·"What inspired founders of SquarePlan, and how does it fit into your vision for improving workflow and boosting productivity in real estate management?"

MM: Zbigniew, the founder of SquarePlan, spent two decades running an office design firm, and it became very clear to him that insane amounts of office space plans, created at early stages of the commercial leasing process go straight to trash, if the potential tenant chooses another building. On top of that the process is time, labour consuming and very repetitive for architects. 

From that the vision to "fix" commercial leasing came about. Let's change the process that takes 4-6 months, and be done with it in a single day. And once we're at it, let's make sure tenants get spaces that best suit them.

 

·  "What do you think is SquarePlan’s biggest advantage over other similar platforms on the market today?"

MM: In some ways it's a truly unique technology. We're able to utilise our developed algorithms to have a:
- Office space plan ready in several minutes - 5 versions of it, fully exportable to .dwg and following local regulations

- Technical design generated in 2-3 minutes, which allows us to create a super-accurate fitout cost estimation
- 3D/VR/AR view of the completed space available in 30 seconds

In other words, our programmers, architects and mathematicians collaborated and created something 100% unique in the market.

 

·"Who typically uses SquarePlan, and what are the biggest challenges you’re helping them overcome?"

MM: We're used by landlords - and by that I mean their leasing and property management teams - as well as design and build companies. We save money and time on creating visuals, space plans and fitout cost estimation.

 

·"How have property managers and their teams responded to SquarePlan? Do you have any success stories you can share?"

MM: Very positive, but of course, it's a bit of a "I bring a carpet, and I tell you it flies." It's very natural that clients want to test it and see it for themselves. If you were estimating fitout costs for three decades using complicated Excel files, and spending days of time, it's hard to believe a machine can do it in minutes. 

But the clients who use it are delighted - Mapletree, Invesco, Strabag, Vastint, Skanska. 
To quote Henryk Bilski, Head of Leasing at STRABAG Poland 
“SquarePlan is a tool that removes a lot of hassle from the leasing process, providing clarity and order into an exercise that involves plenty of stakeholders and multiple moving pieces. We're also looking forward to benefit from the strong automation capabilities that SquarePlan brings, automating the fitout valuation process and by that becoming the building that can work with potential tenants the fastest”

 

·  "How do you think technology in property management is evolving, and how is SquarePlan keeping up with these changes?"

MM: I think AI will be a game changer for documentation, negotiating contracts and getting on top of the "digital twin" of buildings. We are obviously a big part of it - all that you generate with us, stays in our portfolio management module, and you end up with a very accurate digital picture of your portfolio.

 

·  "What’s next for SquarePlan? Are you planning to expand into new markets, introduce new features, or collaborate with other real estate tech players?"

MM: Every days is something new. In recent months we scaled to Western Europe and into Far East, India has been a huge challenge (we had to create algorithms to generate technical designs for systems used in tropical climates - no chilled beams, you can be sure of that!)

 

·  "Where do you see SquarePlan in five years, and what impact do you hope to have on the industry?"

MM: We want to completely change how commercial leasing is done. It has to be fast and cheap.

Now you get a 30-building long list from a big agency that charges you a ton for it, then you go to maybe 10 building tours, you get a 3-building short list, and that's where in many weeks you work on getting test fits, estimations etc.

When it's automated you can do a test fit on 50 buildings, try multiple arrangements, understand cost differences quickly and find the very best one for your company. Architects gain time to work on best designs, and property managers focus on high value tasks, rather than on daily grind!