I have literally met hundreds of startups in the real estate tech space. So many inspire me personally. So smart. So technologically impressive. I can’t help but root for them all because I honestly feel that when one company wins, everyone in the sector wins.

On a recent trip to San Francisco to attend the awesome DisruptCRE conference (congrats Mariel Ebrahimi), I had the pleasure of having coffee with Steve Wayne, Founder & CEO of ProspectNow.

It was just a casual meet and greet to learn more about his site and share what we are up to at The News Funnel… But my takeaway was "Holy shit! This guy is crushing it!" And no one really knows :)

Most of us in the real estate tech space fall into the same boat of trying to build our businesses in a sector that is not embracing tech as other industries have. Fortunately, the industry is starting to embrace a lot of the innovation that is taking place in the startup world. It's really exciting to be a part of, but it's still a very challenging and slow process and almost all off the tech founders will tell you that (if they are being brutally honest).

Most of us are still in the first or second inning of our business cycle. Some have built really strong customer bases and some even have a growing revenue stream.

But as I said, Steve Wayne is crushing it. He has built a multi-million dollar business. From scratch. Thousands of customers. Fortune 500 clients. And all based on a simple concept that has real value to his customers.

I don't want to tell Steve’s story for him but you should definitely check out his site and email him at swayne@prospectnow.com  to learn more.

In the real estate tech space we frequently talk about how challenging it is, what the roadblocks are and how slow the industry is to embrace all of our "amazing" ideas. But perhaps that narrative is actually missing a lot of successful businesses that are kicking ass and proving that "If you build it, they will come!" And maybe the story also is that if you build something great that solves real problems for people and creates real opportunities for them to make money and grow their business, you can succeed in the real estate tech space NOW!

Congrats, Steve on your amazing success to date!

Check out ProspectNow! They are already doing what many of us aspire to do!

Prior to launching ProspectNow, Wayne successfully sold retail shopping centers in Northern California at Marcus & Millichap. Having millions of dollars in transaction experience, Wayne understood the need in the commercial real estate industry for an all-in-one database. Using his 10 years of expertise within the software industry, and relying upon the knowledge he gained from founding three other successful technology companies,Wayne set out to make the search process easier for commercial agents.. Wayne holds a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona. He resides in Los Altos, CA with his wife and two sons.