Turning an idea from an apartment-hunting technology into a B2B tool simplified the daily management of rental properties.
Caren Maio, CEO of the marketing and leasing management platform Nestio, learned the real estate business by being a frustrated New York City renter. In 2011 Caren was working in sales at The Wall Street Journal, commiserating with her friend Mike O’Toole about the misery of apartment hunting. Then she had a great idea.
“I thought, ‘What if we built this technology that allowed consumers to create a folio of all the apartments they liked from various listing sites, so everything was more organized?’” Caren remembers. “It was like Pinterest for apartment hunting.”
She and Mike applied to the startup accelerator Techstars with just a back-of-the-napkin idea. Within three months of acceptance, the co-founders had a minimum viable product and a growing user base. But customer feedback soon revealed a problem.
“Users complained that some of the listings they were saving weren’t accurate or available, but this was a big problem that couldn’t be solved from the bottom of the funnel.” It was time to change course.
Nestio’s journey to the top of the funnel started with hundreds of phone calls. Caren asked management companies, landlords, and brokerage firms how they managed and marketed available rental units and shadowed them to see their processes at work. She discovered out-of-date spreadsheets, maddening email chains, unreliable Google Docs and even rudimentary dry-erase board systems—all responsible for managing and marketing millions in real estate.
Where most would see chaos, Caren saw opportunity. “When I realized how disjointed these systems were and how much time was spent updating all of them manually, I understood that this inefficiency trickles down. No wonder apartment hunting has been so painful for consumers! It’s been painful on the professional side.”
Technology had dramatically improved the analogous hospitality and restaurant industries. It was time for real estate to catch up. Caren and Mike used their learnings to pivot Nestio from a consumer-facing apartment-hunting technology to a business-to-business tool that simplifies and automates the everyday management of rental properties. When a listing changes, the information can be updated and then communicated, all with the click of a button.
The advantages of Nestio are undeniable, but so is the reluctance to change in an old-school industry. The firm initially targeted early adopters seeking technological solutions. They trained them on the software, enhanced the product based on user feedback and workflow and made the interface and design more intuitive.
As these first customers lowered their vacancy rates and made more money with Nestio, the word spread. Now it’s more in demand than ever. The ideal candidate: Any landlord, building owner, management company or brokerage firm with rental inventory that turns over with some cadence—whether the portfolio includes a handful of apartments or thousands of units. The customer support team has trained octogenarian real estate veterans to millennial brokers and has an understanding of both the product and the industry. The Nestio team is now 35 strong, with customers in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami.
Nestio enables landlords to spend their time on what really matters. “I wouldn’t say we’re trying to disrupt an industry,” Caren said. “We’re trying to evolve an industry. Our customers can be proactive about providing a great experience to their tenants and remaining competitive.” This is especially crucial during the construction boom, when new developments can out-amenitize and outmarket older buildings. For brokers, Nestio’s up-to-the-minute listings could be the next best thing after an exclusive. Users get information about the latest availabilities days before their competitors.
“We don’t touch the consumer, but we’re making their lives better,” she says. “The net effect is that everyone knows what’s available, listings are accurate and brokers won’t accidentally show apartments that are already rented. Everybody wins.”
Caren Maio, CEO / Co-founder
Nestio
150 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
800-975-4077
caren@nestio.com
Add Comment