One of the best things about publishing this blog for so long I (16 years baby!) is that a lot of early founders find me and I get to hear the ideas they are working on and see what they are building. Sometimes they are looking for advice, or maybe an introduction. Which I’m always happy to provide if I can.
In the past (I would say my generation) the typical real estate software vendor was a developer and maybe their spouse was a real estate agent or maybe he/she got frustrated buying or selling their home. They had an itch to scratch. Whether it was helping their spouse or themselves. So they made something. Maybe a small software program that managed contacts (it always starts with a CRM, doesn’t it?) They bootstrapped their company. The spouse would start using the software, maybe the broker noticed and asked if other agents in the office could use it, fast forward 3 years, and a company is born.
Nowadays typically I see young founders with funding from VC firms or other outside sources and they have ideas about some level of disruption of real estate. Or they see the quality of some software applications and think that they can do better. The biggest difference is the shear confidence, ambition and smarts these new generation of vendors have. As a bonus they really have great taste in software.
Enter Sheila Reddy. Sheila is the founder and CEO of Mosaik. Sheila describes Mosaik as the “operating platform for agents, teams and brokerages”. In the parlance of the broker/teams software world I would call this an “end to end platform”. Due to this approach Mosaik really does a great job of focusing on the entire client experience. Craig Rowe at Inman News did a really great review of the product you can read here.
Sheila came from the healthcare industry and saw a few parallels in software design/quality for the real estate industry. She knew it could be better. And to say Mosaik is ambitious is an understatement. MLS data? Yup. Form integration. Of course. AI? Duh! Client collaboration? Absolutely. Schedule Showings? You betcha! Native mobile app? We got you!
Framing all this functionality is a beautiful and simple UI. The biggest challenge she has is just the sheer magnitude of the feature set. As someone who has always favored small simple “it does one thing and it does it well” type of software applications I am impressed with what she and her team has created.
The industry needs more founders like Shelia. Their ambition, drive and optimism is just what the doctor ordered. If you are brokerage or a team you should check it out, the video on her website alone is worth the watch.
If the platform is half as good as the marketing, it’s a winner. Well done indeed. Thanks for sharing Greg.
Great insights, Greg. I feel the same way about Sheila and Mosaik. So glad that I’ve have the chance to work with her to integrate Plunk’s analytics into her grand vision.
She has built a great platform. I had a chance to speak with her.