Despite the recent resurgence of New York as a tech capital, this is a town that has been traditionally driven by Wall Street and Real Estate. Manahttan is the world’s largest business center and the value of property valuation across the city exceeds $1T. Operating at the intersection of finance, real estate, and tech is Bowery Valuation, a full service tech-enabled commercial appraisal firm founded in 2015. The company’s cloud-based platform leverages technology and automation to generate high-quality appraisal reports faster and at a lower cost than the traditional paper and pencil incumbents.
AlleyWatch had the pleasure of chatting with founders Noah Isaacs, John Meadows, and Cesar Devers about building a cutting-edge commercial appraisal company in New York, Bowery’s future plans, and the company’s most recent round of funding, which brings its total funding raised to $18.8M over three rounds.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Led by Builders with participation from Navitas Capital, Camber Creek, Fika Ventures, and Corigin Ventures, we closed a $12M Series A round.
Tell us about the product or service that Bowery Valuation offers.
Bowery Valuation is a full-service appraisal firm offering commercial appraisal work throughout the Tri-State Area. Our appraisers use our proprietary software to produce higher quality appraisal reports at a lower price, and with a faster turnaround time than anyone in the industry.
What inspired you to start Bowery Valuation?
After graduating college, we were both appraisers at one of the largest independent appraisal firms in New York City for several years prior to starting Bowery.
During our time appraising, we began to realize just how important the appraisal work we were doing was to the entire lending process and how limited the tools and systems we had to produce our reports were.
During our time appraising, we began to realize just how important the appraisal work we were doing was to the entire lending process and how limited the tools and systems we had to produce our reports were.
We realized there had to be a better way we and set out to find someone who could help build our dream software. That led us to finding our technical cofounder, Cesar Devars, who has really been able to bring our vision to life.
How is Bowery Valuation different?
Bowery is different than the standard appraisal firm in a multitude of ways, but the biggest and most important differentiator in our success is our people and our culture. We believe that if our employees are happy, motivated, challenged, rewarded, and empowered every day, the results will show for themselves. Each and every one of our employees has equity in the company and is treated as an owner. That feeling of ownership permeates everything that we do, from adding new features to our appraisal software to treating our clients with the highest level of service and respect that we possibly can.
What market does Bowery Valuation target and how big is it?
Bowery is targeting the commercial real estate appraisal space, which according to IBIS is over a $4B industry in the US alone.
What’s your business model?
We are looking to disrupt the commercial real estate appraisal industry and bring our appraisers new tools that will continue to help them produce higher quality reports in less time, and thus at a lower price point, than anyone else in the industry. As we grow, we will also look to expand our software and technological capabilities to provide additional improvement, transparency, and efficiency for our clients.
We are looking to disrupt the commercial real estate appraisal industry and bring our appraisers new tools that will continue to help them produce higher quality reports in less time, and thus at a lower price point, than anyone else in the industry. As we grow, we will also look to expand our software and technological capabilities to provide additional improvement, transparency, and efficiency for our clients.
What was the funding process like?
The first time we raised we had to take around 60 meetings in 2-months to complete the round. It was a terrifying grind. As we’ve built the team and scaled traction, each round has gotten easier. That being said, it’s still a full-time job.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Fundraising is a full-time job, which means that while we’re fundraising we don’t have the opportunity to lead the company to the extent that we’d like.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
First and foremost, I think the biggest thing our investors saw in Bowery is the quality of our people. From our technology and product teams through our appraisal and service teams, we are hiring best in class people. Also crucial, our investors realize (like we do) how important the appraisal process is to the overall commercial lending space. Appraisals have been done more or less the exact same way for decades – it’s a space ripe for improved efficiency and disruption.
Would you please tell us more about the experience of building a proptech company in New York?
We don’t think there’s any city better in the world to build a proptech company. The density of real estate in this city is second to none and when you couple that with the access to all the amazing VCs in New York, it’s hard to imagine a more perfect place to start a real estate company.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Over the next 6 months, we’d like to continue hiring best in class engineers and appraisers, grow our revenue 15% month over month, and be very close to opening our 2nd office here in the US.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Keep working as hard as possible on your product and your service. Don’t focus a lot of your time and energy on a fundraise – if you continue to build your product and service as well as you possibly can, over time, the capital will come!
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We are going to continue focusing on building our team, improving our software and internal infrastructure, and working toward opening a second location.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
We love this question almost as much as we love food! Mayanoki on East 6th between Avenue B and Avenue C, hands down. It’s a little 8-seat sustainable omakase in the East Village, which serves up the most interesting sushi (and more) we’ve ever had. The chef and owner/hostess/DJ/sommelier are incredible – it’s a completely unique experience.
