Realty Software Startup Sets Up Shop in Hartford
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By Matt Pilon
Lured by an early-stage investment from Connecticut Innovations, a real estate software startup recently established its headquarters in Hartford.
My Home Pro Network offers a cloud-based software that allows realty brokerages and agents to create online profiles listing their trusted contractors, attorneys, mortgage lenders and other service providers. The site has social and referral elements similar to Facebook and Angie’s List, but for the realty market.
In February, My Home Pro Network moved into Park Street office space owned by business accelerator reSET Social Enterprise Trust. It’s one of 21 companies currently enrolled in reSET’s flagship “Impact Accelerator” program.
My Home Pro Network is already bringing in revenue and in the midst of a pre-seed round to raise $500,000 for product development and hiring.
The company has six fulltime employees and wants to double that number by year’s end, according to CEO Nick Pontacoloni, 34, who first launched the venture in 2012 with longtime friend Mike Zizzamia, 33. Pontacoloni’s younger brother, Mike Pontacoloni, 29, joined the company in 2013 and has been working there full time since last year.
All three are Windsor natives, with varied backgrounds in technology marketing, real estate and education.
“We believe we could have a company that employs 100 fulltime people within three years,” Nick Pontacoloni said.
Broader market
Pontacoloni said My Home Pro Network software gives real estate agents a way to provide additional value to clients — potentially winning repeat business in the future — by acting as a referral source to contractors and other service providers. Agents can list their most trusted contractors on their profile and refer clients to the page. It’s also a marketing tool for contractors listed on broker’s profiles, he said.
Homebuyers can be lucrative customers. On average, buyers of new homes spend more than $12,000 on furniture, appliances and other items in the year after closing, according to a 2008 study by the National Association of Home Builders.
An early version of the software sought to allow contractors to bid on jobs posted by property owners, but it struggled to gain traction, Pontacoloni said. The company shifted its gaze toward real estate brokers, building a networking service on top of their original job-posting and bidding platform.
It’s starting to catch on.
Reach expanding
Brokers and agents from Maine to New Jersey are using the platform and related marketing services, the company said, including Keller Williams, which has created a network for its Greater Hartford agents and others.
Investors have also taken note. Connecticut Innovations, the state’s quasi-public venture capital arm, is leading the ongoing pre-seed investment round, committing up to $150,000. My Home Pro Network raised $100,000 from angel investors in 2015, and hopes to raise a larger Series A round in the next several years.
Mike Wisniewski, a CI investment associate, said Connecticut Innovations hopes its investment, which comes in the form of a two-year note, will be converted to an ownership stake in a later equity round.
“I thought they were motivated, energetic, young entrepreneurs, but experienced,” Wisniewski said of the startup’s founding team. “We want to try to build our pipeline for our later-stage funds with companies that have good growth potential.”
Nick Pontacoloni, who has an MBA from Northeastern, has worked in sales for LinkedIn and TechTarget, while Zizzamia has worked as a real estate agent. Mike Pontacoloni has two master’s degrees — one in teaching from UConn, and the other in fine arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
CI has released $75,000 to My Home Pro Network so far, Wisniewski said. The startup will be required to raise at least $75,000 on its own. For its investment risk, CI would receive an ownership stake at a discounted rate in a future equity round, he said.
