- Advice to agents: educate yourself about the tech options, learn what is out there.
- More advice to agents: Start small, spend as little as possible and then iterate. “Don’t build the Taj Mahal.”
- There is a room for a big independent agent- and broker-centric software company.
Matt Barba, CEO Placester
Brad Inman talks to 29-year-old Matt Barba, the Co-Founder and CEO of Placester, a real estate marketing platform, who just raised $27 million. To date, the company has raised over $50 million in total funding, and is backed by NEA, Romulus Capital and Techstars.
While in college at Boston University, Barba pursued a real estate license and began his career as an agent in 2008. During that time, he developed a keen interest in real estate technology. An avid coder since childhood, Barba recognized an opportunity to improve the way real estate data was being shared with home buyers and sellers, as well as the publications promoting property listings.
Together with Chief Technology Officer Frederick Townes, Matt founded Placester in January 2011 to close the gap between real estate professionals, publishers and consumers.
