2024 Ones to Watch - Innovators in CRE: Caren Maio, 100

Caren Maio is the CEO and co-founder of 100. At 100, she is currently leading a team of 11 and is responsible for GTM sales & marketing, operations, and finance. Caren has nearly 15 years of experience in the proptech space. Previously she served within the industry as president of Moved, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Camber Creek, and CEO and co-founder of Funnel Leasing (formerly Nestio). 

Innovative Solution: 

I’ve been building, operating, and scaling successful companies in the proptech space for nearly 15 years. I’ve pivoted B2C businesses into B2B businesses. After building a product in New York City, one of the world’s most complex real estate ecosystems, I scaled that product into a national customer base. What’s enabled that success is three-fold – ears listening to the market, eyes looking towards the future, and agility in responding to significant shifts and market changes. What’s shifted in particular in recent years is customers’ willingness to play a bigger, more strategic role within proptech companies, helping drive innovation forward. This includes partaking in early customer boards, investing in proptech companies, and providing valuable insight and advice to help these companies build, grow, and scale. 

Innovative Outlook:

It’s easier and less costly than ever to build and deploy new technology, taking one look at the most recent advancements across AI is proof of that. What took years can be accomplished in months and at a fraction of the cost. I’m particularly excited to see the way this impacts founding teams and funding rounds as we see new cohorts of entrepreneurs entering the space. We’re in the early innings of real estate innovation, and the best years are ahead. A great example of this is how you can now build AI tools on top of existing platforms like OpenAI’s GPT models; another example is call center and communication technology, now customizing your own tools on top of existing solutions like Twilio. 

“Caren Maio is the CEO and co-founder of 100 (launched in September 2024) – a proptech platform disrupting the multifamily rental and screening process as the first-ever Verified Renter Network with a tech-driven approach to make renting easy, bias-free, and secure. 100 raised a $5.2 million pre-seed round, the largest and most significant pre-seed fundraiser in U.S. proptech history, also notably raised by a female-led company.” - Jesse Kent, Derring-Do Inc.