Dillon Okner is the Founder & Partner of SiteRise, a retail development and construction platform helping brands streamline site selection, store development, and portfolio expansion. With more than 15 years of experience in retail construction and operations, Dillon previously helped support the expansion of major brands including Apple and Tesla. Today, he focuses on helping retailers, restaurants, and franchise operators eliminate development bottlenecks and open locations faster through better data, workflow management, and portfolio visibility.

(01:13) - How Retail Openings Break
(03:36) - Retail Innovation Edge
(05:00) - Store development with SiteRise
(07:38) - Apple & Tesla Lessons
(09:26) - Proprietary Data
(14:07) - Construction Influence on Deals
(15:27) - Working with Brokers
(16:33) - SiteRise's Clients
(17:44) - Getting Buy-in From Stakeholders
(20:50) - Collaboration superpower: Dillon's father and grandfather

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit SiteRise
-Dillon Okner on LinkedIn

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

🏙️ Events coming up:
-AI & Innovation Forum Q2: virtual on 6/10

-Retail & Hospitality Forum: in NYC on 6/18
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-All upcoming events

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

Will Parrish is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Lula, a Kansas City-based proptech platform built to streamline property maintenance for property managers and their residents. Will co-founded Lula alongside CEO Bo Lais with a mission to make property maintenance smarter — pivoting the business during the pandemic to focus on property managers in the single-family rental space, a move that fueled rapid growth. Lula recently closed a $28 million Series A round and is expanding from 42 markets to 60, with heavy investment in AI and automation. Before co-founding Lula, Will spent nearly two decades in enterprise sales and business development, including a long tenure at Thomson Reuters.

(00:53) - How Lula Started
(02:34) - Trading Corporate for Startup Life
(03:29) - Is Maintenance Archaic
(05:49) - Where Work Orders Fail
(07:30) - Scaling 100K Work Orders
(12:28) - Building Vendor Trust & Quality
(13:19) - Expanding Markets
(16:16) - Flat Rate Pricing Playbook
(19:15) - Ideal Rental Customers
(21:54) - Integrations
(25:47) - AI In Maintenance
(30:21) - Future of Lula
(32:14) - ROI for Property Owners & Operators
(35:49) - Hardware play ahead?
(39:12) - Collaboration Superpower: MacGyver

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit Lula
-Will Parrish on LinkedIn

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

🏙️ Events coming up:
-AI & Innovation Forum Q2: virtual on 6/10

-Retail & Hospitality Forum: in NYC on 6/18
-Institutional Investors & PE Forum: in NYC on 9/16
-All upcoming events

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.

Don Tepman, known as StripMallGuy, is the founder of TownCentre Capital, a private equity firm focused on buying neighborhood strip centers across the United States. With over 20 years of retail real estate investing, he has completed over 45 acquisitions and raised more than $150M in LP capital, and has built one of commercial real estate's most followed voices on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram with over half a million followers.

This episode was recorded live on the red carpet at the 4th Annual Real Estate Gala in New York City, co-hosted by Don Tepman and Bob Knakal.

(00:00) – Tangent Joins Commercial Observer
(01:40) – ICSC Vegas Panel & Live Podcasts
(03:41) – Social Media & In-person Events as a Business Tool
(03:59) – StripMallGuy's AI AHA Moment
(04:18) – Why PropTech Is Hard
(05:02) – Death of the Cold Call
(5:33) - Last Tech Solution SMG Adopted
(6:45) - Collaboration Superpower: Charlie Munger
(07:31) – Rise of Tech Founders with CRE Backgrounds

🏙️ Learn more:
-Visit TownCentre Capital
-Don Tepman on LinkedIn
-StripMallGuy on X

🏙️ Connect with Tangent:
-Edward Cohen on LinkedIn
-Zach Aarons on LinkedIn
-Tangent on LinkedIn

🏙️ Events coming up:
-Residential Forum: in NYC on 5/28
-AI & Innovation Forum Q2: virtual on 6/10

-Retail & Hospitality Forum: in NYC on 6/18
-All upcoming events

Disclaimer: Commercial Observer Tangent podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on our program constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Tangent, Commercial Observer, MetaProp, or any third party guest to buy or sell any securities, public or private, other financial instruments or funds.