It’s no doubt that buying or selling a home is one of the largest, and most overwhelming, financial transactions a person will encounter in their life. If you haven’t done it yourself, ask someone who has, and they’ll likely tell you it was filled with uncertainty and frustration.
Bryan Bowles, a serial entrepreneur in the residential real estate industry, is aiming to fix that with his latest tech startup: Transactly — a digital platform that brings the process of buying and selling a home online.
How Bryan Bowles Got His Start
To get an idea of how the idea of Transactly was conceived, you have to consider where Bryan started his career. His first job out of college was at Scottsdale Securities, named Scottrade two years later, and soon became one of the largest online stock trading companies. Bryan worked there as an equities trader, and in 2009 started moonlighting as a real estate agent operating out of his home office. After seeing how antiquated things were in the real estate industry, he knew the same could be done to real estate as other companies like TDAmeritrade did to the financial services industry or what J.M. Global Compliance Group did for the pharmaceutical industry.
After three years of dabbling in real estate, Bryan decided to take the plunge. He quit the security of a full-time job to start his first real estate company: Worth Clark Realty. The decision he made was not a light one as he had a wife and three children who were financially dependent upon him. It was a decision filled with anxiety, but there was no doubt in his mind that he would be successful. He admits that there were a few rough patches during the initial years while trying to start a business on a budget. He burned through savings, but that feeling of anxiety and the need to provide for his family fueled him daily as he grew one of the fastest growing real estate companies from scratch.
Successes, and Failures
Bryan’s first company Worth Clark Realty is, so far, his most successful. It’s a real estate brokerage he bootstrapped to becoming one of the fastest growing privately-held businesses in the US. It was ranked #89 in Inc. 5000 in 2016, and has consistently ranked there since. He set the company apart from other traditional real estate brokerages by providing a virtual office environment, utilizing technology that improved efficiencies, and passed those savings on to its agents and clients.
Along the way, Bryan also started several other real estate related businesses. Each one addressing a gap that he saw needed to be filled.Some of them like RealtyPlug, an application that allowed agents to market their listings in Facebook, had mild success. Meanwhile, another one of his companies Making Moves Happen, where the goal was to provide guaranteed lease programs to landlords, were not as successful. If you ask Bryan, you have to get back on your feet after a bad investment He claims that something isn’t a failure if he’s learned something valuable that can be used for future endeavors. He’s doing just that in the his latest startup — Transactly.
Scratching an Itch
Transactly started as a project within Worth Clark Realty to essentially create a dashboard for the home sale process. This came about after hearing complaints from buyers and sellers who’d call into his company’s office, not knowing what was going on during the home sale. It became clear to him that today’s consumer wanted more access and transparency than ever before. Relying on a real estate agent’s emails and text messages, to explain dates and contingencies during a home sale, simply wouldn’t work anymore.
The technology his team created allowed home buyers, sellers, and agents to send and receive offers, negotiate the offers, and track every detail of their transaction — all online, whether from their phone, laptop, or tablet.
The adoption of this technology, however, would require anyone to be able to use it — not just the clients and agents of his company Worth Clark Realty. So, he spun the project out as a separate company in 2018. Since then, he’s stepped back from the day-to-day operations of his real estate brokerage and now spends the majority of his time growing Transactly.
Focusing on the Customer
The key to success, according to Bryan, is focusing on the customer and surrounding yourself with great people. The real estate industry today — and the tools and technology within it — have all been focused on improving things for real estate agents and brokers. His focus is on improving real estate for the true customers — home buyers and sellers.
If you look at any successful company, you can clearly see that the focus is 100% on improving things for the customer. Doing so requires a lot of listening and a lot of big decisions. You have to ask and listen to what your customers like and don’t like. Then, the toughest part is determining how to apply that feedback. Sometimes it means sacrificing revenue or adding expenses for the sake of providing a service that fits the market — that fits the customers’ needs.
Finding Great People
When it comes to hiring and mentors, you will find the same feedback from Bryan as you do from other successful entrepreneurs — surround yourself with great people. Hiring is one of the hardest things you will have to do as an entrepreneur. He doesn’t think anyone really has a great answer for it. You will have to study the lessons from others, and apply what works best for your business. You have to be patient, listen carefully, check references thoroughly, and above all else commit yourself to leading those you do hire to a path of learning and improvement. He says you have to take 100% ownership of every hire including the bad ones. In other words, if you make a bad hire, it’s your fault.
Bryan admits there is no way he would have been able to accomplish what he has so far without the great people that have chosen to join his companies. Not just employees, but also the mentors he’s found along the way. There is no great answer for finding good mentors either. According to him, the key is to not ask for a mentor. Instead, start networking with other entrepreneurs. You will meet some great people along the way; some with far more experience than you, and some with far less. Establish a peer network where you can learn from others, and also share the lessons you learn along the way.
There’s No Such Thing as Overnight Success
The media has countless stories of successful entrepreneurs, which makes it seem as if success happens overnight. There is a minuscule number of companies that do have overnight success — like Facebook. But those are very rare breeds and called Unicorn startups for a reason.
In reality, overnight success means ten plus years of hustling — day in and out. You don’t hear about how long it took to actually get to success and the trial and tribulations along the way. Bryan says his story is no different. After 10 years of beginning a business, he says he’s just getting started.
Like everything in life — entrepreneurship is a journey not a destination.
