Vendor "Cage Match" Post Numero Uno
“MLS SMACKDOWN”
We are gonna do this “Lucha Libre” style amigos!
In this corner…
Rapattoni
I’ll start off with Rapattoni. If there was a Vendor Hall of Fame or Vendor Life Time Achievement Award Andy Rapattoni would be first on the list to receive it. Andy would take the award, give a little speech and then go back to his office and continue to kick ass. When I talk to other vendors about Rapattoni they speak of them with venom. The kind of venom that was created in the cauldron of competition. Andy, his wife, and now son Nick have been doing it, and doing it well for 38 freaking years. 38 years people! They started their company back when Nixon was in the White House!!!
The biggest testament I can say about Rapattoni really revolves around what some consider a failure. Remember the Rapattoni lock box? They made a big deal about it, had a proto-type and then…..dumped it. I think that took a lot of guts to take on a project like that, but even a bigger set of balls to make the decision to drop it. That’s what is called confidence.
Strength: Experience and their independence.
Weakness: Will Nick be able to pick up where the old man left off?
Secret Weapon: Watch out for the “sleeper hold” from Rex Marr.
FNRES
When I think of all the people at FNRES and Cyberhomes the phrase I come up with is “Dream Team”. These guys have a boat load of talent all over the country. I was listening to Marty Frame on an Inman Audio Town Hall last week and you can tell that Marty is thinking 3 steps ahead of everybody. I’ve met Jay Gaskill only briefly but you can see this guy is a player that is accustom to being number one.
Putting John Hensley in charge of both MLS and Broker/Agent solutions is one of their best moves yet. John has a good balance of business and tech savvy and this role needs both. FNRES has been a sort of menagerie of acquired companies over the years and it’s about time they leveraged all their assets under one chief. Plus it’s not a secret that FNRES has some of the best technology out there, 2009 could be the year when Bob Morse and his team line ’em up and knock down some big wins. They have a lot of good hard working people and I know they will have a lot of us rooting for them in 2009.
Strength: Technology and talent.
Weakness: Will Bill Foley let them implement?
Secret Weapon: They keep hinting about something big, something new, so I guess we will have to wait and see.
Next up…
FBS and Marketlinx
Feliz Navidad everyone!
Good Job America!
Now lets get to work.
See you in Minneapolis!
LIVE COVERAGE of CMLS starts tomorrow!
Make sure you ask how you can get a hold of some sweet Vendor Alley swag!
In Memory Of…
Barbara Pacak
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Yesterday the city of San Francisco and the SF Association of Realtors lost a dear friend and an incredible asset. Barbara Pacak passed away on Tuesday. Barbara served the San Francisco Association of Realtors for 26 years as the administrative director. Professionally she was an incredible asset to our association and its members and our Association will be hard pressed to ever find someone as dedicated as Barbara.
Barbara was not defined by her job though. She was an incredibly friendly, personable, fun, dynamic woman who both Garrett and I cared a good deal for. We will miss her smile, her sense of humor, levity and her passion. She will be missed and we wish her family all the best in this sad time.
Thanks Barbara – you will be missed and never forgotten.”
2nd round of logo concepts for dwellicious up now!
Check them out now at the Lightning | Twice blog.
I feel a disturbance in The Force…
Something is going down in MLS geekdom. Rumors are flying. Check here later, or if you know something…comment.
thx
Inman Connect Recap…
Still recovering. I’ll have a special Vendor Alley “fill in the blanks” later today.
"Secret" Poker Game at Palace Hotel shut down last night around midnight…
All good things must come to an end. Let’s just say a man in a blue blazer with a walkie-talkie opened the wrong door.
I’m gonna spare you the details of winners and losers. Here are two images that sum up the night pretty well (the faces of the participants were not used per request)
“ALL IN!”
“Aye Aye Captain!”
Secret Poker Game at The Palace Hotel
Starts at 9PM tonight.
Call 714.240.3895 with codeword: “Namni Darb”, that’s Brad Inman spelled backwards, for secret room number.
BYOB
BYOM
