Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (19)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (18)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Company Report
- 1. Nick Grifka
- 2. Products •Property management software •Web-based •Others (RentApp, Securedocs)
- 3. Financials •Funding from BV Capital, Cisco •Yearly net losses: 8M •High revenue growth: 90% •Expected revenue 2015: 73M
- 4. History & Background •Former ExpertCity/CitrixOnline employees •Founded in 2007 •Acquired MyCase in 2012
- 5. The Real Business Plan •Company vision •Multiple specific vertical markets •Software eating the world
- 6. What is Hot? •MyCase acquisition •IPO last June
- 7. Secret Sauce •Focus on customer feedback •Efficient marketing •Leadership
- 9. Next Moves •What industry is next? •How to distribute developers?
Editor's Notes
- -Software used by property management companies to increase efficiency -CMB management, Prime housing, Varsity management, etc. also of different sizes as well -In this industry, lot of paperwork shuffling and keeping track of payments, dates, -so moving everything to digital and keeping all data in the cloud for efficiency sake -Had a few other products -RentApp, was a free online rental application service that fit into prop mngmt focus -Securedocs, provides virtual data room service. That spun off into their own company
- $5M Series A in 2007, $22M Series B year later Past few years they have been operating at a net loss 7-8M Nonetheless, experienced very high revenue growth 12-13 108%, 13-14 80% Expected to finish off this year at 73M (would be 53% revenue growth) You can see the stock price since Mid-June, it opened at $12, now at $18
- -History stems from ExpertCity -ExpertCity came up with products like GoToAssist, GoToMyPC, eventually GoToMeeting which later got acquired by Citrix back in 2003, then it became the CitrixOnline division. -A few key Appfolio employees cam from this company -Current Appfolio CEO (Brian Donahoo) was Sr. VP of Products and Services for ExpertCity since it started in 1998/99 all the way to 2007 -Also, Current Appfolio Chief Strategist (Klaus Schauser) and co-founder was actually a founder and CTO of ExpertCity again, from ExpertCity's start until 2007 -So in 2007, Appfolio was founded. -in 2012, Appfolio acquired MyCase - which provides legal practice management software for law firms -seems kind of odd, real estate and law dont seem very related -the reason for this is interesting...
- -Appfolio does not intend to only stay in the property management market -Their main game plan is to expand to other vertical markets -quote from CEO "Appfolio's vision is to be the leader in SaaS solutions designed for specific vertical markets" -Clearly they are not going to just stay in the property management market -MyCase acquisition is the first example of that expansion -As we were discussing software eating the world in one of the past lectures, I think this quote speaks directly to that
- So what is hot? -MyCase acquisition is a big event -shows the first step of expanding into other vertical markets. -Also, Appfolio had their IPO last June which was very recently -that's big news - as I mentioned, opened at $12 / share
- -I think one of the key factors to Appfolio's success is their focus on customer feedback -If they are to be the winners of these competitive vertical markets, they need to produce products that best address customer needs -They need to be good listeners in that regard. -Also as mentioned by their CEO, their marketing spending is very efficient -Since they are in these specific vertical markets, they know exactly who their customers are -don't need to spend large amounts of money on marketing that has a large audience like television ads -I also believe that one of their advantages is their leadership. -Their CEO and higher ups have been through the process of building a company for the ground up, so they know how to grow a successful company
- Within the property management industry, competition is abundant. A few examples are listed here. -Being in a specific vertical market such as property management, most of these competitors all share the same set of products -Buildium is a property management software company out of Boston that has good ratings. -RealPage is a similar competitor out of Texas. They were one of the early players in this market, being founded in 1998. -However, there are more general competitors such as Intuit -they have a product called QuickBase that can apply to a range of different industries, including property management -So more flexibility with the product, but may not address specific needs of property management as well as some other products on the market do -The list of competitors goes on and on. -
- -When I think about the future of Appfolio, what I am most curious about is where they will expand to next -The CEO says they want to be the leading software provider for many vertical markets, and we have seen them enter into the legal industry -What industry will be next? -And additionally, what will happen to the developers that currently work on the prop mngmt product? -Will they work on that product suite forever? And let acquisitions be the companies only way of expansion? -Or will some developers move into a new market and start a product from the ground up like the first Appfolio product? -It will be interesting to see how this plan of expansion plays out in the future
- So for the prediction, -They have experienced leadership who have been through the process of starting up a successful business which is promising. -And their CEO has big goals of extending his company out into multiple markets so he is thinking very much ahead. -As they start entering other markets, I think they will have an advantage in just surviving as a business -Since if one or two products in certain markets are not so hot, at least they can fall back on the success of products in other markets. -This strategy of diversifying and not putting all eggs in one basket will be advantageous -So will they be a success? I think they will be around for a long time