Viral Real Estate Marketing Startup Drawbotics Expands To North America

How would you describe Drawbotics in a few words?

Drawbotics is the first online marketplace dedicated to real estate marketing. We offer high-end marketing services (such as 3D renderings, websites, branding, virtual home stagings, floor plans, VR, etc.) to real estate agents and real estate development companies. We have completed over 35,000 projects for over 1000 clients in 15+ countries.

What inspired you to create marketing platform? How did it all start?

Drawbotics was co-founded by Axel Guzman and Xavier Claes. A new home represents one of the most important purchases in a person’s life, yet real estate marketing has been trailing behind compared to other industries. Drawbotics was created to make high-end marketing services more accessible to real estate companies through competitive prices, a unique online platform with tools like an online review studio and the launch of new and innovative marketing services over time.

Are you using your services internally? How does that affect the viewpoints of the development team?

It’s important to know that all the services we offer are delivered by our own team of visual designers, 3D artists, interior decorators, video animation specialists etc. Having a big development team (both IT and production wise) allows us to work on special 3D projects next to our clients’ visuals. So, of course, we use the platform, services and online tools we created for our clients for our own marketing projects. For example, we created very detailed 3D floor plans for famous TV shows (such as The Office, Suits, The IT crowd, etc.). They went viral, were covered and shared by major news outlets such as Buzzfeed, Business Insider, and Mashable. The celebrities of the TV shows even joined in on the conversation via social media. Not only does it allow us to showcase our services in a creative way but it is also a great way to understand a client’s journey and their experience on our platform.

We are continuously working to make the ordering system easier, create new project management tools and make sure the collaboration is as efficient as possible. In that regard, being able to experience our platform from our customer’s perspective is crucial.

You recently announced your launch in North America after successfully fine-tuning your marketplace in Europe. What do you expect from this new market? What will be different than in Europe?

In real estate, the North American market is huge, possibly the biggest in the world. With over 3 million real estate agents and numerous property development companies, it’s a huge opportunity for us. We are already working with clients in the United States (agents and developers) and it’s been going great so far. The platform was built to allow our clients to easily order and manage their marketing services regardless of their location. From that perspective, it doesn’t change a whole lot. The market is organized differently so the first step is really understanding how it all works. But we expect North America to become one of our biggest markets in the upcoming years.

What is the biggest challenge that the company has faced?

Hiring the right people. Surrounding yourself and your startup with talent, motivated people that share your passion and believe in your mission. It’s really hard to create a cohesive group of people, with different professional and cultural backgrounds. It’s the biggest challenge because it is a continuous one, whatever your stage of development, it’s crucial to the success of any organization. It’s probably been one of our biggest challenges but also one of our biggest strengths here at Drawbotics.

What is the most memorable moment throughout the history of Drawbotics?

There have been many great milestones throughout the history of Drawbotics. From the launch of the platform to having a team of over 80 people or the milestone of reaching over 35,000 projects and 1000 recurring clients in only 3 years. But the one that stuck with me the most is probably our viral 3D floor plans. They were seen by tens of millions of people, shared by the press, all over the internet and some celebrities even got in touch with us. It’s really cool to be able to create a buzz and be recognized all around the world. It shows the importance of growth hacking. It really brought the whole team together.

What are the next steps for the company?

2016 and 2017 have been crazy. With exponential growth, a lot of press coverage and exciting news, it’s been a great ride so far. But we are of course looking at the future with a lot of anticipation. We have three main objectives.

1. Continue growing our portfolio of services. We already offer 16 services, the goal is to offer more than 35.
2. Launch new online tools for our clients.
3. Launching in new regions. London is our next target. We are opening an office in England already this summer!

If there is one thing you could wish for in improving the European startup ecosystem – what would it be?

There are probably too many barriers, both administrative and financial for entrepreneurs. On the other hand, there has really been a cultural shift in mentalities over the course of only 5 years. Larger corporations understood that startups can be of great value for their business and the European economy. So, that is actually very positive.

All in all, I’d say the European startup ecosystem is going in the right direction, with sufficient funding and increased accessibility to entrepreneurship, it could maybe soon compete with Silicon Valley.

What’s one piece of advice you can give to fellow founders for their startup?

There are three things one of Drawbotics’ founders (Axel) wanted to share with fellow startup founders and people who want to launch their own venture.

1. Be ready for the emotional rollercoaster. Launching a company is no easy ride, it’s important to know it in advance.
2. Start for the right reasons. Don’t start for fame or money, it’s very unlikely to happen. Start because it’s your passion, to trigger a positive social change or to address an important issue.
3. Be aware of the harsh reality of the startup world. Most startups fail, for a variety of reasons. But as long as you stay humble and do it for the right reasons, you’ll always take home something positive with you. Whether your succeed or not.

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