Founders of SmartRent and IOTAS Join Forces to Share Their Expertise in Smart Home, PropTech & Real Estate

Phoenix, AZ February 27th, 2024 – Today marks a significant moment in the tech and real estate sectors as three distinguished leaders, Sce Pike, Mitch Karren and Demetrios Barnes, have announced their decision to join forces under Demetrios Barnes’ consultancy group, the Fenix Group. These seasoned entrepreneurs and innovators, each with a track record of successfully co-founding companies that either went public, SmartRent (SMRT), or were acquired – IOTAS by ADT are set to bring their collective expertise to the forefront of Internet of Things, PropTech, Smart Home, and Real Estate.

About the Partners and their Past Successes:

1. Sce Pike: As a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur, Sce Pike brings a wealth of experience. Pike’s first company, Citizen, which focused on helping Fortune 100 companies grow revenue through their Mobile and Digital Experiences and Solutions, grew to be one of the top consultancy firm in Mobile, Digital, and IoT and was acquired by Ernst & Young in 2018. Pike’s second company, IOTAS, a leader in Smart Apartments, Data and AI, was acquired by ADT to bring Smart Home Technology to the Multi-Family industry. Pike has over 20 years of experience bringing products successfully to market and driving revenue growth through team development, product development and go-to-market strategies.
2. Mitch Karren: Mitch has spent the majority of his career building and scaling enterprise software and connected hardware products for the real estate industry. His products have been deployed to hundreds of thousands of homes and used by millions of people across the globe. He has built and led product, sales and corporate development teams for private and public companies. Most recently, he was the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of SmartRent, which went public in 2021. In 2014, he designed and directed the first national deployment of enterprise smart homes systems for the residential rental industry.
3. Demetrios Barnes: Demetrios brings a core focus around customer success and implementation, with making technology easy to understand and ensuring that operational goals are being met. He founded Fenix Group Consulting which specializes in helping the property management and real estate industry implement, develop and customize solutions for Yardi, RealPage, Entrata, Salesforce and NetSuite as well as full stack software development. Demetrios was also the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer for SmarRent where he spent his time there focused on Client Success, Product Implementation, Customer Support and Supply Chain. Demetrios is an avid proptech enthusiast who is currently working on new solutions for the industry. His next product, Umbrello is focused on rethinking the Guest Card to Application process while reducing the ever growing fraud problem affecting the property management industry.

 Collaborative Vision to Help the Tech and Real Estate Industry:

Together, these industry titans aim to leverage their collective experience to drive innovation and shape the future of IoT, PropTech, Smart Home, and Real Estate. By combining their strengths, they intend to assist companies, ventures, and P/Es to create groundbreaking solutions and set new industry standards.

Quote from the Partners:

“We are thrilled to join forces and bring our diverse expertise to the table. By pooling our knowledge in IoT, Proptech, Smart Home, and Real Estate, we believe we can make a lasting impact on these industries, fostering innovation and growth,” said the partners in a joint statement.

Future Plans:

In the coming months, the partners plan to unveil their collaborative projects and initiatives, signaling a new era of innovation in the fields of IoT, Gen AI for PropTech, Smart Home, and Real Estate & Property Management. To find out more and engage with any of the partners please go here.

2024+ Predictions:

When asked about what 2024 will bring for the IoT, Smart Home, PropTech, or Real Industry the partners shared their predictions:

Sce Pike – “I’m keeping a close eye on the ever rising need for affordable and quality homes provided by new business models such as company sponsorship. For example, Annum Housing is working with companies that want to support their workforce and get a competitive edge in hiring and retention by providing a supply of readily available housing. The demand by companies to provide housing is strong, but the supply side, the MFH industry, have to be educated about this new model.”

Mitch Karren – “The multifamily industry is at a major inflection point, where rents have flattened and an oversupply looms in many major markets. To stay competitive, developers should be implementing all of the smart building amenities. Owners and operators should be putting centralization and sustainability measures into practice yesterday. A notable company solving key sustainability issues is Conservation Labs, an artificial intelligence company that developed a groundbreaking platform that decodes audio data into actionable insights in the built environment to reduce carbon emissions, energy consumption and water usage. These next couple years are pivotal and will clearly separate property operators with strong technology stacks from the late adopters.”

Demetrios Barnes – “There are alot of solutions in the multifamily industry and it’s becoming increasingly important that the companies you work with are solving problems that are key to your business but also have a proven track record of success and familiarity in the space. The emphasis on cost reduction, employee turnover and training are at an all time high, therefore finding a partner to help you advance your operations while allowing your business to focus on providing a wonderful experience for your customers is imperative. We’re also seeing a trend of an unwillingness to charge high SaaS fees and cash infusion to suppliers are causing companies to close doors, pivot their strategy or consolidate with larger property management systems. The trend of centralization is at an all time high, but the focus is primarily around leasing and maintenance; I’d look at companies who are tackling problems in the back office of the organization: accounting functions from aged receivables to accounts payables, through the use of machine learning, companies like – PredictAP are revolutionizing an underserved focus of our business.

Media Contact:

Demetrios Barnes – demetrios@fnxgrp.com

About Fenix Group Consulting:

Fenix Group Consulting, is a team of real estate, property management and technology professionals with skill sets ranging from property, corporate & accounting operations, software development, support and implementation of property management software with over 20+ years of experience. Fenix Group is a boutique agency with customer profiles ranging from Fortune 500 asset managers to SMB owner operators, in MultiFamily, Single Family, Student and Commercial management. Fenix Group also helps suppliers and partners with their software development, from full stack to advisory needs that help drive efficiency and proficiency in the RETech industry.