PropTech & Planet with Aaron Lawrence, DrizzleX

Welcome to ‘Poppy’s Perspective: PropTech & Planet’ with Poppy Clarke, a Q&A focused on the PropTech and Climate Industry. 

This Q&A series is an opportunity for our Climate Tech consultant, Poppy Clarke, to share her take on the latest innovations shaping both the climate and PropTech space.

This week Poppy spoke to Aaron Lawrence, VP of Sales at DrizzleX.

DrizzleX is the only company that can monitor every water fixture in every apartment, helping owners and operators of multi-family buildings easily manage water consumption. With a powerful landlord dashboard, live alerts and reports for leaks and overuse, and easy installation, DrizzleX turns down waste and turns up savings of 20-40% or more on water bills. No need for unit-level mains. No need to hire a plumber. No need to break walls or cut pipes. Just thousands of dollars in savings year after year.

What’s the core mission of DrizzleX, and what sets you apart in the space?

At DrizzleX, our core mission is to enable data-driven water management in the multifamily housing industry. Most apartment buildings weren’t designed with submetering in mind, and retrofitting them with traditional solutions often means significant plumbing work—which is costly and disruptive.

What sets us apart is that we are the only company to deliver granular, unit-level water data without the need for invasive repiping. We go beyond measurement; our system identifies specific leaks, wasteful behavior, and actionable insights that property owners and managers can act on immediately. We help properties not just track consumption, but actively reduce it, both through leak detection and tenant behavioral change—aligning water conservation with real-world ROI and long-term sustainability goals.

What’s the biggest trend you see shaping Climate Technology in 2025, and why?

The most significant trend we’re seeing is a need for actionable items when it comes to sustainability efforts. It’s no longer enough to simply gather impressive data sets—owners and operators want immediate, actionable insights that drive tangible outcomes.

With property owners becoming more risk-averse, there’s little appetite for another dashboard that doesn’t deliver results. Additionally, with the advent of AI, the expectation now is that technology should surface high-impact action items automatically, leaving human teams to focus on execution.

We’re also seeing powerful legacy tools—like property management and leasing platforms—evolve rapidly, while new niche technologies emerge to address previously ignored pain points. Plumbing, for example, has traditionally been considered too difficult to monitor effectively in most buildings. I would expect property owners to be focusing on these previously untrackable data points in the coming years as they continue to develop their long-term sustainability strategies.

What’s the toughest challenge the industry faces right now, and how do you think it can be tackled?

One of the biggest challenges is rising costs—materials, insurance, interest rates. These, and other capital and operational expenses are only increasing. At the same time, there’s strong interest in sustainability, but initiatives need to directly impact NOI and demonstrate quick ROI in order to be adopted.

Convincing property owners to adopt new technology requires a clear, data-backed business case. That’s why it is essential to build partnerships with the property owners rather than simply trying to sell the product. Creative partner strategies and a laser focus on outcomes are critical. Another layer of complexity is the property management teams themselves. They’re overextended and often don’t have incentives to adopt new maintenance responsibilities, even when they’re in the building’s best interest. While these teams may not be the actual customer, it is imperative not to neglect the relationship with the management teams to ensure successful projects.

Success will come from building tools that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, reduce operational burdens, and provide fast, measurable financial wins.

What does success and growth look like for DrizzleX in the next few years? Any bold predictions?

Success for DrizzleX is becoming the go-to water monitoring tool for multifamily owners and operators who want control over their water bills and consumption. We’re already on a trajectory of exponential growth—in both customer adoption and product capabilities.

Right now, in many cases, it is the dollar savings that get us in the door. But once we’re in, clients realize that DrizzleX has broader value: reducing water damage, making it easier to justify rent increases, improving tenant satisfaction, and streamlining leasing processes.

There’s no asset class that can’t benefit from our solution—whether or not they’re billing tenants directly for water, so the growth potential is limitless. Ultimately, we believe DrizzleX will become essential infrastructure, like WiFi or HVAC, for multifamily buildings that want to operate efficiently and sustainably.

When it comes to building your team, what qualities or mindset do you look for? Is there a common “DrizzleX DNA”?

At DrizzleX, we look for team members who are curious, resilient, and deeply outcome-oriented. We’re operating in a niche within a niche—climate-focused proptech—and it requires people who are eager to learn fast and dive deep.

Understanding our product means getting familiar not just with water data, but with the mechanics of plumbing, fixture-level consumption, and how those tie into the broader business metrics our clients care about.

The ideal DrizzleX team member is someone who’s committed to continuous learning and who thrives in a fast-moving environment. Our product can save clients thousands in water savings, or even just by helping maintenance teams avoid unnecessary man-hours—and that only happens when every team member understands both the technical and business impact of what we deliver.

What’s a failure – personal or professional – that taught you the most, and how did it shape your approach?

Earlier in my career, after transitioning out of my first BDR role, I made the mistake of relying too heavily on inbound leads. I underestimated how proactive you need to be to be successful in sales, and that assumption led to a tough first quarter and a wake-up call I won’t forget.

That experience taught me the fundamental importance of outbound prospecting, especially in a startup environment. At DrizzleX, that lesson has paid dividends—we’ve landed some of our largest accounts through strategic outbound outreach. As a young company, you can’t wait for people to come to you. No matter how novel or impactful your product is, you have to put it in front of the right people, repeatedly and persistently.

You can have the best solution in the market, but if no one knows about it, you’re invisible. That mindset has shaped our sales strategy from day one.

Who in Climate Tech inspires you the most and why? (Company or Person)

For me, it’s Esther Altura, the CEO of DrizzleX. She built this company—and the product itself—from the ground up. On top of building the product, and with no formal sales training, she still managed to build a client base that laid the foundation for the growth we’re experiencing today.

What inspires me most is her relentless drive and belief in solving a real, overlooked problem in the multifamily space. She didn’t wait for the perfect conditions or a large team—she rolled up her sleeves and got in front of clients herself, proving the value of the technology one property at a time. Without the work she put in during those early days—building the product, validating it in the field, and winning over those critical first customers—there’s no way we’d be where we are today.

And finally, if you could give one piece of advice to those playing pivotal roles in early stage startups in the industry – what would it be?

Get out there and knock on doors—literally and figuratively. Especially in the early stages, you can’t afford to wait for inbound interest or rely on reputation. You have to be the one starting conversations, introducing your product, and showing people why it matters.

If you speak to enough people, you will find success. It’s a numbers game, but it’s also about persistence and belief in what you’re building. No matter how great your tech is, it won’t sell itself. The only way to gain traction is to put yourself out there, learn from every conversation, and keep showing up until someone says yes.