Start-up Society #91: Link Brokerages
Keeping the American Dream Alive
Welcome to the 91st edition of Start-up Society! This blog highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.
Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here!
Back at it again with another podcast and summary article double feature for our latest installment of Meet the Entrepreneur — this time featuring Coby Chatwin, Co-Founder & CEO and Andrew Malekie, Managing Partner of Link Brokerages!
For the full conversation, tap into the podcast here!
It All Began At a Start-Up Weekend Event at LMU
So all three of us together actually met at a startup weekend event at LMU where kids would come together and think of ideas, pitch them to a crowd or a team of judges and they would have 52 hours to essentially build a company. Coby, Andrew, and Joseph Screen, COO actually won that tournament. It was a school-safety app that we were pitching. From there, we kind of knew we worked well together.
What is Link Brokerages?
A database approach to real estate. We do have a full data-focused website coming out; it’s kind of like the backend system of Link that is purely all collection and processing of real estate data, and kind of centralizing that data to facilitate future transactions.
How Do You Differentiate Yourself Against Other Tech-Enabled Real-Estate Brokerages?
Where we come in is we’ll be an agent’s tech backend. We handle everything from vendor order checklists, photography order, and termite and home inspections. It’s all done through our platform. The agent doesn’t need to initiate any of this. It’s kind of done for them. You’re going to save a lot of time working with us. There is transaction management software out there, but it’s only geared towards the TCs, the Transaction Coordinators. We have a platform where it’s essentially that but for agents, where they can store all their documents securely in one place and have no more scattered email threads. We’re reducing human error by giving automated checklists so nothing falls through the cracks. Every contract in real estate is extremely time-sensitive. So, we’re trying to reduce the room for a deal to fall through, through our technology. Our primary competitive edge is that we collect and process all the data on transactions and documents and leverage it to facilitate future operations and transactions.
What are Some of the Biggest Obstacles You’ve Faced as a Company?
One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced at the very beginning was signing agents from different cities. There was no physical office and we were upfront about that. Everything was cloud-based. So, keeping those agents engaged was kind of tough at first. They came from places where they were in the office every day. So agent engagement was one of the challenges earlier on. We were able to combat this with weekly Zoom mentorship calls and answer any questions they had. We had monthly dinners per city, hikes, and even went bowling. We definitely made it feel like more of a community.
What Did the Initial Kick-Off Process Look Like as College Students?
It was really just building different pieces around deals we were doing ourselves. We would complete deals and notice the same pain points happening again. So, we’ve kind of designed a way to circumvent that. Also, if something was working well for us, we would put it in the platform.
What New Innovations Should We Expect in the V4 Soft Launch?
One of the key parts of this launch was the templated transaction checklists. You’ll be able to make as many different checklists as possible once a deal opens. It will be dynamic and will send out documents on different time triggers, so it keeps all parties involved and notified. We’ve also developed our UI/UX, making it a lot cleaner. Some other things in our pipeline include a finance/accounting backend tech and a new marketing feature for agents which includes social media packages, OMs, and flyers, which can be directly initiated for a new deal with a click of a few buttons. We’re also expanding our branch partnership business where we work with brokerages and provide their agents the backend support. It’s a win-win relationship because we get to work with great agents who are already vetted and we get to provide them with a huge tech support system.
What are Your Bigger Picture Goals for this Year?
By the end of the year, we want to be at 200 agents and have 15 branch partnerships spanning over five states. We’re currently doing outbound recruitment for people who are a culture fit and who are looking to be a part of the next generation of brokerages and agents. In terms of geographic expansion, we’re analyzing where populations are moving to the most. Also based on our relationships at the locations, we’re targeting Texas, Arizona, and Utah.
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Authored by Arteen Zahiri, Rumeer Keshwani, Elham Chowdhury, & Julian Ramcharan
