EZ lease Derek, Oji, Kash, Robin, Tara

Block 5Lessons Learned™

Where we started» Vision: An end to end solution for landlords and

tenants to manage their relationship online.» Kind of market: 2 sided network; landlords and

renters. » TAM: Overall opportunity is about $150 billion. » Focus: Non-professional landlords, the ones for whom

this is not a primary business - about 50% of the market

» Type of business: Service with a website and mobile access (applications)

Our TeamMug Shot Name Experience Role on Team

Oji Udezue Product Leader; Microsoft Chief Product Officer

Derek Andersen Finance Leader; Amazon, Newscorp

Head of Finance

Tara Martinez Operations Leader; Sequenom, Abbott

Head of Operations

Robin Kwok Business Dev Leader; Applied Materials

Head of Business Development

Kash Iftikhar Sales Leader; Dell, Force 10 Head of Sales

Rookie CanvasKey Partners Key Activities Value Props Cust Rel Cust Segment

• Banks• Payment gateways• Listing services• Service providers

• EZLease platform

• Marketing

• Convenience• Vertical integration• Screening +

Reputation• Online contracting• Payments• Design

• Personal profiles• User generated

data• Community and

forums

• Multisided platform for renters and landlords with 1-4 units

Channels

• PR• Online ads• Website (SEO)• Larger REITS and

property management firms

Rev model

• Usage fees• Brokerage• Site ad revenue• Referral

revenue

Cost Structure

• Platform• Marketing and

marketing intelligence

What We Did» 100+ in person surveys – 20+/team member

˃ Bay Area, Seattle, New York

» 117 online survey respondents˃ Checked value proposition˃ Checked willingness to pay (wtp) – Really GOOD!

» Engaged with all feedback from advisors (Thanks Jonathan, Jon, Bhavik, Oren!)˃ Tom Cervantez, founder’s den, Jonathan, Nico, lots more!

» Competitor analysis˃ Rentlord, Rentjuice

» Started building a product˃ www.ezleasr.com

» Stopped!!

Here is What We Learned»We discovered new potential value propositions

+ Archiving rental agreements, Renter-Landlord matching and pre-filtering, Scheduling tools for viewings, connect to service providers

»Some of the value propositions we tested were viewed differently by our customers than expected

+ Contracting online -> didn’t resonate but archiving contracts did, Payment transactions -> More interesting to tenants than landlords

»We’re competing against the status quo, which is a fragmented but inexpensive set of solution

+ Integration, price and convenience will be our key value propositions

»We Are Not Alone in this Space+ Rentjuice – $6.4 series A; Rentlord – Techcrunch Disrupt, seed funding

Canvas Part IIKey Partners Key Activities Value Props Cust Rel Cust Segment

• Banks• Payment gateways• Listing services• Service providers

• EZLease platform

• Marketing

• Archiving rental agreements

• Matching and scheduling services

• Issue management• Screening +

Reputation• Design

• Personal profiles• User generated

data• Community and

forums

• Multisided platform for renters and landlords with 1-4 units

• Flexibility in the # of units.

Channels

• PR• Online ads• Website (SEO)• Larger REITS and

property management firms

Rev model

• Usage fees• Brokerage• Site ad revenue• Referral revenue

Cost Structure

• Platform• Marketing and

marketing intelligence

What we did part II» Customer facing website

˃ Interactive website ~$2000˃ Facebook Page

» Driving traffic (Craigslist, Adwords, Facebook)˃ 47,000 impressions from all online channels, ˃ 0.1% CTR from Adwords˃ 10% CTR from Craigslist˃ 4 sign-up a day!

» More research and validation˃ School residential market - 3 School’s student real estate reps, 100 customers

to revalidate value props˃ Is this applicable in international markets?

» Industry Experts˃ 10 industry experts in online real estate and related fields˃ Debrief disgruntled ex-competitor

Here is What We Learned» Focus, focus, focus

˃ The initial product was still too complicated˃ We need to narrow down to a single value proposition˃ We ways to test and see if customer would agree with our simplified value

proposition

» This is mostly a marketing challenge˃ Advisors in the industry said “Great, but you’re going to have a tough time

finding your customer!”˃ They were right! No easy proxy for non-professional landlords – we

searched high. And low!

» Our team is missing a key ingredient˃ We understand our product but have ZERO coding skills

» We need to get involved in the industry˃ Double down on understanding and networking in this industry

Canvas 3.0Key Partners Key Activities Value Props Cust Rel Cust Segment

• Craigslist other rental portals and listing services

• Launch website• Test Ability to

Drive Traffic and Get Responses

• Marketing

• Matching and scheduling services

• Screening + Reputation

• Personal profilesPostponed• User generated

data• Community and

forums

• Multisided platform for renters and landlords with 1-4 units

• Flexibility in the # of units.

Channels

• Direct marketing• Online lead gen

Rev model

• Brokerage

Cost Structure

• Platform• Marketing and

marketing intelligence

What we REALLY learned» Don’t Fall in Love with Your Idea

˃ Everyone we talked to thought our idea was a good one, including us! Real customers told us we were off base on certain critical items. Testing your hypothesis, no matter how brilliant you think you are, is critical.

» Focus is Critical˃ We had a big vision of creating an all encompassing eco-system. While that may be the

right vision at some point it is hard to develop and explain to customers. Simple and focused is easier to build and market.

» Launch early, Learn, and Improve ˃ We started with a “build it and they will come” strategy. This would have bankrupted

us. It is far better to get something up and iterate.

» Identify Gaps in the Team Early˃ We are building a web based service and none of us can code. We should have

considered this skill gap and resolved it upfront.

» Identify and Focus on What is Critical for Success˃ We learned that our business is more of a marketing challenge than a technology

challenge. We should have realized this sooner.

Things we would do different» We would go faster

˃ Research, surveys, and refinement of the plan consumed too much time.

» We would address the skill gap (coder) earlier in the process˃ We should have just hired someone, found another team member, or learned

to code ourselves at the outset.

» We would have project planned more aggressively˃ We were at times paralyzed by the scale of our vision relative to the time and

resources available within the time frame of the course.˃ If we rationalized our plan earlier we could have built more!

Is this thing viable? Yes!» The demand for our core value proposition is as

high as we thought˃ SAM is ~ $15bn˃ Response rates on our marketing exceeded expectations˃ The level of enthusiasm in customer emails is impressive

» The Complexity and Cost of Building a Commercial Product is Lower than Expected˃ Most of the complex elements of the service can be delivered with simple

API connections to existing 3rd parties

» Early Results Indicate We Can Acquire Customers at ROI Positive Cost Levels˃ Conversion rates on our marketing tests are very high˃ We need to test at greater levels of scale to be sure

Will we pursue it? » Yes!

» Next Steps:

˃ We need a few weeks of vacation first

˃ Working on how we will each contribute over time

˃ Currently speaking with potential engineering/coding leaders to fill our skill gap on the team.

˃ Getting active in the industry to gain more knowledge

˃ Scoping costs to determine financing strategy; bootstrap may be possible

˃ Real work begins in the new year!