXR
