In this episode of Austin Tech Connect, Austin Technology Council CEO, Thom Singer, sits down with Greg Cooper, president at Offerd, to explore how PropTech is reshaping commercial real estate and why Austin is a compelling place to build it.
Greg's Austin story spans three decades and a rare path. He grew up in Jamaica, spent time in England, went to high school in Houston, then earned a UT law degree focused on real estate. While in law school he co-founded Austin Java and ended up running a fast growing restaurant company with hundreds of employees, an experience that sharpened his operator mindset. He then moved into residential real estate, helping build one of Keller Williams' top teams before launching a brokerage that grew to more than one hundred agents. The pivot to commercial came after the sale of that firm, where Greg discovered an even higher bar for talent and execution.
In 2020 a cold call led him to the Offerd founder and a platform that aggregates fragmented commercial data into one system, applies predictive analytics, and surfaces who is most likely to buy or sell. Greg first joined as an affiliate to use the tech, then quickly began working Offerd's institutional deal flow. Within weeks his team had nine figure pipelines and he closed transactions with public REITs, validating that the model could change how large assets trade.
Today Offerd operates as a brokerage paired with an internal product team, and the company is evaluating a spin out of the technology to give the software a clear valuation while the brokerage retains a permanent license. They talk candidly about capital strategy, the difference between lumpy services revenue and SaaS, and why the total addressable market for brokerage commissions remains massive.
They also dive into Austin's market reality. Rates froze residential mobility, new apartments created pressure on rents, and affordability must improve, yet the region's long term trajectory is strong. Greg sees a growing local PropTech cluster but notes the lack of a consistent forum for founders to compare notes. That is why community matters. Real leaders show up, cross vertical conversations prevent silos, and Austin works best when collaboration is the norm.
Big thanks to Calavista Software for supporting this show as the sponsor...and their support of the broader tech community.
