Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden · Cannes
Jehan Luth of Bilt on Neighborhood Commerce and the Fluent Partnership
Who’s on this episode
Hosted by Jeanniey Walden, founder and host of Liftoff with Jeanniey Walden, recorded at Cannes.
What you’ll learn
- What Bilt is, and how it rewards renters on their single largest expense.
- Why one in four US apartment buildings runs on Bilt, and what that scale unlocks.
- How Bilt extended a low-friction checkout from its members to all of a merchant’s customers.
- Why Bilt is responsible not just for its own platform, but for its merchants’ customer experience.
- What the Fluent partnership adds: value in the moment that matters most.
- How an open ecosystem rewards a shopper at one retailer to drive commerce at another.
Episode highlights
- 00:00Meet Jehan Luth and Bilt
- 00:40What Bilt is: rewards on rent, one in four US apartment buildings
- 02:31From a low-friction experience for members to all shoppers
- 03:00Responsible for the neighborhood merchant’s customers too
- 03:20The Fluent partnership: value in the moment that matters
- 03:40An open ecosystem: rewarded at retailer A to shop retailer B
- 04:18What’s next: least friction, more coming later this year
Episode summary
Bilt built its business on a simple insight: rent is the biggest check most people write every month, and until Bilt, it earned them nothing. By rewarding renters on rent, Bilt reached real scale fast, and now powers one in four apartment buildings in the US, where every resident is a member. That base is the foundation for what Jehan Luth works on: neighborhood commerce.
The expansion started with merchants asking for something better. When Bilt members dined at a restaurant or shopped a local store, could the experience be smoother? Bilt built that low-friction checkout for its members, then extended the same experience to all of a merchant’s customers. That is a bigger responsibility than it sounds, because Bilt is now accountable not only for its own platform, but for the experience of its merchants’ customers.
The partnership with Fluent is how Bilt scales that value. The framing Luth keeps returning to is the moment that matters most to the customer. Value can take many forms: a retailer’s own loyalty program that recognizes and rewards you for showing up, or something bigger across the ecosystem, where being rewarded at one retailer nudges you toward a complementary retailer nearby. That is what drives more commerce within the neighborhood, and Luth calls Fluent an exciting part of opening up that ecosystem.
What comes next is a design problem as much as a business one. Bilt and Fluent are aligned, he says, on making the experience as low-friction as it gets, taking the time to get the next few months right, with more launching later this year.
Key takeaways
- 00:40 Bilt rewards renters on their largest expense, rent, and already powers one in four US apartment buildings.
- 02:31 Bilt started by powering a low-friction checkout for members, then extended that same experience to all of a merchant’s customers.
- 03:00 Bilt is responsible not just for its own platform, but for the experience of its neighborhood merchants’ customers.
- 03:20 With Fluent, the goal is giving customers the most value in the moment that matters most to them.
- 03:40 Value compounds across an open ecosystem: rewarded at retailer A to go to retailer B, driving more neighborhood commerce.
- 04:18 Bilt and Fluent are aligned on the least friction possible, with more launching later this year.
Questions people ask
Who is Jehan Luth?
Jehan Luth leads Neighborhood Commerce at Bilt Rewards. He founded Banyan, the item-level commerce data company that Bilt acquired, and now works on how Bilt collaborates with neighborhood retailers and merchants.
What is Bilt?
Bilt is a rewards platform designed to give renters rewards on their largest expense, their rent. It powers one in four apartment buildings in the US, where residents are Bilt members, and it has expanded into collaborating with neighborhood retailers and merchants.
What is the Bilt and Fluent partnership?
Bilt and Fluent are partnering on neighborhood commerce and the in-store and online checkout experience. The goal is to give customers the most value in the moment that matters most, with the least friction, while opening up the ecosystem so shoppers earn more value for being loyal to their merchants.
What is neighborhood commerce?
Neighborhood commerce is Bilt’s approach to rewarding members and shoppers across the local businesses they use, from restaurants to stores. Rather than a single loyalty program, it connects merchants so that being rewarded at one retailer can drive complementary commerce at another nearby.
How does the Bilt ecosystem reward shoppers across merchants?
Value can take many forms. A retailer’s own loyalty program recognizes and rewards a customer for dining or shopping there, and within the Bilt ecosystem, being rewarded at retailer A can encourage a visit to a complementary retailer B, driving more commerce within the neighborhood.
Full transcript
Jeanniey Walden: I’m here with Jehan Luth from Bilt. As you might know, Bilt has recently done a partnership with Fluent, and they’re changing the game on the ways people in neighborhoods respond to their local retailers. Commerce media will never be the same again. Thank you so much for being on the show, and for everyone watching and listening, first of all, explain what Bilt is.
Jehan Luth: Thank you, we’re so excited. Bilt is a platform that was designed to give renters rewards on their largest expense, their rent. We’re fairly young in our journey, but we’re operating at some scale. In the US we power one in four apartment buildings that use Bilt as their platform, and all of their residents are Bilt members. Then we slowly started expanding and collaborating with retailers and merchants in the neighborhood who want to get Bilt members to come and spend more with them. While working with these merchants, they asked us, can we create a more seamless experience? We started with, when Bilt members come and dine at a restaurant or shop at my store, how do we power a seamless experience for them?
Jehan Luth: And then very quickly it evolved to, how do we take that same seamless experience we’re powering for Bilt members and power it for all the customers coming and shopping with us? So that’s the part of the business I get to work on, collaborating with a lot of the retailers and merchants in the neighborhood that want to use Bilt to serve their customers better.
Jeanniey Walden: You’ve got a huge responsibility. Not only are you responsible for your own program and platform, but for the neighborhood merchants you work with, you’re responsible for the experience of their customers. Just because you shop at Walgreens or get your dry cleaning or go to an Equinox gym doesn’t mean that’s all you do in life. You’re pulling that all together. So in your partnership with Fluent, you’ve found a way to innovate in a real way.
Jehan Luth: We’re really excited to collaborate with Fluent. The way we’ve been thinking about it is, for our customers shopping with our merchant partners, how do we give them the most value in the moment that matters to them the most? And value can take multiple forms. It can be the retailer’s own loyalty program, making sure you’re recognized and rewarded for dining at that restaurant. But it can also be within the network, within the ecosystem, where if I go to retailer A and I’m being rewarded with something to go to retailer B, which is complementary, that drives more commerce within the neighborhood. Fluent is an exciting part of that vision, allowing us to open up the ecosystem so the end customer gets more value from being loyal to their merchants.
Jeanniey Walden: It’s so smart, and what a great value add. The people in the neighborhood must absolutely adore everything you’re doing at Bilt, and now with the relationship with Fluent it takes it to a whole new level. So what do we have to look forward to?
Jehan Luth: There’s going to be a lot more coming down the pipe with Fluent. One of the parts Fluent and Bilt are so philosophically aligned on is making sure the product experience for the end consumer is as seamless as it gets. We want to take the time to design the experience so it’s the least amount of friction to the end consumer. Our merchant partners are as excited as we are, which is why the next few months are really important to get right, and there’s a lot more coming later this year.
Jeanniey Walden: As a customer and someone who lives in a neighborhood, I love this for so many reasons. And as a merchant or retailer, I’m thinking about all the monetizable opportunities around retail media and commerce media, and how it changes the game. What you’re doing is really incredible. Thank you so much for spending some time chatting with me. Everybody, stay tuned, we’re coming back.
Jehan Luth: We’re excited. Thank you.
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