People Behind The Future: Ramona Nan

THE SMART BUILDINGS OF TOMORROW

Transylvania may be better known for its vampires than ventures, but it was in her homeland of Romania that BlockDox operations whizz Ramona Nan cut her teeth in the real-estate industry, working for a Canadian entrepreneur.

“Those were a fun few years, because real estate was booming,” she says.

“I learnt quite a lot, especially working for an entrepreneur. It helped me to grow very quickly to a management level – we were always encouraged to learn as much as possible.”

Ramona is putting that experience to use in her role at BlockDox, which uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT in the built environment. “I do have an advantage because I have the knowledge in property and now I’m adding the tech too. I manage the end-to-end cycle of operations, our product is innovative and continuously developing which adds
the edge.”

BlockDox provides information about the health of a building, from the CO2, temperature and humidity to the occupancy level. “You will know in real time what’s going on in your building – this can impact your budget and reduce costs.”

Having worked all over Europe, from Romania to Russia – Ramona can say with confidence that London is the place to be. “It gives you access to almost everything that you need and you don’t need a big capital to start with – you have access to flexible workplaces and mentorships. It makes things much easier from the development point of view.”

Ramona says the best of London can be found at Level39. “It brings the whole tech community together, so that’s quite a lot of skills under the same roof.” As the only Transylvanian in the building, Ramona is keen to reassure anyone who may be feeling nervous: “We don’t bite actually, maybe sometimes, when the full moon is on, but otherwise we are okay!”