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Robert Keefe comes from a line of real estate professionals. His grandfather founded Lake Geneva's Keefe Real Estate in 1943 and the business still remains in the family.
But after leading the family business for more than a decade and then working in other areas of the real estate industry, Keefe realized there was an opportunity to innovate. He founded Relitix in 2017 to help brokerages use data to make decisions that have traditionally been made based on gut feelings and superficial metrics, Keefe said.
"(For) large brokers, success is largely defined by how well they can assemble and maintain and train an agent base," Keefe said. "The evaluation of real estate agents is something that I think ... business insiders would recognize as being pretty opaque. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors."
Relitix aims to bring a level of transparency to the industry by using multiple listing service (MLS) data combined with artificial intelligence to deliver insights and predictions about individuals agents' performance. For instance, it can identify early-career agents that are likely to succeed, allowing brokerages to focus on retaining "early superstars" and proactively intervening with low-performing agents.
"There's a growing consciousness among the top firms in the U.S. that they need to consciously design the kind of agent base that they want," Keefe said. "We provide the data that allows them to recruit intentionally to achieve that."
The company has more than 50 brokerage clients around the country in more than 40 markets, according to Keefe. With each market it adds, Relitix is able to tap into new local MLS data. It currently has data representing about half of all U.S. agents and is aiming to expand into around 100 additional markets within two years in order to capture data for around 95% of agents, Keefe said.
Relitix expects to double its employee count and the size of the business within the next 12 months, Keefe said. It has more than doubled in terms of revenue, client count and market footprint within the last 12 months, he added.
Keefe's education includes an ocean engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master's in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University. He has worked in the real estate industry since 2000, when he left the Navy after nine years as an officer. He previously was chairman of the Wisconsin Realtors Association and a board member for the National Association of Realtors.
The product: "'Moneyball' for real estate agents," Keefe said.
How it makes money: Relitix sells its analytics to large residential real estate brokers around the U.S. who use it for recruiting, retention, coaching and strategic direction.
Size of the market: Relitix is targeting the more than 200,000 real estate offices nationwide, Keefe said.
Competition: There's no direct competition, according to Relitix.
Competitive advantage: Relitix is run by industry veterans who use artificial intelligence to make predictions and measurements, and present them in an intuitive interface to support efficient data exploration, Keefe said.
Business it could disrupt: Residential real estate brokerages.
Team: CEO and founder Robert Keefe, director of data analytics Derek Kane, senior data engineer Matt Michalowski, business development director Diana Passarelli, director of client success Katie Ford.
Investors: Bootstrapped
Capital raised: Bootstrapped
Ideal exit: The company is not currently pursuing an exit.
Company name: Relitix
Headquarters: Lake Geneva
Founded: 2017
CEO: Robert Keefe
Employees: 5
Website: www.relitix.com
