Meet The NYC Startup Voted Most Likely to Disrupt the Real Estate Industry

RealConnex is an industry game changer, and is poised to emerge as the largest aggregator of Real Estate professionals in the world. It’s developers, investors, lenders, real estate advisors, lawyers, brokers, design, build and engineering, all converging on one platform that facilitates the synergies these disparate disciplines need to come together to get the job done.

Yeah, that’s a winner. In fact, the START Program recognizes the top 150 startup companies in the world – and RealConnex was selected as a company most likely to disrupt an industry.

Founder Roy Abrams discusses Dublin, disruption and his plans for shaking up the tried and true of real estate in New York. (And that’s a lot of real estate, baby.)

Tell us about the service.

RealConnex is the on-line marketplace for all real estate professionals. It is LinkedIn meets Match.com for real estate deal-making.

RealConnex’s connects the entire real estate ecosystem to facilitate deal making. RealConnex enables every aspect of the real estate industry – from developers to investors and lenders to real estate advisor and brokers, to construction companies and accountants – to connect in one place,

It matches professionals to capital, lenders, JV’s, Services, Opportunities and each other in real time. It also provides a powerful set of integrated CRM, networking and business development tools.

How is it different?

RealConnex is the first and currently the only institutional platform for the entire real estate professional community.

Traditional real estate deal-making relies on individual relationships, connections and a costly and lengthy prospecting process, leaving countless deals and opportunities missed. RealConnex solves this problem and facilitates the real estate deal-making and service provisions process by matching users based on collective goals, even where direct relationships did not previously exist.

What market are you attacking and how big is it?

The value of real estate transactions executed by our target audience is valued at $800 Billion – $1 Trillion annually.

What is the business model?

RealConnex is a completely free service, with premium subscriber-only features included starting at $39/month.

What is your startup attending Summit and what are you hoping to get out of it?

In recognition of the RealConnex technology, we were selected to the START Program that recognizes the top 150 startup companies in the world – and a company most likely to disrupt an industry. Our goal is to meet other entrepreneurs and potential investors.

Outside of Summit activities, what are you looking forward to the most in Dublin?

I lived in England for many years, and have been to Dublin many times, but one of my favorite things to do is to take in a soccer match at a local pub.  It’s a sure way to meet new and interesting people.

What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?

In the next six months, all professional groups of the Real-Estate ecosystem will be represented on the RealConnex platform. We are also looking forward to our international roll out to become a truly global platform.

If you could be put in touch with one investor in the New York community who would it be and why?

Our ideal investor would be more than just an equity provider. We would love to partner with someone to help augment our product with complimentary products in the Real Estate technology space.  Our aim is to have seamless integration with other Real Estate emerging technologies.

While we are fortunate to have several firms and individuals interested in investing in the platform, one specific firm that comes to mind is Tiger Global Management because of their dedicated interest in real estate technology.  They have already invested in Redfin and CommonFloor.  We believe we would be a good addition in their portfolio of quality real estate technologies.

Why did your startup choose New York?

New York is the heart of institutional real estate investment and it’s also obviously home to a quickly growing tech scene.  It’s also one of the most rewarding and challenging markets for investors.  For initial roll out, we wanted to target the New York market and be able to interact with our users in person if necessary.  We’ve already done several on-site training sessions with client companies and the numbers are going to keep growing.  As they say about New York, “if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere”.

What’s your favorite Fall destination in NYC?

That’s a tough question! Brooklyn Bridge Park has turned into an amazing stretch of land that is beautiful all year round, but especially seeing the foliage in the Fall, with a backdrop of the bridge, you can’t beat that!