good idea, but I think this is an industry where you don't win with technology...but with connections in the industry...and it doesn't look like the team has that.
and the investors are mostly tech guys, not real estate guys...which means there is no inside track into getting a meeting with heads of "big office corp"
so they'll most likely hit adoption issues outside of the bay area.
plus there are a dozen sites doing that, and besides the fancy UI, there is no real advantage over the other sites. And speaking of UI, that site is too javascript extensive....takes way too long to load
also the $/sqft per year seems a bit useless...at the very least should provide how much it'd actually cost per month.
finally the SEO on the site is terrible...you are trying to rank for "find office space" that gets 170 searches per month, when you should be trying to rank for "office space for rent" which gets 4400 searches per month...also lease should be somewhere in the title, since that's also getting searched for.
don't get me wrong, chances are they'll have some limited success in the Bay Area based on the YC referalls alone. But they'll have to deal with a major chicken and egg problem elsewhere...and as you can see, the search volume is pretty low, so they'll need to go offline to actually reach their target customer.
Love this! Thanks for the feedback. While your feedback is at times harsh, this is what makes us better. Please keep it coming.
On your product feedback—yes to all of it. We'll improve cost/month, SEO, and load times (along with the 148 other tickets on our wish list).
On your adoption points, all I can say is yes it will be difficult and I think you've done a good job focusing on the toughest challenges. Big challenges=big rewards; we're willing to take that risk.
The part I would push back on the hardest is our team. I believe an engineer-centric company will win in this space. Our advisors and investors are helping us with high-level introductions. We can get in the door anywhere, but in the end the product matters and we pride ourselves in building valuable products quickly. Some other companies in our industry pride themselves on being 'built for brokers, by brokers.'
When competing on the web, I'll bet on hackers any day.
$/sqft per year makes more sense when you take into account that most corporate budgets aren't monthly (this isn't an apartment rental) and that most commercial lease terms are several years long
fine then calculate yearly cost...showing 2 completely different spaces with the same price doesn't really make much sense. That'd be in addition to the square foot rate
As far as I know - this is how most people look at commercial real estate costs. At least in my talks with people here in SF who were looking for, and leasing space.
Yes, this is the standard for commercial real estate. $3,000 a month really means a lot less then $15/sqft for someone who has looked much into commercial real estate.
and the investors are mostly tech guys, not real estate guys...which means there is no inside track into getting a meeting with heads of "big office corp"
so they'll most likely hit adoption issues outside of the bay area.
plus there are a dozen sites doing that, and besides the fancy UI, there is no real advantage over the other sites. And speaking of UI, that site is too javascript extensive....takes way too long to load
also the $/sqft per year seems a bit useless...at the very least should provide how much it'd actually cost per month.
finally the SEO on the site is terrible...you are trying to rank for "find office space" that gets 170 searches per month, when you should be trying to rank for "office space for rent" which gets 4400 searches per month...also lease should be somewhere in the title, since that's also getting searched for.
don't get me wrong, chances are they'll have some limited success in the Bay Area based on the YC referalls alone. But they'll have to deal with a major chicken and egg problem elsewhere...and as you can see, the search volume is pretty low, so they'll need to go offline to actually reach their target customer.