On Real Estate And Future Of Climate Tech, With Jon Falker, Prime Data Centers

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I’ve spent most of my career as the first marketing hire at tech startups. It began in 2003, in Washington, DC, at a B2B software startup. Back when SaaS was a revolutionary concept. It hasn’t all been startups though. I’ve worked for some big companies, like Intel and Sunrun. Climatetech is definitely a passion of mine.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Prime Data Centers specializes in wholesale data center development and operation. Our customers are large companies, from tech to retail colocation providers.

What is the origin story?

Like many investment companies, Prime Data Centers was born from an investment thesis. Our founders are real estate developers who saw that data centers were likely to be one of the most important commercial real estate sectors of the next decade or two. They also saw an opportunity to stand out from other data center developers by offering a non-commoditized approach to large enterprises. Custom solutions with flexible partnership options. As that initial investment thesis proved true, we’ve built a growing brand around it.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We’re resourceful. Building large data centers is a complicated process, with very little margin for error. We’ve been able to get projects done, on target, no matter what is happening around us. Those skills have served us well and will continue to do so.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I’d probably be joining or starting another startup working on climatetech. It’s the issue of our generation. It also happens to be very exciting right now. A lot of money is pouring back in, after a huge pullback a few years ago. A lot of the technologies and the markets are more mature. Like Jigar Shah always says, it’s one of the greatest wealth generation opportunities the world has ever seen.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

Our core metrics are our client’s core metrics. Those are simple: stand up a new data center facility on-time and on-budget, with maximum reliability.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We’re really excited about our recent pre-lease with Cyxtera in Santa Clara, as well as our recently announced partnership with Macquarie.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

As a data center developer and operator, we’re most excited about new technologies in construction, like Procore, and in safe operation, like Cloudflare. Those make us more efficient and our clients safer, respectively. We’re concerned with the rise in malware, phishing, hacking and other cybercrime. It poses an enormous threat to our clients, and really everyone. Companies and governments need to collaborate even more to address this issue.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I’ve been a reader of Hackernoon for a couple of years. It’s an excellent place to get unique perspectives on the world of tech. You can find ideas and insights here that you can’t find anywhere else.

Full disclosure: I’m also a very tiny investor in HackerNoon. I participated in the crowdfunding round back in early 2019.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Treating people kindly and being a resource for them is the fastest and best way to make career progress.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

We’ve all learned a lot in the past year. Taking work/life balance seriously and figuring out what your new work/life boundaries are is one of the biggest level-ups.

I’m also constantly amazed at how many people don’t take full advantage of employer 401k matching. If you’re lucky enough to work for an employer that offers 401k matching, take advantage of it!