Hope you are finding this week’s series interesting. We are in the homestretch. Below are six additional companies to review. Zillow is probably the only household name among them. Enjoy.
Craig
602.954.3762
ccoppola@leearizona.com
http://www.gethightower.com/
Upper Management:
Brandon Weber, CEO
Donald DeSantis, CDO
Niall Smart, CTO
Business Strategy: Hightower’s strategy is two-fold: One, to sell software to owners who want a new and improved way of managing their assets – even from their mobile phone; Two, to target landlord brokers with software that will better track prospects, active deals, and available space.
Location: New York, New York
Funding: Hightower has been backed by $2.12 million by numerous investors including Thrive Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, and some individuals such as Box CEO Aaron Levie.
Competitive to brokerage: No, owners and listing brokers will use this to better manage their portfolios verses replacing broker functions.
Company Name: (Honest Buildings)
https://www.honestbuildings.com/
Upper Management:
Riggs Kubiak, Co-Founder and CEO
Garrett Kubiak, Co-Founder
Cody Roberts, Co-Founder
Business Strategy: To make money off of two different groups: One, companies who want to outsource finding a service provider; Two, service providers who accept a commission as a result of an introduction of Honest Buildings, who only pay in the event of a successful transaction.
Location: New York City, New York
Funding: Honest Buildings received $5.5 million from Westly Group and RockPort Capital Partners. Thrive Capital has also put investment into Honest Buildings for a total of $7.5 million.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/24/honest-buildings-gets-5-5-million-to-scale-out-its-online-network-for-real-estate-pros/
Competitive to brokerage: Potentially. Right now they are focusing on helping builder’s owners find vendors such as architects. This could turn into trying to help tenants find owners who will bid for their occupancy.
Company Name:
http://www.thenewsfunnel.com/
Upper Management:
Michael, Beckerman, Founder and CEO
Business Strategy: The News Funnel saves time and reduces the amount of e-mails flooding real estate, PR and marketing professionals by gathering trade news and information from trusted industry sources and letting users craft that information into a custom feed that is unique to their geographic market and industry segment.
Location: New York City, New York
Funding: $2 million in Series A funding. Michael Beckerman, the company’s Founder and CEO, is one of the site’s largest investors. Additional investors include the Criscola family; Steve Siegel, chairman of Global Brokerage at CBRE; SL Investment Partners; The Hampshire Companies; Scott Landis; Jim Petrucci.
Competitive to brokerage: No, this is a commercial news consolidator. Getting all of your market news from one place will not take the role of a broker.
Company Name:
https://realtymogul.com/
Upper Management:
Jilliene Helman, CEO
Business Strategy: Crowdfunding. With over 14,000 active accredited and institutional investors as Realty Mogul members, they make it easy for investors to invest in real estate together.
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Funding: 12 Private Investors and 5 Corporate Investors
https://www.realtymogul.com/about-us
Competitive to brokerage: Potentially to investment sales, but not for this cycle.
Company Name:
https://www.viewthespace.com/users/sign_in
Upper Management:
Lloyd Frink, Co-Founder
Rich Barton, Co-Founder
Business Strategy: To capitalize on owners and brokers who want to more effectively market their vacancies with video tours.
Location: New York City, New York
Funding: View the Space has been given a $7 million funding from investors like Trinity Ventures, and individuals, Thomas Byrne and Greg Waldorf.
Competitive to brokerage: No, View the Space will be another tool owners and brokers use to market their properties to other brokers and tenants.
Company Name:
http://www.zillow.com/
Upper Management:
Lloyd Frink, Co-Founder
Rich Barton, Co-Founder
Business Strategy: Zillow, Inc. is a leading online home and real estate marketplace that empowers people with information and tolls to make smart decisions about homes, real estate, and mortgages. – See more at: http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zillow#sthash.cm4nuj5u.dpuf
Location: Seattle, WA
Funding: Zillow.com has been funded by $96.6 million, over 5 funding rounds, by Series A, B and C funding, Venture funding, and Post-IPO Equity funding.
http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zillow
Competitive to brokerage: Not yet. They have tons of name recognition. Will they/can they branch into brokerage remains to be seen.