Our Journey Building A $4M ARR Product In The Real Estate Space
Who are you and what business did you start?
Hey everyone, my name is Alex Samant, co-founder of TitleCapture, and we help title companies in the United States streamline their quoting process so that they can drive more agent loyalty.
For anyone who doesn’t know what title companies are, let me just tell you that they are one of the most important service providers in the real estate space, as they handle the actual settlement or closing of a real estate transaction - including signing documents, handling the payment, filing with the government, etc.
And quoting - or providing agents with estimates - is the first step in the closing process, as consumers (aka buyers/sellers/borrowers) need to know exactly how much the settlement process is going to cost them, as well as how much money they will net after selling their home, or how much they will have to pay upfront and during their loan term if they’re buying a home.
A title company must focus on keeping real estate agents and lenders loyal, as they are the ones bringing the business to a title company - ie buyers, sellers, and borrowers. And providing them with an incredible experience is paramount.
TitleCapture’s branded title company app enhances that experience by allowing agents to generate their quotes and estimates, wherever and whenever they need, without depending on a title company rep. So, everything from Title Quotes, Seller Net Sheets, Buyer Estimates, and other quote types, are now at agents’ fingertips helping them win more listings and close more deals.
We’ve managed to help more than 1,500 title companies improve their quoting and keep their realtors and lenders loyal, which is close to 10% of the entire title company market - and we’re just getting started!
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I’ve been a marketer and designer my whole life and focused primarily on the web, and that’s how I met my co-founder Kethe. I was working for a design agency, and he had a company that needed help - and that’s how we kicked it off. We maintained that relationship even after I formally quit the agency, and soon we started working together, building software and web applications for other people.
After a couple of years of doing that, we decided it was time to build our own SaaS company. That was in 2013 - and the opportunity came along when one of our clients, who was a large title company in Florida (possibly the largest) told us they needed an app to streamline their quoting process. It was evident to us that if these people needed such a product, chances are that other title companies needed the same thing, so we did our homework and decided this was it. This would be what our SaaS company did.
So instead of building this product for one client exclusively, we offered them to just pay a monthly subscription for being able to use it, while we owned the product and potentially sign up other title companies.
They agreed and we started working. One funny (not so funny at the time) story is that we were supposed to be 3 co-founders. We were supposed to have a technical co-founder aka a senior programmer, while I was focused on product and marketing and, my current co-founder Kethe on sales and business development.
One month before the product launch (we pre-booked an expensive booth at the largest industry tradeshow) our technical co-founder was nowhere to be seen, and I found myself in a tough spot of having to code this thing on my own, with very little experience in doing so. So, I sucked it up, spent 16 hours/day learning and building, and luckily for us, the first version of the product was indeed ready for the tradeshow … And the rest is history.
Fast forward to today, we’re a growing $4m ARR SaaS company, in a very tough, niche industry, ready to expand our product and grow 3-5x in the next few years.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
We had no experience with title companies and their process, so we learned a lot from those first clients, in the couple of months leading up to building the product. I had to learn everything about closing costs, title insurance rates, recording fees, and transfer taxes - what were the rates, formulas, and all that not-so-fun stuff.
While I was doing that, we were looking at other quote calculators already existing in the market and we realized they were all very boring and outdated, and most of them were simple website embeds that looked the same.
We wanted to add a spin to all of these calculators. So we decided we’ll create a web app that is branded with each title company’s logo, something that feels “their own”, something they will gladly promote to their agents. A white-label solution.
I learned Angular 1.x (which was very new at the time), plus I already had knowledge of HTML and PHP (for which I spent 2 days writing a very simple framework to speed up coding) .... Mind you I already had "some" experience with coding, but I turned to for advice and guidance to many friends who were experienced programmers.
The other aspect we wanted to focus on was the customization. We wanted to allow their app to quote the same way their staff would, taking into account any number of custom inputs the transaction and property would require.
Last but not least, we wanted it to be responsive, so people could use it on the go and since it was a web app, it would also be compatible with any device type, as long as they had an internet connection.
So version 1.0 had those core traits and it only focused on two calculators, the ones that were the most useful - the Title Quote and a (now defunct by law) Pre-HUD1 form.
Describe the process of launching the business
So with version 1.0 - once we had validation from our initial customer - who loved it by the way - we went for a more “official” launch when we signed up as an exhibitor for the annual ALTA (American Land Title Association) tradeshow/conference, which in 2013 coincidentally took place close by (we’re in Miami) - at the Breakers Hotel in West Palm Beach.
It generated a lot of buzz at the tradeshow and everyone loved it.
One person in particular, who was a national sales manager for a large title insurance underwriter loved it so much he wanted to put it in front of all their title agencies. (aka title companies). One thing to understand is that title companies act as brokers of title insurance for these large underwriters.
This was a God-sent partnership opportunity, that would create a lot of visibility for us. In fact, for the first year, we grew our customers from 1 to more than 150 on the back of this partnership alone.
