Min Alexander: This business builds one by one. That’s a competitive moat for us. Folks that think they’re going to blast and market, that doesn’t necessarily happen in an industry like ours. It’s taken so long to disrupt it at scale. You need all the components. You need the technology and infrastructure to keep it simple and very accessible. You also need relationship builders who are holding these clients accountable in the markets that we’re in.
We build the brokers. We’ll have transactions that are also consistent. As long as we’re serving the brokers and delighting them with our quality, they’ll keep coming back. Every sales transaction brings two homeowners that we can serve throughout their entire homeownership journey. We have a seller who sold their home and a buyer who bought the home.
>>>During the pandemic lockdowns, most offices globally shifted to virtual working conditions. The rapid transition led to the adoption of several online collaboration tools with high growth season for virtual meeting and webinar providers. During the recent year, the global restrictions have reduced, and the same companies are seeing a slowdown in growth. According to a recent report, the Collaboration applications market size is expected to grow a modest 2% over the next few years to reach $20.8 billion by 2026. Microsoft remains the leader of the pack with almost 20% market share. But the market is crowded with several other smaller players who are offering similar services. One such player is San Francisco, and Amsterdam-based Miro.
>>>RegTech is emerging to become a category of its own with numerous risk and compliance issues getting addressed by technology solutions. Alex has bootstrapped a wonderful business and is now doing a private equity-driven roll-up within the space.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
>>>Sramana Mitra: How much have you raised in total so far?
Min Alexander: Our Series A round was $39 million. We had targeted $35 million. It got others really excited. We ended up declining other funding. We could have been well over $45 million.
Sramana Mitra: The story was pitched to me as a $5 million-plus company. Do you want to add some color to that?
>>>Earlier this week Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) reported its third quarter performance surpassing the market’s forecast. The company reported a net increase in its subscriber base, a first this year. Netflix continues to try alternate revenue monetization models as it taps into a fairly saturated streaming market.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Tell me a bit about your company. Is it venture-funded?
John Wu: We’re a customer-funded company. We view our customers as our partners in this. We have done several successful equity crowdfunding rounds in the last few years. We raised over $11 million in past rounds. A lot of it came from our customers who believe in what we’re doing. When you talk about how you’re getting the word out, that’s one of the ways.
Sramana Mitra: Which equity crowdfunding platform did you work on?
>>>Sramana Mitra: How did you finance this company?
Min Alexander: Earlier on, there was a lot of seed funding. Early seed investors like Meeting Street Capital, Idea Fund, and Venture South are still very active with growing portfolios.
Sramana Mitra: Are these North Carolina investors?
>>>Sramana Mitra: Is that a commission model or a markup model?
Min Alexander: There’s a gross margin. We want to be competitive on price, but we’re also saving time and convenience. Then we’re able to deliver our services for ordering and tracking through a digital interface.
Sramana Mitra: What is the gross margin for your business?
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