John Helm, Christopher Yip and Jameson Hartman

As the entire tech world reckons with the impact AI will have, venture capital firm RET Ventures is thinking hard about how to find the next generation of proptech talent. As the firm wrote in a September blog post looking back at its first decade, “great tech isn’t always a great investment.”

This April, RET launched the industry’s first AI-native accelerator, based on a new model of engaging AI talent early and giving it the type of exposure needed to scale. The two inaugural startups are Brightplace, an apartment search platform, and LeasingAI, which helps make apartments more visible across generative search engines.

RET said its biggest differentiator since it began has been its partnership with industry partners and investors. They not only provide funding for startups, but also offer their property as space to run pilots and scale up promising tech.  

The ability to tap AI coding to more rapidly design tech solutions means today’s startups need less funding, and can scale faster with fewer staff. But to find the true gems within the tidal wave of new AI-native companies requires real-world experience. 

“We wanted to make sure we get in front of all these companies at a much earlier stage than we  historically did, because so much is changing,” said Christopher Yip, who, like Jameson Hartman and John Helm, is a partner at the company. “This is an opportunity, right, to partner with this next generation of AI-based startups and get them out to market.” 

The Park City, Utah-based company, which has made more than $800 million in investments,  currently has a more traditional portfolio of 39 companies, such as homeowners association platform Stan.AI, but hopes to expand the AI Accelerator to four to six firms within the next 18 months.  

“We’re drawing on our muscle memory of what makes for a strong founder and team in this industry,” said Yip. “We’re now having to make that judgment call very early on.”