Fresh off a $100 million Series A round that pushed its value over $1 billion, real estate tech startup Place is looking to expand beyond its headquarters in Bellingham.
About 150 of its roughly 300 full-time employees are based in the college town of around 92,000 people. As the company looks to grow to between 750 and 1,000 full-time employees over the next year, however, it's also looking to fill its offices in Seattle, Portland and Salt Lake City.
"I love living in Bellingham. It's a beautiful place, and it has no traffic. There's great humans. It's awesome," said Ben Kinney, Place's co-founder and co-CEO. "We would like to continue to support the community we live in, but we're going to need to expand into Seattle and Portland to find the amount of talent that we need to hire."
Kinney said Place has about 50,000 square feet of office space in Bellingham. He also owns about 22,000 square feet in Kirkland, 11,000 of which is ready to start hosting Place employees. The company was waiting until the funding round, which was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from 3L Capital, to pick up hiring in Kirkland. Only a couple of people currently work for Place in Kirkland, Kinney said, while about 15 work in Portland and 30 in Salt Lake City.
Place, founded in 2019, offers real estate agents services like legal help, human resources support, design and accounting, all of which help agents focus on their primary role of working with clients. Consumers can also use Place to search homes based on their geography. According to Kinney, Place offers a blend of software and services that had been lacking in real estate.
"I bought a Peloton, but I'm still kind of chubby and my problem is not the Peloton's fault," Kinney said. "I don't need just the Peloton: I need the Peloton, I need somebody to make the meals, I need the personal trainer, I need a buddy to work out with, I need the vitamins and supplements, I should probably drink water, I should probably sleep more. You need all these things. Software hasn't been able to solve everybody's problems on its own."
Kinney added that Place is looking to fill many of its C-level roles, in addition to software developers. The company also works with about 3,000 contractors in the real estate industry, like agents or assistants.
According to Kinney, Place hasn't taken capital before, which forced the company to be profitable. He said the company generated $85 million in revenue in 2020, posting $11.3 million in profit, and Place roughly doubled both of those numbers this year. Given Place's already rapid growth, Kinney doesn't foresee problems with scaling the company as it focuses on its core business.
"We built everything we have today with duct tape and a couple of popsicle sticks," Kinney said. "Capital should be used efficiently. It shouldn't be used on pinball machines and ridiculous space."
