OneDay is expanding into the proptech industry, and it's looking to grow its team along the way.
Continuing its use of video storytelling technology, the Dallas-based startup launched a new platform late last month called Convey by OneDay, designed to help multifamily property owners and leasing agents bring potential residents to their units. To help its expansion into the new vertical, the company is growing its team with a new headquarters in the Design District.
“Our technology was already built to do a similar thing in another market, and it just made sense for us to build a team and build a product specifically for multifamily,” said Clint Lee, OneDay’s co-founder and CEO.
OneDay recently relocated its offices to the area from its previous space near Mockingbird Station. The new 10,000 square-foot space nearly doubles the company’s footprint, a move Lee said was partly due to the rising cost of real estate in North Texas, the growing number of tech companies located in the Design District and the need to build out its team. Over the year, OneDay is looking to add around 10 new employees, bringing its total headcount to about 50.
“Real estate prices have gone up, but it’s an up and coming area,” Lee said.
The company also recently brought Mike Davis to head the new vertical, who joins as OneDay’s senior vice president of multifamily. Before joining the startup, Davis served as the vice president of enterprise sales at Richardson-based proptech giant RealPage.
The Convey platform works similarly to OneDay’s initial business, using video storytelling to help senior living communities share the stories and memories of their residents while also creating branded content to drive insights and attract potential new clients. Convey does this by allowing leasing agents and property owners to create videos of property tours and community events and enable instant communication, which provides insight into what types of engagement are the most effective.
“The core of it is using a video to establish a connection and showcase your community, your property outside its four walls,” Lee said. “This is just an organized way to do it to create branded and authentic content and send it out to prospects quickly and easily.”
OneDay launched with its senior living-focused product in 2017. Last summer, it launched Reflect by OneDay, a platform focused on the funeral home industry that allows friends and family to crowdsource and compile personal video messages about the person that has passed.
Lee hinted at “tangential expansions” at the end of 2019, following the company closing on a $5.2 million Series A round led by Silverton Partners, bringing its total funding to about $6.5 million.
“It’s a different buying process of moving into an apartment, but this is a really easy way to showcase that property… and the great things about the community to get the right residents in your buildings,” Lee said.
Despite the pandemic, OneDay has continued to grow at a steady pace. Around this time last year, the company had nearly half of the workforce it has now. Its senior living-focused platform is now being used in about 5,000 properties across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., more than double the amount it had about a year ago. Lee said OneDay’s growth could partly be attributed to the rapid adoption of virtual tools during a time of lockdowns and social distancing measures, something he doesn’t see going away after the pandemic. He also said that after raising the Series A, the company began to focus heavily on its sales and go-to-market team.
“It’s helped us as a storytelling company tells our story better,” Lee said.
For now, OneDay plans to focus on the three markets that it serves. However, Lee said it has its eyes on new potential verticals and markets and will have more announcements later this year.
“We’ve got an asynchronous platform that helps people build connections and drive sales, so we have our eye on some things,” Lee said.
