synthicity final 2013 berkeley
TRANSCRIPT
Visualization and analysis tools for urban planning professionals
Market Size: $20 Mil
Data and insights to anticipate urban futures
Market Size: $100 Mil
Synthicity Team Members
Ian CarltonPhD candidate, DCRP
Manager of Real Estate Applications, Synthicity
Gabe CohenHaas School of Business
Erin Koehler Haas School of Business
Nikki LowyHaas School of Business
Advi
sors
Fletcher FotiManager of Transportation
Applications
LLP
Team
Carlos VanegasCTO & Director of Research
Rob MatthewsDirector of Product
Development
Paul Waddell CEO
Our first Business Canvas Model: Serve an ecosystem
US DOT
US EPA
Customer ecosystem for major urban development
Local & Minority
BizSustainabilityAdvocates
Chamber ofCommerce
NeighborhoodGroups
US HUD
US TreasuryPrivate Real
Estate Developer
Transitagencies
Schools
Housing Orgs
Consultants+Contractors
PublicWorks
RedevelopmentAuthority
City DOT
Housing
CouncilOffices
City Planning
EconomicDevelopment
Police& Fire
Social JusticeGroups
Lenders EquityInvestors
CountyDOT
MetroPlanning
Orgs
MetroCOGS
OrganizedLabor
StateDOT
PlanningFirms
EngineeringFirms
Could Synthicity pivot from consulting to software…
Location Selection
Real Estate Development
Basic infra. Investment
Land Use Planning
Economic Development
Project design & delivery
Transport project plans
Regional priorities
Long range planning
Today’s offering
Could Synthicity pivot from consulting to software… software serving more segments of the value chain?
Location Selection
Real Estate Development
Basic infra. Investment
Land Use Planning
Economic Development
Project design & delivery
Transport project plans
Regional priorities
Long range planning
Today’s offering
Enterprise software customers were likely to be the smaller set of service firms, not end users
Location Selection
Real Estate Development
Basic infra. Investment
Land Use Planning
Economic Development
Project design & delivery
Transport project plans
Regional priorities
Long range planning
CBRE™
Narrowed our customer segments, sized market, realized this was a $20M business…
“That’s cool, but it would be great if you do this…”
Real estate service providers told us:
Would love predictions about the future
Want multiple data sources at fingertips
Have low willingness to pay relative to our cost to provide such data & analysis
So, we pivoted…
Wanted a $100M business opportunity
Spoke with John Hanke at Google Earth: Manage multiple verticals or one horizontal?
Interviewed potential horizontal customer segments
New customer segments:• Home buyers• Home owners• Small business owners• Neighborhood activists
Potential channel partners:• Realtors & brokers
Clear pain/gain/emotional need:
Want 5-year predictions
Channel transition from SaaS platform to web brand
www.MyUrbanFuture.com
Decision makers: Home buyersHome ownersNeighborhood activists Business owners
RealtorsConsumer Website
Understanding of Urban Futures
Web Development
Freemium: limited free queries, sell enhanced data
We shifted our focus to a web product for consumers
Digging deeper: we verified that there is a need, but not for the exact product we offered
What we did:
• Tested MVP website, report
• Directed web traffic using Google Ads
What we found:
• Customers did NOT buy the MVP report
Who we contacted:
• Home buyers, homeowners, N’hood activists, realtors
• Small biz owners, brokers
What we found:
• Want hyper-local data presented in easily digestible form
• Care about development projects and n’hood trends
MVP Interviews
Google AdWords campaign failed to convert users to payers, but there was a silver lining
Engaging maps kept visitors on site ~two minutes
Realtors were REALLY excited about our offering
Original customer segment - real estate investors – also need the data collected for MVP report
We believe there is an opportunity to build a $100M business…
$24M1% x 36 mil urban homeowners x $60 =
$25M5% x 4 mil urban homebuyers x $125 =
$23M1% x 7 mil urban small/ x $250/ = mid-sized businesses
$500
Capture Rate Customer Segment Annual Value Annual Revenue
5% x 25k real estate x $10k/ = investment firms $500k
$30M
$102M
Invest in building our own brand
‘White label’ to existing brands
A trusted brand is critical to convert engagement to sales
We can develop a brand in several ways:
Build: Borrow:1 2
A white label strategy could be pursued
Home Buyers
Home Owners
Commercial Lessors
Urban Futures
Flow of Money
Flow of Services
Real Estate Investors
Data &Insights
License Fees & Revenue Share Fees
Fees
Reports
Updates
Business Owners
Fees
Fees
Reports
Updates
FeesAdvisory
CBRE™
Synthicity
Alternatively, building a brand would require a spinout from Synthicity
Home Buyers
Home Owners
Commercial Lessors
Urban Futures- Brand- Execution
Flow of Money
Flow of Services
Real Estate Investors
Fees
Reports/ Data
Business Owners
Synthicity- Predictions- Relationships
Next Steps
Can we build the right team?• Do we have a committed leadership team for Urban Futures?
1 Can we prove the business model?• Further development and testing of MVP
2
Current Business Model Canvas
Appendix
MPV
• http://www.myurbanfuture.com • http://map.myurbanfuture.com
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10