It was while attending Boston University that Placester co-founder and CEO Matt Barba got a piece of invaluable advice from advisor—and now investor—Dave Anderson. Anderson, who wrote Placester’s first check for $100,000 in 2009, insisted that the real estate marketing tech company lock down an office at the Cambridge Innovation Center so that they could plug into the local startup ecosystem.
And it’s a good thing Barba took his advice. Because it’s while at the CIC that he met Techstars Boston managing director Katie Rae. In 2011, Placester took the chance to participate in the Techstars program. Fast forward to today: Placester holds the honor of being among the Boston Techstars alumni that have raised the most funding, with $22 million in the bank (that puts it at No. 4).
“I just got wrapped up in the community,” he told BostInno.
But let’s take a step back. Barba got the idea for Placester while simultaneously getting his degree at BU and working as a real estate agent. He began working on developing a portal through which agents could post all listings in the Boston area. Then, as fate would have it, during his junior year he met Fred Townes—also a BU alum, and Mashable’s third employee/CTO. Townes’ engineering chops were just what Placester needed, after the two decided to join forces, the company was officially founded in 2010.
“We wanted to solve this big glaring problem in real estate,” says Barba.
The problem at hand? Consumers are using the Web to find apartments and houses as opposed to traditional sources like newspapers. That means they expect agents and brokers to provide a sleek, Google or Amazon-esque experience for listings. But without the right software, those professionals likely won’t have a strong Web presence—and will lose business as a result.
So, the duo built a prototype for a real estate marketing platform for agents and brokers to build websites with IDX search and advanced lead capture. Additionally, Placester offers advanced search technology for local publishers and media companies—including for Hearst Corporation’s nationwide network of daily and weekly newspapers—enabling agents and brokers to easily buy digital ads with a variety of local and national publishers.
Diversifying the offerings
It all started with the mission of making it easy for real estate professionals to set up visually appealing, professional looking, easy to navigate websites. But as time went on, Barba realized there were immense opportunities to build on that initial idea.
“It became clear that the website itch had been been scratched—very well,” he told BostInno, “but that people wanted more.”
So, Placester built out its own CRM system specifically catered to agents. What makes Placester’s CRM particularly beneficial for real estate professionals over other solutions, like HubSpot’s and Salesforce, is that it’s hooked into MLS systems across the U.S. That means it can pull critical data out of those systems on what listings are still available. Placester also began creating marketing automation tools to address challenges around email marketing, as well as social media and search engine advertising.
"We look for craftspeople who are intentionally deliberate about not just what gets done but how it gets done. We get that not everyone is going to be passionate about real estate—but there’s got to be some kind of fire inside of you that comes from somewhere else aside from paying your rent.”
In April, Placester banked a $15 million Series B round led by New Enterprise Associates. That capital followed the $5.5 million Series A the company closed a year prior. Other investors include Romulus Capital, and a number of angels, including Clypd founder Joshua Summers and Adelphic Mobile cofounder Jennifer Lum.
As the company’s product offerings expanded, so did its team. And to accommodate for that growth, Placester moved into a larger office in the heart of Downtown Crossing just over a year ago. Now, they’re on a major hiring tear: In fact, the startup plans to double its staff by next April, ideally reaching 100 employees.
“We built a strong engineering and design team early on,” says Barba, “Now, the focus is hiring heavily in sales and support.”
Barba added that Placester looks for a particular kind of person in the hiring process:
We look for people who are hard workers. That doesn’t mean coding or working until 8, 9, or 10 PM every day, but people who want to come in and produce things. And you can see it on their faces. We look for craftspeople who are intentionally deliberate about not just what gets done but how it gets done. And third, we look for passion. We get that not everyone is going to be passionate about real estate—but there’s got to be some kind of fire inside of you that comes from somewhere else aside from paying your rent.
Recently, Placester launched a new lead management system as well as a real estate brokerage solution for tracking teams’ progress. With this fresh round of capital, Barba says the company is dedicated to developing new features and functionality to better meet agents’ needs.
All photos provided by Placester.
