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min read
James Dice

Welcome to Nexus

January 14, 2021

Hey!

Welcome to Nexus. I’m glad you made it. Let me introduce you to the site. If you just want to get the gist, here’s the TL;DR:

  • Nexus exists to move the smart buildings industry forward, without the fluff
  • On Tuesdays, we send out the renowned (and free) Nexus Newsletter. On Thursdays, we send out the (free) Nexus Podcast, where we interview leaders in our industry.
  • To receive both in your inbox, you just subscribe for free
  • Once you’re ready to go deeper, you can join Nexus Pro, a membership community for smart building pros, or join the next cohort of Nexus Foundations, an introduction to the smart buildings industry for up-and-coming changemakers
  • Cohort 3 of Nexus Foundations is coming soon. Join the waitlist to hear more.

If you’re still curious, below you’ll find answers to these questions:

  • Why does Nexus exist?
  • What is Nexus?
  • Who subscribes to Nexus?
  • What is Nexus Pro?
  • Why join Nexus Pro?
  • Other FAQs

Thanks for being here!

James Dice

Why does Nexus exist?

If you’re like us, you’ve been wanting more unbiased, in-depth content on the smart buildings industry. How is the industry changing and where is it going? Which new technology products are hype and which are disruptive? We’ve learned it takes a lot of time to wade through marketing pitches, research papers, and shallow articles to find the signal in the noise.

That’s why we started Nexus in 2019—and why many of our members have joined. Since then, however, Nexus’ goals have grown in scope. Now we’re asking questions like: What’s holding the industry back and how can we move it forward faster? And you can join us in our quest.

What is it?

We send one free newsletter per week on Tuesday mornings and produce a weekly podcast. Here are some of the most popular editions and episodes:

  • Newsletter #14—Exploring Passive Logic's industry-disrupting ideas about controls, digital twins, and making analytics obsolete
  • Podcast #003—Nick Gayeski of KGS Buildings on FDD at scale and 5 waves of smart building tech
  • Newsletter #20—Automating utility cost auditing, edge-to-cloud architecture, the costs of FDD, evaluating FDD algorithms

To receive the weekly newsletter and the podcast, you don't need to do anything other than subscribe for free.

Subscribe now

Who subscribes?

We’re engineers, energy managers, technology vendors, building operators, and real estate investors.

Like you, we’re trying to bridge the gap between two cultures—that of technology on one end and millions of commercial buildings on the other—to understand where we’re headed as an industry.

What is Nexus Pro?

Subscribers who want full access belong to Nexus Pro. You can join the Nexus Pro community for $25/month or $250/year to get access to:

Join Nexus Pro

Why join Nexus Pro?

Here are 5 reasons free subscribers join the Nexus Pro community:

  1. It’s a resource you can trust—My lack of bias is built right into the Nexus Pro business model. The low price and lack of sponsors mean the business doesn’t depend on any single member, company, perspective, or technology. And it most certainly doesn’t depend on maintaining the status quo. 🙌
  2. You can learn with me—If you’re like me and you want more in-depth content, the kind that actually helps us do our jobs better, deep dives are written for you. In order to support their production, Deep Dives (like this one and this one) and podcast show notes (like these) are for members only.
  3. Understand the marketplace—members get access to the ever-evolving Nexus Vendor Landscape, a notebook on the smart building marketplace. If you’re a vendor trying to stay differentiated, this will help. If you’re a building owner or you serve building owners, this will help.

Meet other smart building nerds and changemakers—Pro members attend exclusive events held over Zoom. The goal is to pull our industry’s changemakers together once per month and see what we can accomplish together. So far, it’s working.

Here’s what Pro members are saying:

I am a big fan of Nexus. I read your newsletters and you just keep amazing me every time. I'm now subscribed to Nexus Pro as well.

—Hasan, smart building startup founder
Our organization enjoys reading your Deep Dives and finds them very insightful.  In particular, I took your Deep Dive on antifragility as motivation and implemented several changes through our departments. They are all engaged and working to ensure we exit the COVID-19 crisis in a stronger position than we entered it.  Thank you!

