Okay, Clubhouse is pretty awesome. I participated in my first discussion room -- thanks to my friend Evgeny, who has been a vocal supporter of the platform -- and I have now seen the light. The topic was real estate and PropTech. And we hope to do it again.

It feels a bit like Twitter to me, but obviously with audio and with greater controls and visibility in terms of who can participate inside of a discussion room.

It also makes perfect sense to me that Twitter is piloting their own version of Clubhouse called Spaces. That feels like a natural extension and something that needs to happen. Perhaps some of the moderation features will also make their way into the rest of Twitter.

As many of you already know, what makes Clubhouse unique is that the communication is free-flowing and impromptu. You are able to see what topics people are talking about and then jump in and out of those audio rooms, as well as invite people to join a discussion that you may be having.

All of this makes the communication feel like you're at a party or in an open office. Over there you can see/hear that someone is talking about the "Pensky file." If that's interesting and/or relevant to you, you have the option of jumping into that conversation.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these features and behaviors translated over into workplace collaboration tools. I think it would be helpful to see what other discussions are taking place within a team or company.

Maybe if we made things a little more free flowing, we wouldn't need so many damn Zoom meetings.

Proptech Collective has just published their inaugural 2021 Proptech in Canada report. Here are a couple of screen grabs that you all might find interesting:

What these images should tell you is that the Canadian proptech landscape is fairly Toronto-centric, but that it's also very much in its nascent stages. We're just getting started here.

I would encourage you to download a full copy of the report. It's very well done.

Wired recently published a long read called, "I stumbled across a huge Airbnb scam that’s taking over London." Apparently the people who do these sorts of things on the platform (things that are both illegal and questionable) call it "systemizing." This is the process of trying to create scale. Secure lots of units. Create a bunch of fake/duplicate accounts. And try and maximize revenue.

This obviously runs counter to Airbnb's mission of "authentic places", "community", and "local hosts." But as Benedict Evans points out in his latest newsletter, "where there is money and people, there will be scams." And Airbnb is obviously doing everything it can to quash this kind of activity, especially as it prepares for a possible IPO this year. The company has a policy of zero tolerance.

Fraud and government regulation are likely to be the two biggest kinks to work out as the company gets ready for public consumption. I am sure an equilibrium will be found; it's just going to take some time and a few lawyers. It goes to show you just how challenging startups can be when you combine digital (tech) and physical (real estate).