PropTech expert Kylie Davis has been appointed as the Entrepreneur in Residence for the the REACH Australia and New Zealand program, to help this year’s cohort of startups build and grow their businesses.
Announced at the REACH Genesis Conference this week, the PropTeach Association Australia President will lend her extensive experience and knowledge in the sector to guide the cohort not just on technology but business strategy and more.
“We serve an industry, in real estate, that has phenomenal support available to it in terms of an infrastructure around coaching, training and improving your skills, your mindset and how to achieve your goals, but that’s not as prevalent in the PropTech community,” Ms Davis said.
“That’s still relatively new in the PropTech community and that’s why we started the PropTechAssociation and why programs such as the REACH accelerator are so important.
“It’s not just about keeping an eye on the cohort and being an ear to talk to, it’s a mentoring and coaching role as well as observing them and their behaviour and proactively identifying areas where they could improve.”
Ms Davis said this year’s cohort included nine amazing companies that solved PropTech problems for their clients, from accelerating the transaction rate of sales, to digitising the leasing process, streamlining document signing, business profit planning, real estate fashion and land conservation.
While the problems each company solves might be quite niched, Ms Davis said the challenges businesses often faced were common, irrespective of which sector the business is in.
And that’s where her experience having started her own businesses will come in handy.
“When you’re creating transformative technology or solving problems with your technology, there may be a default position that you’re the only one that can solve them,” Ms Davis said.
“But when it comes to how your business is performing, how your business is growing, how you’re obtaining clients, or onboarding, or selling your product and building your team and processes, those things have been done in businesses for hundreds of years.
“Some of those problems don’t need unique solutions, you just need to be hooked into the right guidance, advice or framework that will help you understand that you might be a pioneer to solve the (technology) problem, the growth of your business and the path that will take has been successfully traversed before.
“You can avoid some of the mistakes of your predecessors if you don’t have to reinvent those wheels.”
Ms Davis said at the end of the nine-month REACH accelerator program, she hoped the cohort better understood the mechanics of their businesses and levers they need to pull and work on to grow to the next stage.
“I hope that they are really clear on what the progression of their business growth is going to look like, so that it’s not quite so chaotic and more organic in its growth,” she said.
“I also hope that they are feeling much stronger internally and their teams are clearer on who they are, what they stand for and why.”
