Commercial real estate is a complex industry, and more than a $1 billion market. Taj Adhav is the Co-Founder & CEO of Leasecake, a recent Silicon Valley Founder Institute portfolio company that removes complexity from all sides of the commercial real estate leasing experience.
With so many moving parts, even small hiccups—whose fault is often neither the leasee nor the lessor—can too often result in delays, or even completely block lease payments or renewals from taking place. Easily-magnified operational complexities can cause aggravation for parties on all sides of the commercial leasing experience—but luckily, technology solutions can help hugely minimize these kinds of complexities. Leasecake offers a SaaS solution that empowers commercial real estate management teams to make their leasing process ‘a piece of cake’—for both themselves and their tenants.
Leasecake Creates Simplicity on All Sides
Most tech stacks in the real estate industry have ugly UI, offer outdated tech, or are way too complex to navigate effectively. Leasecake solves these challenges. Acording to Co-Founder Taj Adhav,
“With Leasecake, it’s a piece of cake.”
Adhav describes his company this way,
Leasecake is a software service that simplifies lease management for commercial real estate owners, brokers, and tenants. We live in a mobile age with instant access, yet millions of commercial real estate dates and dollar events are trapped in off-line spreadsheets void of real-time information.
Commercial real estate, speaking very generally, is still a relatively low-tech industry, and much of the important work being done even at the highest level is almost completely reliant upon personal relationships, and not necessarily reliant on new technology solutions. It’s because of the personal nature of commercial leasing transactions that so many commercial agencies have continued to stick with the processes that they have had in place and always used for so long, even though they experience major pain points from compounded complexities in their business. And because some aspects of the commercial leasing business have, and will continue to remain, largely resistant to technological adoptions, others aspects too have become too slow to changes that can improve their businesses. But with Leasecake, commercial real estate managers are seeing the value and making the switch.
Leasecake is both so simple and affordable, it solves all the major tech issues commercial real estate agencies face, while also saving them money through efficacy at the same time as actually improving their relationships with tenants. According to Adhav,
Leasecake helps manage critical dates and important lease data through a mobile platform that also enables engagement within a shared network. As a result, small-to-medium tier property owners and managers can modernize operations and focus on growing their business.
Jim Bankston, Leasecake’s Co-Founder and President, mirrored CEO Adhav’s sentiment,
It was all spreadsheets, and phone calls, and meeting people face-to-face. With Leaecase, all the information is on my phone, my man in the field and I can be looking at the same information, without having to go to the office to look at an excel spreadsheet. So I’m able to look at real-time data on my phone.
Between their mobile app and website, Leasecake offers back-office solutions that not only organize and notify management of key lease dates and renewals, but also automates much of these processes. All of the information is updated in real-time, and is accessible for easy sharing. The platform also highlights payments history, rent rates and increases, and vacancies available.
The reception from Leasecake’s early clients have been hugely positive—and if some of the major brands they work with like Domino’s Pizza and Hungry Howies are any indicator, big businesses are in need of exactly these kind the trusted and simple technology leasing solutions that Leasecase offers.
Since launching their SaaS solution, Leasecake now represent more than two million square feet of landlord and name brand tenant customers, including Dominos, Papa Johns, and Moe’s Southwest Grille. The company has raised $100k to date. Meanwhile Leasecase as a platform is already saving its lease management customers more than $50,000 annually, while also cutting their search time in half.
In this $1 billion commercial real estate market, there are more than three million buildings owned by landlords, and another one million brand-name tenant locations in need of improved lease management. That is a great deal of ground to cover. But unlike other solutions, Leasecase truly caters to all sides of the leasing equation. Adhav explains,
Our customers are both landlords and name-brand tenants who will never use complicated enterprise solutions which don’t meet their business needs for instant knowledge and accessibility.
Leasecake was the winner of TechStars Global Startup Weekend in 2017, where they presented to more than 12,000 attendees from over 58 countries, and competed against 175 different startups to take home the grand prize.
When asked where the idea for the company came from, Adhav shared that it was the offshoot of a relatively productive dinner meeting:
It all started over a cup of coffee at a diner in the fall of 2015. My good friend (and eventually co-founder) Jim Bankston was sharing some of his pain points related to managing commercial properties. There wasn’t a simple solution – and I was consumed by the challenge of trying to find one. But life got in the way and it never happened.
Eventually, the duo teamed up, and has since built a team with a pedigree of success. Bankston has an extensive history working in commercial real estate, having developed more than $100 million in revenue, while Adhav brings deep product and engineering acumen, having had successful exits to Google as well as managed $2 billion in revenue for Disney.
Keep your eyes on Leasecake – this company is offering a great solution that solves multiple pain points in a major market, reducing everyday complexities and improving leasing experiences – and business owners on all sides of the commercial leasing industry are taking notice.
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
