A Quick Q&A with Tasha Tolmacheva, Co-Founder & Community Services at PropTech Finland
Who is the person who has most influenced the way you think about cities and technology?
Tasha Tolmacheva
I guess what influenced my view on technology most, was during my Ph.D. when I stumbled upon ‘An Economic Theory of Technological Change’ by William D. Nordhaus. This article from 1969 has changed my perspective on the role of technology, ever since technology wasn’t ‘something for technically-minded people, i.e. nerds’ anymore but a part of my reality as an economist…
As to cities, my views are constantly evolving. The most recent mind-blowing thing was David Malott’s keynote at RecoTech 2019. He showed AI Spacefactory’s 3D building technology which can be used to build in space, once Elon Musk will take us there…
What else?
In his TED talk back in 2005, Bjorn Lomborg gave a list of global problems we can solve, prioritizing them in the order of cost/benefit. Looking back at it, one can easily see that neither those on the top nor those on the bottom were solved, even though we tried to touch some of them. More importantly, the pandemic has drastically changed the rationale behind the prioritization. The cost/benefit approach, used as a primary concept for centuries, was strongly rejected by society whenever any government was trying to talk about it.
Humanity is going through the radical, may I say tectonic, shift of values and moral norms, at an unprecedented rate. These are interesting times to live in.
Tell me more about Proptech Finland
PropTech Finland is a non-profit association for startups and scaleups. Our mission is to unite the Finnish built environment startup community, help startups to grow their business within Finland and internationally, help them establish a network and operate in the global PropTech ecosystem.
We are creating opportunities for Finnish startups to showcase their solutions at local and global events, participate in PR campaigns and research initiatives. We have a constantly expanding network of investors, startups, and PropTech initiatives which helps us provide services to our members, like marketing, PR, matchmaking, research, and introductions. We produce a number of events.
Our biggest event, RecoTech, will be on November 18. We execute RecoTech together with Rakli, the association of professional property owners, real estate investors, and construction clients in Finland. We are always open to new ideas and collaborations. You can easily contact us via our website or reach out to us on LinkedIn.
Where’s the best place for new ideas?
It can be anywhere, as long as you have peace of mind and ability to stop your inner dialogue and dream, imagine, explore. On one hand, we are living in a world of constant noise, both on inside and outside, new things popping up in front of our eyes every second, multiple voices talking to us from a number of devices, new information flooding our lives non-stop and leaving us no space for new ideas. On the other hand, the complexity of today’s world requires teams, not lonely geniuses, to execute ideas. Whatever brilliant idea you come up with, sooner or later you’ll need a team to make it a reality. It pays off to start discussing the idea at an early stage. My best ideas were born in open discussions with other people.
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Learn more about Tasha Tolmacheva by connecting with her on LinkedIn.
