Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Is Listingbook running out of cash?

LB

The WAV Group’s recent post on their blog is titled, “Investor needed for growth company

The post describes, “WAV Group was recently contacted by a 5 year old company that sells technology products to MLSs. ….They are looking for $500k to $2M in the form of a convertible bridge loan or equity. The company’s product has been “site licensed” by more than 35 MLSs in the past 12 months and has a full pipeline of installations pending. ”

This has to be Listingbook. I could be wrong, but I can’t think of anyone else. I’ve been hearing rumors about them scheduling conference calls with other real estate technology companies about “joint ventures or partnerships”, then, in a few minutes in to the call, it’s pretty clear they are looking for cash.

The weird thing that struck me was the amount of cash they are looking for, “$500K to $2M”. First off, 500K hardly seems worth the effort and doesn’t look like it would last with a crew like this around (and that doesn’t even include Todd!).

Even $2M, which is nothing to sneeze at, seems low. I have no idea what their burn rate is but with 35 MLS’ up and running and “full pipeline of installations pending”, it’s gotta be pretty high and getting higher.

In my opinion these guys should start thinking bigger. I’ve written about them recently, I really think they got a hit on their hands with Listingbook. I’m not sure anyone in this space is in the position to pony up for them right now, but someone in the Valley might.

It’s a good story. I’m still hearing agents singing their praises, they get mentioned in the New York Times, and it seems like they are the front runner in this whole VOW race, even Brian Larson thinks so!

I’ve got a few ideas, some of them good, on how I would approach their current dilemma, but I’ll save those for a future post.

In the meantime let’s all hope Listingbook…

live long and prosper

  1. Their feature set looks like the result of a gap analysis between a traditional MLS and a Public MLS portal: Public display, idx templates, open house search. As the big boys move into that space, their niche is going to get crowded.

  2. Pingback: Listingbook lets go senior staff members. « Vendor Alley

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