On Starting A Home Inspection Platform With 400% YoY Growth
I’m Jen Yosef, CEO, and Co-founder of Mighty. Mighty is a platform that streamlines the home repair process for every real estate transaction. Using AI, our platform turns every inspection report into a pricing solution that provides home buyers and sellers with real data to negotiate and close on homes. Real estate is a complex space and with our unique product offering Mighty is one of the first platforms that are enabling data insight from inspections. Our product offering helped us secure a very large partnership with Howard Hanna (4th largest brokerage in the country) which has expanded Mighty nationwide with a 400% YoY growth rate.
What's your backstory and how did you get into entrepreneurship?
Growing up in Dubai, I was surrounded by beautiful architecture and engineering marvels. I was always captivated by how much the landscape of Dubai was evolving and at an early age, it piqued my interest in structural engineering. My dream of becoming an engineer and what would ultimately lead me to founding a Proptech company was encouraged by my loving father.
We needed to take care of the people who love the beautiful chaos and want it back as soon as possible.
I started my career as a civil and nuclear engineer, working in the energy industry for nearly a decade in engineering and leadership roles with fortune 500 companies such as Chevron and Williams. In these roles, I was responsible for managing up to $100M projects ensuring engineering excellence and fiscal responsibility. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time being an engineer, I knew I wanted to solve something bigger and started my incredible journey with Mighty. Mighty was at a crossroads when discovering that the on-demand home improvement space was not only saturated but extremely cost-inefficient. I was brought on board to lead the company in a new phase of development. Doing vigorous user research and embedding myself in the real estate world, I discovered a unique pain point for agents and their clients and pivoted to building a smart technology in the closing process thus creating Mighty in its modern form.
Take us through your entrepreneurial journey. How did you go from day 1 to today?
From an early age, my father identified the ambition of his two daughters and he was the ultimate coach and cheerleader. He encouraged us to study in the US so we could pursue our dreams without the limitations that existed for women in the UAE. We both did exactly that.
The evolution of my career has taken me to founding a tech company in the construction/real estate space. While the challenges are new, some are still the same. As an immigrant founder, I find my uphill battle is slightly more sloped, I don’t have many familial connections in this space, my successes can be questioned more thoroughly and I can be taken less seriously because I am a middle-eastern woman in a male-dominated space. In those moments, I take a deep breath and think about the values that my father instilled in me.
I think about the challenges I had to face when coming to this country in the first place and keep my nose to the grinding stone and press on. I hear my father’s voice that women can accomplish anything in the US and this motivation has led me to where Mighty is today.
I’ve grown Mighty from a one-woman shop to securing a partnership with the 4th largest brokerage in the nation. We are utilizing data and AI to transform the real estate industry and offer smart tools to all parties involved in real estate. I’m building connections with fortune 500 companies all while leading a diverse team with all-female executive leadership. I can feel myself moving the needle in both the real estate industry as well as in the male-dominated tech industry and other companies are taking note.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
With three unique revenue channels and a strong adoption rate amongst real estate agents, we are seeing a 20% growth MoM. Our current CAC is $0.21 with 39% of monthly traffic is organic. Mighty is a nationwide platform and as we continue to grow, we plan on helping homebuyers transition to homeowners helping them with additional products such as insurance, general maintenance
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
As COVID 19 hit, I tried to get a firm grasp on the outlook of a market that was anything but certain and I learned one of the best lessons that will continue with me for the rest of my life.
"It is not the strongest of species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change"
I knew we needed to adapt quickly and mostly this was a chance to step up and help the people whose lives we’ve been trying to make easier through our technology.
Our team devised a plan to offer our smart estimate services free of charge to our partnered agents. These agents could submit requests for estimates on home inspections and expect to receive their estimate report in 24 hours or less. Additionally, we fast-tracked virtual construction specialist consulting for repair items that may need a little more attention to get a solid estimate. These services kept deals moving that might otherwise have gotten stuck due to social distancing and mandates as a result of the virus.
When I green-lit this decision, I did not do so lightly. Such a decision meant forgoing a large stream of our revenue for an uncertain amount of time. While this may seem counterintuitive for a startup that is trying to grow, the decision was clear in my mind: we needed to take care of the people who love the beautiful chaos and want it back as soon as possible. I knew this decision would help us remember that we will return to a time where our phone is ringing so much it's driving us mad, where it seems that there aren’t enough hours in the day for our meetings and most importantly, this decision will allow us to continue to be a part of those amazing transactions where a beloved client gets to hold an oversized crimson sign that says simply, “SOLD”.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Tools we love to use:
Slack for communication. Helps avoid so many unnecessary emails!
Databox for tracking metrics
Hubspot for CRM
Canva for design
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Think and grow rich - Napoleon hill
Lean startup - Eric Reis
Zero to One - Peter Thiel
Masters of scale - Reid Hoffman
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting?
Fear is a state of mind. Take the risks, think big, and don’t let fear control you
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