Episode
Everything You Know About Renting is Wrong with Sam Bakhshandehpour
- Podcast
- The Strong New York Podcast
- Published
- Jul 29, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 4106
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/4dc70a1b
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Summary
This week on Strong New York Podcast, Kenny sits down with Sam Bakhshandehpour, President of Merchants at Bilt, the platform that turned paying rent — historically "the worst day of the month" — into a rewards-earning, community-building experience. Sam's story starts long before Bilt: fleeing Iran with his mother at age 6 during the revolution, believing his father had been executed, then rebuilding a life from nothing in America. That immigrant grit carried him through decades in hospitality — running 80+ hotels and 50+ restaurants, including time at the Ritz-Carlton — before he came in-house at Bilt to help build what he calls a "B2B2C" neighborhood commerce network connecting your home, your merchants, and your travel into one loyalty ecosystem. In this episode, Kenny and Sam get into: What Bilt actually is (hint: it's not just a credit card) and how it evolved from a rent-rewards program to a full lifestyle platform Why one in four apartment buildings in the U.S. — and over 100,000 mortgages a week — are now on the Bilt network How Bilt's AI concierge orchestrates everything from dinner reservations to Lyft rides to gym check-ins The hospitality lessons Sam learned running nightlife, restaurants, and hotels — and what "the gold standard" of hospitality really means Why merchants are racing to connect with new tenants the moment they move in Bilt's next frontier: health and wellness, HSA/FSA integration, and Sam's vision for AI-personalized nutrition and recovery Building real community in a hyper-connected, increasingly isolated world If you've ever wondered how your rent, your credit card, and your neighborhood favorite restaurant are all quietly becoming part of the same ecosystem — this one's for you. CONNECT: Follow Kenny: @kennysantucci Follow the Strong New…