I remember sending these emails on behalf of the underwriter’s reps and we would get 80% open rates and 50% click rates. We got so many demos we had to scale our sales pretty fast. I think our employee #1 was our first sales rep/account executive because we needed to give demos left and right.
NEVER EVER focus on the technology first. You don’t want to be “that” company or “that” solution constantly in search of a problem. Always start with a niche audience and their needs.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Obviously, partnerships with title insurance underwriters have been and continue to be an excellent client acquisition channel.
Besides that, we got good at PPC / Paid Media circa 2015 with really high-converting ads, and there were some key things that allowed that to happen.
For one, Facebook still allowed us to target people by employer name. We were also targeting people who “liked” ALTA’s Facebook page. Additionally, we were able to target by specific job titles of people working inside title companies.
Since then, however, Facebook eliminated many of the B2B options, and we migrated more towards Google AdWords and LinkedIn Ads.
The other thing that worked for us was that our product was a trivial one that required no migration or complicated decisions to be made. When a title company owner or decision maker saw our product and how easy to use and modern it looked (not to mention branded) they knew they had to have “their app”. This helped us close more than 70% of the demos we gave.
In terms of client retention, our churn is at around 0.7% MoM on average, so low, because once a title company has “their app” and they start giving access to it to their agents, it’s very hard to pull it back, especially since the monthly subscription amount is low (around $300). One new deal that comes in pays for the entire year, so it’s a positive ROI proposition.
Also, our unique system, the way it’s designed for accuracy and compliance creates a “moat” that protects us from our competitors to this day. We’ve had some clients move to a competitor only to realize they just can’t accommodate the various fee schedules and intricacies that can.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Fast forward to today, we are at $300K+ MRR (close to $4m ARR) and we’re growing at a steady pace, with a very solid client base who is loyal and very supportive.
Because it’s bootstrapped - we’ve never taken any funding so we get to make our own decisions - we’ve always focused on sustainability and making financially sound decisions, so it’s no surprise that we’re able to maintain around 30% profitability - with as little waste as possible when it comes to expenses.
In terms of growth potential, we’ve already started to diversify and build more products and value. One of these projects, we call it TC Premium, is a paid subscription for the real estate agents that use our platform already, that helps them capture more leads.
We’re currently targeting a 2.5x revenue increase in the next 3 years, and we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to get there.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
One lesson I learned is that it’s not great to hang on to too many hats as a founder. You have to focus on buying back your time and hiring early on, as soon as your product has traction and you’re pretty much validated - eg the scaling phase starts.
When you start out and you work on the product and pretty much everything else in the business, you don’t think too much about hiring, but as you start scaling the business hiring becomes one of the most important skills, and if you don’t master it early on, you’re up for a bumpy ride.
The other thing we learned was that partnerships matter a lot. Especially in the beginning. They provide not only a zero-CAC client acquisition channel but also the validation you need to be able to close clients. Trust is a big factor in their decision, and if you come recommended, you’re golden.
One thing I’d recommend founders / CEOs to look into is EOS or any similar management frameworks. The ability to make data-driven decisions, to have clarity and focus on what matters most in the present moment, to have well-documented processes and playbooks, as well as to have the right people in the right seats is absolute key, and without any of these frameworks, you risk spending years in the dark (like we did).
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Hubspot - we use it for pretty much the entire relationship, from getting the lead in, closing them, onboarding, as well as upsells, etc.
ClickUp - everything operations need a really good project management system, and for us and our complexity, this seems to be the best middle-of-the-road solution.
Finance-wise we use Zoho to manage our subscriptions, books, invoices, etc - as we deal with a considerable amount of checks-in-the-mail and non-credit card subscriptions.
Other notable mentions include AWS for our infrastructure, we use Upwork quite a lot whenever we need freelancers or one-off jobs, G-Suite for the communication and file storage fundamentals, etc.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I would recommend a few books that I believe all founders should read:
Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
The Score Takes Care of Itself - Bill Walsh
The Mom Test - Rob Fitzpatrick
Competing Against Luck - Clayton M Christensen
Re-Work - 39signals
The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Write this down and carry it with you:
1) Find an important need - make sure it’s something your audience either spends a lot of time or money with or is critical to their desired results.
2) Create a magical product and experience - if you’re going to stand out and get people to adopt you, especially in the early phases, you’ll have to create a product that “wows” people. It needs to be so simple, so effective, and so relevant to people’s use cases, that their reaction is just “Shut up and take my money”.
You will have to dig deep into the technological toolbox and see what new technologies might be great at solving the problem/need in a way that saves time & money for your clients - orders of magnitude more than the existing alternatives.
3) Let everyone know about it - having a distribution channel advantage is at least as important as having a magical product. This may include the ability to partner, having a large following or access to one, being good at marketing and selling, and having the ability to generate a lot of brand awareness fast is paramount.
NEVER EVER focus on the technology first. You don’t want to be “that” company or “that” solution constantly in search of a problem. Always start with a niche audience and their needs.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Nothing in particular at the moment, but if you’re interested in working for TitleCapture, make sure to check the Careers page.
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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