LeaseUp

Inside the VC brain time. I recently invested in @leaseUpCRE, here is why... - Bold Vision. - Strong founding team solving a personal pain point. - Compelling Why Now. - Painkiller not a vitamin. - Early momentum. These traits are what investors look for. Finding a pre-seed/seed startup that has it all is rare. @LeaseUpCRE does. I'm stoked to participate in their recent round (with friends like @11TribesVC and Second Century Ventures joining us). - Vision: LeaseUp.co is a workflow platform commercial real estate brokers use to close complex deals faster. Their vision? Make shopping for and buying or leasing commercial real estate as easy as shopping online. Shazam! The world of commercial real estate remains stuck in the '80s dominated by PDF files, text messages, spreadsheets, multiple emails and phone calls. It doesn't have to be anymore. As a commercial real estate owner myself, it should be much easier for tenants to find and lease from me. - Founder with personal pain point: Founder Kurt Chisholm has worked in commercial real estate services for years. As a commercial real estate broker, his commission was not paid till deals closed. He spent many hours using multiple tools to push deals along. It was like herding cats. He wondered if modern software could reduce the friction. I love it when founders decide to go out and build the tool they wish they had. - Compelling why now: The “why now” piece is one that too many founding teams skip over IMO. Here’s LeaseUp's: Commercial real estate has slowed down (raising interest rates), and brokers need to get more efficient in closing fewer deals to maintain profitability. When times are good, your transaction execution can be messy and expensive. This quote from a customer sums it up well: “There’s no way we could go back to the old way… our clients have gotten used to the speed that we’re able to deliver.” - Painkiller, not a vitamin: This framework is a cliche for a reason — it’s definitely something that will be on investors’ minds as you tee up the problem you’re solving. LeaseUPs initial customer work and discovery (and our own diligence with customer calls) revealed a ton of pain and manual work, specifically around collecting information and keeping transactions moving to close (multiple stakeholders). Brokers today spend hours pulling together information on buildings for tenants and even more following up with multiple stakeholders to keep a transaction moving toward close from LOI. With LeaseUP, brokers close transactions 60% faster with fewer errors and higher customer satisfaction. This gets them their money (commission) faster and allows them to spend more time on new deals. LeaseUP solves a real pain point, allowing brokers to do more with fewer people. - Early momentum: The team spent over two years building and started selling in earnest last year. They have seven regional offices of the top 10 national commercial real estate broker firms using the platform, strong Month over Month revenue growth, with a strong pipeline and initial customers expanding usage. They’ve already seen quick wins for customers, closing deals on average 60% faster. Software is eating the world, but many industries, like commercial real estate, still lag behind. We love investing in software that reduces friction at scale and are excited to help LeaseUp reduce friction in commercial real estate.