—Joe, smart building technology COO
I’m enjoying your Nexus project.  I appreciate your passion, knowledge, range of enquiry, and depth of analysis in this area.

—Graham, energy efficiency and controls professional
I'm all signed up! Have been enjoying our thought provoking exchanges both on Nexus as well as LinkedIn. Tremendous amount of value, but particularly in the vendor landscape. I still think there is much confusion and also a lack of clarity as far as capabilities and they way these solutions work "in the wild".

—Keith, smart building technology pioneer

It’s a business expense—Finally, let’s be honest… this is a business expense. Most of you can just put this on your expense report. And at $25/month or $250/year, it costs a fraction of research reports that don’t check all of the boxes above.

Subscribe now

Other FAQs

  • Are there other ways my company can work with Nexus?
  • You can hire Nexus Labs as a consultant—I’d love to work directly with you and your team! I’m fully booked right now, but you can add your project to the waitlist so you’ll be the first to know when I’m taking new clients.
  • You can get your message on the podcast—I think podcast (and newsletter) sponsorships can be done in an educational way without the fluff. No, we will not be publishing annoying ads. Your partnership will help us increase the podcast cadence to once per week.
  • Can I forward Pro emails to my colleagues?
  • Nexus Pro members can forward Pro emails to non-paying members. However, membership to Nexus Pro is for individuals. Only paying subscribers will receive invites and be admitted to discussions and events.
  • How can I sign my team up for Nexus Pro?
  • We provide discounts based on the size of your team. Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.
  • What if my company has frozen new expenses right now? What if I just got laid off?
  • We have special COVID-19 rates for those of you who want to join but don’t have the option to get reimbursed by your employer. Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.
  • Does Nexus have a student or young professionals discount?
  • We have special rates for students with ‘.edu’ email addresses and young professionals under 28. Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.

Other questions? Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.

Sign Up for Access or Log In to Continue Viewing

Sign Up for Access or Log In to Continue Viewing

Hey!

Welcome to Nexus. I’m glad you made it. Let me introduce you to the site. If you just want to get the gist, here’s the TL;DR:

  • Nexus exists to move the smart buildings industry forward, without the fluff
  • On Tuesdays, we send out the renowned (and free) Nexus Newsletter. On Thursdays, we send out the (free) Nexus Podcast, where we interview leaders in our industry.
  • To receive both in your inbox, you just subscribe for free
  • Once you’re ready to go deeper, you can join Nexus Pro, a membership community for smart building pros, or join the next cohort of Nexus Foundations, an introduction to the smart buildings industry for up-and-coming changemakers
  • Cohort 3 of Nexus Foundations is coming soon. Join the waitlist to hear more.

If you’re still curious, below you’ll find answers to these questions:

  • Why does Nexus exist?
  • What is Nexus?
  • Who subscribes to Nexus?
  • What is Nexus Pro?
  • Why join Nexus Pro?
  • Other FAQs

Thanks for being here!

James Dice

Why does Nexus exist?

If you’re like us, you’ve been wanting more unbiased, in-depth content on the smart buildings industry. How is the industry changing and where is it going? Which new technology products are hype and which are disruptive? We’ve learned it takes a lot of time to wade through marketing pitches, research papers, and shallow articles to find the signal in the noise.

That’s why we started Nexus in 2019—and why many of our members have joined. Since then, however, Nexus’ goals have grown in scope. Now we’re asking questions like: What’s holding the industry back and how can we move it forward faster? And you can join us in our quest.

What is it?

We send one free newsletter per week on Tuesday mornings and produce a weekly podcast. Here are some of the most popular editions and episodes:

  • Newsletter #14—Exploring Passive Logic's industry-disrupting ideas about controls, digital twins, and making analytics obsolete
  • Podcast #003—Nick Gayeski of KGS Buildings on FDD at scale and 5 waves of smart building tech
  • Newsletter #20—Automating utility cost auditing, edge-to-cloud architecture, the costs of FDD, evaluating FDD algorithms

To receive the weekly newsletter and the podcast, you don't need to do anything other than subscribe for free.

