A startup does not need investment to be successful
Unrealer, a Finnish creative agency for real estate, grew to €1.5M in turnover without any investment in impressive four years. The Shortcut sat down with the 28-year-old CEO to hear about accomplishments, regrets, and advice for young entrepreneurs.
How it started
Tuomas Kankaanpää, the CEO and co-founder of Unrealer had a lot of experience in the industry prior to starting the company with his friends. He saw a gap in the real estate market as there was no way to showcase property online before its built (or even after). A colleague of Tuomas’s also felt that problem — he had clients fly to Helsinki from the US, Canada, and Russia just to see a potential office and those people were often not satisfied with what they saw on-the-spot.
“In a nutshell, our industry has an awful habit of distorting photos, floor plans, etc. This is not something people want. Those looking for an office or an apartment want good material online, they want to be able to make decisions during the pre-marketing phase.” said Tuomas.
From idea to implementation
It took them only 1 month to put the idea into life. The team decided right away their strategy is not going to be one of most startups — they did not try to seek investment but instead went straight to the clients. They had no equipment and financed their first pilot project through a client.
“I learned at school that you have to do market research, a business model canvas […], but we were just guys who were going to the clients and clients told us they needed our product.” Creating the value for the client was top-of-mind for Unrealer.
Opening a business in Finland
Tuomas doesn’t like the stereotype that it is hard to open a business and be an entrepreneur. He says it is very easy to start a company in Finland due to clear regulations and procedures. It can even be done online, you just need to have 2500 euros in your company’s account and, just like that, you have a public company!
The challenges and pain points
Tuomas admits that in the beginning, the hardest part was to find a client and set up a meeting with them. On one hand, being students from an unknown company, they had to really get out of their way to get the first client. On the other hand, Tuomas says he was surprised how everybody was willing to give them a chance and hear them out. He attributes that to an increased interest of companies towards fast-growing companies as everybody wants to be a part of the startup ecosystem.
Unrealer has been growing organically since the very beginning — the team just called potential clients, went to meetings, and relied a lot on word-of-mouth marketing. Last year (2018), they boasted a turnover of €1,5M. Tuomas points out, however, that a company can only grow organically in a single market with its own cash flow to a certain extent. The young CEO admits they might apply for funding in the future to continue the growth.
The biggest accomplishments
As of now, it can be said with confidence that Unrealer has really contributed a lot to shaping the real estate marketing landscape in the last few years. Tuomas believes that their two biggest accomplishments are being the forerunners of pre-marketing of not yet built projects and starting the Unrealer with a very small capital and growing the company to €1,5M in turnover. “It [starting a company with no funding] is pretty rare in Finland, at least in the startup scene, where more accomplishment comes from raising funding,” says Tuomas.
Regrets
For Tuomas, the hardest part was team management — it surprised him how much he had to learn about it, which he is still doing to this day. He emphasizes the importance of doing team-building and creating a company culture in the very beginning of operations, not after years have passed.
Advice
Tuomas’ best advice for young entrepreneurs is to take their phones, call the clients and meet with them. Throughout the interview, Tuomas stresses many times how important it is to create value for the client. Only after talking to the potential customer and verifying that the products are really needed, you can start thinking about funding, your team, and other practicalities.
“Validate your idea with clients, not with investors. You can also do it with investors, but go to the clients first because they will pay your bills, after all, that is my best advice.” Tuomas concludes.
You can watch the full interview below
The Shortcut believes that Unrealer’s example shows that one doesn’t always need big capital or a complicated business plan to run a business successfully. Unrealer is also a bright example of a “lean start-up” methodology, which advocates experimentation over complex planning and customer feedback over intuition.
Besides taking interviews, The Shortcut arranges a broad range of events that involve representatives from startups. To stay up-to-date on what’s going on, follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter.
Credit information:
Video: Gloria De Felice
Photography: Dmitrii Semichev
Subtitles: Chinara Hollen, Abby Ridenour, Dmitrii Semichev
Music:
Flying High by FREDJI https://soundcloud.com/fredjimusic
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/RYgKd-6_Fc4
