May 18th, 2009
Francis Adanza e-mailed this interview in today. Ryan Gilbert will be joining us at a future Bootstrapper Breakfast to talk about his experiences in more detail.
Today, I was able to sit down with Ryan Gilbert, a serial entrepreneur who is most recently recognized for taking his company PropertyBridge from idea to exit. PropertyBridge is the leading provider of electronic payments for property managers and real estate owners in the multifamily housing industry. PropertyBridge was founded in 2003 and acquired by MoneyGram International in 2007.
As a entrepreneur and member of the Bootstrappers Breakfast, I thought the group might benefit from Ryan’s lessons learned. In addition to this blog, Ryan will be joining the round table discussion as a featured guest speaker on Friday, May 22nd at the Bootstrappers Breakfast in Mountain View. Come join us, engage in serious conversation, and ask Ryan your own questions.
Below is a short Q&A conversation where Ryan’s shared his PropertyBridge experience with me.
Q: Was PropertyBridge your first entrepreneurial endeavor?
No, my first startup was Orange Technologies, which I founded in South Africa. We acquired licenses from US software companies to resell their products in South Africa. It was through these vendor relationships that helped me develop a track record of success with US based corporations. Eventually, Orange Technologies was acquired by our largest vendor, allowing me to relocate to the United States. In total, I have been through five startups.
Q: How did you come up with the idea of PropertyBridge?
At the time, I was working for Wells Fargo in a business development role. I noticed that banks only offered horizontal solutions to vertical problems. Each vertical market had its own specific needs and feature sets. For example, integration with accounting systems, special reporting for enforcing legal rules/policies, and banking requirements. The need was clear, and it was a question of which vertical market to attack. The property management industry collects over $147 billion in residential rent payment every year, and most payments are made by check–the market was ripe for electronic payments.
Q: How many co-founders did you have? How did you find your partners?
We had a five person founding team. Each founder contributed a mix of capital; money, time, expertise, and resources. The partners knew each other from previous start-ups or socially. I fundamentally believe that the success of a company depends on how well the founding team can communicate, compromise, and work together. It can be very challenging to start a business with folks you are working with for the first time.
Q: What advice would you give to others, so that they can avoid any of the challenges you encountered in your experiences? Any words of wisdom, tips, gotchas?
PropertyBridge’s biggest challenge was speed and revenue. Since our revenue was generated by taking a fraction of a percent per transaction, it was critical that we acquired thousands of customers quickly. We focused on marketing and end-user adoption programs to ensure that as many potential renters as possible chose to pay their rent through PropertyBridge.
My top five tips include:
- Truly understand the problem and the market. Make sure you know who your customers are and how they buy.
- Don’t wait until the product is perfect. Get out there and sell.
- Find, motivate, and compensate good people. The power of good ideas is nothing without people who can actually execute them.
- Take VC funding when you get the chance. Unless you can truly afford to go without it, when someone makes you an offer, take it.
- Be decisive and look ahead.
May 12th, 2009
Update May 18: Ryan called last night to let us know he needs to travel Friday and will miss the Bootstrappers Breakfast. We will re-schedule as soon as it is convenient.
Come join on us on Fri-May-22nd at 9am at Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View and hear the lessons learned by Ryan Gilbert, a serial entrepreneur who is most recently recognized for taking his company PropertyBridge from idea to exit. PropertyBridge is the leading provider of electronic payments for property managers and real estate owners in the multifamily housing industry. Thousands of properties nationwide use PropertyBridge to reduce fraud and delinquencies, streamline key processes, and accelerate funds availability. Integration with property management software and sophisticated reporting further improve operational efficiencies. PropertyBridge was founded in 2003 and acquired by MoneyGram International in 2007.
From this conversation you will hear how Ryan;
- Discovered the payment problem and his idea for a solution
- Found his co-founders and defined each partners roles
- Developed a marketing plan
- Words of wisdom, tips, and gotcha’s
Please RSVP and join us. We have been running two tables of 16 or so folks each in Mountain View for the last two months. We are limiting Ryan’s table to 16 to allow for a conversation between attendees and will run an overflow table in our regular roundtable format. Please arrive at 9AM if you would like to sit at Ryan’s table.
May 11th, 2009
Here are the first three criteria from Athol Foden’s Top 10 Factors for a Good Name.” The whole list is worth keeping in mind when you go to select a name for your product or company.
- Short, sweet and easily pronounced
The ideal name for customers to remember, and for you to use to cut through the industry noise, is probably short and sweet and easily pronounced. This means it will have two or three syllables (or even one), and it will work on the phone or internet even if people have never seen or heard it before. If they have to be told how to spell it once, that is OK (and may even help with recall). But if they have to be told a second time, that is a problem. One of the sticky consonants (k,q,x,z) can help with recall.
- Unique within its industry
Your name doesn’t need to be weird or clunky, but it does need to not sound like all the rest of your direct competitors. HotJobs.com, BAJobs.com, Careers.com, CareerBuilder.com, LocalJobs.com are all easily lost in the crowd. But Monster.com stands out dramatically - even though it does not describe what they do! In practice, it has become brand shorthand for job searches, just like Starbucks has become shorthand for coffee.
- Legally available and defensible
Your lawyers think this should be item one of course. Regardless, what is the point of starting any company or marketing campaign if you cannot have full rights in the name? Your best defense is always a magic ® - which only can be issued by the USPTO (or equivalent agency in other countries). If the USPTO won’t issue a registration certificate because they judge it to be generic, then you have problem (2) above anyway. Common law trademark searches are also critically important.
Athol gave a well received talk last Friday in Milpitas, addressing not only naming issues but also his personal history bootstrapping several startups.
May 5th, 2009
Athol Foden of Brighter Naming returns as a popular guest speaker Friday May 8 for our Bootstrapper Breakfast™ at 7:30am at the Omega Restaurant in Milpitas. Athol has over 16 years of experience helping clients name companies, products, services, and taglines. Athol’s opening remarks will be followed by a question and answer session on developing the right name.
Two of Athol’s more famous names are Symbian, an operating system for cell phones, and Solyndra, a manufacturer of photovoltaic systems for commercial rooftops. There are a number of excellent articles on the Brighter Naming website, one that would be of particular interest to software entrepreneurs is “The Challenges of Software Product Naming.”
Brighter Naming offers a jump start program for early stage startups that takes into account their limited resources and need to move quickly, it’s worth contacting them. They also offer a self-service approach that you can follow if you need a good methodology.
Athol recently blogged about us in “Eating Naming Problems for Breakfast”
“There are a number of good and regular networking events in Silicon Valley, but none have as catchy a name as SKMurphy’s Bootstrappers Breakfast series.”
The Omega Restaurant is at 90 S. Park Victoria Milpitas, CA, 95035. Turn to the right after you walk in, we are in the back room. To RSVP for the event sign up here: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=zdgrx We start promptly at 7:30am.