Subscribe now

Who subscribes?

We’re engineers, energy managers, technology vendors, building operators, and real estate investors.

Like you, we’re trying to bridge the gap between two cultures—that of technology on one end and millions of commercial buildings on the other—to understand where we’re headed as an industry.

What is Nexus Pro?

Subscribers who want full access belong to Nexus Pro. You can join the Nexus Pro community for $25/month or $250/year to get access to:

Join Nexus Pro

Why join Nexus Pro?

Here are 5 reasons free subscribers join the Nexus Pro community:

  1. It’s a resource you can trust—My lack of bias is built right into the Nexus Pro business model. The low price and lack of sponsors mean the business doesn’t depend on any single member, company, perspective, or technology. And it most certainly doesn’t depend on maintaining the status quo. 🙌
  2. You can learn with me—If you’re like me and you want more in-depth content, the kind that actually helps us do our jobs better, deep dives are written for you. In order to support their production, Deep Dives (like this one and this one) and podcast show notes (like these) are for members only.
  3. Understand the marketplace—members get access to the ever-evolving Nexus Vendor Landscape, a notebook on the smart building marketplace. If you’re a vendor trying to stay differentiated, this will help. If you’re a building owner or you serve building owners, this will help.

Meet other smart building nerds and changemakers—Pro members attend exclusive events held over Zoom. The goal is to pull our industry’s changemakers together once per month and see what we can accomplish together. So far, it’s working.

Here’s what Pro members are saying:

I am a big fan of Nexus. I read your newsletters and you just keep amazing me every time. I'm now subscribed to Nexus Pro as well.

—Hasan, smart building startup founder
Our organization enjoys reading your Deep Dives and finds them very insightful.  In particular, I took your Deep Dive on antifragility as motivation and implemented several changes through our departments. They are all engaged and working to ensure we exit the COVID-19 crisis in a stronger position than we entered it.  Thank you!

—Joe, smart building technology COO
I’m enjoying your Nexus project.  I appreciate your passion, knowledge, range of enquiry, and depth of analysis in this area.

—Graham, energy efficiency and controls professional
I'm all signed up! Have been enjoying our thought provoking exchanges both on Nexus as well as LinkedIn. Tremendous amount of value, but particularly in the vendor landscape. I still think there is much confusion and also a lack of clarity as far as capabilities and they way these solutions work "in the wild".

—Keith, smart building technology pioneer

It’s a business expense—Finally, let’s be honest… this is a business expense. Most of you can just put this on your expense report. And at $25/month or $250/year, it costs a fraction of research reports that don’t check all of the boxes above.

Subscribe now

Other FAQs

  • Are there other ways my company can work with Nexus?
  • You can hire Nexus Labs as a consultant—I’d love to work directly with you and your team! I’m fully booked right now, but you can add your project to the waitlist so you’ll be the first to know when I’m taking new clients.
  • You can get your message on the podcast—I think podcast (and newsletter) sponsorships can be done in an educational way without the fluff. No, we will not be publishing annoying ads. Your partnership will help us increase the podcast cadence to once per week.
  • Can I forward Pro emails to my colleagues?
  • Nexus Pro members can forward Pro emails to non-paying members. However, membership to Nexus Pro is for individuals. Only paying subscribers will receive invites and be admitted to discussions and events.
  • How can I sign my team up for Nexus Pro?
  • We provide discounts based on the size of your team. Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.
  • What if my company has frozen new expenses right now? What if I just got laid off?
  • We have special COVID-19 rates for those of you who want to join but don’t have the option to get reimbursed by your employer. Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.
  • Does Nexus have a student or young professionals discount?
  • We have special rates for students with ‘.edu’ email addresses and young professionals under 28. Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.

Other questions? Email us for details at nexus@substack.com.

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