After 3 Months of Founders Boot Camp in NYC, My Losses Turn Into Gains

Making a name for your company when you're a foreign female founder of yet "another" AI startup in the New York CRE and proptech market, is like trying to climb the Everest during a snowstorm. But after a few months of doing just that, I can tell you it was worth the effort – every bit of it.

So how did we finish the first quarter of 2019 in New York with more gains than losses? Our starting point always began with an obstacle to overcome. And there were many –

Starting all over – again?

My first mistake was thinking that our experience with big names (like QuadReal Property Group) in the Toronto commercial real estate market and the awards our technology has won, was a good start to sway us into the New York market, all covered up in our eloquent product/market fit.

NYC is the heart and center of the finance and real estate markets, and it's where we needed to go to find the biggest pool of property managed groups – one of our main verticals. But we never imagined we had to start all over again to get into the 'big league.'  

When it soon became clear that Maya, my co-founder, and I had to start making connections from scratch again and build our brand awareness locally, the first step was finding the right influencers. In our case, it was Duke Long, who immediately identified our unique offering, introduced us to 12 key personas, and included us in his "2019 Top 25 Under The Radar #CRE #TECH Companies You Must Watch!" list. In terms of getting into the right "word-of-mouth" milieu, that was our first turning point. But it wasn't the last –

No one wants to be the early adopters of an unfamiliar, overseas startup. So we moved.

This was a major hurdle with almost every potential customer we met. The first and most frequent question everybody kept asking was "where are you located?" Surprisingly enough for us, this question had a clear right and wrong answer, the right one being "we're based right here, in NYC." At the end of the day, every sale is based on a relationship of trust between us and the potential client. And for New Yorkers, if you're not based locally, it raises concerns over how you're going to support your technology and how you're going to provide high-quality service from overseas. And so, quickly enough, my co-founder and I settled in NYC, which also turned out to be a source of comfort in the freezing winter days.

How do you say "we're going to save you millions" in local NYC dialect

When every other startup is putting up "Artificial Intelligence" as a moto for their technology, it is nearly impossible to prove your platform is the real deal, especially when you don't have any local case studies to show for it. The challenge proved even harder coming from the Israeli hi-tech hub, where cyber and AI technologies are so abundant. I soon learned that the only way I was going to get our foot in the door is by showing each potential customer how Okapi's AI-based platform produces predictive cost-saving insights for their specific needs.

For example, when introducing our platform to one client, we showed Okapi's energy consumption and tenant experience modules. To others, we introduced Okapi's leasing and dynamic pricing modules. Once we show that Okapi draws any available data from existing systems and sensors and produces actionable insights to the relevant teams on the ground – they want to see it in action.

Bottom line is, if you want to sell a complex technology, you need to find a way to let the potential customer experience it. That’s the best way to show the real value of your offering.

Sales are not the only criteria for success

Reaching our KPIs has always been a pillar in Okapi's success so far. So failing to reach our goals in the short run was one of the hardest choices we had to make in order to surpass them during the next three quarters.

I guess this has a lot to do with how you measure success. Closing more sales is always a top concern, but knowing Okapi's funding allowed us some wiggle room, we made a conscious choice to slow down on sales in order to focus on getting our pipeline shorter and getting a stronger foothold in the local industry. Fortunately, our board has not only allowed it, but encouraged us to excel our pipeline and get familiar with the ins and outs of the CRE industry in New York. This supportive approach has allowed us to surpass our sales objectives in the longer run, with a higher closing rate expected by the fourth quarter of 2019.

Two female startup co-founders?? Now, that's an eyebrow-raiser

I consider my femininity neither an advantage nor a downfall when it comes to business, on the contrary – my idea of feminism is that of equality between men and women. But it's clear not everybody agrees, especially in industries traditionally dominated mostly by men such as finance and real estate. Often, sitting across the table from two female co-founders raises concerns (though rarely spoken of) over our commitment to the company and our clients versus our commitment to our families. I guess that's why there are not as many female-led startups as there could be, but that reality is changing as we speak.

On a personal note, keeping my chin up was not always easy

In Sting's words, "a legal alien in New York" very much describes the many moments of insecurity and loneliness during these last few months. What helped was sharing my days, thoughts and challenges with my colleague and co-founder Maya, and getting constant support from my family who came to visit. Oh, and spending those late hours at the gym always helped me put things in proportion.

At the end of the day, our success was built on our failures

Overall, we started working with two major CRE companies, we have another four in late stages of the pipeline and 20 leads in all stages of the funnel – all in our first quarter in New York.

I've had many difficult moments during these last few months in NYC, and will probably face many more in the months to come. For now, I'm proud of our new clients and our foot in the door, but mostly, I'm proud of our failures, our difficult moments, those times we failed to close, and the times we missed our family and friends. Because overcoming these challenges is what helped Okapi succeed so far, and what keeps making us better.